Tag Archives: Omicron

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave the green light to updated Covid-19 vaccine booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. The updated vaccines are each approved for people 12 and older and are authorized under emergency use for individuals 6 months through 11 years old. As part of …

India reported 10,158 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as coronavirus cases steadily increase in the south-Asian country. Health ministry data showed daily infections climb past the 10,000 mark, reaching a nearly eight-month high, up from 7,830 cases the previous day. There are currently 44,998 active cases from 229,958 COVID-19 tests. …

The White House said its COVID response is “constrained” by a lack of funding. The White House is urging Americans to get updated COVID-19 vaccine shots this fall specifically targeting prevalent omicron variants. The Biden administration on Thursday released more details on its plan to make the newly approved shots …

Officials have confirmed a total of 50 deaths and over 1.21 million cases of “fever” since late April

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

As Omicron spreads, officials in China’s capital city are trying to avoid the kind of mass lockdown seen in Shanghai.

The warning comes after the UN’s health agency flags surging caseload as the main driver of rising cases throughout Africa. South Africa may be entering a fifth COVID-19 wave earlier than expected after a sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days seemingly driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 …

A second Global COVID-19 Summit will be held virtually next month for countries to discuss efforts to end the pandemic and prepare for future health threats, according to a joint statement on Monday. “The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed …

Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China tightened controls as the country kept up its “dynamic clearance” approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone, a central Chinese manufacturing area that includes Apple …

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 500 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the highly contagious BA.2 sub-variant of omicron surges in many countries in Europe and Asia. The rise of BA.2 has been blamed for recent surges in China as well as record infections in Europe. It has …

Some residents of Shanghai were allowed out of their homes as the city of 25 million eased a two-week-old shut down Tuesday after a video posted online showed what was said to be people who ran out of food breaking into a supermarket. About 6.6 million people can go outdoors, …

Non-emergency staffers were evacuated due to a spike in Covid cases and related government restrictions The US State Department has ordered diplomatic workers to vacate a consulate in China, citing a rise in coronavirus infections and new draconian containment measures. All American citizens have also been urged against traveling to …

Viruses mutate all the time but only some mutations affect their ability to spread or evade prior immunity from vaccination or infection, or the severity of disease they cause. The World Health Organization said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly …

The global average of true infection numbers is believed to be 16 times higher than the number of confirmed reported cases – but could have been 97 times higher in Africa, WHO says. More than two-thirds of people living in Africa may have contracted COVID-19 over the past two years, …

China’s President Xi Jinping commended the country’s “tested Zero-Covid” strategy on Friday even as Shanghai prepared nearly 130,000 beds for new coronavirus patients. At an event to honor Olympic athletes, Xi lauded the country’s efforts to hold the recent Winter Games which he said showed the country’s virus policy “once …

The risk of developing serious bleeding or potentially deadly blood clots is elevated for months after experiencing even a mild COVID-19 infection, Swedish researchers found. While the dangers of post-COVID clotting are well known, it’s less clear how long the risk lasts and what should be done to prevent it. …

AstraZeneca said on Thursday that preliminary data from a trial showed that its COVID-19 shot, Vaxzevria, generated an increase in antibodies against the Omicron and other variants when given as a third booster dose. The increased response, also against the Delta variant, was seen in a blood analysis of people …

The simultaneous circulation of the Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus is creating a “tsunami of cases”, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing on Wednesday. “Delta and Omicron are now twin threats driving up cases to record numbers, leading to spikes in hospitalization …

Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday, with Brent crude trading near $80 a barrel despite the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, supported by supply outages and expectations that U.S. inventories fell last week. Brent crude rose by 60 cents, or 0.8%, to $79.20 a barrel by 12 p.m. …

Research by South African scientists suggests that Omicron could displace the Delta variant of the coronavirus because infection with the new variant boosts immunity to the older one. The study only covered a small group of people and has not been peer-reviewed, but it found that people who were infected …