Tag: novel coronaviruses

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—As Sri Lanka’s foreign-exchange reserves began to dwindle under a mountain of debt early in the Covid-19 pandemic, some officials argued it was time to ask for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, a politically fraught move that traditionally comes with painful austerity measures.But China, Sri ...

Sri Lanka is back in the news—for all the wrong reasons. On Monday besieged Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned after weeks of protests, amid a cratering economy and violent clashes between government supporters and antigovernment protesters in the capital, Colombo.At least eight people have died in the violence, and ...

KAMPALA, Uganda—For two years, lockdowns and other efforts to stem the coronavirus pandemic have disrupted vaccinations against measles and other highly infectious childhood diseases in developing countries.Now, as underfunded healthcare systems shift to immunizing adults against Covid-19, 2022 risks seeing further setbacks in the fight against some of the ...

HONG KONG—Hong Kong is banning passenger flights from eight countries, including the U.S., for two weeks, closing bars and banning evening dine-in after the city’s first community Omicron infections punctured one of the world’s strictest and most effective border controls. Chief Executive Carrie Lam unveiled some of the toughest ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping sealed himself behind some of the world’s tightest border controls when Covid-19 hit, and even as his international image sags he isn’t expected to resume his globe-trotting diplomacy soon.As many other heads of state have stepped out of their protective bubbles and begun hitting the ...

Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani scientist who shared nuclear-weapons technology and know-how with countries the U.S. regards as rogue states after helping his country build its first atomic bomb, died Sunday. He was 85. At home, Dr. Khan is widely seen as a hero for making Pakistan the only ...

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Paola Hernández, an unemployed single mother of three who lives in a hillside shanty here, doesn’t have a working internet connection for her children’s online classes or the money to print out homework assignments.The result is that for 15 months—since the school nearby closed because of the pandemic—her kids ...

KABUL—The Biden administration plans to deliver three million doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine next week to Afghanistan, which is battling its deadliest wave of the pandemic amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation.The White House is offering the single-dose vaccines ahead of President Biden’s Friday meeting with ...

Public-health officials and leaders in developing-world countries are expected to press the Group of Seven countries to commit to large donations of Covid-19 vaccines and billions in financing at a summit later this week, saying the developing world needs more help to emerge from the worst of the pandemic.High vaccination rates are ...

Countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have petitioned the U.S. for Covid-19 vaccines as the Biden administration prepares to share 80 million doses, which foreign governments say they need to slow the spread of the coronavirus.Dozens of countries have sought a chunk of the doses the ...