Protests simmered in Shanghai early on Sunday, as residents in several Chinese cities, many of them angered by a deadly fire in the country’s far west, pushed back against heavy COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic. www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-building-fire-that-killed-10-sparks-questions-on-zero-covid-policy-3556802 A fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of […]
Government policy
China doubles down on “zero-COVID” strategy
Chinese President Xi Jinping touted his country’s “zero-COVID” strategy at the just concluded Communist Party’s National Congress, dashing any hopes that China’s rigid regime of quarantines, mass testing, and lockdowns may soon come to an end. www.science.org/content/article/news-glance-climate-justice-ethical-mask-wearers-and-cdc-under-trump The strategy has crimped the economy, and public health experts say the obstacles to lifting it are now […]
US extends COVID-19 pandemic status
The Biden administration extended the Covid-19 pandemic’s status as a public health emergency for another 90 days, preserving measures such as expanded Medicaid and higher payments to hospitals. The decision follows comments President Joe Biden made in September describing the pandemic as over. Some Republican lawmakers said afterward that the administration should wind down its […]
Countries across Asia open borders post-COVID
After two-and-a-half years of tight pandemic controls, some of Asia’s last holdouts are opening their borders, as they move to bolster their economies and play catch-up with a world that has largely learned to live with COVID. Hong Kong said on Friday that it would abandon mandatory hotel quarantine for people coming to the city starting next week, […]
Could cancer become a notifiable disease?
India’s current cancer figures are currently based on estimates, with just a minority of cases of the condition actually recorded in cause of death reports. The true burden may be far higher than current figures suggest. The parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare submitted a report entitled “Cancer Care Plan and Management: […]
TB Free India programme launched
India’s President Droupadi Murmu on Friday launched the Prime Minister’s TB Free India programme and urged Indians to work collectively towards elimination of the disease. www.livemint.com/news/india/president-murmu-launches-tb-elimination-program-urges-indians-to-help-patients-11662719403399.html President Murmu also launched the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative to ensure additional diagnostic, nutritional, and vocational support to those undergoing TB treatment, and encouraged people to come forward as donors […]
China enforces more lockdowns as cases of COVID-19 rise
China has restricted domestic travel as COVID outbreaks grow. China is stepping up its COVID defences as a key Communist Party meeting looms, restricting internal travel further as swathes of the country remain under tight lockdowns. The National Health Commission on Thursday announced a raft of measures that will be in place until the end […]
Updated COVID-19 boosters get FDA emergency use authorisation; The latest health stories from around the world
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated booster vaccines, which target the BA.4/BA.5 coronavirus subvariants. www.science.org/content/article/omicron-booster-shots-are-coming-lots-questions? For the first time since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines look set to receive an update. Boosters reformulated to protect against the Omicron variant, which has […]
The UK becomes the first country to approve a dual-strain COVID-19 booster; The latest health stories from around the world
Last week the United Kingdom became the first country to approve an updated COVID-19 booster directed at two different strains of the coronavirus. The “bivalent” booster, made by Moderna, will have the same dose of messenger RNA as the company’s prior boosters but will target both the original version of the coronavirus and the first […]
Smallpox vaccine used to combat monkeypox; The latest health stories from around the world
When monkeypox suddenly started spreading globally in May, the world was fortunate in one respect: A vaccine was available. MVA, originally developed by Bavarian Nordic as a smallpox vaccine, was already licensed for monkeypox in Canada and the United States (US). European Union (EU) regulators have since followed suit. Vaccine supplies are limited, and no […]