CHICAGO: New government rules that halve the isolation period for asymptomatic coronavirus infections lack safeguards that could result in even more infections as the United States faces a record surge driven by the Omicron variant, disease experts said. This week the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the […]
Healthcare
Several US states have reported increases of about 50% in pediatric admissions for Covid-19 in December. New York City has experienced the most dramatic rise, with 68 children hospitalized last week, a fourfold jump from two weeks earlier. The latest coronavirus surge sweeping the United States, much of it driven […]
The first known case in the United States identified on Dec 1, in a fully vaccinated person who had traveled to South Africa. The Omicron variant was estimated to be 58.6% of the coronavirus variants circulating in the United States as of Dec 25, according to the data from the […]
BEIJING: A lockdown of 13 million people in the Chinese city of Xian entered its seventh day today, with many unable to leave their homes and virtually dependent on deliveries of necessities as new Covid-19 infections persisted. Xian reported 151 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for yesterday, or nearly […]
It’s not a moment too soon for the French government, which is facing the highest recorded infection rates since the pandemic began but trying to avoid a new lockdown. French schoolchildren clung nervously to their parents as they entered a vast vaccine center west of Paris on Wednesday, then walked […]
TOKYO: Japan’s government is not considering an immediate change to current Covid-19 restrictions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said today, a day after community transmission of the Omicron variant was discovered in the country. The government confirmed yesterday that a family of three based in the western city of Osaka […]
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court agreed yesterday to take up disputes over the Biden administration’s nationwide vaccine-or-testing Covid-19 mandate for large businesses and a separate vaccine requirement for healthcare workers. The brief court order said the court will hear oral arguments on January 7 in the two cases, with rulings […]
The UK Health Security Agency said that two doses of vaccines provide “much lower levels” of protection against symptomatic infection compared to the currently dominant Delta variant of Covid-19. A third booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine provides 70-75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection from the Omicron variant, the UK […]
MOSCOW : Russia’s health ministry will register a new Sputnik M vaccine for use for children aged 12-17 later today, with shots expected to be available at the end of December, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova told a government meeting. Russia has been grappling with a surge in coronavirus infections […]
GENEVA : As children and adolescents are at lower risk of severe Covid-19 disease, countries should prioritise sharing vaccine doses with the Covax programme to bring urgently needed supplies to poorer countries, the World Health Organisation said today. Some rare cases of heart inflammation called myocarditis have been reported in […]