Coronavirus category, Page 5
2 covid-19 deaths reported in Beijing as virus surges
BEIJING — China’s health authorities on Monday announced two covid-19 deaths — the country’s first reported fatalities in weeks — amid an expected surge of illnesses after it eased its strict “zero-covid” approach. Unofficial reports point to a widespread wave of new coronavirus cases, and relatives of victims and people...
Health providers advise caution around illness as holidays approach
Home for the holidays? Amid a seasonal squall of viruses that doctors say arrived early and may stay late, there are simple ways to improve your chances of staying healthy. Basic health precautions — wearing a mask when around large groups of people, washing your hands, staying home when sick...
White House reveals winter covid-19 plans, more free tests
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is again making some free covid-19 tests available to all U.S. households as it unveils its contingency plans for potential coronavirus surges this winter. After a three-month hiatus, the administration is making four rapid virus tests available through covidtests.gov starting Thursday, a senior administration official...
U.S. death toll tied to long covid exceeds 3,500, CDC report says
The health challenges that a bout of covid-19 sometimes leaves in its wake can be troublesome, scary and quite mysterious. New research confirms they can be deadly as well. A study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between January 2020 and June 2022, long...
China students return home amid fears of covid-19 spread
BEIJING — Some Chinese universities say they will allow students to finish the semester from home in hopes of reducing the potential for a bigger covid-19 outbreak during the January Lunar New Year travel rush. It wasn’t clear how many schools were participating, but universities in Shanghai and nearby cities...
China vows to drop some travel tracking in covid rule easing
BEIJING — China said it would stop tracking some travel, potentially reducing the likelihood people will be forced into quarantine for visiting Covid-19 hot spots, as part of an uncertain exit from the strict pandemic policies that helped fuel widespread protests. Once midnight hit Monday, the part of a smart...
Hospitalizations signal rising covid-19 risk for U.S. seniors
Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on covid-19 vaccinations. These alarming signs portend a difficult winter for seniors, which worries 81-year-old nursing home resident Bartley O’Hara,...
China struggles with covid infections after controls ease
BEIJING — A rash of Covid-19 cases in schools and businesses were reported Friday in areas across China after the ruling Communist Party loosened anti-virus rules as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump. While official data showed a fall in new cases, they no longer cover large parts...
FDA clears updated covid-19 vaccines for kids under age 5
U.S. regulators on Thursday cleared doses of the updated covid-19 vaccines for children younger than age 5. The Food and Drug Administration’s decision aims to better protect the littlest kids from severe covid-19 at a time when children’s hospitals already are packed with tots suffering from a variety of respiratory...
China eases anti-covid measures following protests
BEIJING — China rolled back rules on isolating people with covid-19 and dropped virus test requirements for some public places Wednesday in a dramatic change to a strategy that confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign. The move adds...
China eases controls, gives no sign when ‘zero covid’ ends
BEIJING — China is easing some of the world’s most stringent anti-virus controls and authorities say new variants are weaker. But they have yet to say when they might end a “zero-covid” strategy that confines millions of people to their homes and set off protests and demands for President Xi...
Keep covid military vaccine mandate, defense chief says
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he wants to keep the military’s covid-19 vaccine mandate in place to protect the health of the troops, as Republican governors and lawmakers press to rescind it. This past week more than 20 Republican governors sent a letter to...
China fines former NBA star Lin over quarantine comments
BEIJING — Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who plays for a Chinese team, was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) for criticizing quarantine facilities, China’s professional league and a news report said Friday, as the government tries to stop protests against anti-virus controls that are among the world’s most stringent. Also Friday,...
Pandemic stress prematurely aged teens’ brains, Stanford study finds
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Stanford University study published Thursday found that stress from the covid-19 pandemic prematurely aged adolescents’ brains, making them more like those of peers about three years older. By comparing MRI scans from children taken before the pandemic with scans from other kids taken during the...
China eases virus controls amid effort to head off protests
BEIJING — More Chinese cities eased anti-virus restrictions and police patrolled their streets Thursday as the government tried to defuse public anger over some of the world’s most stringent covid measures and head off more protests. Following weekend demonstrations at which some crowds made the politically explosive demand that leader...
Twitter ends enforcement of covid misinformation policy
Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against covid-19 misinformation, raising concerns among public health experts that the change could have serious consequences if it discourages vaccination and other efforts to combat the still-spreading virus. Eagle-eyed users spotted the change Monday night, noting that a one-sentence update had been made...
Allegheny County to close covid testing sites
The Curative covid-19 testing sites located throughout Allegheny County will close by the end of the year, officials said Monday. County officials cited lower numbers of daily infections, deaths and hospitalizations from the virus as they announced changes to testing options. “For the past two and a half years, Curative...
5 things to know about new covid subvariants
Though new covid-19 subvariants continue to crop up, a local infectious disease doctor said there likely won’t be another massive wave of severe infections because of them. New subvariants of the covid-19 omicron variant — like XXB, XBB and BQ.1 — are spreading throughout the United States, said Dr. Matt...
After a year, omicron still driving covid surges and worries
A year after omicron began its assault on humanity, the ever-morphing coronavirus mutant drove covid-19 case counts higher in many places just as Americans gathered for Thanksgiving. It was a prelude to a wave that experts expect to soon wash over the U.S. Phoenix-area emergency physician Dr. Nicholas Vasquez said...
Pfizer booster spurs immune response to new omicron subtypes
Pfizer said Friday that its updated covid-19 booster may offer some protection against newly emerging omicron mutants even though it’s not an exact match. Americans have been reluctant to get the updated boosters rolled out by Pfizer and rival Moderna, doses tweaked to target the BA.5 omicron strain that until...
‘Covid’s not done with us, and I’m not done with covid,’ Fauci says, as he prepares to step down from his post
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci knew he was being turned into a villain of the far-right early on in the coronavirus pandemic, when President Donald Trump’s administration stopped defending him. It was the result of a series of choices Fauci stands by to this day, despite all the grief it...
Thousands of experts hired to aid public health departments are losing their jobs
As covid-19 raged, roughly 4,000 highly skilled epidemiologists, communication specialists and public health nurses were hired by a nonprofit tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to plug the holes at battered public health departments on the front lines. But over the past few months, the majority of...
People with long covid face barriers to government disability benefits
When Josephine Cabrera Taveras was infected with covid-19 in spring 2020, she didn’t anticipate that the virus would knock her out of work for two years and put her family at risk for eviction. Taveras, a mother of two in Brooklyn, New York, said her bout with long covid has...
Afraid of needles? China rolling out oral covid-19 vaccine
BEIJING — The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday in what appears to be a world first. The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated people, according to an...
Amid covid, heart attack deaths jump sharply among young adults
As the number of covid-19 infection surged during the pandemic, deaths from heart attacks rose sharply as well, with adults ages 25-44 experiencing the most significant increases, according to new research from scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “The dramatic rise in heart attacks during the pandemic has...
