Page 89 - Heca News Today

Two linked cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in Britain connected to travel to southern Africa, health minister Sajid Javid said on Saturday.

The new Omicron coronavirus variant - identified first in South Africa, but also detected in Europe and Asia - is raising concern worldwide given the number of mutations, which might help it spread or even evade antibodies from prior infection or vaccination.

Switzerland on Saturday widened quarantine requirements to stem the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant to travellers arriving from Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Egypt and Malawi, where cases have been detected, its health ministry said.

Drugmakers Pfizer Inc and MSD, known as Merck & Co Inc in North America, have agreed to give licenses to firms in Vietnam to produce COVID-19 treatment pills, Vietnam's ministry of health said on Friday.

Thailand on Tuesday ordered an additional 30 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's , COVID-19 vaccine, government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said, with delivery expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

President Joko Widodo said on Thursday that Indonesia will impose emergency measures until July 20 to contain an exponential spike in coronavirus cases that has strained the medical system.

Germany on Friday reported a new record of more than 76,000 COVID-19 infections in a day as its air force got ready for the first time in the pandemic to fly severely ill patients to other parts of the country to unburden struggling hospitals.

Securities analysts revised their ratings and price targets on several European companies, including Kingfisher, Medios and Remy Cointreau, on Friday.

Britain said on Friday that a newly identified coronavirus variant spreading in South Africa was considered by scientists to be the most significant one yet found and so it needed to ascertain whether or not it made vaccines ineffective.

Germany will declare South Africa a virus variant area on Friday after the detection of a new COVID-19 variant there, a health ministry source said.