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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Latest coronavirus developments from around the globe

The world continues to be pestered by raging Covid-19 pandemic

By AFP
June 13, 2021
Moscow announces extreme preventive measure by sending all non-essential workers to home entitled to salaries without having to work remotely.

PARIS: Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- G7 agree plan to battle future pandemics -

The G7 group agrees a "Carbis Bay Declaration" to battle future pandemics. The statement comprises a series of health policy commitments, including slashing the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days, and reinforcement of global surveillance networks.

- France first jabs top 30 million -

Prime Minister Jean Castex announces the number of first dose vaccinations in France has passed 30 million people.

Nearly 400,000 jabs are being administered daily in the country.

- Week off work in Moscow as cases spike -

The mayor of Russia´s capital Moscow orders non-essential workers to stay at home for a week, as cases in the Russian capital spike to levels not seen since December. With weekends and a public holiday, non-essential workers in Moscow will not have to return to work until June 20. The mayor also ordered food courts and playgrounds shut and restaurants, cafes and night clubs to stop serving between 11 pm and 6 am.

- 60,000 for hajj -

Saudi Arabia says it will allow 60,000 vaccinated residents of the kingdom, free of chronic diseases and between ages of 18 and 65, to perform the annual hajj, state media reported.

- Africa passes five million cases -

Africa has passed the five million infections threshold. The continent´s 54 countries and territories had 5,008,656 cases as of 1000 GMT on Saturday, according to an AFP tally from official sources.

- Italy limits AstraZeneca to over-60s -

Italy says it will restrict the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over the age of 60, with younger people who have already received a dose to complete the cycle with another jab such as Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.

- Millions of J&J vaccine doses can´t be used -

The US Food and Drug Administration says it has told Johnson & Johnson that millions of doses of its Covid vaccine produced at a troubled plant in Baltimore can´t be used because of possible contamination issues.

The FDA said "several" batches of vaccine manufactured at the Emergent BioSolutions facility were not suitable for use. Each batch is known to correspond to several million doses.

- And South Africa sets aside two million J&J jabs -

The health minister says South Africa, struggling to cope with a third wave of the pandemic, has two lots of the Johnson & Johnson product that will be put on hold -- some two million vaccines.

- ´Targeted vaccinations´ after Delta cluster found in eastern France -

Health authorities in eastern France are conducting ´targeted vaccinations´ over the weekend after four cases of the highly transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant, first detected in India, were confirmed in the Rhine School of Arts (Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin) in Strasbourg.

The school has been shut, more than 100 people tested and authorities have set aside some 200 vaccine doses for students and restaurant and bar workers in the neighbourhoods thought to be affected, according to regional health authorities.

- Covid chaos hits Copa America -

Twelve people from the Venezuelan national football team, including players and staff, test positive for Covid-19, officials say Saturday, a day before they are due to play the opening match of the Copa America against hosts Brazil.

- 3.7 million dead -

The pandemic has killed at least 3,787,127 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data.

The US is the worst-affected country with 599,180 deaths, followed by Brazil with 484,235, India 367,081, Mexico 229,823 and Peru with 188,100.