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Beijing, China | AFP | Wednesday Millions of people in China were under tight Covid restrictions on Wednesday as sporadic outbreaks across the country prompted business closures and disruption at the world’s largest iPhone factory. China is the last major economy welded to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to keep infections to a minimum. But fast-spreading virus variants have challenged that approach in recent […]
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Some one billion children are at “extremely high risk” due to climate change harms, a rights group warned on Wednesday, adding that youths’ living standards failed to improve in the last decade. The KidsRights index, based on figures supplied by UN agencies, also said more than one-third of the world’s children, some 820 million, were currently exposed to heatwaves. Water scarcity affected 920 million children worldwide, while diseases […]
Paris, France (AFP)– There was a dramatic divergence in the average life expectancy of people in different global regions during the second year of the pandemic, a study found Monday, as higher vaccination rates helped some nations recover far more quickly than others. Because governments have counted Covid statistics in different ways, researchers have sought to give a clearer picture of the pandemic’s true impact by measuring a country’s total number of annual deaths from […]
Washington, United States | AFP | Former US president Donald Trump’s administration prevented health officials from providing accurate information about Covid-19 in a bid to back up his overly optimistic view of the outbreak, according to a congressional report released Monday. Senior staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told investigators Trump aides bullied staff and tried to rewrite their reports in a bid to align guidance with the president’s public […]
TAOYUAN, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan welcomed its first batch of international tour groups after the island fully reopened its borders Thursday, ending strict quarantine rules in place since the coronavirus pandemic began. A group of holidaymakers from Thailand arrived shortly after midnight and were greeted at Taoyuan airport with flower garlands and an exuberant dancing bear mascot. Valaisurang Bhaedhayajibh, 53, said she was visiting Taiwan the first time in 20 years and was accompanied by […]
Berlin, Germany | AFP | Monday 9/26/2022 – 12:06 UTC+2 | 94 words German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tested positive for the coronavirus and is displaying mild symptoms after returning from a tour of the Gulf, his spokesman said Monday. The 64-year-old is isolating in his apartment in the chancellery, and will attend meetings online, spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said. At the weekend, he visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar on a hunt […]
ACCRA, Ghana (AFP) – Ghana has declared the end of a Marburg virus disease outbreak that was confirmed nearly two months ago and caused two deaths, the World Health Organization said on Friday. The health ministry made the announcement after no new cases of the Ebola-like disease were reported over the previous 42 days, the WHO said in a statement. No vaccine treatment exists for Marburg, which is almost as deadly as Ebola. Symptoms included […]
Beijing, China (AFP) Chinese drug regulators have approved the world’s first inhalable Covid-19 vaccine, made by Tianjin-based manufacturer CanSino Biologics, boosting the company’s share price by seven percent on Monday. The National Medical Products Administration gave the go-ahead for the vaccine for emergency use as a booster, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday. Following the announcement, company shares surged 14 percent on Monday morning before closing 7.1 percent higher than […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday recommended Covid-19 booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna targeting the Omicron variant, clearing the way for the administration of the shots. This new generation of anti-Covid vaccines targets both the original strain of coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages, the subvariants of Omicron that are causing the most cases in the United States. The Pfizer-BioNTech shot is […]
The Hague, Netherlands (AFP) by Danny KEMP The EU’s drug regulator on Thursday approved Covid-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna adapted for the Omicron variant, paving the way for a booster campaign this winter. The so-called “bivalent” jabs target both the original virus that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and the BA.1 subvariant of Omicron, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said. The vaccines are not updated for the newer and more […]
Beijing, China (AFP) Around 21 million people in the Chinese city of Chengdu effectively went into lockdown on Thursday as authorities raced to snuff out a new Covid-19 outbreak. China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid policy, stamping out virus flare-ups with snap shutdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines. Chengdu, in the southwest, became the latest city to announce a shutdown, saying in an official notice that residents must “stay home in […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Nurses in Australia’s most populous state went on strike Thursday, demanding better conditions after three years on the front line of the Covid-19 crisis. The 24-hour strike was the third statewide walkout by nurses and midwives this year, and came as tensions between essential workers and the New South Wales government reached the boiling point. Train drivers have crippled Sydney’s rail network in recent weeks with rolling strikes, while bus drivers […]
