Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) –Brazil’s death toll from Covid-19 surpassed a quarter-million Thursday, a year after the first case was confirmed in the country, which is struggling with vaccine shortages and a devastating second wave. The new coronavirus has now killed 251,498 people in Brazil, according to health ministry figures — the second-highest toll worldwide, after the United States, where the number passed half a million Monday. This has been the deadliest week yet […]
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Argentina’s health minister resigned late Friday after it emerged that friends of his had been able to skip the line for a Covid-19 vaccination. Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garci stepped down after President Alberto Fernandez called on him to quit in the wake of the scandal. “Responding to your express request, I present my resignation from the position of minister of health,” Gonzalez Garcia, a 75-year-old doctor, wrote in […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil, the country with the second-highest coronavirus death toll, passed the 10-million mark for reported infections Thursday, amid a deadly second wave and problems with its vaccination campaign. The country became the third to reach the grim mark — after the United States and India — with more than 51,900 new infections in 24 hours, according to official data. Over the same one-day period, 1,367 people died, bringing the […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s foreign minister resigned Sunday, the second top official to step down amid a growing scandal over politicians receiving Covid-19 vaccinations well before the general public. The South American nation has been badly hit by the pandemic, with its hospitals overwhelmed and a targeted vaccination program for health workers rolling out only from February 8. Public resentment over officials receiving vaccinations — despite there being no date for a wider […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Hard-hit Brazil’s drive to vaccinate its population against Covid-19 has stumbled this week as a lack of doses forced authorities to slow or halt immunization in several key areas. Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo state and the northeastern city of Salvador have all run into vaccine shortages, fueling frustration with the government, which already faced criticism for President Jair Bolsonaro’s erratic handling of the pandemic. Brazil got its immunization […]
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP)– Mexican regulators gave emergency approval Wednesday to the Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccines CanSino Biologics and CoronaVac. The approval was announced by deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell as Mexico struggles to manage the pandemic. “I have given the authorization for emergency use of both vaccines,” Lopez-Gatell, who serves as the spokesman for the government’s pandemic coordination, said during a press conference. In addition to CanSino and Sinovac’s CoronaVac, Mexico has authorized three […]
by Yemeli Ortega with Alina Dieste in Washington and Agence France Presse bureaus MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AFP) — As a second, deadly wave of Covid-19 batters Latin America, images have emerged from country after country of desperate people lining up for days to buy oxygen to ease the suffering of infected loved ones fighting for breath. As demand soars, prices have skyrocketed and families have had to scrape together their last cents to pay for […]
LIMA Peru (AFP) — Peru on Tuesday began its coronavirus immunization program just two days after receiving 300,000 vaccine doses from state-owned Chinese company Sinopharm. The country has been hard hit by a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping Latin America. It has recorded around 1.2 million cases and more than 42,000 deaths from Covid-19 among its population of 33 million. Hospitals are overrun with almost 13,800 Covid patients while they have also reported […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — The Brazilian government announced Wednesday it was negotiating the purchase of 30 million coronavirus vaccine doses from Russia and India, after regulators made it easier for the treatments to win emergency-use authorizations. Until now, only the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot and China’s CoronaVac have been permitted in Brazil, the second-hardest-hit country after the US, with more than 226,000 deaths from Covid-19. Brazil’s health surveillance agency said it would no longer require final […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s Congress on Monday elected Rodrigo Pacheco as Senate speaker, an ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose political future could hang in the balance ahead of the lower house’s vote. Pacheco, of the Democrats (DEM) party, won by 57 votes. The 44-year-old achieved the feat of receiving backing from Bolsonaro, as well as the Workers Party (PT), and former leftist presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Hundreds of people took part Sunday in fresh protests across Brazil against President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with many demanding his resignation or impeachment. Covid-19 has claimed more than 223,000 lives in Brazil, second only to the United States, where more than 440,000 have died. Some 200 people gathered in central Brasilia, holding signs and banners saying “Bolsonaro Out” and “Impeachment Now,” while scores of autos drove slowly […]
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — A wildfire raging in the south of Argentina has consumed a vast swathe of forestland in three days, local authorities said Wednesday — an area half the size of Liechtenstein. About a hundred firefighters, 26 fire trucks, two water-bombing helicopters, and two planes are fighting to contain the blaze in a region unaccustomed to forest fires, officials said. The blaze, its origins unknown, is threatening a vast region around El […]
