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.
A new tsunami warning has been issued for Norfolk Island after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake in the Kermadec Islands, in New Zealand's north.
There is currently no threat to Australia's mainland.
There is also a warning for people near the NZ coast from the Bay of Islands to Whangerei, from Matata to Tolaga Bay, and Great Barrier Island.
TSUNAMI WARNING: Areas that need to evacuate are indicated on this map. Evacuate these areas even if you did not feel the earthquake. DO NOT WAIT. A damaging tsunami is possible. More info at https://t.co/ccVFYQQoBr pic.twitter.com/bnEgZy8ikF
— National Emergency Management Agency (@NZcivildefence) March 4, 2021
They have been told they must move immediately to nearest high ground, out of all tsunami evacuation zones, or as far inland as possible.
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 National People's Congress, China's annual parliamentary event, opens Friday in Beijing. For the second straight year, it will be a mostly virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the NPC is China's main legislature, the Communist Party ensures that important decisions are made long before any proposals reach the body.
The party sometimes uses the NPC to reveal major policy and personnel changes.
Narrow lanes in New Delhi's old town embody the history of the Indian capital, with street food, bazaars and architecture that have captured the imagination of people from around the world.
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.
