 | | | | France is to start offering a fourth COVID-19 vaccination shot to people over 80 years old who had their previous booster dose more than three months ago, French Prime Minister Jean Castex told daily Le Parisien in an interview published on Saturday. | | | | | | China has granted approval to five COVID-19 antigen kits made by local companies to be used for self-testing, state broadcaster CCTV said on Saturday, as it tweaks its testing regime that has been pressured by Omicron. | | | | | | Hong Kong reported 27,647 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with city leader Carrie Lam saying the outbreak was not yet past its peak despite recent daily case numbers slightly levelling off. | | | | | | Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the nation's political leaders want to move to a new phase of living with COVID-19 as though it were the flu, but would consult health experts. | | | | | | Mainland China reported more than 1,500 new local COVID-19 infections on Saturday, the most since the first nationwide outbreak in early 2020, as the Omicron variant prompted Beijing to introduce self-testing kits for the first time. | | | | | | South Korea reported a new record daily high of 383,665 COVID-19 cases, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Saturday, amid a surge of Omicron infections. | | | | | | British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its cancer drug, jointly developed with U.S.-based Merck & Co , as a treatment for patients with early-stage breast cancer with certain mutations. | | | | | | Iowa reported an outbreak of highly lethal bird flu in a commercial flock of egg-laying chickens on Friday, raising the risk for further infections in the top U.S. egg-producing state. | | | | | | The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. | | | | | | Asia passed the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus-linked deaths on Friday, a Reuters tally showed, as a spike in Omicron variant infections spreads across the region after starting in nations such as Japan and South Korea. | | | | | |
