 | | | | Britain will launch a new health security agency next week to better prepare for and tackle pandemics by bringing together its testing, analytical and scientific capabilities, health minister Matt Hancock said on Wednesday. | | | | | | Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of Germany's federal states are set to ditch a plan agreed on Tuesday for two extra "rest-days" around the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, government sources said on Wednesday. | | | | | | Kaleido Biosciences said on Wednesday its experimental oral treatment cut recovery time as well as hospitalizations and emergency room visits in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, in an early trial. | | | | | | Capitalism and greed gave Britain its success in vaccinating its population, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told lawmakers in a closed meeting, a remark that could rile up Brussels at a time when Britain faces an EU threat to block vaccine imports. | | | | | | (Reuters) -Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: | | | | | | Poland reported a record 29,978 new daily coronavirus cases on Wednesday as the government prepares to toughen restrictions amid a worsening third wave of the pandemic. | | | | | | Taiwan will help its handful of remaining diplomatic allies buy COVID-19 vaccines but on the condition that Taiwanese money is not used to obtain Chinese vaccines, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Wednesday. | | | | | | (Reuters) -AstraZeneca will publish up-to-date results from its major U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial within 48 hours after health officials publicly criticized the drugmaker for using "outdated information" to show how well the immunization worked. | | | | | | Papua New Guinea recorded 351 new coronavirus cases and two deaths on Tuesday, as 8,000 vaccines arrived from Australia to assist health workers in overburdened hospitals. | | | | | | Hong Kong authorities halted the use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Germany's BioNTech on Wednesday, citing defective packaging, in a move that triggered scenes of confusion in inoculation centres across the city. | | | | | | KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine reported a record daily number of coronavirus-related deaths for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, along with a record number of hospitalisations as the more transmissable British strain of the virus sweeps through the country. | | | | | |
