Health

DHAKA: A popular Islamic preacher who claimed Israel was using Covid vaccines to spy on the world’s population has been convicted in Bangladesh over his controversial sermons. Kazi Ibrahim, 62, is the chief cleric of a mosque in downtown Dhaka and used his platform to make multiple spurious claims about coronavirus. Several of his sermons went viral at the peak …

Passengers laden with luggage flocked to rail stations and airports in China’s megacities on Monday, heading to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year holidays that health experts fear could intensify a raging Covid-19 outbreak in areas less equipped to handle it. After three years of strict anti-virus controls, China abruptly abandoned its “zero Covid” policy in early December, letting the virus …

BEIJING: China on Saturday reported almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths in just over a month, the first major toll released by authorities since Beijing loosened virus restrictions in early December. The government has been widely accused of underreporting the number of coronavirus fatalities since the abandonment of its zero-Covid policy. Only a few dozen deaths had been recorded officially in December before Saturday’s …

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 …