Czech president hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19
Czech President Miloš Zeman was taken to the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday, his office said.
The 77-year-old leader had recently left the hospital for an unrelated chronic condition, Reuters reported.
The update came hours after the Czech government issued a 10 p.m. curfew for bars and clubs and banned Christmas markets amid one of the highest rates COVID-19 transmission globally, according to Reuters.
The new restrictions fall short of lockdowns issued in neighboring Slovakia and Austria, which have even higher rates of infection.
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is "operating in crisis care" due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV reported.
The hospital only had 13 beds available and was "really struggling," according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Ariz., is pictured in a Google Maps Street View image collected in 2011.
Google Maps Street View
The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
Nov 25, 2021, 8:40 AM EST
Germany's COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
Germany has become the latest country to surpass 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to official figures released Thursday.
The Western European country recorded 351 fatalities from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 100,119, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health agency.
In Europe, Germany is the fifth country to reach that grim milestone, after Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
A coffin labeled "SARS-CoV-2 positive - Corona" is cremated in a crematorium in Giesen, Germany, on Nov. 25, 2021. Germany's public health agency said it recorded 351 additional fatalities from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the country's death toll to 100,119. In Europe, Germany is the fifth country to surpass 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, after Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
Julian Stratenschulte/AP
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is among several countries on the continent that are grappling with a recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Last week, the German government imposed tougher restrictions to curb the new wave of infections, as hospital beds quickly fill up.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned citizens that their survival could hinge on their vaccination status.
"Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead," Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Monday. "That’s the reality."
Nov 25, 2021, 8:22 AM EST
Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
Just 27% of health workers in Africa, the world's second-largest continent, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization.
A health worker prepares a vaccination certificate after vaccinating someone with a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in Bimbo, near Bangui, Central African Republic, on Nov. 15, 2021. For the health authorities in the Central African Republic, the second-least developed country in the world, according to the United Nations, and in civil war since 2013, the challenge is as much to obtain COVID-19 vaccines as it is to convince people of its necessity, as elsewhere on the African continent.
Barbara Debout/AFP via Getty Images, File
The WHO said an analysis of data reported from 25 African nations found that, since March, only 1.3 million health workers are fully vaccinated. Just six of those countries have fully vaccinated 90% of their health workers, while nine countries have less than 40%. Meanwhile, a recent WHO global study of 22 mostly high-income nations found that over 80% of their health workers are fully vaccinated.
"The majority of Africa's health workers are still missing out on vaccines and remain dangerously exposed to severe COVID-19 infection," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's regional director for Africa, said in a statement Thursday. "Unless our doctors, nurses and other frontline workers get full protection we risk a blowback in the efforts to curb this disease. We must ensure our health facilities are safe working environments."
A woman receives an AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in Abuja, Nigeria, Nov 19, 2021.
