AFRICA CDC TALKING TO PFIZER ABOUT IMPORTING COVID PILL

Thu 13 January 2022: The African Centers for Disease Control’s head said the organization is in talks with Pfizer about bringing its COVID-19 treatment pill to the continent, which has just exceeded the 10 million case mark. As several countries see waves of higher infections from the omicron variant, Dr. John Nkengasong is urging government […]

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OMICRON DETECTED IN NEARLY EVERY COUNTRY IN AMERICAS: PAHO

Thu 13 January 2022: New infections have reached unprecedented levels across the Americas, due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, according to the Pan American Health Organization, with cases doubling in the last week. PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said during a regular news briefing on Wednesday that cases in the Americas increased […]

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SOUTH AFRICA: REVISED COVID-19 PROTOCOLS ON HOLD

Wed 29 December 2021: The Department of Health says the implementation of the revised COVID-19 contract tracing, quarantine and isolation protocols released last week have been suspended. In a statement, the department said it has been “inundated with media, stakeholders and public enquiries and comments” since the release of the new protocols – leading to […]

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RAPID COVID-19 TESTS NOT AS ACCURATE WITH OMICRON, SAYS US REGULATOR

Wed 29 December 2021: 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 […]

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OMICRON RISK ‘VERY HIGH’ WHO SAYS; INFECTIONS HIT RECORD HIGHS ACROSS EUROPE

Wed 29 December 2021: The risk posed by the Omicron variant is still “very high”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, after COVID-19 case numbers shot up by 11 percent globally last week. Omicron is behind the rapid virus spikes in many countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previously-dominant Delta […]

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GERMANY TO BUY 1 MILLION DOSES OF ANTI-COVID PILL PAXLOVID

Tue 28 December 2021: German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told the German dpa news agency on Tuesday that Germany will purchase a million packages of Pfizer’s Paxlovid antiviral medicine against COVID-19, with the first batches coming in January. “It is an extremely promising medication, as timely taking of the medicine significantly reduces the probability of […]

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BRAZIL’S JAIR BOLSONARO SAYS DAUGHTER, 11, WILL NOT GET COVID VACCINE

Tue 28 December 2021: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not vaccinate his 11-year-old daughter against COVID-19, he said on Monday, maintaining the firm anti-vaccine stance that has drawn criticism from public health experts and hit his poll numbers. The right-wing leader added that the nation’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, will divulge on January 5 the manner […]

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