Covid 19
Omicron new subvariant XBB.1.5 accounts for over 60% of new Covid infections in US
XBB.1.5 is spreading quickly in the US. It made up 37.5 per cent of the total cases in the week ending January 14, and rose to 49.5 per cent in the week ending January 21, according to the CDC. XBB.1.5 is currently the most transmissible variant in the country. The subvariant may spur more Covid-19 cases based on genetic characteristics and early growth rate estimates, according to the WHO.
China claims Covid wave has past its peaked
According to China's Center for Disease Control (CDC), the number of critically ill patients in hospital peaked in the first week of January, then rapidly declined by more than 70 per cent, says the Guardian report. The number of deaths also reached its highest level that week, the CDC data revealed.
New Omicron subvariant accounts for half new Covid infections in US
The subvariant XBB.1.5 is spreading quickly in the US. It made up 35.5 per cent of the total cases in the week ending January 7, rising to 37.2 per cent in the week ending January 14, according to the CDC on Friday. XBB.1.5 is currently the most transmissible variant in the country. The subvariant may spur more Covid-19 cases based on genetic characteristics and early growth rate estimates.
US reports 26,000 weekly child Covid-19 cases
This is a decrease from the previous week, but likely an undercount that increased during the holidays and in 2023, according to the report. Nearly 15.3 million children in the country have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic. More than 140,000 of these cases have been added in the past four weeks, Xinhua news agency reported.
China's Covid death data underestimate true toll: Report
While the number swamps the few dozen deaths previously recorded in the official tally - which drew widespread criticism both at home and abroad, including from the World Health Organization (WHO) - experts say it's still likely to be an underestimate given the enormous scale of the outbreak and the mortality rates seen at the height of omicron waves in other countries that initially pursued a Covid Zero strategy.
After three years of Covid restrictions, Hong Kong, China resume high speed railway services
At 7:03 a.m. local time, a high-speed train left the Hong Kong West Kowloon Station for Shenzhen, the first of such trains since the pandemic disrupted the cross-border bullet train services, Xinhua News Agency reported. Liao Jun, a student from Jiangxi Province who studies in Hong Kong, was excited to catch the first train back to the mainland.
Indian-American named second-in-command at US CDC
"In my new role, I will be honored to serve not just Maine, but the entire nation and carry forward the good work that we have done here. As I prepare for this next step, I thank the people of Maine for taking care of me, as I've always asked them to take care of each other," Nirav D. Shah said in a statement.
Almost 60,000 people have died of Covid in China in past five weeks
Anecdotal reports and long queues at morgues and crematoriums point to a high death toll, but until Saturday the authorities had only officially recorded a few dozen Covid-19 deaths, the report said. The shortfall was due to stringent definitions of how a death is attributed to Covid. Only people who died of respiratory failure were counted.
China may be seeing around 10 million Covid reinfections on top of 900 million infections
Reports of infection rates of around 70 per cent across much of China in recent days would mean an estimated 900 million people in China have been infected at least once with Omicron. If Chen's figure were to be extrapolated nationwide, that would mean the country is also seeing around 10 million reinfections, RFA reported.
US health agencies see possible link between Pfizer's updated Covid-19 shot, strokes
Following the availability and use of the updated vaccine, CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink, a near real-time surveillance system, met the statistical criteria to prompt additional investigation into "whether there was a safety concern" for ischemic stroke in people aged 65
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