Feb 14th, 2023 - BEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) - China needs to stabilise its grain area and raise corn yields, agriculture minister Tang Renjian told a news briefing on Tuesday, following the launch of the country’s key annual rural policy document. The policy focuses on ensuring food security and building a “strong agricultural country”, Tang said. (Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Feb 7th, 2023 - MADRID, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A Spanish businessman has admitted in court that he covered up the dangers of his company’s star product, which led to nearly 1,900 workers contracting the occupational lung disease silicosis, court documents showed on Tuesday. Francisco Martinez, who owns Spain’s leading kitchen worktop manufacturer Cosentino, accepted a six-month suspended prison sentence for five co...

Jan 31st, 2023 - (Adds details of the outbreak, background) PARIS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Bolivia has reported two outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, for the first time, as the virus spreads in Latin America after wiping out tens of millions of birds in Europe and the United States. The spread of the highly contagious virus is a concern for governments and the poultry indus...

Jan 10th, 2023 - HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products reported a net loss in 2022, hurt by waning demand for COVID-19 vaccine shots. The decline from a net profit of 1.3 billion yuan ($191.71 million) in 2021 to net losses of up to 150 million yuan was mainly driven by weaker COVID vaccine demand, it said in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange. ($1 = 6.7810 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Jan 10th, 2023 - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to cull more than 10 million chickens because of the spread of bird flu, a record for the peak infection season that runs from October to May, an agriculture ministry official said on Tuesday. With the latest avian flu case detected at a poultry farm in Miyazaki in southwestern Japan on Tuesday, the total number of chickens to be culled in the 2022 season reached 1...

Dec 20th, 2022 - BEIJING (Reuters) - Anhui Biochem Pharmaceutical’s self-developed COVID-19 treatment medicine has passed the clinical trial stages and professional reviews, and is waiting for regulatory approval to enter the market, said a statement released by China’s eastern Hefei government in Anhui province on Tuesday. The drug is targeted at adult patients with mild to moderate COVID symptoms, the Hefei g...

Nov 1st, 2022 - BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Apple iPhone maker Foxconn said on Tuesday that daily bonuses for some of its staff at its Zhengzhou plant in central China had been raised to 400 yuan ($54.75) from 100 yuan.

Oct 18th, 2022 - CHICAGO (Reuters) - A near-record number of U.S. chickens and turkeys have died in this year’s outbreak of avian flu, as a different form of the virus than farmers battled before has infected more wild birds that then transmit the disease, officials said. More than 47 million birds have died due to infections and cullings. This has spurred export bans, lowered egg and turkey production, and con...

Apr 26th, 2022 - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will let all children aged over 12 be registered for COVID-19 vaccination from Thursday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said. Lopez-Gatell, the country’s coronavirus czar, was speaking at a regular government news conference on Tuesday.

Apr 19th, 2022 - SHANGHAI, April 19 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc resumed production at its Shanghai plant on Tuesday following a three-week stoppage, Chinese local media reported. 8,000 employees at the plant reported to work, the report said. (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom)

Mar 29th, 2022 - PARIS (Reuters) - France on Tuesday reported 217,480 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, a level unseen since early February. 1,538 people are currently in intensive care units, France’s health ministry said, 5 more than on Monday.

Mar 15th, 2022 - March 15 (Reuters) - * PFIZER, BIONTECH TO SEEK AUTHORIZATION OF SECOND CORONAVIRUS BOOSTER SHOT FOR PEOPLE 65 AND OLDER - WAPO Further company coverage:

Mar 1st, 2022 - JAKARTA, March 1 (Reuters) - Indonesia has extended the shelf life of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to nine months, as nearly six million doses it received in donations were in danger of expiring, a health ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday. The decision underscores challenges many developing countries face in their slow inoculation campaigns, as vaccines donated by wealthy countrie...

Mar 1st, 2022 - HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong health authorities reported 32,597 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and a record 117 deaths in the past 24 hours, as the global financial hub prepared for mandatory testing and a lockdown.

Feb 15th, 2022 - BEIJING (Reuters) - A major Chinese high-tech industry centre limited some highway access on Tuesday after detecting new COVID-19 cases, while epidemic control measures, including mass testing, affected the local operations of overseas firms such as Robert Bosch GmbH. The city of Suzhou - a trading, commercial and industrial hub in the eastern province of Jiangsu - reported eight domestically t...

Feb 14th, 2022 - Feb 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corporation said on Monday its wafer fab subsidiary in Suzhou, China, has temporarily suspended production over a suspected COVID-19 infection. The company said in a statement the suspension will have no material impact on its finances. (Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Feb 1st, 2022 - Feb 1 (Reuters) - Spotify’s plan to add a content advisory to any discussion of COVID-19 on its platform is a positive step, but tech platforms should do more to prevent the spread of misinformation on the coronavirus, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday.

Feb 1st, 2022 - WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc on Tuesday began submitting data to federal regulators as part of the process to win U.S. approval of its COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5, Bloomberg reported. “It’ll be a rolling submission that may ultimately include data to support giving a third dose,” Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove tweeted. Pfizer and partner BioNTech’s vaccine is already...

Jan 24th, 2022 - CAIRO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Egypt approved Merck & Co’s COVID-19 pill Molnupiravir for emergency use, the country’s drug authority said on Monday, adding that the pill would be locally produced. The drug will initially be manufactured by five local companies, to be joined later by several other firms, the Egyptian Drug Authority said in a statement. (Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad Writing by Ahmad E...

Jan 18th, 2022 - Jan 18 (Reuters) - A smartphone app that is mandatory for all attendees at the Beijing Winter Olympics next month contains security flaws that makes it vulnerable to privacy breaches and hackers, according to a report bit.ly/33mqWVC released by Canadian researchers on Tuesday. The MY2022 app was built by the Beijing Organising Committee mainly to track and share COVID-19-related medical informa...