Singapore began a coronavirus vaccination campaign Wednesday with a nurse receiving the first jab, making it among the first Asian nations to roll out inoculations.The city-state, which has suffered a mild outbreak, became the first country in Asia to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier this month, and its programme kicked off with healthcare workers. Nurse Sarah Lim, 46, whose work includes screening suspected COVID-19 patients, was the first to be immunised, the health mini

The number of coronavirus cases in the Chinese city where the pathogen was first detected may have been 10 times higher than official figures suggest, according to a study by health authorities in Wuhan.About 4.4 percent of the city's 11 million residents had developed antibodies against the virus causing COVID-19 by April, the report by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said.That correlates to around 480,000 infections in Wuhan by April, nearly 10 times the official tally to

The European Union (EU) health agency ECDC said Tuesday that the risk was "high" that newly discovered virus variants causing COVID-19 could further strain healthcare and cause more deaths due to "increased transmissibility."The Stockholm-based European Centre Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a report that "although there is no information that infections with these strains are more severe," the fact that they would spread more easily means that the

Cambodian premier Hun Sen announced Tuesday that the kingdom had extracted its first drop of crude oil from its waters, a long-awaited milestone for one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations.The Gulf of Thailand boasts significant oil deposits, with Chevron first finding proven reserves off Cambodia in 2005.But production stalled as the government and the United States (US) giant failed to reach a revenue-sharing agreement, leading the firm to sell its stake to Singapore's KrisEnergy

A Chinese citizen journalist was jailed for four years Monday for her reporting from Wuhan as the COVID-19 outbreak began, her lawyer said, almost a year after details of an "unknown viral pneumonia" surfaced in the central China city.Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer who arrived at court in a wheelchair, was sentenced at a brief hearing in a Shanghai court for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" during her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak.H

Members of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's security team have received a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine, officials said Monday - the first people in the country to be officially immunised despite no regulatory approval.The Philippines is in talks with several pharmaceutical firms, including Britain's AstraZeneca, United States (US) company Pfizer and China's Sinopharm, to secure 60 million doses for a vaccination drive starting as early as the second quarter of 2021.No

European Union (EU) countries on Sunday embarked on a vaccination campaign to defeat the "nightmare" of COVID-19, with the first to be immunised expressing emotion after their jab and leaders hailing a milestone in the fight against the pandemic.The vaccine is a glimmer of hope for a continent yearning for a return to normal from a pandemic that has killed 1.76 million people worldwide since emerging in China late last year and caused at least 80 million confirmed cases, according t

China's ruling Communist Party leaders have congratulated themselves on their "extremely extraordinary" success in handling the COVID-19 outbreak domestically, ahead of a World Health Organization (WHO) probe into the disease's origins.China faced a barrage of criticism at home and abroad over its initial handling of the virus, which emerged in the central city of Wuhan last December.China's Politburo, the top decision-making body of the Communist Party, said late Fri

The United Kingdom (UK) is set for a new chapter Friday after securing a hard-fought post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union (EU) as EU envoys gave the accord, reached only after months of tortuous negotiations, a sober welcome."There was no great joy because a divorce is not really good news," one EU diplomat said. Member state envoys to the EU were "sober enough" in their response, the diplomat said, and the text – all 1,200 pages and in English – "w

The sacrifices made to protect people during the coronavirus pandemic must not be squandered over the festive period, the World Health Organization's (WHO) chief said in a Christmas message.Millions were making "heart-wrenching sacrifices" by staying away from loved ones on Christmas Day, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video clip posted to Twitter late Thursday, while others will have a missing face at the family table.He said vaccines, now beginning to be deployed in cou