On Tuesday, Jan. 10, Global Healthcare will become Reuters Health Rounds, a newsletter curated by Nancy Lapid, editor in charge of Reuters Health. Reuters Health Rounds will be sent on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The United States is prepared to help China deal with a surge of COVID-19 infections if Beijing requests assistance, the White House said on Wednesday.
Cases were exploding in China well before the government's decision to abandon its strict "zero-COVID" policy, the director said, quashing suggestions that the sudden reversal caused a spike.
The United States plans to commit $55 billion to Africa over the next three years, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday.
A Chinese healthcare platform has started selling Pfizer's oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in what appears to be the first retail sale of the drug in the country, as China braces for a surge in COVID patients.
China Meheco Group Co Ltd said on Wednesday it signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc to import and distribute the U.S. drugmaker's oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in mainland China, as the country braces for a surge in COVID patients after scaling back its "zero COVID" policy.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday he is "hopeful" that the COVID-19 pandemic will no longer be considered a global emergency some time next year.
In October, Nadifa Abdi Isak brought her malnourished daughters to hospital in Mogadishu. That day, a nurse said, 42 other children had already been checked into the emergency unit, ravaged by hunger. There were 57 the day before that.
As China begins dismantling its tough zero-COVID controls, there is strong anecdotal evidence that cases in cities such as Beijing and Chengdu are spiking, boosting demand not only for flu and fever medication but also COVID-specific treatments.
China has opened 14,000 fever clinics in big hospitals and 33,000 in community hospitals as of Dec. 14, Jiao Yahui, a senior official with the National Health Commission told a media briefing on Wednesday.
A growing number of China's doctors and nurses are catching COVID-19 and some have been asked to keep working, as people showing mostly moderate symptoms throng hospitals and clinics, according to medical staff and dozens of posts on social media.
