The Conversation

By Lidia Kelly MELBOURNE - Australia reported 1,684 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday as authorities race ahead with vaccinations in a bid to end lockdowns on the populous southeast coast in the hope of making Christmas as close to normal as possible. More than 15 million people in Victoria state, neighbouring New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory have been under stay-at-home orders as officials struggle to quell Australia's worst wave of the coronavirus infections, driven by the Delta variant. New South Wales reported 1,485 cases of Delta and three further deaths on Sunday. Victoria had 183 new cases, while the Australian Capital Territory had 15. There was also one new infection reported in Queensland, which is not under a lockdown. The lockdowns, which keep borders between states and territories closed, are part of a federally advised strategy to manage the outbreaks until at least 70% of those aged 16 and older get fully vaccinated. The plan envisages that Aust...
By Karolos Grohmann TOKYO -Athletes must wear masks at all Tokyo Olympic Games venues, including medal ceremonies, the International Olympic Committee said on Sunday, but under a new policy they are briefly allowed to remove them on the podium for a photo opportunity. Masks are mandatory across all venues, both inside and outside, for all athletes, staff and media, as part of Games organisers' strict measures to combat the coronavirus. "It's not a nice to have. It's a must to have," said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. "No, there is no relaxation and we would urge and ask everyone to obey the rules," Adams said. "It's important for the sports, for everyone involved and for our Japanese friends and it would send a strong message." But athletes can briefly take them off on the podium for 30 seconds for a photo opportunity, the IOC said, During Sunday morning's swimming finals, American Chase Kalisz took off his mask on the winners' podium after his gold medal performance in the men's 400 metr...
By Marc Frank HAVANA -Cuba said on Thursday its two-shot Soberana 2 vaccine, delivered with a booster called Soberana Plus, had proven 91.2% effective in late stage clinical trials against the coronavirus, following similar news about its Abdala vaccine. The announcement came from state-run biopharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma, which oversees the Finlay Institute, the maker of Soberana 2, and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the producer of Abdala. Last month, Abdala was found to have a 92.28% efficacy. While the Cuban efficacy claims have not been peer reviewed, the results, if accurate, would catapult the U.S.-boycotted Caribbean island nation into the select group of the United States, Germany and Russia that produce vaccines with efficacy of more than 90% - Novavax, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sputnik V. Cuba’s biotech sector has a long history of vaccine development, producing 80% of vaccines used in the country and exporting some of them. Communist-ru...
By Maher Nazeh BAGHDAD -A fire sparked by an oxygen tank explosion killed at least 82 people and injured 110 at a hospital in Baghdad that had been equipped to house COVID-19 patients, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Sunday. "We urgently need to review safety measures at all hospitals to prevent such a painful incident from happening in future,” spokesman Khalid al-Muhanna told state television, announcing the toll. The fire erupted on Saturday at the Ibn Khatib hospital in the Diyala Bridge area. Ali Bayati, a member of Iraq’s semi-official High Commission for Human Rights, had said earlier a final death toll had not yet been officially announced but it could be between 30 to 45. Patients' relatives scrambled during the blaze to save their loved ones. A man who had been visiting his brother described people jumping out of windows to escape. "The fire spread, like fuel ... I too...
World Bank President David Malpass and José Manuel Barroso, chair of the Gavi vaccine alliance, on Monday discussed the importance of countries with excess COVID-19 vaccine supplies releasing them as soon as possible, the World Bank said.
Britain's government has opened an independent investigation into failed finance company Greensill Capital after lobbying by former Prime Minister David Cameron raised questions over its access to ministers.
-China reported its biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than two months, as a city on the border with Myanmar in southwestern Yunnan province accounted for all new local cases. Ruili's local government put residents in its urban area under home quarantine, launched a massive testing drive and began restricting people from leaving and entering the city from last week after reporting COVID-19 patients. The city accounted for all of the 15 new local cases reported on April 4. The total number of new COVID-19 infections, including imported infections originating from overseas, stood at 32, marking the highest total since Jan. 31. Genetic analysis of the cases discovered in Ruili suggest the new local infections stem from viruses imported from Myanmar, state media reported. Of the new patients reported in the city, 11 of them were identified as Myanmar citizens. Ruili is a key transit point for Yunnan province, which ha...
Pakistan's President Arif Alvi has tested positive for COVID-19, he said on Twitter on Monday, after receiving his first dose of a vaccine.
A Canadian advisory panel on immunization is recommending that AstraZeneca PLC's COVID-19 vaccine should not be given to people under 55 for the time being, citing safety reasons, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp said on Monday.
A wide array of U.S. experts will extensively review a World Health Organization report on the origin of the COVID-19 virus, with a focus on ensuring the investigation was independent and technically sound, the White House said on Monday.
One of the world’s largest container ships, named Ever Given, has been wedged across the Suez Canal since it was blown off course by high winds in the early hours of March 23, blocking one of the busiest maritime trade corridors in the world.
Stranded container ship Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, is seen after it ran aground, in Suez Canal, Egypt March 25, 2021. Suez Canal Authority/Handout via REUTERS
BERLIN - German health experts warned on Saturday against any further easing of coronavirus lockdown measures as the number of cases jumped again, raising the possibility that infections could again reach peaks seen around Christmas by mid-April. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases predicted that the number of daily reported cases could exceed 30,000 in the 14th week of the year starting April 12. "An extrapolation of the trends shows that case numbers can be expected above the Christmas level from week 14 onwards," the RKI said in its current situation report. On Saturday, the number of COVID-19 cases rose by 12,674 and the death toll was up 239, with the number of cases per 100,000 over seven days jumping to 76.1 from 72.4. Germany's death toll from the virus stands at 73,301, with a reported 2,558,455 infections.   [IMAGE_GALLERY_1]   Frustration about the ongoing lockdown and the slow pace of vaccinations has been denting support for Chancellor Angela Merkel's...
Lifting restrictions will be split into four stages, with a minimum of five weeks between each to observe the effects of easing restrictions. Criteria – concerning vaccine rollout and effectiveness, infection rates and mutations – will need to be met each time the country is due to move onto the next stage.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic media briefing at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain February 22, 2021. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS
Everyone experiences headaches. From dull throbbing dehydration headaches to incapacitating migraines, a sore head is an extremely common complaint. This is perhaps especially true at the moment. COVID-19 can cause them, as can sitting at desks for too long and not getting out of the house enough.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
By Brenda Goh and Steven Bian SHANGHAI - China's recent COVID-19 outbreaks in the northeast have come from travelers entering the country or contaminated frozen food imports, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Saturday. NHC Minister Ma Xiaowei made the comments at a government meeting, where he also said the virus was spreading to rural areas and that the handling of the recent situation had exposed how prevention and control measures had been relaxed. "Since Dec. 2020, epidemic clusters have occurred in Beijing, Sichuan, Liaoning, Hebei and Heilongjiang," a statement posted on the NHC's website said citing the briefing by Ma. "They mainly have the following characteristics. Firstly, they are all imported from abroad, caused by travelers from overseas, or contaminated cold-chain imported items." Total case numbers remain well below what China saw at the height of the outbreak in early 2020, but co...
The Secret COVID 19 Government Pandemic Profits Scandal in the United Kingdom has led to huge profiting from PPE which is a deadly government scandal and clearly totally shocking. Worryingly its fallen on the shoulders of a British Comedian and Political Satire to save the day! We may be doomed!
Credit: Michael O'Sullivan, Jolyon Rubinstein, Mark Davis
SYDNEY () - South Australia will come out of its snap six-day coronavirus lockdown earlier than expected, with most activities permitted to restart from midnight on Saturday, state Premier Steven Marshall said on Friday. Coronavirus infections have slowed dramatically in recent weeks in Australia, with South Australia one of the few places still recording community transmission of the disease. Marshall said the state will ease restrictions, including immediately allowing people to leave their homes to exercise, after it was realised that contact tracers were misled by a person working in the epicentre of the recent outbreak. (Reporting by Jonathan Barrett)...
BERLIN - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,892 to 255,366, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday. The reported death toll rose by three to 9,341, the tally showed. (Reporting by Berlin Newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)...
Next spring is going to be a busy time for Mars. In close succession, three spacecraft will arrive at the planet, joining the dozen or so craft already circling Mars.
Illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech
By Jarrett Renshaw HARRISBURG, Penn. (Bywire News) - The U.S. debate over when to lift restrictions to curb the coronavirus outbreak intensified on Monday, with protesters describing mandatory lockdowns as "tyranny" and health workers and officials portraying them as a matter of life and death. Stay-at-home measures, which experts say are essential to slow the spread of the virus, have ground the economy to a virtual standstill and forced more than 22 million people to apply for unemployment benefits in the past month. In Pennsylvania, where Democratic Governor Tom Wolf has pledged to veto a bill in the Republican-led General Assembly that would force him to reopen some businesses, a few hundred protesters, some in cars, demonstrated in the capital Harrisburg. Protesters who drove in front of the capitol honked on their horns for hours. Many of the protesters expressed cynicism toward health experts and skepticism about the actual scale of the pandemic in the country, accusing officia...