Al Arabiya: The UAE announced 1,796 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the official Emirates News Agency reported. This brings the current total active cases in the UAE to 17,551 and the total number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic to 949,384, according to data from the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management...
Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccines could increase protection as boosters: EMA
Al Arabiya: Coronavirus vaccines tweaked to include the omicron variant strain can improve protection when used as a booster, the European Medicines Agency and other global health regulators said on Friday. Following a meeting on Thursday, the EMA said global regulators had agreed on key principles for updating COVID-19 shots to respond to emerging variants....
Russia scraps remaining COVID-19 restrictions
Al Arabiya: Russia said on Friday it was ending all restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19, including the requirement to wear masks, citing a steady decline in deaths from the virus. However, it did not rule out re-introducing restrictive measures if the situation deteriorates. Consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said it was “suspending previously introduced restrictions,...
North Korea Blames ‘Alien Things’ Near Border with South Korea for COVID-19 Outbreak
Al Arabiya: North Korea claimed on Friday that the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak began with patients touching “alien things” near the border with South Korea, apparently shifting blame to the neighbor for the wave of infections in the isolated country. Announcing results of an investigation, the North ordered people to “vigilantly deal with alien things...
World Bank creates fund to better prevent, respond to pandemics
Al Arabiya: The World Bank’s board on Thursday approved creation of a fund meant to finance investments in strengthening the fight against pandemics. The fund will support prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, the bank said in a statement. Advertisement
WHO: Over 4.1 million new COVID-19 cases reported globally, 18 pct increase
Al Arabiya: The number of new coronavirus cases rose by 18 percent in the last week, with more than 4.1 million cases reported globally, according to the World Health Organization. The UN health agency said in its latest weekly report on the pandemic that the worldwide number of deaths remained relatively similar to the week...
France’s New Wave of COVID-19 Infections Expected to Peak End of July
Al Arabiya: A new wave in France of COVID-19 infections fueled by emerging variants of the disease should peak toward end-July, the French government’s top scientific adviser Jean-Francois Delfraissy said on Thursday. “The peak is not yet here, this peak of infections will probably be for end-July,” Delfraissy told RTL radio. “Then the BA.5 variant...
Shanghai Disneyland theme park re-opens after three-month COVID-19 closure
Al Arabiya: More than a thousand visitors streamed in on Thursday as Walt Disney Co’s Shanghai Disney Resort theme park opened after a closure of three months, with face masks and social distancing the order of the day. The park shut on March 21 as cases rose in the Chinese business hub, leading to a...
US secures 105 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for fall
Al Arabiya: The United States on Wednesday announced an agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech for 105 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for Americans this fall. The $3.2 billion contract, signed between the companies and the US health and defense departments, includes vaccines for babies, young children, teens and adults, and may include omicron-specific vaccines, which...
BioNTech, Pfizer to start testing universal vaccine for COVID-19
Al Arabiya: Germany’s BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner in COVID-19 vaccines, said the two companies would start tests on humans of next-generation shots that protect against a wide variety of coronaviruses in the second half of the year. Their experimental work on shots that go beyond the current approach include T-cell-enhancing shots, designed to primarily protect against...