Colombia to drop mandatory face mask requirement in schools
Colombian schools can drop the mandatory use of face masks in enclosed spaces if they meet the criteria starting on May 16, in light of the favorable COVID-19 epidemiological situation over the past two weeks, the Ministry of Health announced Friday.
At an event in Cartagena, Gerson Bermont, director of Promotion and Prevention of the Health Ministry, said only schools with 70 percent of their students and teachers fully vaccinated and 40 percent having received a booster dose will be able to lift the mandate.
"We wanted to use this epidemiological period to analyze the figures, so if there had been any data that concerned us, we would have changed our decision. But we have had the same indicators for the past two weeks," the official explained.
Also read: Why India must come clean on Covid-19 deaths
He also pointed out that only 42.2 percent of children in Colombia are fully vaccinated.
Health Minister Fernando Ruiz applauded the measure at the same event, and called on families to speed up the vaccination process for children aged 3-11.
According to the latest Health Ministry data, 1,671 COVID-19 infections were reported over the last week, bringing the nationwide tally to 6,095,316 with 139,821 deaths.
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Several dead after shooting at shopping mall in Copenhagen; one arrested
The Royal House said on its website late on Sunday that an event in southern Denmark to commemorate the end of the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling race, hosted by the Danish Crown Prince and with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in attendance, had been cancelled.
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Texas clinics halt abortions after state high court ruling
The Friday night ruling stopped a three-day-old order by a Houston judge who said clinics could resume abortions up to six weeks into pregnancy. The following day, the American Civil Liberties Union said it doubted that any abortions were now being provided in a state of nearly 30 million people.
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Google to delete user location history on US abortion clinic visits
"If our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit," Jen Fitzpatrick, a senior vice president at Google, wrote in a blog post. "This change will take effect in the coming weeks."
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Two Indo-Canadian academics honoured with Order of Canada
Two Indo-Canadian academics, working on research to advance the betterment of mankind, have been honoured with one of the country's most prestigious awards, the Order of Canada. Their names were in the list published by the office of the governor-general of Canada Mary Simon. Both have been invested (as the bestowal of the awards is described) into the Order as a Member. They are professors Ajay Agrawal and Parminder Raina.
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Elon Musk's Twitter hiatus, in 2nd week now, generates curiosity
The world's richest person, Elon Musk, has not tweeted in about 10 days and it can't go unnoticed. The 51-year-old business tycoon has 100 million followers on the microblogging site, which he is planning to buy. Since April, he has been making headlines for the $44 billion deal and his comments and concerns about the presence of a large number of fake accounts on Twitter.