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HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian equity and oil traders were sent running Tuesday after the head of Moderna warned current coronavirus vaccines might be less effective at fending off the Omicron variant, fuelling fears that countries could be forced back into economically painful lockdowns. Stocks had mostly been edging up after a two-day sell-off that followed news Friday of the new variant, which some observers said was overdone as billions of people have […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Pfizer has already started working on a version of its Covid-19 vaccine specifically targeting the new Omicron variant in case the current inoculation is not effective against the latest strain, the US drugmaker’s CEO Albert Bourla said Monday. Bourla told CNBC that his company on Friday began testing the current vaccine against the Omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa and has reignited fears of a […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — While PCR tests can detect infection with Omicron, studies are looking to whether the Covid-19 variant of concern has any impact on other test types, the WHO said Sunday. “The widely-used PCR tests continue to detect infection, including infection with Omicron, as we have seen with other variants,” the World Health Organization said in an update on what is known so far about the new variant. “Studies are ongoing to determine […]
Australia banned flights from nine southern African countries on Saturday, tightening its borders to prevent the entry of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant. Non-Australians who visited South Africa, Zimbabwe and several other nations in the past fortnight will also be barred from Australia, Heath Minister Greg Hunt said. Citizens and residents travelling from the listed countries will have to quarantine for 14 days. “These are strong, swift, decisive and immediate actions,” Hunt told media in […]
by Daniel Woolls with AFP bureaus The United States, Brazil, Canada, and Saudi Arabia became the latest countries Friday to restrict travel from southern Africa, where a new Covid strain labelled a “variant of concern” has been discovered in a potentially heavy blow to the world’s efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization said the new variant is more infectious than the dominant, highly transmissible Delta strain, and renamed this B.1.1.529 strain […]
BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — Only a quarter of health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the World Health Organization said Thursday warning that majority of the continent’s frontline medical workforce were dangerously exposed. By contrast, a recent study of 22 predominantly high-income countries revealed that more than 80 percent of healthcare workers there were fully vaccinated against coronavirus, according to the WHO. “The majority of Africa’s health workers are still missing out on […]
(Eagle News) – “Nearly 1 in 3 women have been abused in their lifetime,” according to the United Nations as it marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Thursday, November 25. In fact, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report from the UN Women, cited data from 13 countries that 2 in 3 women reported that they or a woman they know experienced some form of violence.” “Only 1 […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Covid vaccines reduce transmission of the dominant Delta variant by about 40 percent, the WHO said Wednesday, warning that people were falling into a false sense of security concerning jabs. The World Health Organization’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said many vaccinated people were wrongly thinking the jab meant they no longer needed to take any other precautions. Fully-immunised people must stick with measures to […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — As Covid-19 cases balloon again in Europe, the World Health Organization called Friday for more targeted vaccination efforts to ensure the most vulnerable worldwide get the jabs. The UN health agency said Europe, once again at the epicentre of the pandemic, registered nearly two million Covid cases last week. That is “the most in a single week in the region since the pandemic started,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told […]
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AFP) — Africa is set to see diabetes cases more than double to 55 million by 2045, the biggest increase across the globe, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Thursday. “The Covid-19 pandemic will eventually subside, but Africa is projected in the coming years to experience the highest increase in diabetes globally,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. Twenty-four million people are living with diabetes today in Africa, which […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Tuesday she was looking forward to the “second generation” of Covid-19 vaccines, which could include nasal sprays and oral versions. Soumya Swaminathan said such vaccines could have advantages over the current crop as they would be easier to deliver than injections and could even be self-administered. Swaminathan said there were 129 different candidate vaccines that have got as far as clinical trials — being […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Wednesday issued an emergency use listing for the India-made Covaxin vaccine, in a move expected to increase Covid-19 jabs available in poor countries. The vaccine, made by India’s Bharat Biotech and with a 78-percent efficacy rate after two doses over a month “is extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements,” the UN body said. Covaxin is the first vaccine completely developed […]
