Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Sanofi sees EU regulatory decision on its COVID booster in weeks
The European Union’s drugs regulator may be a few weeks from deciding whether to approve the experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by French drugmaker Sanofi and its British partner GSK, a Sanofi executive said on Monday. The companies’ bivalent vaccine targets the Beta variant as well as the original Wuhan strain of the virus. Trial results also showed the shot confers protection against the Omicron variant currently widespread in Europe.
China’s Chengdu extends COVID curbs and will conduct more mass testing
The Chinese city of Chengdu will continue to impose COVID lockdown curbs in most of the city and conduct more city-wide mass testing from Monday to Wednesday, the city’s government announced on Sunday. The southern metropolis, which placed its 21 million people under lockdown on Thursday, said it would relax the curbs only in the district of Xinjin and a county-level city of Qionglai.
China’s Shenzhen to adopt tiered COVID measures; Chengdu extends lockdown
China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen said it will adopt tiered anti-virus restriction measures starting on Monday, while the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu announced an extension of lockdown curbs, as the country grapples with fresh outbreaks. Shenzhen, which went into a weekend lockdown on Saturday, announced a new round of COVID-19 testing and vowed to “marshal all available resources, mobilize all forces, and take all possible measures” to stamp out the pandemic.
Monkeypox infections decline in hotbed Spain, health minister says
New infections with monkeypox are steadily declining in Spain, which has recorded the world’s second-highest tally of cases in this year’s global outbreak, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Monday. “With all caution, we are in a stable period of decline of the disease and its transmission,” she said after a meeting with health authorities from the Spanish regions.
Hong Kong discovers first case of monkeypox
Hong Kong has reported its first case of monkeypox, health authorities said on Tuesday, after symptoms were discovered in a 30-year-old man who arrived from the Phillippines after traveling in the United States and Canada. It marks the first imported case in Hong Kong of monkeypox, a viral disease that the World Health Organisation has declared a global health emergency.
Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 nasal vaccine approved for restricted use in India
Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 recombinant nasal vaccine has been approved by the Indian drug regulator, the country’s health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted on Tuesday. The regulator approved the vaccine for primary immunization of those aged 18 years and above, for restricted use in emergency situations, Mandaviya added.
Legionnaires’ outbreak linked as cause to pneumonia deaths in Argentina
Health authorities confirmed on Saturday that an infectious pneumonia outbreak that killed four people in northwest Argentina had died of Legionnaires’ disease. The cases are linked to a single private clinic in the city of San Miguel de Tucuman, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
CVS to buy Signify Health in $8 billion deal
CVS Health Corp on Monday agreed to buy home healthcare services company Signify Health for about $8 billion in cash, a move that will enable one of the largest U.S. healthcare companies to provide further care management to patients in their homes. Healthcare companies like CVS have been expanding beyond managing health and pharmacy benefits with acquisitions of doctors groups and surgical centers in recent years.
(With inputs from agencies.)
