LONDON: British police will not investigate gatherings held in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s residence during a coronavirus lockdown unless an internal government inquiry finds evidence of potential criminal offences, the Metropolitan Police said. Johnson’s leadership is in the balance as he faces calls to resign from some in his party […]
Healthcare
NEW YORK: GSK and Vir Biotechnology said today they are seeking US approval for their antibody-based Covid-19 treatment to be given as a shot in the arm, on top of the currently approved intravenous administration. Yesterday, the drugmakers said the United States had agreed to buy 600,000 more doses of […]
WASHINGTON: Another 1,000 federal health workers are deploying to six states to help alleviate overwhelmed hospitals amid the US surge in Omicron-related Covid-19 cases, the White House said today. The teams of between seven and 25 military doctors, nurses and other personnel will head to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, […]
PARIS: France will on Friday (Jan 14) ease coronavirus travel restrictions for travellers from Britain, enabling vaccinated tourists to visit if they have a negative test, the government announced. A blanket ban on non-essential travel announced on Dec 16 caused major disruptions over the Christmas and New Year holidays, but […]
WARSAW: Poland’s total number of coronavirus-related deaths surpassed 100,000 on Tuesday (Jan 11), the health minister said, as the country struggles to convince people to get vaccinated despite persistently high infection rates. The number of deaths per one million inhabitants was last week among the highest in the world, according […]
MADRID: Spain’s PharmaMar said on Tuesday (Jan 11) trials made in vitro and on animals showed its Plitidepsin drug had positive antiviral effects on the variants of COVID-19, including Omicron. The results of Phase I trials have shown the drug, also known as Aplidin, had a powerful antiviral activity against […]
NEW DELHI: India began administering booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine to frontline workers and vulnerable elderly people on Monday, with the fast-spreading Omicron variant fuelling an almost eight-fold rise in daily infections since the start of the year. India reported 179,723 new cases on Monday, most of them in the […]
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rescuers were working Sunday (Jan 9) to clear routes to a locked-in hill town sheltering thousands of tourists after 22 people died in vehicles trapped by heavy snow. The resort town of Murree, around 70km northeast of Islamabad, was inundated with tourists and daytrippers last week after unusually […]
HONG KONG: Four Hong Kong lawmakers and its immigration czar joined another top official at a quarantine camp as a coronavirus scare widened Friday, ensnaring the territory’s political elite after they attended a large birthday party. The latest five entries into Hong Kong’s 21-day quarantine facilities have left city authorities […]
BERLIN: German towns have appealed to authorities for less “flying by the seat of your pants” and more “forward-thinking planning,” as the country looks likely to miss its vaccination target for January. Local leaders have described the vaccine rollout as chaotic, complaining of a lack of communication about when and […]