Health

People in China’s capital Beijing were allowed to enter parks, supermarkets, offices and airports without showing proof of a negative Covid-19 test on Tuesday, the latest in a mix of easing steps nationwide after last month’s historic protests. “Beijing readies itself for life again” read a headline in the government-owned China Daily newspaper, adding that people were “gradually embracing” their newfound freedoms. Authorities have …

Businesses reopened and testing requirements were relaxed in Beijing and other Chinese cities on Monday as the country tentatively eases out of a strict zero-Covid policy that sparked nationwide protests. Local authorities across China have begun a slow rollback of the restrictions that have governed daily life for years, encouraged by the central government’s orders for a new approach to fighting …

Unicef’s Regional Director for South Asia George Laryea-Adjei on Sunday said the polio programme in Pakistan was back on track, expressing hope that the crippling disease will be eradicated from the country by the end of 2023 following effective measures to check its spread. After staying polio-free for almost 15 months, Paki­stan reported a polio case in April. The country detected only one case …

More Chinese cities including Urumqi in the far west announced an easing of coronavirus curbs on Sunday as China tries to make its zero-Covid policy more targeted and less onerous after unprecedented protests against restrictions last weekend. Urumqi — the capital of the Xinjiang region and where the protests first erupted — will reopen malls, markets, restaurants and other venues …

BRUSSELS: China’s President Xi Jinping suggested in talks with EU chief Charles Michel that the spread of the less lethal Omicron strain of Covid-19 may allow Beijing to ease lockdown rules, European officials said on Friday. Michel met the Chinese leader in Beijing on Thursday. According to an account of the meeting from a senior European official, Xi told Michel …

BEIJING: China is softening its tone on the severity of Covid-19 and easing some coronavirus restrictions even as its daily case toll hovers near records, after anger over the world’s toughest curbs morphed into protests across the country. Several cities in the world’s second-largest economy, while still reporting infections, are breaking with past practice by lifting district lockdowns and allowing …

China’s top Covid official and multiple cities have signalled a possible relaxing of the country’s strict zero-tolerance approach to the virus, after nationwide protests calling for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedom. Anger over China’s zero-Covid policy — which involves mass lockdowns, constant testing and quarantines even for people who are not infected — has sparked protests in major cities, …

People in the Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou clashed with white hazmat-suited riot police on Tuesday night, online videos showed, the latest in a string of protests that escalated over the weekend over stringent Covid-19 lockdowns. The clashes, which follow protests in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere, erupted as China posts record numbers of Covid cases daily and health officials, including …

Chinese authorities have begun inquiries into some of the people who gathered at weekend protests against Covid-19 curbs, three people who were at the Beijing demonstrations told Reuters, as police remained out in numbers on the city’s streets. In one case, a caller identifying as a police officer in the Chinese capital asked the protester to show up at a police station …

ISLAMABAD: Around 110,000 children and adolescents died from AIDS-related causes during 2021, United Nations Children Fund’s (Unicef) global snapshot on children and HIV and AIDS said on Monday. Meanwhile, another 310,000 were newly infected, raising the total number of young people living with HIV to 2.7 million. Unicef has warned that ending AIDS among children and adolescents will continue to be a …