Health

Lebanon reintroduces some COVID-19 prevention measures, including night-time curfew

Lebanon will impose a night-time curfew starting Dec. 17 on non-vaccinated people for three weeks and make full vaccination mandatory for all workers in several sectors due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus, the COVID-19 committee said on Wednesday.

Vaccination will be mandatory for all civil servants and workers in the health, education, tourism and public transport sectors as of Jan. 10, the committee said.

Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.

A new coronavirus variant found in South Africa and detected in several countries was determined as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization last week and has led to strengthening COVID-19-related restrictions around the world.

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Generation of children ‘at stake’ in Lebanon crisis: UNICEF

‘People will be harmed’ as Lebanon’s cash-strapped government cuts medicine subsidies

Health

WHO urges China to be ‘transparent’ in sharing COVID-19 data

The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to call for China to be ‘transparent’ in sharing COVID-19 data in efforts to determine the disease’s origins, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated on Friday in Geneva.

Health

Burundi announces first polio outbreak in more than 30 years

Health authorities in Burundi on Friday said that they had detected eight samples of polio, officially declaring the landlocked African nation’s first outbreak in more than 30 years.

Health

Cocaine trafficking surges following COVID-19-related slowdown

Routed through new hubs and expanded criminal networks, cocaine trafficking has made a dramatic comeback following an initial slowdown caused by the emergence of COVID-19, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Thursday in a hard-hitting new report.