Month: January 2021

Vaccine inoculations have begun in Italy for medical staff and the most vulnerable, but the country’s daily death toll continues to be well over 500. All Italian primary school students and most middle school students returned to face-to-face lessons on Thursday. But not all regions in…

New strains of the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic have evolved, raising alarms with public health experts. The viruses appear to be more infectious, making them harder to control. But experts say the new vaccines against them should still work. VOA's Steve Baragona has more. …

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the city aims to vaccinate 10,000 police officers against the coronavirus by Sunday.At his daily briefing, De Blasio said police officers and jail guards were now eligible to receive vaccines under guidance provided by state…

Malawi has introduced a mandatory quarantine on returnees from South Africa to control rising cases of COVID-19.  Thousands of Malawians have returned from South Africa in recent weeks, and officials fear they could import the new, more contagious form of coronavirus.Malawi has seen a rapid…

A South African virologist says existing COVID-19 vaccines may not be fully effective against the new coronavirus variant found in the country, but he expressed belief the vaccines can be “tweaked” to combat the variant.Scientists studying the variant of COVID-19 found in South Africa say…

India has not imposed a ban on export of vaccines for COVID-19, the federal government said amid a controversy that it had imposed restrictions on an Indian company expected to be on the frontlines in supplying vaccines to developing countries.      India, the world’s largest…

More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have so far gone unused.  As Mariama Diallo reports, some states are vowing to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly enough. ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed disappointment Tuesday with the failure of Chinese officials to grant final permission to an international team of researchers to enter the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.At the agency’s regular COVID-19 briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva,…

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Tuesday the nation was going to “amplify, accelerate and simplify” its COVID-19 vaccination program after coming under fire for the initial slow roll out of the program.In an interview with French radio, Veran said more than 2,000 doctors, nurses…

As millions of people await their turn to get a COVID-19 vaccine that could be months away, scammers online, in emails and on messaging apps are luring victims with claims they can deliver shots within days for as little as $150.   COVID-19 vaccine scams…

In France, public frustration with the government is growing as the nation’s coronavirus immunization campaign gets off to a slow start. In response, officials say they will speed up and widen the vaccine rollout.As of Monday, only 2,500 people had received the vaccine against COVID-19…

Mexico has become the latest nation to approve the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University.Foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard announced the “very good news” that the government had granted emergency approval for the vaccine Monday on Twitter, adding that “production…

The amount of baked-in global warming, from carbon pollution already in the air, is enough to blow past internationally agreed upon goals to limit climate change, a new study finds. But it's not game over because, while that amount of warming may be inevitable, it can…

Britain’s prime minister announced a fresh round of lockdowns Monday, closing schools and nonessential shops, as the country begins vaccinating health care workers and the elderly.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people must stay at home until at least mid-February, noting that British hospitals are under…

Drug maker Moderna says it plans to ramp up production of its COVID-19 vaccine by 100 million more doses than what it originally forecast.The Massachusetts-based company said Monday it would produce 600 million doses in 2021.So far, the company says it has supplied 18 million…

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday the government is not ruling out new restrictions as the coronavirus continues to spread even in areas with the strictest constraints.In television interviews, Hancock said a new variant spreads more easily than the original strains of the virus…

Vaccinations against the coronavirus are off to a slow and chaotic start in the United States, but the country’s top infectious disease expert held out hope Sunday that the pace will soon pick up. “We are not where we want to be, no doubt about it,”…

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Sunday of new lockdowns to be issued across the country as cases of the coronavirus surge, particularly with a new variant spreading.Britain has been seeing upwards of 50,000 new cases daily as health experts note that the variant is up to 70 percent more contagious.“We…

India has granted emergency approval to two vaccines for COVID- 19, setting the stage for what could be the world’s largest immunization program. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, this raises hopes of bringing the pandemic under control in a country where the daily…

Israel said Sunday two million people will have received a two-dose Covid-19 vaccination by the end of January, a pace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasts is the world's fastest.Starting on December 19, when Netanyahu got his first jab, Israel launched an aggressive push to administer…

As richer countries race to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, Somalia remains the rare place where much of the population hasn't taken the coronavirus seriously. Some fear that’s proven to be deadlier than anyone knows.“Certainly, our people don’t use any form of protective measures, neither masks nor…