Reuters Health News

The arrival of warmer weather in the Northern Hemisphere raises the question of whether summer could slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Here is what science says.

The White House wants a plan in place by Sept. 1 for airlines to collect contact tracing information from U.S.-bound international passengers, but will not immediately implement a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proposal, three people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

Brazil's most populous state Sao Paulo reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths for the second day running on Wednesday even as its homonymous metropolis allowed shops to resume business and prepared to reopen its malls.

Ventilators could be safely shared by two COVID-19 patients for up to two days, a small U.S. study found, validating an experimental method followed by hospitals struggling to handle the onslaught of lung failure cases with limited equipment.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday there had been no sign yet of an increase in coronavirus cases from two weeks of nationwide protests over police misconduct and racism.

Brazil registered 772,416 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, with 32,913 new infections in the last 24 hours, as the world's second worst outbreak after the United States continued to surge.

New York state filed civil charges on Wednesday accusing Endo International Plc of insurance fraud for misrepresenting the safety and efficacy of its opioid drugs, adding fuel to the nation's opioid crisis.

One night in April, as coronavirus swept through the Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, Robyn Esaw, a double amputee, signaled for help with her bedpan. She said she hit the bedside button that turns on a red hallway light. None of the few remaining staff showed up - and one of them turned the light off. Esaw only got help, eventually, by wheeling herself to the nursing station and yelling.

Total U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as health officials urge anyone who took part in massive protests for racial justice to get tested.

The World Health Organization hopes to work "side by side" with the United States to contain an outbreak of Ebola in Congo, its chief said on Wednesday, despite their differences over the new coronavirus.

France's new death toll from COVID-19 on Wednesday was only one-third of the tally the day before but the total of new confirmed infections rose again, one month out of a strict lockdown.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday reported 1,973,797 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 17,376 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 950 to 112,133.

A group representing relatives of people who died of COVID-19 in Bergamo, one of Italy's hardest-hit cities, asked prosecutors on Wednesday to investigate possible criminal responsibility in the management of the pandemic.

Johnson & Johnson moved up the start of human clinical trials for its experimental vaccine against the highly contagious coronavirus by two months to the second half of July, as the drugmaker rushes to develop a prevention for COVID-19, the company said on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes to work "side by side" with the United States to contain Congo's Ebola outbreak, its chief said on Wednesday, even after the Trump administration said the United States would end their relationship over the U.N. agency's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

A team of Polish scientists has designed a remote-controlled ventilator they hope will allow doctors to help critically ill patients breathe, but from a distance, in a bid to make medical personnel safer during the coronavirus pandemic.

A potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese researchers showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues, researchers said, and a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is under way.

Arizona again told hospitals to activate the coronavirus emergency plans after cases spiked following reopening, turning it into a U.S. virus hotspot along with neighboring Southwest states.

It is unclear how the arrival of winter in the southern hemisphere will impact the novel coronavirus, the head of the World Health Organization's emergencies programme Mike Ryan said on Wednesday.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Wednesday launched a study to evaluate drugs prescribed to treat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, among children and adolescents across the United States.