Health News

South Korea reported the highest daily number of new coronavirus cases in 49 days on Wednesday, as one of the country's largest e-commerce companies battled an outbreak linked to a now-shuttered logistics facility.

The Philippines' health ministry on Wednesday reported 18 new coronavirus deaths and 380 additional infections, the highest single-day increase in cases in more than seven weeks.

Falling numbers of active coronavirus cases in Australia and New Zealand are paving the way for the easing of travel restrictions between the two countries, health officials said on Wednesday, even as Australia recorded its youngest coronavirus death.

Russia said on Wednesday 161 people with the coronavirus had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide death toll to 3,968.

Two children who are the first suspected cases in South Korea of a rare, life-threatening syndrome linked with the new coronavirus, are recovering following treatment, health authorities said on Wednesday.

U.S. pharmacy chains are preparing a big push for flu vaccinations when the season kicks off in October, hoping to curb tens of thousands of serious cases that could coincide with a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Switzerland will decide on Wednesday on further relaxations of restrictions brought in to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, including how to reopen nightclubs and football stadiums, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung paper reported.

A French consortium said on Wednesday that it was stepping up its previously announced plans for a saliva-based screening test to detect COVID-19, by joining up with medical laboratory and diagnostics group INOVIE.

Novartis said on Wednesday that an older leukaemia drug it is re-purposing for multiple sclerosis halted disease activity in many patients during the first two years of injections as the Swiss drugmaker takes aim at Roche's lucrative Ocrevus infusion.

Paola Berardi, 70, and her husband Mauro have taken care of their two grandchildren every weekday for the past decade while their daughter went to work in a chemical company. Every summer, they decamped with the twins to a seaside resort on the northern Italian coast.

Australia recorded its youngest victim of COVID-19 after a 30-year-old man with underlying health conditions died in Queensland state, having shown symptoms of the disease for weeks but without getting tested, officials said on Wednesday.

China reported 1 new confirmed coronavirus case in the mainland as of end-May 26, up from 7 a day earlier, the National Health Commission reported.

Mexico registered 501 new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday, its biggest single-day increase in fatalities yet, as the jump in new cases also set a record.

Brazil deaths by COVID-19 reached 24,512 on Tuesday, with 1,039 new deaths over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said.

Brazilian nurse Rusia Goes gave birth while unconscious and breathing through a ventilator tube in April as she battled severe COVID-19 symptoms.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday promised a swift review of data on hydroxychloroquine, probably by mid-June, after safety concerns prompted the group to suspend the malaria drug's use in a large trial on COVID-19 patients.

The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to potential safety risks but other studies testing the medicine are continuing.

Merck & Co Inc , which has largely kept to the sidelines of the race for COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.

Britain said on Tuesday it had agreed deals with more than 100 new suppliers of personal protective equipment (PPE) used to combat the spread of the coronavirus, addressing supply problems seen earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany's government and its state premiers have agreed to extend social distancing rules until June 29 to contain the coronavirus pandemic, a government spokesman said.