New Zealand will mostly lift its Covid-19 lockdown this week, with only the country’s infection epicenter Auckland to remain under strict stay-at-home orders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday About three million New Zealanders will no longer be under stay-at-home orders as of Tuesday overnight, and schools will reopen …

US-based Alaska Airlines said it will give a $200 reward to its employees who are vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a press release. “Throughout the pandemic, the safety of our employees and guests has always come first, and we are committed to protecting our fellow employees, guests, and loved ones …

Iraq registered 58 mortalities and 4,897 new cases, according to the daily COVID-19 report issued by the Ministry of Health today, Sunday. The report said that 7,706 patients have recovered from the virus in the past day. According to the Ministry’s stats, 1,917,292 citizens have tested positive for the virus …

On Saturday, Iraq recorded 4316 new cases of Covid-19 to bring its total to 1,912,235, the health ministry said. It reported 48 deaths to take its coronavirus death toll to 21,042. It also reported 7415 recoveries to bring its total to 1,764,001 (92.2%). The COVID-19 intensive care patients count to …

New blood donor research suggests that more than 80 percent of American adults now have COVID-19 antibodies due to vaccinations or infections. Published in the open-access medical journal JAMA on Thursday, the study estimated that more than 80 percent of Americans above 16 years of age had COVID-19 antibodies as …

Germany’s health minister has warned that Covid-19 is becoming the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as 90% of the country’s intensive care patients are those who refused a potentially life-saving shot. Speaking on Friday, Health Minister Jens Spahn said people who have not been vaccinated against the virus have a responsibility …

The European Commission and AstraZeneca said on Friday they had reached a settlement on delivering remaining COVID-19 vaccine doses by the British drugmaker and also ended pending litigation in Brussels. The settlement clears a major overhang for AstraZeneca, whose cheap and easily transportable vaccine has faced several setbacks, including the …

A new study of breakthrough Covid-19 infections finds that vaccines not only reduce the risk of severe disease and hospitalization, but can lower the odds of having long-term Covid-19 symptoms too. “We found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved …

India reported the biggest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in two months on Thursday, as the government worries about the virus spreading from the most-affected Kerala state, schools reopening, and the start of the festival season. Densely populated Kerala, on India’s southern tip, accounted for nearly 70 percent of the …

Some 10,000 health workers in Greece faced being suspended as a deadline to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ran out on Wednesday, a union said. From September 1, inoculations become mandatory for health workers, and those who don’t comply will not be allowed to work. Protests broke out on Wednesday morning …

North Korea has rejected roughly three million COVID-19 vaccine doses of China’s Sinovac Biotech, saying they should be sent to severely affected countries, the UNICEF said on Wednesday. The isolated country’s public ministry pointed to the limited global supply for vaccines and continuing virus surges elsewhere, according to the UN …

Iraq recorded 7,309 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Thursday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 48 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 6,595 patients achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Iraq, …

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”. “Mu”, known scientifically as B.1.621, was classified by WHO as a “variant of interest” on Monday. “The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” WHO …

Robert David Steele, a former CIA officer and a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist from the US, died after contracting the coronavirus, according to media reports. Steele died in a hospital after battling the virus for almost a month, The Independent said. He was hospitalized after having coronavirus symptoms, although he continued …

A zoo in the US state of Texas is set to vaccinate its animals against COVID-19, according to a press release. The San Antonio Zoo’s lions and tigers will be among the first animals to get their coronavirus vaccine doses in the coming weeks. “The first zoo animals to receive …

A potential shortage of medical-grade oxygen could hit parts of the US as COVID-19 cases continue to rise, according to local media reports citing US state health officials. A spike in COVID-19 cases, especially in Southern US states, has led to more demand for oxygen supply. Hospitals in the southern …

Iraq registered 66 mortalities and 6937 new cases, according to the daily COVID-19 report issued by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday. The report said that 7148 patients have recovered from the virus in the past day. According to the Ministry’s stats, 1888150 citizens have tested positive for the virus …

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday 70 percent of adults in the European Union were now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, reaching an end-of-summer target the bloc set for itself in January. “Today we reached an important milestone in our vaccination campaign. Seventy percent of adults in the …

Moderna Inc.‘s COVID-19 vaccine generated more than double the antibodies of a similar shot made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in research directly comparing immune responses to the inoculations. A study of almost 2,500 workers at a major Belgium hospital system found antibody levels among individuals who hadn’t been …

New Zealand reported its first recorded death linked to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said on Monday after a woman suffered a rare heart muscle inflammation side effect. The report comes as the country battles an outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus after nearly six months …