Health News

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro allowed more than 10,000 street vendors to go back to work on Thursday and Brazil's president pressed for legal action to force local governments to reopen beaches, as the coronavirus death toll in the country quickly approached that of Italy.

Mexico's health ministry reported a record 4,442 additional cases of the novel coronavirus in the country on Thursday, and 816 more deaths, bringing the total to 105,680 cases and 12,545 deaths.

China reported five new COVID-19 cases and three new asymptomatic infections for June 4, the health commission said on Friday.

Widely used drugs to control high blood pressure may help protect against severe COVID-19, a new study found, allaying concerns that they could make the illness caused by the coronavirus worse.

An influential medical journal article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients was retracted on Thursday, adding to the controversy around a drug championed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Coronavirus is spreading fast through Brazil's indigenous populations, with deaths caused by the disease increasing more than five-fold in the past month, according to data collected by a national association of first peoples.

Scientists in Sweden are hoping an alpaca named Tyson can help deliver a knockout blow in the fight to develop a treatment or vaccine against the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 400,000 people worldwide.

A top U.S. health official cautioned on Thursday that protests sweeping across the country could increase the spread of the novel coronavirus, particularly in cities that have struggled to control the outbreak, and that participants should "highly consider" getting tested.

Confirmed new coronavirus infections in France rose by 767 to 152,444 on the 25th day since lockdown ended on May 11, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

U.S. laboratories testing patients for COVID-19 are required to report data such as a patient's age and ethnicity along with test results, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Thursday.

British drugmaker AstraZeneca has doubled manufacturing capacity for its potential coronavirus vaccine to 2 billion doses in two deals involving Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates that guarantee early supply to lower income countries.

European countries cautiously emerging from the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic are looking to a second generation of contact tracing apps to help contain further outbreaks.

Protesters particularly in cities that have struggled to control the novel coronavirus should "highly consider" getting tested for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, a top U.S. health official said on Thursday.

Spain's overall death toll from the coronavirus edged higher on Thursday, though discrepancies between regional and national data raised questions over the methodology used by the government to produce the tally.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday reported 1,842,101 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 14,676 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 827 to 107,029.

Britain's AstraZeneca will continue to look for more production partners for the experimental vaccine it is working on with Oxford University but it may be nearing a ceiling with plans laid out so far to make 2 billion doses.

Sweden will ease restrictions on domestic travel from June 13, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Thursday, despite signs that novel coronavirus infections are increasing in parts of the country.

Spain played down the possibility of reopening its land borders on June 22 after a government minister announced earlier on Thursday it would do so, prompting confusion in neighbouring Portugal, which asked for clarification.

African countries have secured 90 million test kits for the novel coronavirus for the next six months, a regional disease control body said on Thursday, urging states and donors to boost testing capabilities on the continent as quickly as possible.

Nearly 30,000 COVID-19 tests which Britain sent to a U.S. lab for processing came back void, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Thursday, adding to a mounting pile of questions over the UK's testing regime.