Health News

French drugmaker Sanofi on Tuesday said it would invest 610 million euros ($679.4 million) at two of its French sites to turn them into a hub dedicated to research, development and production of vaccines.

Sanofi's Chief Executive Paul Hudson on Tuesday sought to set aside tensions with the French government and said the drugmaker was committed to helping France build up its healthcare independence.

President Emmanuel Macron said the French government would launch a new initiative this week to repatriate production of some pharmaceutical products to France, pledging to make 200 million euros available to fund production capacity.

It wasn’t easy to build a COVID-19 antibody test during Illinois’ statewide lockdown.

U.S. health insurers may balk at covering tests that look for coronavirus antibodies in some cases, arguing that employers or the government should foot a bill expected to run into billions of dollars.

The Chinese capital banned high-risk people from leaving and curbed public transport on Tuesday to stop the spread of the most serious coronavirus flare-up since February, which has stoked fears of a second wave of infections.

Singapore scientists testing a COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. firm Arcturus Therapeutics plan to start human trials in August after promising initial responses in mice.

While the origin of a spike in coronavirus infections linked to a big wholesale food market in China's capital is not known, officials have warned against eating raw salmon after the virus was discovered on chopping boards used for imported salmon.

Siemens is maintaining its investment in research and development despite the economic slowdown and reduced energy consumption caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, managing board member Cedrik Neike said on Tuesday.

German demand for potatoes and potato products has collapsed during the coronavirus crisis, meaning the vegetable is being used as animal feed or for making biogas instead, an industry body said on Tuesday.

It took just eight days for New Zealand to lose its COVID-free status when two women who had been given permission to leave quarantine early after arriving from abroad tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said on Tuesday.

European Union member states have agreed technical standards for interoperability between smartphone apps that track the risk of coronavirus infections, a step that could help revive travel and tourism, the bloc's Commission said on Tuesday.

Germany sought to mobilize the public on Tuesday to download a new smartphone app that seeks to help break the chain of coronavirus infections, one of several such apps in Europe that governments hope will revive travel and tourism.

The United Kingdom's COVID-19 death toll has hit 53,077, according to a Reuters tally of official data sources that underline the country's status as one of the worst hit in the world.

The Philippines' health ministry reported 364 new coronavirus infections and five more deaths on Tuesday, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 26,781 and fatalities to 1,103.

New Zealand said on Tuesday that it has two new cases of the coronavirus, both related to recent travel from the UK, ending a 24-day streak of no new infections in the country.

Beijing authorities imposed more restrictions to stop the spread of a fresh outbreak of coronavirus in the Chinese capital to other provinces, banning outbound travel of high-risk people and suspending some transportation services out of the city.

The two most populous U.S. states took markedly different approaches to reopening on Monday with New York scolding local governments for not enforcing social distancing and California encouraging counties to restart economies if they met criteria.

Mainland China reported 40 new confirmed coronavirus cases for June 15, down from 49 a day earlier, the National Health Authority said on Monday.

U.S. airline passengers who refuse to wear facial coverings during the novel coronavirus pandemic could have their flying privileges revoked, the industry's main lobby group said on Monday.