The number of Covid-19 cases surpassed 40 million on Saturday in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since the first coronavirus infections were recorded last year, the number of cases in the region has reached 40,073,507, according to an AFP count based on official data as of 0200 GMT. The number of deaths has reached 1,353,335. […]
virus
Saudis wanting to travel need two Covid jabs: ministry
Any Saudi citizen wishing to travel abroad will be required to have had two doses of coronavirus vaccine from next month, tightening existing measures, the interior ministry said on Monday. “The second dose of the vaccine against Covid will be a condition of all overseas travel for all citizens from August 9, 2021,” the ministry […]
Pilgrims ascend Mount Arafat in high point of pandemic-era hajj
Muslim pilgrims ascended Saudi Arabia’s Mount Arafat on Monday in the high point of this year’s hajj, being held in downsized form and under coronavirus restrictions for the second year running. Just 60,000 people, all citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia, have been selected to take part in this year’s hajj, with foreign pilgrims again […]
Iran shuts Tehran govt offices, banks as Covid spreads
Iran on Monday announced strict curbs in the capital Tehran and a nearby province to stem the spread of Covid-19, as daily infections drew close to an all-time high. President Hassan Rouhani had earlier this month warned of a “fifth wave” because of an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant in the Middle East’s […]
Suspected arsonists attack French vaccine centre
Suspected arsonists set fire to a Covid-19 vaccination centre in southwest France over the weekend, prosecutors said, as the government prepared to unveil a draft law on Monday aimed at pressuring citizens into getting jabbed. The fire early Sunday morning at the temporary vaccination centre in Urrugne in the southwestern Basque region is being treated […]
Melbourne extends lockdown as Australia fails to stop outbreak
Australia’s two largest cities are set to stay under tight Covid-19 restrictions as Melbourne on Monday extended a five-day snap lockdown designed to curb a virulent outbreak. “These restrictions simply cannot end at midnight tomorrow night,” Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said, without saying how long the Melbourne lockdown would last. About 12 million people […]
‘Dead body carrier’: Covid surge overwhelms Myanmar burial volunteers
With hospitals in junta-run Myanmar empty of pro-democracy medical staff and coronavirus cases surging nationwide, volunteers are going house-to-house to collect the fast-rising number of victims dying in their homes. Early each morning, Than Than Soe’s phone starts ringing with requests from family members of those who have died in the commercial capital Yangon. She […]
Australia to deport UK’s Katie Hopkins over virus breach
Australia has cancelled far-right British commentator Katie Hopkins’s visa after she boasted about flouting the country’s strict hotel quarantine rules, a senior official said Monday. Hopkins had flown into Sydney to appear on a reality television show when she posted a video on Instagram talking about answering the door naked and maskless to workers delivering […]
Protesters attack Cyprus TV over Covid measures, vaccines
Protesters against coronavirus measures and vaccines attacked a Cypriot television station and torched cars outside the building in Nicosia on Sunday evening, the station said. Police confirmed the incident at Sigma TV and said around 2,500 protesters went to the network after a larger protest outside the presidential palace against a Covid “Safepass” and “forced” […]
UK govt in Covid confusion ahead of ‘freedom day’
The UK government was thrown into turmoil on Sunday by its own rules on Covid self-isolation just as it controversially prepares to ditch pandemic curbs in England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and finance minister Rishi Sunak will be working remotely in the week ahead after they came into contact with a person infected with Covid, […]