Costa Rican children aged five and up must get COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a new health ministry mandate, making the Central American country one of the first to adopt such a requirement for kids.
The move would add COVID-19 to a list of other infectious diseases in which vaccines for children have for years been required, including for polio and smallpox.
"Our basic vaccination scheme has made it possible to subdue many of the viruses that cause suffering and health consequences and even fatalities in the underage population," Health Minister Daniel Salas said in a statement issued on Friday, announcing the addition of COVID-19 to the scheme.
Coronavirus infection rates in Costa Rica have been trending down recently, with confirmed COVID-19 deaths totaling more than 7,000, according to official data, out of a population of around 5.1 million.
So far, nearly three-quarters of the country's 12 to 19-year-olds have received at least one vaccine dose, while about 54 per cent of all Costa Ricans have been fully vaccinated.
Israel will allow Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt to open on Wednesday and increase the amount of humanitarian aid coming into the enclave, public broadcaster Kan reported, after Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages.
Fresh fighting broke out on Wednesday along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and troops to shatter a fragile peace after weekend clashes that killed dozens.
Toxic gas and a locked door that barred access to a roof were responsible for most of the deaths in a devastating fire in a Bangladesh garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse, a fire official said on Wednesday.
Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for the presidency, has died at the age of 80, sources close to him said on Wednesday.