The EU's medicines watchdog said Wednesday two jabs by approved vaccine makers were "vital" to provide maximum protection against the highly-infectious coronavirus Delta variant, urging countries to speed up their inoculation drives.

"Preliminary evidence suggests that both doses of a two-dose Covid-19 vaccine... are needed to provide adequate protection against the Delta variant," the European Medicines Agency said, adding "adherence to the recommended vaccination course is vital to benefit from the highest level of protection."

Three quarters of females in Lebanon are struggling to afford period supplies amid a deep economic crisis, forcing many to resort to impractical or unsafe alternatives, non-government groups said Wednesday.

"76.5 percent of women and girls living in Lebanon experienced more difficulty in accessing products because of the sharp rise in prices during the past year," the groups Fe-Male and Plan International found in a survey.

Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has warned he will hold the Iraqi government responsible if it fails to action over a devastating fire that killed at least 60 people in a Covid isolation unit.

When Covid-19 hit Tunisia hard last September, the germ of an idea was born. Too many patients were overwhelming the system, so why not take medical care directly to them?

Grief and anger gripped the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah after fire swept through a Covid isolation unit killing 64 people and wounding dozens more.

The devastating Monday evening blaze in the city's Al-Hussein Hospital, which medics said was fuelled by the explosion of oxygen canisters, was the second such fire in Iraq in three months. 

War-scarred Iraq is seeing thousands of new Covid cases a day but few people wear face masks and even fewer are vaccinated, sparking fears of an "epidemiological catastrophe".

Healthcare workers say they are battling not just the pandemic but also a widespread skepticism over vaccines, borne of misinformation and public mistrust in the state.

The Covid pandemic caused an estimated 18 percent increase in the number of people facing hunger, a UN report released on Monday found, dealing a massive setback to efforts to ensure everyone has access to food. 

The world was already off track to achieve its goal of eradicating hunger by 2030, but the report warned that Covid had now sent it back in the wrong direction.

Israel on Monday began administering a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to patients with compromised immune systems, as cases in the country rise, the health ministry said.  

The Health Ministry said Sunday it will investigate the death of a baby girl whose family said she was not able to access proper hospital treatment amid Lebanon's severe medical shortages.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set Monday to confirm "Freedom Day" next week with the lifting of most pandemic curbs in England, but will urge caution with experts worried the government is moving too fast.