The following is a summary of current health news.
The source of the sporadic, hidden covid infection remains in Beijing City-Official
The city of Beijing still has scattered and hidden sources of COVID-19 infection “at the community level” and the transmission routes have not yet been completely blocked, city disease and control officials said on Thursday. Pang Jinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said a total of 39 new locally infected covid cases had been found in the 24 hours ending Thursday at 3:00 pm (0700 GMT), adding that the current outbreak had increased to 544 cases since April 22. A news briefing.
Abortion pill provider SCOTUS sees a spike in U.S. interest after the leak
A supplier of prescription pills used to stop pregnancy at home saw a spike in interest among U.S. women this week, following news that the Supreme Court would probably grant a landmark 1973 abortion right across the country, the nonprofit Aid Access said Wednesday. The court confirmed that a draft opinion, which was published late Monday by the news site Politico, was indicative of a reversal of Rowe v. Wade's ruling. The court said it did not represent the judge's final decision at the end of June.
Covid-infected Beijing returns to work after Labor Day break
Beijing returned to work on Thursday after a five-day Labor Day holiday, excluding normal travel or family dinners across the country, as the Chinese capital sought to eradicate the cowardly outbreak of dozens of new cases every day. Long breaks are usually one of the most lucrative times of the year for restaurants, hotels and other businesses in China. This year, travelers spent 43% less than in 2021, data shows Thursday.
S.Africa's Aspen will reduce COVID vaccine capacity in 6 weeks without order – CEO
Aspen Pharmacare will switch about half of its COVID-19 vaccine production capacity to other products if demand does not rise within six weeks, its CEO has warned, as South African presidents and health officials call for more Africans to take shots. Aspen completed an agreement in March to package, sell and distribute Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine, which was seen as a game-changer for a less-vaccinated continent frustrated by lazy western handouts.
EU citizens can sue countries for polluted air, top court adviser says
An adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday that citizens of EU countries could sue their governments for financial compensation if their health was harmed by illegal air pollution. Following a string of European Union Luxembourg-based court rulings in recent years, about 10 EU countries, including France, Poland, Italy and Romania, have been found guilty of illegal air pollution.
Covid has killed nearly three times as many people as officially reported – WHO
According to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report, COVID-19 has killed nearly three times as many people as official data, according to the most comprehensive view of the true global toll of the epidemic so far. By the end of 2021, there have been 14.9 million additional deaths associated with COVID-19, the UN agency said on Thursday. The official count of deaths directly responsible for COVID-19 and reported to the WHO, from January 2020 to the end of December 2021, is just over 5.4 million.
Novavax file for approval of COVID-19 shots among teenagers in Britain
Novavax Inc said on Wednesday it had filed an application with the UK's drug regulator for approval of the COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents 12 years of age or older. Britain cleared two doses of the vaccine, nuvaxovid, for adult use in February amid an increase in cases driven by the coronavirus Omicron variant.
China will fight back by denying its cowardly response policy – state media
China will fight any comments or actions that distort, suspect or deny the country's Covid-19 response policy, state television reported Thursday, following a meeting of the country's highest decision-making body. After a meeting of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, state television reported that relaxation in control of covid would lead to large-scale infections, adding that China would increase research and defense against virus mutations, and avoid one-size-fits-all policies.
A third Ebola case has been confirmed in northwestern Congo, the WHO says
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that health authorities in the town of Mbandaka in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo had confirmed a third Ebola case. The 48-year-old man was the first high-risk contact with a patient who died on April 21, the WHO said on Twitter.
Omicron has been shown in serious, large-scale studies to be similar to previous Covid variants
The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is as serious internally as the previous variant, in contrast to previous studies suggesting that it is more contagious but less severe, according to a large study in the United States. “We found that the risk of hospitalization and death was almost identical between periods,” said four scientists who conducted the study, based on a record of 130,000 COVID-19 patients, referring to the last two years when there were varied effects around the world. .
(Including input from the agency.)
