 | | | | U.S. health regulators are looking at authorizing a potential fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in the fall, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with the matter. | | | | | | Tokyo recorded 13,516 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, up 1,751 from a week earlier, national broadcaster NHK reported. | | | | | | China is giving COVID-19 booster vaccines using technologies different from the initial injections, in an effort to improve immunisation strategies amid concerns that its most-used jabs appeared to be weaker against variants such as Omicron. | | | | | | Australia recorded 43 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, as it readies to welcome international tourists on Monday for the first time in nearly two years. | | | | | | Hong Kong reported 6,063 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, as the the city's government made more plans for isolation facilities to take some strain off a healthcare system as infections have risen by more than 60 times since the month began. | | | | | | Hong Kong until recently had an enviable record battling COVID-19, but as an Omicron wave now overwhelms the city, the steps that saved lives are making life unbearable for many of its 7.4 million people. | | | | | | Carnival Cruise Line plans to make masks optional for its guests from March 1 after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eased its warnings for cruise ships, the company said in a statement late on Friday. | | | | | | Mainland China reported 137 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Feb. 18, the country's national health authority said on Saturday, up from 87 a day earlier. | | | | | | President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. national emergency declared in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be extended beyond March 1 due to the ongoing risk to public health posed by the coronavirus. | | | | | | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it had found four batches of AstraZeneca Plc's COVID-19 vaccine manufactured at the troubled Emergent BioSolutions facility that were fit to be shipped outside the United States. | | | | | |
