Health

Most symptoms from long Covid clear up within a year for people who had mild initial infections, a large study said Thursday, with the findings welcomed as “reassuring”. At least 17 million people in Europe suffered from long Covid symptoms months after recovering from their initial infection during 2020 and 2021, according to modelling from the World Health Organization. However …

The World Health Organization has issued an alert warning against the use of two Indian cough syrups blamed for the deaths of at least 20 children in Uzbekistan. WHO said the products, manufactured by India’s Marion Biotech, were “substandard” and that the firm had failed to provide guarantees about their “safety and quality”. The alert, issued on Wednesday, comes after …

Most symptoms from long Covid clear up within a year for people who had mild initial infections, a large Israel study said Thursday, with the findings welcomed as “reassuring”. At least 17 million people in Europe suffered from long Covid symptoms months after recovering from their initial infection during 2020 and 2021, according to modelling from the World Health Organisation. …

China began retaliating on Tuesday against South Korea and Japan, two of the countries which have imposed Covid-19 curbs on travellers from China, the last major economy to reopen its borders after three years of isolation. China’s embassy in Seoul said it has suspended the issuance of short-term visas for visitors from South Korea. Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that Beijing has …

Almost 90 per cent of people in China’s third most populous province have now been infected with Covid-19, a top official said Monday, as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases. Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, told a press conference that “as of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89.0pc.” …

China on Saturday marked the first day of “chun yun”, the 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel known pre-pandemic as the world’s largest annual migration of people, bracing for a huge increase in travellers and the spread of Covid-19 infections. This Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs from January 21, will be the first since 2020 without …

China lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travellers on Sunday, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation even as the country battles a surge in Covid cases. The first people to arrive expressed relief at not having to undergo the gruelling quarantines that were a fixture of life in zero-Covid China. And in Hong Kong, where the border with mainland China …

HONG KONG: China is in talks with Pfizer Inc to secure a licence that will allow domestic drugmakers to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the US firm’s Covid antiviral drug Paxlovid in China, three sources said. China’s medical products regulator — the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) — has been leading the talks with Pfizer since late last …

BEIJING: China defended on Thursday its handling of its raging Covid-19 outbreak after US President Joe Biden voiced concern and the WHO said Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths. The WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said on Wednesday that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts, some of the UN agency’s most critical remarks to date. China scrapped its stringent …

More countries around the world are demanding that visitors from China take Covid tests, days before it drops border controls and ushers in an eagerly awaited return to travel for a population that has been largely stuck at home for three years. From Sunday, China will end the requirement for inbound travellers to quarantine, the latest dismantling of its “zero-Covid” …