Covid-19 Vaccine Launches Libya for Public

Libya has launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign for the general population in Tripoli, with the elderly and healthcare workers given priority in the conflict-hit North African nation.

Those over 70 would get the AstraZeneca jab while the Russian Sputnik V vaccine would be administered to medical personnel and those aged 50-60, the National Centre for Disease Control said.

Libya has so far received 400,000 doses, including 200,000 Sputnik V shots, 57,600 AstraZeneca jabs and 150,000 from Turkey thought to be China's Sinovac.

Although rich in oil, the economy has been hit hard and the situation was further compounded by the pandemic with nearly 1,000 cases registered per day in recent weeks.

Since the pandemic emerged last year, there have been 171,131 confirmed Covid cases in Libya, including 2,882 deaths, out of a population of seven million, officials say.

Zimbabwe has begun releasing about 3,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty aimed at easing congestion to reduce the threat of Covid-19 in the country’s overcrowded jails.

About 400 prisoners were released from Chikurubi prison and other jails in the capital, Harare, on Saturday with more coming from other prisons countrywide.

Zimbabwe’s prisons have a capacity of 17,000 prisoners but held about 22,000 before the amnesty declared by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Those to be released had been convicted of non-violent crimes. Those convicted of crimes such as murder, treason, human trafficking, and sexual offences will not benefit.

The amnesty “will go a long way” to reduce expenditure and the threat of the spread of the virus in prisons, said Alvord Gapare, the commander for prisons in Harare.

He said prisons in the capital had recorded 173 confirmed infections and one death.

Zimbabwe has recorded 37,534 cases of Covid-19, including 1,551 deaths by Apr. 17, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Turkey has reported 62,606 new coronavirus cases, including 2,973 symptomatic patients, according to the Health Ministry data.

Turkey’s overall case tally is now over 4.21 million, while the nationwide death toll reached 35,608, with 288 new fatalities.

As many as 52,184 more patients won the battle against the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to over 3.6 4 million.

Nearly 43.5 million coronavirus tests have been conducted in Turkey to date, with 319,316 done since Friday.

Italy has reported 310 coronavirus-related deaths against 429 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections edged down to 15,370 from 15,943.

Italy has registered 116,676 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 3.857 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 24,100 on Satur day, down from 24,743 a day earlier.

There were 163 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 199 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients declined to 3,340 from a previous 3,366.

Some 331,734 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 327,704, the health ministry said. 

France reports daily decline in patients in intensive care 

The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units in France has fallen, the health ministry said.

Health ministry data showed that 5,877 people were in intensive care units with Covid-19 on Saturday, 37 fewer than on Friday.

France has imposed a nationwide lockdown this month to try to stem its third wave of infections. 

The Dubai Health Authority said it was allowing women who are breastfeeding and those planning on conceiving to take the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to the Dubai Media Office.

In a Twitter post, the media office said this was in line with the latest international studies and guidelines on coronavirus vaccines.

It also said the DHA was cutting the time frame of vaccine eligibility for those who have previously contracted the virus to 10 days from three months, provided the case was mild or asymptomatic.

Canada's most populous province, Ontario, has extended its lockdown and implemented stricter measures to fight the virus, closing domestic borders and barring unnecessary travel, its leader said.

The province of 14 million people registered 4,812 new cases – a record high – and 25 deaths on Friday, according to health officials.

"The pace of our vaccine supply has not kept up with the spread of the new Covid variants," Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters.

Shuttered for over a year because of the pandemic, Greek universities are now grappling with a surge in online exam cheating giving rise to a new reality: the "corona degree".

Both professors and students candidly admit that examination safeguards are practically impossible to enforce in a remote-learning environment with hundreds of participants simultaneously online.

Russia reported 9,321 new virus cases over the past 24 hours, including 2,822 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 4,693,469.

The country also reported another 398 deaths, raising the official toll to 105,193.

Brazil's health ministry has recommend that women living in the country delay any pregnancy plans due to the virus.

Speaking in Brasilia, Raphael Parente, from the Brazilian Ministry of Health advised young women "to wait so the situation gets better."

He said that although there was no formal research carried out, there was some evidence to suggest that the Brazilian variant of the virus showed "more aggressiveness" in pregnant women compared to last year.

A group of German tourists travelled to Russia to get vaccinated against the virus amid vaccine shortages in Europe.

Around 50 Germans flew to Moscow from Frankfurt to get their first shot of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine as part of the vaccine tour organised by the German office of European Tour Operators.

During the three-night trip tourists are getting vaccinated by a Russian private clinic at a hotel and combine it with sightseeing of lockdown-free Moscow.  

New Delhi went into a weekend lockdown Saturday as India faces a ferocious new virus wave, with more than 200,000 fresh daily cases and families clamouring for drugs and hospital beds.

Hopes that South Asian countries might have beaten the pandemic have been dashed with India seeing over two million new cases this month alone and Bangladesh and Pakistan imposing shutdowns.