By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) – Public health experts advising Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called on Tuesday for the swift imposition of a state of emergency in the Tokyo area as daily COVID-19 cases hit a record and some citizens accused the government of dragging its feet. The government’s top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary […]
Coronavirus pandemic France is to mobilise 100,000 police and gendarmes on New Year’s Eve to break up parties and enforce a curfew imposed to combat coronavirus. The extra security also aims at halting the torching of cars that often takes place on the final night of the year. France has confirmed 2.6m Covid-19 cases, the […]
Coronavirus pandemic Spain is to set up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated against coronavirus and share it with other European Union nations, the health minister has said. Salvador Illa said the list would not be made accessible to the public or to employers. He said the way to defeat the virus […]
A Chinese citizen journalist who covered Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years. Zhang Zhan was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a frequent charge against activists. The 37-year-old former lawyer was detained in May, and has been on hunger strike for several months. Her lawyers say she is in poor […]
Coronavirus pandemic US President Donald Trump has signed into law a coronavirus relief and spending package bill, averting a partial government shutdown. Mr Trump had initially refused to sign the bill, saying he wanted to give people bigger one-off payments. The delay meant that millions of Americans temporarily lost unemployment benefits. The relief package worth […]
By Isla Binnie, Giselda Vagnoni MADRID/ROME (Reuters) -Europe launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to get the first shots to see off a pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. “Thank God,” 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in […]
By Reuters Staff BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing has tightened COVID-19 curbs over concerns that China’s mass travel during the holiday period could cause cases to spike in the capital, as it reported locally transmitted cases for a fourth straight day on Sunday. A meeting led by the capital’s Communist party boss, Cai Qi, urged all […]
