Feb 28th, 2023 - AMMAN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition-run civil defence said on Tuesday 22 people had died from an outbreak of cholera in the northwestern region in the aftermath of the devastating quake that hit Turkey and Syria. The Western-backed main rescuer in the border region that has been hardest hit within Syria, which cited medical bodies, said there were also another 568 cases of infection...

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 31st, 2023 - LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - China’s manufacturing activity has started to increase as the coronavirus epidemic wanes, after the country abandoned its suppression strategy that severely disrupted the economy with a series of city lockdowns. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.1 (between the 26th and 34th percentiles for all months since 2011) in January from 47.0 (1st percenti...

Jan 11th, 2023 - BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese state media defended on Wednesday the retaliatory measures against South Korea and Japan over their COVID-19 travel curbs as “reasonable”, while Chinese tourists decried Seoul’s “insulting” treatment on social media. China re-opened its borders on Sunday after three years of isolation under the world’s strictest regime of COVID restrictions, which Beijing abruptly beg...

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...

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...

Jul 8th, 2022 - (Reuters) - More than 550.3 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 6,769,980 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open tmsnrt.rs/2FThSv7 in an exter...

Apr 27th, 2022 - (Reuters) -Following the record surge in COVID-19 cases during the Omicron-driven wave, some 58% of the U.S. population overall and more than 75% of younger children have been infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to a U.S. nationwide blood survey released on Tuesday. The study issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention marks the first...

Apr 26th, 2022 - BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) - The European Commission is set to say the EU has entered a new post-emergency phase of the pandemic in which testing should be targeted and monitoring of COVID-19 cases should be similar to sample-based flu surveillance, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. The shift comes amid a gradual drop of cases and a fall in the number of deaths linked to COVID-19...

Apr 19th, 2022 - April 19 (Reuters) - The BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is estimated to make up 74.4% of the coronavirus variants in the United States as of April 16, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday. Last week, the agency said the sub variant made up 86% of U.S. COVID-19 cases as of April 9. (Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

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)

Apr 19th, 2022 - (Reuters) - Moderna Inc on Tuesday said a COVID-19 booster designed to target the Beta variant as well as the original coronavirus generated a better immune response against a number of virus variants including Omicron. Moderna said the results were a good sign for the company’s plans for future shots targeting two COVID-19 variants. Dr. Jacqueline Miller, a top Moderna scientist, said the comp...

Apr 19th, 2022 - (Reuters) - Worldwide demand for Pfizer Inc’s oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid has been unexpectedly light due to complicated eligibility requirements, reduced testing, and potential for drug interactions, a Reuters review of data and interviews with experts has found. Demand also has been hampered by the perception that Omicron infections are not that severe. Paxlovid was expected to...

Apr 18th, 2022 - April 18 (Reuters) - The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Omicron infection induces limited immune response Unvaccinated people infected with the Omicron variant are unlikely to develop immune responses that will protect them against other vari...

Apr 12th, 2022 - April 12 (Reuters) - Ferrero said on Tuesday it was voluntarily recalling some of its Kinder chocolates in the United States, saying the products may be contaminated with Salmonella Typhimurium. There are no reports of illness in the United States to date from the chocolates, Ferrero added. (Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

Apr 12th, 2022 - April 12 (Reuters) - The BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is estimated to make up 85.9% of the coronavirus variants in the United States as of April 9, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday. A resurgence in COVID-19 cases in parts of Asia and Europe has raised concerns that another wave could follow in the United States, but the country’s health experts believe it...

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 29th, 2022 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will weigh the benefits of authorizing a round of boosters of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to a broader population in the fall, a top official said on Tuesday. The agency authorized on Tuesday a second booster dose of either vaccine for older and immunocompromised people. “It would not be surprising if there ...