Health

Novavax said on Tuesday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced high levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial, sending the company’s shares up 10%. The company said it could start a large pivotal Phase III trial as soon as late September, and on a conference call added that it could produce …

ZURICH: Switzerland is close to signing a deal to secure access for a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Moderna of the U.S., a government official has said. Switzerland will soon sign a reservation and supply deal, Pascal Strupler, the director of the Federal Office of Public Health, told the Swiss TV programme Club late on Tuesday. “We are only a …

PARIS: France and the Netherlands are gearing up for toughened mask-wearing rules to curb the spread of coronavirus as the global death toll from the pandemic inched closer to 700,000. Paris, Toulouse and other cities announced that the wearing of masks would be compulsory in particularly busy streets and squares. People already have to wear them inside most private businesses …

MANILA: More than 27 million people in the Philippines — about a quarter of the population — will go back into lockdown Tuesday after overwhelmed health workers warned the country was losing the battle against the coronavirus. Since the beginning of June, when much of the country emerged from one of the world’s longest stay-at-home orders, confirmed infections in the …

As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, the next big advance in battling the pandemic could come from a class of biotech therapies widely used against cancer and other disorders – antibodies designed specifically to attack this new virus. Development of monoclonal antibodies to target the virus has been endorsed by leading scientists. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases …

TAIPEI: Taiwan provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus, as the island faces a shortfall of the antiviral drug remdesivir after the United States bought nearly all global supplies. Taiwan Centres for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang told reporters on Tuesday that medical experts had decided to provisionally allow dexamethasone …

MELBOURNE: The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide topped 18 million on Monday with the illness continuing its march, after Australia’s second-largest city imposed a curfew to halt the spread. Six months after the World Health Organisation declared a global emergency, the virus has killed more than 687,000 people since it first emerged in China late last year, according to …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation said on Monday it had completed the groundwork in China to probe the origins of the new coronavirus — as it warned there might never be a “silver bullet” for Covid-19. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged governments and citizens to focus on known basic steps to suppress the pandemic, such as testing, contact tracing, …

ISLAMABAD: The number of coronavirus cases continue to decline in Pakistan as the country reported 903 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. According to the latest figures released by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 27 deaths were also reported due to the virus in the last 24 hours. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to …

NEW DELHI: Nearly one in three children around the world have high levels of lead in their bloodstream, according to a new study, as widespread lead pollution puts millions of young people at risk of irreversible mental and physical damage. Some 800 million children had lead levels of 5 micrograms per decilitre or higher in their bloodstream, the study carried …