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by Khaliun Bayartsogt Agence France-Presse DUNDGOBI, Mongolia (AFP) – Nurse Sodkhuu Galbadrakh clutches a box of Covid-19 vaccines on his lap as he journeys along a bumpy track through a remote region of the Mongolian steppe, going home-to-home to offer booster doses to herders. The country of three million has taken some of the world’s toughest and most enduring measures against the coronavirus pandemic, shutting schools for much of the last two years and closing […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The risk posed by the Omicron variant is still “very high”, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, after Covid-19 case numbers shot up by 11 percent globally last week. Omicron is behind rapid virus spikes in several countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previously-dominant Delta variant, the WHO said in its Covid-19 weekly epidemiological update. “The overall risk related to the new variant […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Rapid Covid home tests are more likely to give a false negative with the heavily-mutated Omicron variant compared to earlier strains, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday. The news comes as the country is facing a massive surge in cases that experts say is being under-captured as a result of a testing crunch, with long wait times for the more accurate PCR tests, and home kits in […]
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” warns WHO chief LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The WHO warned Wednesday that rich countries cannot use boosters to escape the coronavirus and France became one of the first nations to vaccinate children over five, as nations scrambled to contain Omicron surges. China meanwhile cracked down on the latest outbreak of the virus, shutting down a whole city. And Britain, which reported a record […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Thursday that a third, or “booster”, dose of its Covid-19 vaccine Vaxzevria “significantly” lifted antibody levels against the Omicron strain in a laboratory study. “Vaxzevria significantly boosted levels of antibodies against the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.1.529) following a third dose booster,” the company said in a statement citing the study. “The third dose booster vaccination neutralised the Omicron variant to levels that were broadly […]
by Issam AHMED Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday authorized Pfizer’s anti-Covid pill for high-risk people aged 12 and up, as a surge of cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant threatened holiday plans and Americans struggled to find tests. Paxlovid, which comprises two types of tablet, was granted an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after a clinical trial showed it to reduce […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Tuesday approved a Covid vaccine made by US pharma giant Novavax for emergency use, after the European Union medicines regulator gave it the green light. The European Medicines Agency had assessed and approved Nuvaxovid on Monday. It is made from a more conventional technology than others already approved, which has led officials in Brussels to express hope that this will help persuade those hesitant about […]
by Martine PAUWELS Agence France-Presse BRIGHTON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Brighton, on England’s south coast, has been described as Britain’s hippest city, and is a haven for tourists, especially Londoners keen to escape the capital. But surfer Stu Davies says the waters off Brighton and along the Channel coast are less attractive, describing them as an “open sewer”. Human faeces, wipes and tampons are regularly discharged into seas and rivers, angering local residents who are […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – From Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, microplastics are everywhere – even high in the Earth’s troposphere where wind speeds allow them to travel vast distances, a study showed Tuesday. Microplastics are tiny fragments — measuring less than 5 millimetres — that come from packaging, clothing, vehicles and other sources and have been detected on land, in water and in the air. Scientists from the French national research institute CNRS sampled […]
by Poornima WEERASEKARA Agence France-Presse BAODING, China (AFP) – Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned — farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output. China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of […]
by Danny KEMP THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The EU’s drug regulator will decide Monday whether to approve a Covid jab by Novavax, which uses a more conventional technology that the US biotech firm hopes will reduce vaccine hesitancy. Novavax’s jab, a protein-based vaccine of the kind used around the world to protect against many childhood illnesses, would be the fifth coronavirus shot authorized for the European Union. Approval would also be a boost for […]
by Aymen Jamli and Amal Belalloufi Agence France-Presse MGHIRA, Tunisia (AFP) – “When I see plastic, I see money,” says Tarek Masmoudi, owner of one of the few recycling companies in Tunisia, where a waste crisis is threatening widespread social unrest. Recycling is almost non-existent in the North African country, which produces 2.6 million tonnes of waste each year. Some 85 percent of that ends up in landfills, while much of the rest winds up […]
