Bangladesh has started setting up COVID-19 sample collection booths as the deadly infection claimed seven more lives and infected 209 people overnight. Bangladesh has so far reported 1,012 cases of coronavirus and 46 deaths due to the deadly infection
Iraq has suspended the Reuters news agency for three months after it said there were more COVID-19 cases in the country than officially reported, the agency said on Tuesday. In a report published on April 2, Reuters quoted doctors saying there were more than 3,000 novel coronavirus cases in Iraq, well over the 772 cases confirmed by the health ministry at that time. The Iraqi health ministry denied the allegations contained in the report while the Communications and Media Commission (CMC) accused Reuters of violating broadcasting rules and demanded the agency make a formal apology
A northeast China province is offering cash rewards of up to 5,000 yuan ($700) for help in catching people who illegally cross the Russian border after a flood of imported coronavirus cases. Weeks after it drastically cut international flights and banned entry to foreigners to prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus crisis, China is still struggling to contain a spike in imported cases. Most of the new infections have been in Chinese citizens returning home
Around 117 million children worldwide risk contracting measles because dozens of countries are curtailing their vaccination programmes as they battle COVID-19, the United Nations warned on Tuesday. Currently 24 countries, including several already dealing with large measles outbreaks, have suspended widespread vaccinations, the World Health Organisation and the UN’s children’s fund UNICEF said. An additional 13 countries have had their vaccination programmes interrupted due to COVID-19
It will be difficult to hold the Cannes film festival in its original form in 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, organisers said on Tuesday, adding they were looking at new ways of hosting the world’s biggest annual celebration of cinema. The festival had already been postponed from its original mid-May dates to late June and early July. But organisers said this is “no longer an option” after President Emmanuel Macron said that cultural festivals could not resume until mid-July at the earliest
With the coronavirus keeping Israelis indoors, dozens of jackals have taken over a deserted park in Tel Aviv, scavenging for food in what is usually a playground for joggers and families. The normally timid animals wander freely among palm trees and across the grass of Hayarkon Park, an oasis in the Mediterranean city that was also a magnet for cyclists and picnickers until the arrival of Covid-19
China has begun clinical trials of two possible vaccines against the novel coronavirus, it was reported on Tuesday. The two inactivated vaccine prototypes have been developed using pathogenic micro-organisms that have been killed through the physical or chemical process, Efe news reported. The first prototype, which received its license on Sunday to proceed with clinical trials, have been developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, along with China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). The second was the result of a joint venture of several companies headed by Beijing-based firm Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd.
