Al-thawra News

    MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has decided to temporarily ban the entry of foreigners and limit the entry of returning Filipinos at Manila’s international airport to 1,500 daily as it struggles to contain an alarming surge in coronavirus infections. A government body dealing with the pandemic said the monthlong travel restrictions would start Saturday and aim to prevent the spread into the country of coronavirus strains from other countries which are believed to be more contagious. Among those to be allowed limited entry are homebound Filipino workers. Philippine Airlines said it would announce some flight cancellations to comply with the temporary restriction. Manila and other cities in the capital region reimposed 7-hour night curfews for two weeks starting Monday and locked down dozens of villages amid the surge in infections which some officials attributed to public complacency and critics blamed on the failure of the government’s response to...

  Pfizer's vaccine is successful in preventing not only symptomatic COVID-19, but also asymptomatic disease according to new real-world data, Israel's Ministry of Health and Pfizer/BioNTech announced Thursday. As concerning COVID variants spread and the companies behind the three authorized vaccines hurry to test their shots against them, there's other promising news from Thursday's announcement: this latest analysis was performed when more than 80% of Israel's COVID-19 cases were from the UK variant B.1.1.7 -- demonstrating that the Pfizer vaccine is equally effective against this variant, which is known to be more contagious, and possibly even more deadly, Israel's Ministry of Health reported.  The announcement included a key statistic related to an alarming way the virus can spread -- via people who are asymptomatic, who may not even know they're contagious. The Pfizer vaccine is so far 94% effective at preventing this type of infection, Israel's Mini...

  Health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic are warning that reopening too soon is a "recipe for disaster" after a string of states dropped mask mandates and rolled back COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, Texas and Mississippi dropped mask mandates, sparking concern that it could lead to another surge in cases -- but experts in states that already rescinded face-covering requirements said infections still may decline if the public stays vigilant. Dr. Natasha Kathuria, an emergency room doctor and global health specialist from Austin, Texas, said returning to normal life will endanger nurses, front-line workers and the elderly. "We fear that opening our economy to 100%, just before spring break, is a recipe for disaster," she said, noting that young people across the country flock to the South to enjoy the warm weather in March. She said without a mask requirement front-line workers are "at exceptional risk for potential confrontation with patients w...

  00:03 03:21 Copy and paste to share this video Copy and paste to embed this video 1:06 PARIS — France is set to announce new coronavirus restrictions on Thursday, including a potential lockdown in the Paris region and in the north of the country, as the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units spikes. “We will make the decisions we need to make,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday while visiting the hospital of Poissy and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris. He added measures will be “pragmatic, proportionated and targeted.” Prime Minister Jean Castex is scheduled to detail new restrictions on Thursday. The virus is rapidly spreading in the Paris region, where the rate of infection has reached over 420 per 100,000 inhabitants and ICUs are closed to saturation. France's nationwide infection rate is about 250 per 100,000. As during previous infection peaks, health authorities have organized transfers of critically ill patients to less-affected regions to...

  1:14 Optimism is spreading in the U.S. as COVID-19 deaths plummet and states ease restrictions and open vaccinations to younger adults. But across Europe, dread is setting in with another wave of infections that is closing schools and cafes and bringing new lockdowns. The pandemic's diverging paths on the two continents can be linked in part to the much more successful vaccine rollout in the U.S. and the spread of more contagious variants in Europe. Health experts in the U.S., though, say what’s happening in Europe should serve as a warning against ignoring social distancing or dropping other safeguards too early. “Each of these countries has had nadirs like we are having now, and each took an upward trend after they disregarded known mitigation strategies,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They simply took their eye off the ball.” The result has been a sharp spike in new infections and hospitalizations in several ...