Misinformation threatens to scuttle Papua New Guinea’s already faltering efforts to bring a severe Covid-19 outbreak under control, with a survey showing one-in-four health workers are reluctant to get vaccinated.

Europe could have herd immunity against Covid-19 by July, a European Union commissioner has said, as incoming jabs are expected to speed up the continent’s sluggish vaccine rollout.

France, Poland, Ukraine and parts of India introduced new lockdown measures yesterday to fight a surge in coronavirus infections, as the European Union threatened to block exports of AstraZeneca jabs in an escalating row over vaccines.

Several European countries resumed AstraZeneca vaccinations yesterday after an all-clear from EU regulators, as US President Joe Biden was set to meet his goal of having 100 million Americans inoculated weeks ahead of schedule.

India and Pakistan reported a big jump in new coronavirus infections yesterday, driven by a resurgence in cases in their richest states, as experts warned that large parts of Europe are at the start of a third coronavirus wave.

The EU’s drugs regulator said yesterday the AstraZeneca vaccine is “safe and effective” and not associated with a higher blood clot risk, after more than a dozen countries paused rollouts over health fears.

The World Health Organization said yesterday its experts were still reviewing safety data on the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine following concerns around blood clots but recommended that injection programmes continue.

President Abdul Hamid has said politics in Bangladesh is now moving in the opposite direction and some opportunists have made politics a profession.

The coronavirus pandemic may have indirectly contributed to around 228,000 additional child deaths in 2020, 11,000 maternal fatalities and 3.5 million unwanted pregnancies in South Asia, the UN said in a report yesterday.

India has conveyed to Bangladesh that any progress on the long-pending Teesta water-sharing issue will be possible only after the completion of the assembly elections in West Bengal.

New York, the US city most bereaved by the coronavirus, paid a moving tribute Sunday to its 30,258 dead, one year after the start of the pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that its advisory panel was reviewing reports related to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine but there was no evidence that any health incidents were caused by the shot.

Pabna-1 lawmaker Samsul Haque Tuku’s son Nafis Sams has allegedly grabbed vast government land beside the Jamuna in the district’s Bera upazila and forcibly removed landless people from the area.

Awami League yesterday nominated Nuruddin Chowdhury Nayan, the party’s Laxmipur district unit general secretary, to contest the Laxmipur-2 by-election.

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only had devastating effects on humans, it has also heavily impacted efforts to safeguard natural ecosystems and habitats around the globe, conservationists warned yesterday.

Covax will distribute 14.4 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to 31 more countries next week, the WHO said as it warned people not to waste, through complacency, the hope that vaccines bring.

Nine rights organisations on Friday urged the Bangladesh government to respect and protect people’s rights to freedom of expression and to end what they said was an escalating crackdown on human rights.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the existing problems between neighbouring countries need to be resolved through discussions.

Children around the world have lost more than a third of the standard global 190-day school year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Save the Children said yesterday.

Police yesterday filed a case against nearly 300 leaders and activists of BNP and its associated bodies over Sunday’s clashes in front of the Jaitya Press Club during a protest over the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed in custody.