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Washington, 10 Mar (ONA) —— More than 448.45 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally, and 6,400,710 have died, according to a Reuters tally.Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in December 2019.—— ...

Beijing, 10 Mar (ONA) —— China has reported the highest coronavirus infection figures in two years. Across all of China, 402 local infections reported on Wednesday, almost twice as many as the day before, the official news agency Xinhua reported today.   There were also 435 asymptomatic infections and 277 cases imported from abroad.   Following the first major coronavirus wave, which originated in Wuhan more than two years ago, China was able to bring the virus under control quickly with strict measures. Since then, the world's second-largest ...

Berlin, 9 Mar (ONA) —— The German government today revealed more details of its plans to ease most of the regulations to contain Covid-19 later this month.According to draft legislation, after 20 March, German states will still have the power to enforce coronavirus tests and mask-wearing in some areas of life, such as in hospitals, care homes, or on public transport. They could also keep this in schools.Most other restrictions will no longer be backed by legislation, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said in a press conference alongside Justice Minister Marco Buschmann today."As far as ...

London, 9 Mar (ONA) --- The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths globally have continued to fall in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today, with only the Western Pacific reporting an increase in COVID-19. In its latest report on the pandemic issued on today, the UN health agency said new COVID-19 infections dropped by 5% in the last week, continuing a declining trend that started more than a month ago. Deaths were also down by 8% and have been falling globally for the last two weeks. Only the Western Pacific saw a rise in coronavirus ...

Mainz, Germany, 8 Mar (ONA) —— BioNTech and Regeneron have expanded their work on a lung cancer drug, they said on Tuesday.BioNTech said it has expanded its strategic collaboration with Regeneron to advance the company's FixVac candidate BNT116 in combination with Libtayo (cemiplimab), a PD-1 inhibitor, in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).In line with the terms of the agreement, the companies plan to jointly conduct clinical trials to evaluate their combination in different patient populations with advanced NSCLC.The companies plan to develop the collaboration beginning with ...

London, 8 Mar (ONA) --- People who have even a mild case of Covid-19 may have accelerated aging of the brain and other changes to it, according to a new study.The study, published in the journal Nature, is believed to be the largest of its kind. It found that the brains of those who had Covid-19 had a greater loss of gray matter and abnormalities in the brain tissue compared with those who didn't have Covid-19. Many of those changes were in the area of the brain related to the sense of smell."We were quite surprised to see clear differences in the brain even with mild infection," ...

Beijing, 7 Mar (ONA) --- A team of Chinese scientists claims to have developed a single vaccine that can provide dual protection against coronavirus and influenza. The new vaccine has been tested successfully on mice. Researchers from Shanghai-based Fudan University presented the new vaccine in a study published recently in the Journal of Virology, saying they designed an immunogen by fusing the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain to the conserved stalk of H7N9 hemagglutinin and expressed it using a chimpanzee adenovirus vector. When tested on mice, the constructed vaccine, ...

New Delhi, 6 Mar (ONA) --- India reported 5,476 new COVID-19 cases and 158 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said today. According to ANI news, the active COVID cases now stand at 59,442, taking the weekly positivity rate to 0.77 per cent and the daily positivity rate to 0.60 per cent. The ministry said that the last 24 hours saw 9,754 recoveries from the virus. --- Ends/Anas ...

Hong Kong, 2 Mar (ONA) --- People’s movements in Hong Kong may be restricted during mandatory testing this month of the entire population for the coronavirus, as local health officials reported a record 55,353 daily infections and over a hundred deaths. Hong Kong is planning to test its more than 7 million residents as it grapples with soaring numbers of COVID-19 cases in its worst outbreak of the pandemic, linked largely to the omicron variant. Local officials today reported 117 deaths, taking the total number above 1,000. About 80% of the deaths have ...

Washington, 28 Feb (ONA) --- A study released in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine by Providence, one of the largest health systems in the United States, confirms the overall effectiveness of vaccines in preventing severe infection resulting in hospitalization from Covid-19, but also shows a substantial decline in protection after six months.Completed by a team of clinicians and scientists in the Providence Research Network, the study examined data from nearly 50,000 hospital admissions between April and November 2021, finding that vaccines were 94% effective at preventing ...

Geneva, 27 Feb (ONA) —— The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of a dangerous shortage in the supply of oxygen in Ukrainian hospitals."The oxygen supply situation is nearing a very dangerous point in Ukraine. Trucks are unable to transport oxygen supplies from plants to hospitals across the country, including the capital Kyiv," a WHO statement said today."The majority of hospitals could exhaust their oxygen reserves within the next 24 hours. Some have already run out. This puts thousands of lives at risk."The oxygen is needed to treat patients with a range of ailments, including ...

Amsterdam, 24 Feb (ONA) —— The European Union's medicines regulator today gave the green light to booster jabs for children aged 12 and above with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19.Experts at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) also agreed to allow children aged 6 to 11 to be given basic vaccination coverage with the Moderna drug.A final decision will be made by the European Commission, although this is considered a formality for the 27-country bloc.The EMA did however stress that it was up to individual member states whether they would offer booster vaccinations to ...

Tokyo, 24 Feb (ONA) --- Getting a good night's sleep can sometimes be a challenge, but inflammation may make it even more difficult. While the relationship between inflammation and sleep alteration has been previously shown, researchers in Japan have now identified a potential method to overcome sleep disturbance associated with systemic inflammation. In a new study published in the Journal of sleep research, researchers at the University of Tsukuba examined the effect of sevoflurane, an anesthetic agent used to maintain unconsciousness during surgery, on sleep recovery in a mouse ...

Sofia, 24 Feb (ONA) —— The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bulgaria reached 1,080,571, after 21,984 tests identified 3,411 new infections on Wednesday, 74.2 percent of which were of unvaccinated persons, according to data posted on coronavirus.bg/. website.The test positivity rate now stands at 15.5 per cent. The active cases are 229,935. Currently, the hospitalized patients number 4,712, including 537 in intensive care. Of the 426 hospital admissions, 83.33 per cent were not vaccinated.Another 8,490 COVID-19 patients have recovered over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to ...

Rome, 23 Feb (ONA) —— Italy will end its current state of emergency on 31 March, around two years after it was first declared in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced today.From April onwards, the country plans to ease many of its measures put in place to curb infections. For example, entry restrictions banning the unvaccinated from many places are to be gradually lifted, starting with outdoor events.Mask-wearing rules are also to be dropped for outdoor areas.Schools are to stay completely open with no quarantine requirement for those who come into ...

Bangkok, 23 Feb (ONA) --- Thailand will ease some entry requirements for foreign visitors as it balances a rising number of coronavirus cases with the need to rebuild its pandemic-damaged economy, the government announced today. Beginning on 1 March 2022, fully vaccinated visitors must take a RT-PCR test on arrival and spend their first night at an approved hotel while awaiting the results, but will no longer need to take a second RT-PCR test and spend another night at a hotel on their fifth day, the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration said. Instead, visitors ...

Kabul, 23 Feb (ONA) ---- A new wave of Covid-19 is surging across Afghanistan, prompting humanitarian organizations to call for urgent global support to curb the virus there.The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) today called for worldwide support for health and testing services, as well as for vaccinations to slow the spread of Covid-19, saying it is stretching the country’s fragile health care system.“A new wave is hitting Afghanistan hard,” the IFRC said. “Testing is inadequate, and the World Health Organization reports that almost half ...

Berlin, 21 Feb (ONA) ---- The German government plans to ease its Covid-19 travel restrictions next month ahead of the Easter travel period, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told a German newspaper on Sunday. Soon, countries will only be deemed high-risk if a coronavirus variant more dangerous than Omicron - such as the Delta variant - is present there, the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung daily reported, citing draft legislation. "This should make travel easier for families," Lauterbach told the newspaper. "They should nonetheless be careful on holiday," he added. The changes are due to take ...

London, 21 Feb (ONA) --- Vegetables may be good for you, but eating a lot of them is unlikely to reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke, a large British study suggests. What else we eat, how much exercise we do and where and how we live may have more of an impact, the researchers say. But they emphasise that a balanced diet helps reduce the risk of many diseases, including some cancers. Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day is recommended by health advisers. The study, from the universities of Oxford and Bristol and ...

Canberra, Australia, 21 Feb (ONA) --- International tourists and business travelers today began arriving in Australia with few restrictions, bringing together families in tearful reunions after separations of two years or longer forced by some of the most draconian pandemic measures of any democracy in the world. Australia closed its borders to tourists in March 2020 in a bid to reduce the local spread of COVID-19, but today removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers. Australia today reported 17,736 new COVID-19 infections in the latest ...

London, 20 Feb (ONA) --- Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Head of the Commonwealth has contracted Covid-19, Buckingham Palace has announced. The monarch, 95, has tested positive for the virus and is experiencing "mild cold-like symptoms" but expects to carry out "light duties" this week. --- ...

Berlin, 20 Feb (ONA) ---- German Family Minister Anne Spiegel has called for a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for people aged 18 and above, in order to reach those who have so far resisted inoculation."We have made extensive efforts to reach people through vaccination campaigns and other outreach offers, but now we've reached the end of the line," she told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.A vaccine mandate is now needed in order to raise the proportion of people who are vaccinated in Germany, she said.Germany's infection figures are currently falling, but Spiegel said a vaccine mandate was still ...

London, 20 Feb (ONA) --- People with COVID-19 won’t be legally required to self-isolate in England starting in the coming week, the U.K. government has announced, as part of a plan for “living with COVID” that is also likely to see testing for the coronavirus scaled back. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ending all of the legal restrictions brought in to curb the spread of the virus will let people in the U.K. “protect ourselves without restricting our freedoms.” He is expected to lay out details of the plan in Parliament tomorrow (Monday). --- ...

Tokyo, 17 Feb (ONA) --- Japan is to ease its border control regulations from next month, media reports said today. The restrictions, which have been ongoing for up to two years, limit arrivals to the country for Japanese citizens and returning foreign residents. Japan briefly relaxed the rules last year, but that changed in November in an attempt to prevent the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus (Covid-19). The easing up will be incremental and will not apply to tourists. An increase in daily arrivals is expected to be ...

Berlin, 16 Feb (ONA) --- German vaccine maker BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved shot against COVID-19 together with Pfizer, unveiled plans today to establish manufacturing facilities in Africa that would boost the availability of much-needed medicines on the continent. The modular design presented at a ceremony in Marburg, Germany, consists of shipping containers fitted with the equipment necessary to make the company’s mRNA-based vaccine, save for the final step of putting doses into bottles, a process known as fill and finish. “Our goal is to ...

Seoul, 16 Feb (ONA) --- South Korea will distribute free coronavirus rapid test kits at schools and senior care facilities starting next week as it weathers an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the fast-moving omicron variant. Local health officials today reported its highest daily jump in coronavirus infections with 90,443 new cases, shattering the previous one-day record set on Tuesday by more than 33,000 cases. Some experts say the country could see daily cases of around 200,000 in March. While omicron has so far seemed less likely to cause serious ...

Berlin, 16 Feb (ONA) ---- With plans to gradually relax the anti-coronavirus measures imposed in Germany, the 16 state premiers are again due to consult with Chancellor Olaf Scholz today afternoon. In a submission for the videoconference, it is said that by 20 March the current coronavirus restrictions should be largely and gradually abolished. The proposal, which is considered the basis for today's discussions, has been agreed upon between the chancellor's office and the chair and co-chair of the group of state premiers (MPK), of which the most populous state, North Rhine Westphalia, ...

Berlin, 15 Feb (ONA)--- The brain has neurons that fire specifically during certain mathematical operations. This is shown by a recent study conducted by the Universities of Tübingen and Bonn. The findings indicate that some of the neurons detected are active exclusively during additions, while others are active during subtractions. They do not care whether the calculation instruction is written down as a word or a symbol. The results have now been published in the journal Current Biology.Most elementary school children probably already know that three apples plus two apples add up to five ...

Jakarta, 15 Feb (ONA) ---- Indonesia may lift a Covid-19 quarantine requirement for foreign arrivals starting April, an official said today. In the meantime, the government will cut the quarantine period for foreign arrivals to three days from five, starting next week, for Indonesians and visitors who have received a third vaccine dose, said Luhut Pandjaitan, the official in charge of the pandemic response. "If the situation improves and the vaccination rate increases, it is possible that the centralized quarantine will no longer be imposed on 1 April or earlier," Pandjaitan said. ...

Bratislava, 15 Feb (ONA) ---- Slovakia has eased its Covid-19 rules to allow unvaccinated people to enter non-essential shops from today, even though the infection rate remains high in the country. Previously, they were only allowed in shops that sell food or other goods considered vitally important. Many restrictions remain in place, however, including a 10 pm curfew for nightclubs and restaurants.--- Ends/Ahmed ...