Germany prepares entry bans for travellers from the UK, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to restrict unfold of variants.
- Germany is making ready entry bans for travellers from the UK, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to restrict the unfold of the extra contagious variants of the coronavirus.
- The World Well being Group (WHO) mentioned one-third of the African continent might be vaccinated by the tip of 2021.
- The US financial system shrunk by 3.5 p.c final yr, the sharpest it has fallen since 1946, in line with official information.
- Almost 101 million folks world wide have been identified with COVID-19 and greater than 2.17 million have died, in line with information from the Johns Hopkins College. Greater than 55.7 million sufferers have recovered.
That is Usaid Siddiqui in Toronto. Listed here are the newest updates for Thursday, January 28:
Germany to ban sure travellers amid fears of virus variants
Germany is making ready entry bans for travellers from the UK, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to restrict the unfold of the extra contagious variants of the coronavirus raging in these international locations, inside minister Horst Seehofer mentioned on Thursday.
“To guard our inhabitants, there needs to be no entry from areas the place these variants of the virus are rampant,” he mentioned on the fringes of a digital assembly along with his EU counterparts.
One-third of Africa might be vaccinated this yr: WHO
Africa can anticipate to see at the least 30 p.c of its inhabitants immunised in opposition to COVID-19 by the tip of 2021, the WHO mentioned on Thursday, as vaccines start trickling into the continent.
It’s estimated Africa will want 1.5 billion vaccine doses to immunise 60 p.c of its 1.3 billion inhabitants, the brink for herd immunity in opposition to COVID-19.
US financial system in 2020 has worst yr since 1946
The US financial system has shrunk by 3.5 p.c because the COVID-19 pandemic shut down massive sectors of enterprise and each day life, in line with authorities information launched.
It was the largest contraction of the world’s largest financial system since 1946, the Commerce Division mentioned.