Heartbreaking images reveal the state of life in the United States and the United Kingdom as the two countries continue their uphill battles against the coronavirus pandemic.
A year after COVID-19 claimed its first American life – a Washington State man in his 50s – the nation’s coronavirus death toll has surpassed 500,000.
And it’s going to get a lot worse, according to grim predictions by the University of Washington.
Julia Gillard has had her coronavirus jab, urging everyone – and particularly women – to get vaccinated.
The former prime minister joined Health Minister Greg Hunt and Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy to be among the first to receive the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination at a Melbourne clinic on Sunday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday that the quarantine facility near Darwin will expand to 2000 returned Australians a fortnight, up from 850, by late April.
Trade Minister Dan Tehan discussed the standoff with his Brussels counterpart Valdis Dombrovskis on Friday night but the European Commission has no plans to step back from its dispute with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Families are being forced to fork out for children's EpiPens, as chemists warn of nation-wide medication shortages.
The devices normally have an 18-month life span - but they are in short supply due to the pandemic.
It means parents are forced to purchase more frequently with some spending more than $100 for those with a four-month shelf life.
Australia has reached its second vaccine milestone with the country's first AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs to be poked into South Australian arms today.
The community of Murray Bridge will lead the nation in the rollout of the new vaccine with one thousand doses arriving into regional South Australia today.
A frontline health worker in the town will become the first person in the country to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The days of shelling out €25 or even €50 ($30-60) for a rapid test may be numbered. The latest pandemic plan agreed to late Wednesday between Chancellor Angela Merkel and 16 state leaders, puts forward a complex, step-by-step guide to moving Germany out of lockdown. But little can happen without sufficient testing.
The federal government is expected to start picking up the tab for rapid tests starting next week.
Every person in Germany will be entitled to a weekly test, either from a test center, medical practice, or place of work, administered by trained personnel.
They seemed very tired after yet another meeting to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Once again, they addressed the cameras and thanked the citizens of Germany, cited numbers and pronounced many "if and whens" — it's becoming almost routine. And once again, there was no genuine passionate appeal.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her co-chairs, Bavarian state minister Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party and Berlin mayor Michael Müller of the Social Democrats (SPD), were exhausted after nine hours, and well over 20 crisis meetings over the past 12 months.
The numbers are alarming. On Tuesday, a new daily record was broken when 1,726 people died of COVID-19 in Brazil. The average death rate over the past week was 1,274. That's almost 25% higher than two weeks ago.
"We are currently experiencing the worst moment of the pandemic, with daily death tolls breaking new records and overburdened intensive care units all over the country," microbiologist Natalia Pasternak told DW.
Over 257,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19 already. But the spread of the virus has picked up dramatically. On Tuesday, almost 60,000 new cases were registered.
Germany's independent Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko) said on Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine can be administered to older people.
Germany had originally balked at approving the vaccine for those aged 65 and over due to efficacy concerns.
However, new data — and quite possibly the faltering national attempts to start vaccinating — caused German health authorities to change their minds.
The European Commission and Italy have blocked a shipment of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine destined for Australia after the pharmaceutical company did not fulfil its European Union contract commitments, sources said on Thursday.
It is the first time the EU has employed an export control mechanism it set up to ensure drug manufacturers respect their contracts.
The sources said AstraZeneca had reportedly requested authorization from the Italian government to export some 250,000 doses from its Anagni plant, close to Rome. The site is owned by US group Catalent.
The British-Swedish drug manufacturer had failed to meet its EU contract commitments so the Italian government refused its request to export 250,000 doses from its Anagni plant near Rome.
Italy made the request and it was signed off by the European Commission under a new export control system that came into law on 30 January. This is the first time it has been used by a member state.
Two officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration shared details Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
The doses will be spread out among 400 ZIP codes with about 8 million people eligible for shots. Many of the neighborhoods are concentrated in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley.
Plus, managing politics editor Caren Bohan updates us on the pandemic relief bill, the House cancels its Thursday session amid security threats, wellness reporter Alia Dastagir talks about the seriousness of accusations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an investigation continues following a deadly car crash near the U.S./Mexico border and economics reporter Paul Davidson talks about how some cities are experimenting with universal income.
Political observers suggested Cuomo should have acted sooner to release the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 at hospitals last year as requested by lawmakers and reporters, thus avoiding the scandal of undercounting the deaths to seemingly boost his popularity and fend off political attacks from the Trump administration.
South Australians will be the first in the nation to receive the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
Around 300,000 doses of the jab arrived in Australia on Sunday and Prime Minister Scott Morrison says they have been “batch-tested” and approved for use.
They are being distributed to the states, with SA to be the first on Friday.
