Foreign
China approves Sinopharm as 1st vaccine for market rollout
December 31, 2020, 5:51 pm
ANKARA – China on Thursday announced it has approved the first vaccine for market use in the country. The country’s Medical Products Administration officially granted “conditional marketing authorization” for the state-owned Sinopharm vaccine, CGTN News reported. The Beijing-based… Read More
50 journalists lost lives in 2020, says global NGO
December 29, 2020, 9:28 pm
50 journalists lost lives in 2020, says global NGO ANKARA – At least 50 journalists were reported killed in 2020, more than one-third in the countries considered “at peace", according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) -- an international NGO that safeguards the right to freedom of… Read More
UN chief calls for making 2021 'year of healing'
December 29, 2020, 2:19 pm
ANKARA – Defining 2020 as the year of trials, tragedies and tears, the UN secretary-general appealed for cooperation in tackling global challenges in his year-end address Monday. "Together, let’s make peace among ourselves and with nature, tackle the climate crisis, stop the spread of Covid-19… Read More
World still not fully prepared to tackle outbreaks: WHO
December 29, 2020, 1:26 pm
GENEVA – A year after the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) became known worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that the world could face an even bigger pandemic in the future and that it is not "fully" prepared to deal with the existing outbreak, let alone the next… Read More
New virus variant: Japan bans entry of foreigners
December 28, 2020, 9:41 pm
ANKARA – Japan on Monday suspended new entries of non-resident foreign nationals from “most of the world” as a precaution against a new variant of the coronavirus. The country has already reported eight cases of the new strain of the virus which was first reported in the UK. Ban on entry… Read More
Spain, Sweden confirm cases of new Covid-19 strain
December 27, 2020, 12:13 pm
MADRID/ STOCKHOLM – Sweden and Spain on Saturday confirmed to have detected the first cases of a new strain of the deadly coronavirus. In a statement, the Swedish Health General Directorate stated the mutated novel coronavirus strain was detected in a woman who arrived from the UK in the… Read More
More than 655K new cases of Covid-19 worldwide: WHO
December 26, 2020, 2:24 pm
GENEVA – More than 655,000 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus have been recorded globally in the past day, pushing a total number of infections to 78.19 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin on Friday. Based on WHO updates, the coronavirus-related deaths… Read More
Biden receives first dose of coronavirus vaccine
December 22, 2020, 8:33 am
WASHINGTON – US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine during a televised event in his home state of Delaware. The 78-year-old former vice president was administered the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which requires a second dose weeks apart… Read More
Malaysia to sign AstraZeneca vaccine deal on Monday
December 20, 2020, 4:17 pm
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia will sign a deal on Monday to purchase the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine from British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Addressing media on Saturday, Malaysian Health Minister Adham Baba said the country reached an agreement with… Read More
UK: New coronavirus strain leads to fresh restrictions
December 20, 2020, 11:20 am
LONDON – With a surging new coronavirus strain, fresh restrictions will cancel Christmas mixing in London, the southeast and the east of England starting Sunday morning, Britain's prime minister announced. Boris Johnson told a Covid-19 press conference that those areas will be under the newly… Read More
Over 75M people diagnosed with Covid-19 worldwide: JHU
December 19, 2020, 1:53 pm
MOSCOW – Over 75 million people have been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) worldwide, the US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU) informed on Friday. According to the JHU, a total of 75,084,964 Covid-19 cases have been documented in the world. Meanwhile, some 1,665,008 people… Read More
BioNTech to provide 100M Covid-19 vaccines to China
December 16, 2020, 9:40 pm
ANKARA – BioNTech on Wednesday announced it will supply 100 million doses of its Covi-19 vaccine to China as part of an agreement with Chinese pharmaceutical company Shanghai Fosun. BioNTech will deliver initial supply of the mRNA-based vaccine from its production facilities in Germany, the… Read More
Russia develops algorithms predicting severity of Covid-19
December 16, 2020, 8:10 pm
MOSCOW – Scientists of Russia’s Federal Medical Biological Agency (FMBA) have developed algorithms capable of forecasting with high precision the severity of a course of the coronavirus infection, the agency’s press service told TASS. "An analysis of a wide range of clinical and diagnostic… Read More
World should return to multilateral agenda: OECD
December 15, 2020, 12:58 pm
ANKARA – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Monday said the world should return to a multilateral approach to global affairs for a strong, resilient, green, and inclusive recovery from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Commemorating the 60th anniversary of… Read More
Electoral College affirms Biden's victory
December 15, 2020, 12:58 pm
WASHINGTON – The US Electoral College on Monday affirmed President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory over outgoing President Donald Trump. Biden surpassed the necessary 270-vote threshold as electors met in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to cast their votes in line with the… Read More
Pandemic shows healthcare workers' heroism: WHO chief
December 15, 2020, 12:57 pm
GENEVA – The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is a reminder of health workers' heroic work, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday. "Health workers account for an estimated 3 percent of the world's population but account for 14 percent of all Covid-19… Read More
Over 300K dead from Covid-19 in US: Johns Hopkins
December 15, 2020, 9:26 am
WASHINGTON – More than 300,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus in the US as the nation struggles to cope with spiking numbers of infections, according to data released by Johns Hopkins University Monday. In all, the university recorded 300,267 deaths and more than 16.3 million… Read More
Global Covid-19 deaths surpass 1.6M: Johns Hopkins University
December 13, 2020, 11:22 am
NEW YORK – Global coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) deaths reached 1.6 million on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll rose to 1,600,807, with a total of more than 71.4 million cases worldwide as of 1:26… Read More
UN chief wants worldwide ‘state of climate emergency’
December 13, 2020, 11:16 am
UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called for a worldwide "state of climate emergency" to tackle global warming. Five years after the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world is still not going in the right direction, he told the Climate Ambition Summit… Read More
Rich countries hoarding Covid-19 vaccines: report
December 10, 2020, 2:55 pm
ANKARA – As wealthier countries have bought enough coronavirus vaccine doses to immunize their citizens three times over, poorer countries will face being unable to get vaccinated against the virus, an international vaccine watchdog said Wednesday. Nine out of 10 people in 67 poor countries risk… Read More
