Health News

U.S. pharmacy chains are preparing a big push for flu vaccinations when the season kicks off in October, hoping to curb tens of thousands of serious cases that could coincide with a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Switzerland will decide on Wednesday on further relaxations of restrictions brought in to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, including how to reopen nightclubs and football stadiums, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung paper reported.

A French consortium said on Wednesday that it was stepping up its previously announced plans for a saliva-based screening test to detect COVID-19, by joining up with medical laboratory and diagnostics group INOVIE.

Novartis said on Wednesday that an older leukaemia drug it is re-purposing for multiple sclerosis halted disease activity in many patients during the first two years of injections as the Swiss drugmaker takes aim at Roche's lucrative Ocrevus infusion.

Paola Berardi, 70, and her husband Mauro have taken care of their two grandchildren every weekday for the past decade while their daughter went to work in a chemical company. Every summer, they decamped with the twins to a seaside resort on the northern Italian coast.

Australia recorded its youngest victim of COVID-19 after a 30-year-old man with underlying health conditions died in Queensland state, having shown symptoms of the disease for weeks but without getting tested, officials said on Wednesday.

China reported 1 new confirmed coronavirus case in the mainland as of end-May 26, up from 7 a day earlier, the National Health Commission reported.

Mexico registered 501 new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday, its biggest single-day increase in fatalities yet, as the jump in new cases also set a record.

Brazil deaths by COVID-19 reached 24,512 on Tuesday, with 1,039 new deaths over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said.

Brazilian nurse Rusia Goes gave birth while unconscious and breathing through a ventilator tube in April as she battled severe COVID-19 symptoms.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday promised a swift review of data on hydroxychloroquine, probably by mid-June, after safety concerns prompted the group to suspend the malaria drug's use in a large trial on COVID-19 patients.

The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to potential safety risks but other studies testing the medicine are continuing.

Merck & Co Inc , which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.

Britain said on Tuesday it had agreed deals with more than 100 new suppliers of personal protective equipment (PPE) used to combat the spread of the coronavirus, addressing supply problems seen earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany's government and its state premiers have agreed to extend social distancing rules until June 29 to contain the coronavirus pandemic, a government spokesman said.

Britain will provide the anti-viral drug remdesivir to certain COVID-19 patients that it is most likely to benefit as part of a collaboration with manufacturer Gilead Sciences, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

The Americas have emerged as the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a Tuesday briefing, as a U.S. study forecast deaths surging in Brazil and other Latin American countries through August.

As Brazil's daily COVID-19 death rate climbs to the highest in the world, a University of Washington study is warning its total death toll could climb five-fold to 125,000 by early August, adding to fears it has become a new hot spot in the pandemic.

U.S. biotech company Novavax Inc has joined the race to test coronavirus vaccine candidates on humans and said it was targeting production of over a billion doses of its vaccine candidate next year.

World TeamTennis, an innovative mixed-gender professional tennis league, will start from July 5 at the Greenbrier, West Virginia, and up to 500 fans will be allowed to attend matches during its three-week season, tournament organisers said on Tuesday.