The Biden administration in May plans to end national and public health emergencies tied to the coronavirus, signaling a new approach to how the federal government views Covid almost three years after the pandemic started. Existing emergency declarations would be extended until May 11 and then expire, the White House said in a statement Monday. The advance notice is designed to give states, health care providers and hospitals enough time to adjust to the changes. The move to wind down the emergency status, first implemented by the Trump administration on Jan. 27, 2020, was announced in response... Read More

HONG KONG — Hong Kong is lifting a ban on the importing of hamsters for sale, a year after it ordered more than 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals to be culled in an effort to prevent pets from spreading Covid-19 to people. “According to the newest risk assessment and current situation, this department believes that the import ban for hamsters could be lifted,” the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in an emailed statement on Thursday.  The department said it was preparing for commercial hamster imports to resume by the middle of this month, with all imported hamsters... Read More

“Everyone has accepted it quite openly,” said one resident of Wuhan, where coronavirus cases have exploded. “People are just desperate to move in a good direction now.” Dec. 30, 2022, 11:19 AM UTC By Jennifer Jett and Olivia Guan HONG KONG — Three years after it recorded the world’s first cases of the coronavirus, the central Chinese city of Wuhan is once again besieged by Covid-19. The Chinese government’s abrupt lifting of its “zero-Covid” measures following mass protests has unleashed the virus on the world’s most populous nation, which experts say is undervaccinated and... Read More

No more monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid are available in the U.S.: The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday rescinded its authorization of bebtelovimab, a drug previously given to patients who faced a high risk of severe disease. Over the last two years, the FDA authorized six monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid, but omicron’s many subvariants rendered the drugs less effective so the FDA gradually revoked each of those authorizations. Bebtelovimab, made by Eli Lilly, was the last one standing. According to the FDA’s announcement, the drug was “not expected to neutralize... Read More

By Tuesday, streets that had swelled with protests were walled off and guarded by security personnel, some of whom searched pedestrians’ phones for images or messaging apps that could link them to the demonstrations, according to Reuters. In Beijing, police guarded the site of a protest on Sunday where people sang the Chinese national anthem, including the lyrics “Rise, people who do not wish to be slaves” and “Arise, arise, arise.” Many of the weekend protests took place on university campuses, which have historically been the birthplace of China’s political movements. Tsinghua University... Read More

BEIJING — Migrant workers in central China are fleeing one of the world’s largest iPhone factories amid a coronavirus outbreak in the surrounding city of Zhengzhou, leading local officials to hastily draw up plans to isolate them once they return to their hometowns. Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, reported 167 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in the seven days to Oct. 29, up from 97 infections in the prior seven-day period. Apple supplier Foxconn, based in Taiwan, currently has about 200,000 workers at its Zhengzhou complex and has not disclosed the number of infected workers, but... Read More

When a feverish 24-year-old patient with convulsions, chest pain and bleeding eyes sought treatment at the Mubende Regional Referral Hospital in Central Uganda on Sept. 15, emergency staff swiftly isolated him, according to the country’s Health Ministry. The man, who was not named by officials, was later confirmed to be the first Ugandan case of the Ebola virus’ Sudan species in 10 years. His death four days later sent shivers throughout the world. The United States began screening travelers from Uganda on Oct. 6 at five of its airports and alerted health care workers to raise awareness... Read More

BEIJING — Residents of a city in China’s far west Xinjiang region say they are experiencing hunger, forced quarantines and dwindling supplies of medicine and daily necessities after more than 40 days in a coronavirus lockdown.Hundreds of posts from Ghulja riveted users of Chinese social media last week, with residents sharing videos of empty fridges, feverish children, and people screaming from their windows.The dire conditions and food shortages are reminiscent of a harsh lockdown in Shanghai this spring, when thousands of residents posted online, complaining they were delivered rotting vegetables... Read More

LONDON — British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that aims to protect against the original virus and the omicron variant.In a statement on Monday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it had given the green light to Moderna’s combination “bivalent” vaccine, which will be used as an adult booster shot.Each dose of the booster shot will target both the original Covid-19 virus and the omicron BA.1 variant that was first picked up in November. British regulators said the side effects were similar... Read More

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared victory in the battle against the novel coronavirus, ordering a lifting of maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May, state media said on Thursday.North Korea has not revealed how many confirmed infections of the virus it has found, but since July 29 it has reported no new suspected cases with what international aid organizations say are limited testing capabilities.While lifting the maximum anti-pandemic measures, Kim said that North Korea must maintain a “steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier” and intensify anti-epidemic work... Read More