Health News

A Chinese vaccine against African swine fever appears to be safe in clinical trials now underway, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, a step closer to preventing one of the world's most devastating livestock diseases.

European officials aim to speed up trials for coronavirus vaccines containing genetically modified organisms, two EU sources told Reuters, in a move that could help shots developed by companies like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Japanese biotech AnGes Inc expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles, the company's founder said.

Bulgaria will extend an epidemic emergency until the end of June to fight the spread of the coronavirus after an increase in new registered cases, mainly in the south, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Wednesday.

Australia is on course to have largely eradicated the coronavirus by July, a public health official said on Wednesday, as the country's most populous state announced the removal of restrictions on community sports.

Population-wide facemask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a UK study published Wednesday.

Russia on Wednesday reported 8,404 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the nationwide tally of infections to 493,657.

The French government is considering whether to end emergency health measures imposed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic on July 10, the Prime Minister's department said on Wednesday.

A Russian plant will recall a model of medical ventilators that was linked to two deadly hospital fires, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the plant's press service.

Thailand will consider a plan to reopen more businesses and establishments from as early as June 15, an official said on Wednesday, after the country has reported no local transmissions of the coronavirus in the past 16 days.

Singapore's Tychan, a biotechnology firm backed by state investor Temasek Holdings, said it will begin human clinical trials next week for a potential monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19.

Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are spiking in parts of California and the U.S. Southwest, prompting Arizona to reactivate its emergency plan for medical facilities and California to place counties where half its population lives on a watch list.

Indian biotech firm Panacea Biotec Ltd said on Wednesday it would partner with U.S.-based Refana Inc to make a potential vaccine for COVID-19.

Studies show people with the coronavirus are most infectious just at the point when they first begin to feel unwell, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said on Tuesday.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 318 to 184,861, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.

Fujifilm Holdings Corp will spend $928 million to double capacity at a drug manufacturing facility in Denmark, which it has pledged to use in producing COVID-19 treatments, as the Japanese company steps up its pivot towards healthcare.

Argentina confirmed more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday as the rate of new infections continued to rise just days after it extended lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires, the country's largest city and epicenter for the virus.

Nearly half of all Californians live in areas where coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are rising quickly enough to put their counties on a watch list for potential reinstatement of shutdowns, a Reuters analysis of state data show.

New coronavirus cases in Mexico are expected to keep rising, a top health official said on Tuesday, even as the government pushes a gradual reopening of the economy launched at the beginning of this month.

Mexico's health ministry reported 4,199 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 596 additional fatalities on Tuesday, bringing the total in the country to 124,301 cases and 14,649 deaths.