Health News

France will allow restaurants, bars and beaches to reopen from June 2, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday France was making progress in its fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, and unveiled steps to further relax restrictions. Here are the main points:

France on June 2 will lift an 100 km (62 mile) travel restriction imposed to contain the new coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday.

The European Commission launched a new global fundraising campaign on Thursday to finance the development and worldwide distribution of testing, vaccines and treatments against COVID-19, seeking to address concerns they may not be equally shared.

Major sporting events in France will remain suspended for now until at least June 21, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday.

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 70 on Thursday, against 117 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases edged up to 593 from 584 on Wednesday.

France will accelerate a plan a plan to re-open high schools and junior high schools across the country, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday.

The chief executive of AstraZeneca , which is developing a leading coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University, said it is too early to deliberately expose trial participants to the pathogen, but it may become an option if ongoing tests hit a snag.

The reproduction rate of the coronavirus infection is below 1 in most of France's national territory, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday.

British drugmaker GSK said on Thursday that its previous flu pandemic vaccine, which used some of the same ingredients as COVID-19 vaccines currently under development, was not linked to a rise in cases of the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

Health results have been good so far in France, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday, as the country prepares to enter a second phase in its relaxation of lockdown rules on June 2.

Britain's GlaxoSmithKline laid out plans on Thursday to produce 1 billion doses of vaccine efficacy boosters, or adjuvants, next year as the race to develop and produce a successful solution to the coronavirus crisis heats up.

Russia on Thursday reported 174 deaths from the new coronavirus in the previous 24 hours, matching its record daily rise for fatalities and taking the overall death toll to 4,142.

Moderna Inc has extended a deal to secure large volumes of the lipids used to produce its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in a bid to meet increasing demand for the medicine, the U.S. biotech company said on Thursday.

Millions of women worldwide are facing shortages of sanitary products, price hikes, and worsened stigma while managing periods during the coronavirus pandemic, a charity warned on Thursday.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Roche plans to test if mixing its anti-inflammation drug Actemra with Gilead Sciences Inc's anti-viral treatment remdesivir works better against severe COVID-19 pneumonia than remdesivir alone, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.

Thailand on Thursday reported 11 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing its total to 3,065 confirmed cases and 57 fatalities since the outbreak started in January.

Leonardo Silveira, a bookstore owner in Montevideo, is hopeful about the future as Uruguay begins a gradual reopening. The small country has kept rates of COVID-19 at one of the lowest levels in Latin America, even as the region becomes a coronavirus epicenter.

South Korea reported 79 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the most since April 5 and the third straight day of rising infections, raising the spectre of a second wave of disease in a country widely praised for containing the initial outbreak.