 | | | | Mozambique on Wednesday declared a polio outbreak after the virus was detected in a child living in the northeastern Tete region, the first case of the poliovirus in the country in almost three decades, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. | | | | | | U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday while on a trip to Berlin ahead of G7 meetings of health ministers, a spokesperson said. | | | | | | U.S. President Joe Biden is not considered a close contact of daughter Ashley Biden, who has tested positive for COVID-19, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday. | | | | | | Health officials are considering extending the eligibility for a second COVID-19 vaccine booster dose to people under 50 amid a steady rise in cases, with the United States seeing a threefold increase over the past month. | | | | | | A handful of cases of monkeypox have now been reported or are suspected in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain. | | | | | | Portuguese authorities said on Wednesday they had identified five cases of the rare monkeypox infection, and Spain's health services are testing 23 potential cases after Britain put Europe on alert for the virus. | | | | | | The U.S. National Institutes of Health is in talks with Pfizer Inc about studying whether a longer course of the drugmaker's COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid is needed to prevent reinfections, top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday. | | | | | | COVID-19 is on the rise again in the Americas as many countries have abandoned measures like masking and social distancing and many lag in vaccination rates, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday. | | | | | | Greece said on Wednesday it would end the mandatory wearing of face masks in airplanes and indoor public venues from June 1, as it lifts restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 ahead of the summer, its peak tourism season. | | | | | | A lack of clear information out of China in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic has left the whole world in a worse situation, British health minister Sajid Javid said. | | | | | |
