Health & Science

• Thursday, March 18th 2021 - 08:35 UTC

  Brazil with record contagions and deaths, and a deal to purchase 100 million Pfizer doses

  

  Brazil has reported a single-day record of 90,303 new cases of COVID-19, as the country continues to grapple with mounting coronavirus infections and deaths.

• Wednesday, March 17th 2021 - 09:50 UTC

  EU regulatory body convinced that AstraZeneca vaccines benefits outweigh possible risks

  

  The EU regulatory body is “fully convinced” that the vaccine's benefits outweigh possible risks. Global health experts have been under growing pressure to answer questions over the safety of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot. “There is ”no indication'' that AstraZeneca vaccines are the cause of blood clots reported in some shot recipients, the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) chief said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, March 17th 2021 - 08:39 UTC

  Regular booster vaccines will be needed against Covid-19, because of mutations

  

  Regular booster vaccines against the coronavirus will be needed because of mutations that make it more transmissible and better able to evade human immunity, the head of Britain's effort to sequence the virus' genomes said.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 09:53 UTC

  WHO insists that AstraZeneca vaccine is safe; EU countries suspend jabs on isolated cases of blood clots

  

  REUTERS – The World Health Organization's director-general said on Monday that systems meant to protect public health were working, as several countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine to investigate possible side-effects.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 09:40 UTC

  Bolsonaro appoints his fourth Health minister, a cardiologist

  

  With Covid-19 infections and deaths seeing in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro confirmed on Monday that he will appoint cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga as the replacement to health minister Eduardo Pazuello. This would be the third change for the position in less than a year.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 08:37 UTC

  German doctors call for an “immediate return” to lockdown to avoid third wave of Covid-19

  

  Intensive care doctors in Germany warned on Monday that the country would need to make an “immediate return” to partial lockdown if it is to avoid stumbling into a dangerous third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:06 UTC

  Brazil becomes second worst Covid-19 country; a time bomb for neighboring countries, WHO reports

  

  Brazil has surpassed India to become the second worst-hit country from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. With 11,483,370 cases and 278,327 deaths, Brazil is now one spot behind the United States, which is the worst-affected globally with more than 30 million cases and 546,605 deaths, according to figures by WorldMeters.

• Saturday, March 13th 2021 - 09:40 UTC

  IDB initiative to help Latin America better compete for Covid-19 vaccines

  

  The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced a first-of-its kind initiative that would help Latin American and Caribbean countries better compete to obtain lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines. The instrument would help both countries and vaccine makers resolve indemnity obligations, thereby removing a key obstacle to vaccine contract negotiations.

• Saturday, March 13th 2021 - 09:26 UTC

  Argentina extends the sanitary emergency until 31 December

  

  The Argentine government has extended until 31 December the current sanitary emergency first decreed on 12 March 2020, just days ahead of the social, preventive and mandatory distancing to contain the effects of the pandemic.

• Saturday, March 13th 2021 - 08:59 UTC

  Foreign investment in China in Jan-Feb up 31,5% year on year

  

  China, which achieved a V-shaped economic recovery last year, attracted 176.76 billion yuan (US$ 27.18 billion) in foreign investments in January-February, up 31.5% year-on-year, the commerce ministry in Beijing said on Friday.