Channels Television
Updated December 21, 2020
This picture taken on April 24, 2020 shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva next to their headquarters, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus.
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The new coronavirus variant discovered in Britain with a higher transmission rate is not yet out of control and can be contained using existing measures, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
“We have had a much higher (contamination rate) at different points in this pandemic and we’ve got it under control,” WHO’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan told a press conference.
“So this situation is not in that sense out of control. But it cannot be left to its own devices.”
Channels Television
Updated December 21, 2020
An illustration picture shows vials with Covid-19 Vaccine stickers attached, with the logo of US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, on November 17, 2020.
JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
The EU finally gave the green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, paving the way for the first inoculations to start across 27 countries just days after Christmas.
The decision was rushed through under pressure from European governments after Britain and the United States authorised the jab weeks earlier.
The European Medicines Agency recommended the vaccine developed by US pharma giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech for use, and the European Commission formally approved it hours later.
Channels Television
Updated December 21, 2020
Passengers line up at a Covid-19 test centre at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on December 19, 2020, amid the ongoing novel coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. – According to press reports, thousands of passengers are expected to travel through the airport in Frankfurt during pre-Christmas days. (Photo by Armando BABANI / AFP)
“Please help us leave!” says a woman in a video shared online, one of dozens of passengers from Britain stranded in German airports on Sunday night.
Countries around the world including Germany, France and Italy have begun banning flights and travellers from the UK after a new strain of coronavirus was detected there.