International

S.Africa reports 24-hour record of 1,160 new virus cases

  by Susan NJANJI Agence France Presse JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa on Sunday reported 1,160 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily number since the first case was recorded in March, data released by the health ministry showed “As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is 15,515 with 1,160 new cases identified in the last 24 hour cycle of testing,” said the ministry statement. The Western Cape […]

UK govt boosts vaccine funding as daily virus deaths fall

by Joe JACKSON Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain on Sunday reported 170 more coronavirus deaths — its lowest number since late March, when lockdown restrictions were introduced, although the figures from Northern Ireland were not included. Prime Minister Boris Johnson meanwhile acknowledged public frustration with the restrictions imposed to fight the virus. The deaths take the government’s official rolling tally of fatalities, which includes all positive cases after tests, to 34,636 […]

Russian newborn has coronavirus: health officials

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A baby was born with the coronavirus in Russia’s Caucasus region, health officials were quoted by TASS news agency as saying on Sunday, to a mother who is also infected. The birth in the North Ossetia city of Beslan follows one in mid-April in Peru, which health officials there said was the second known case of a COVID-19 positive newborn worldwide. In North Ossetia, “a pregnant woman was infected by […]

Chinese envoy to Israel found dead, ‘health reasons’ likely cause: Beijing

  HERZLIYA, Israel (AFP) — China’s ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, died at his home in Tel Aviv on Sunday, apparently from natural causes, a statement from Beijing said. The 57-year-old envoy, who had arrived in Israel in mid-February, was found dead in his home in Herzliya, north of the city, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. A statement from China’s foreign ministry said: “The preliminary verdict is that Ambassador Du Wei died unexpectedly of health […]

Top China expert warns of potential second coronavirus wave; lack of immunity noted among population

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — China faces a potential second wave of coronavirus infections due to a lack of immunity among its population, its government’s senior medical advisor has warned. After months of lockdowns and curbs on travel China has largely brought the virus under control, but fears of a second wave have risen as clusters have emerged in northeast provinces and in the central city of Wuhan. “The majority of… Chinese at the moment […]

Brazil’s coronavirus death toll tops 15,000: official figures

  SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll passed 15,000 on Saturday, official data showed, while its number of infections topped 230,000, making it the country with the fourth-highest number of cases in the world. With 15,633 deaths and 233,142 confirmed cases, Brazil — whose president Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the disease as a “little flu” — is at the epicenter of infections in Latin America. Experts say under-testing means the real figures […]

Latin America and Caribbean record 500,000 virus cases

  Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded more than half a million coronavirus infections, according to an AFP tally based on official reports. Almost half have been recorded in Brazil — the country worst-hit by the pandemic in the region — which also has more than 15,000 deaths. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual […]

No beds, packed morgues: Mumbai hospitals near collapse

by Ammu KANNAMPILLY / Vishal MANVE Agence France Presse MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Packed morgues, bodies in wards, patients forced to share beds and medical workers run ragged: Mumbai’s war against coronavirus has pushed the Indian city’s hospitals to breaking point. Ravi, 26, had to change his mother’s diapers himself as she lay dying from the disease in the huge Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, better known as Sion. “They would just give us medicines […]

PH Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden reopened after 8 years

(Eagle News) – Filipinos in Sweden and Finland may now avail of consular services from the Philippine Embassy in Stockholm, following its reopening on Friday, May 15. “Eight years after it closed the embassy in Sweden, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has reopened the Philippine Embassy in Stockholm and will initially start offering consular services to Filipinos in Sweden and Finland,” the DFA said in a statement. According to the DFA, consular services in […]

Coronavirus infects 38 indigenous groups in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — The coronavirus pandemic has hit 38 indigenous groups in Brazil, raising fears for populations that have a history of being decimated by outside diseases, the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples’ Association (APIB) said Friday. “The virus is reaching indigenous territories across Brazil with frightening speed,” the association said in a statement. An APIB survey found 446 cases of the new coronavirus and 92 deaths among the affected groups, mainly in the Brazilian […]

WTO chief to step down early as global economic crisis rages

  by Nina LARSON Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Trade Organization chief announced Thursday he will step down on August 31, a year before his term ends, despite the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the global economy. Roberto Azevedo said it had been a “personal decision” reached with his family, and stressed that he was not leaving to pursue “political opportunities”. “This is a decision that I do not take lightly,” Azevedo told […]

Magnitude 6.4 quake hits desert area on Nevada-California border followed by several aftershocks

    A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Friday, May 15, in a sparsely populated desert area on the border between Nevada and California, and has been followed by several aftershocks, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake hit at 4:03 am local time (1103 GMT) about 40 miles (60 kilometers) from the small, former mining town of Tonopah, Nevada, which is about halfway between Las Vegas and Reno. It had a depth of about […]