NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The second surge of COVID-19 cases in India has swamped hospitals much faster than the first because mutations in the virus mean each patient is infecting many more people than before, epidemiologists and doctors say. India’s…
Read MoreEU Countries Move Toward COVID Passes to Reopen Summer Travel
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union countries formally agreed on Wednesday to launch COVID travel passes as a step towards reopening to tourism this summer and will negotiate details with the bloc’s lawmakers in May, two diplomatic sources said. The certificates…
Read MoreHealthcare Collapse Imminent, Sao Paulo Warns, as COVID Surges
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s richest and most populous state, Sao Paulo, has warned its ability to care for seriously ill COVID-19 patients was on the verge of collapse as it ran perilously low on key drugs, according to a…
Read MoreMexican-Made COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready This Year
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico aims to have developed a vaccine against COVID-19 that could be granted approval for emergency use this year, a senior official said on Tuesday, an outcome that could wean it off unreliable foreign supplies for…
Read MoreOntario Hospitals May Have to Withhold Care as COVID-19 Fills ICUs
TORONTO (Reuters) – Doctors in the Canadian province of Ontario may soon have to decide who can and cannot receive treatment in intensive care as the number of coronavirus infections sets records and patients are packed into hospitals still stretched…
Read MoreEuropean Countries May Have to Mix COVID-19 Shots Amid AstraZeneca Crisis
PARIS (Reuters) – Several European countries are considering mixing up COVID-19 vaccines for citizens who received a first dose of AstraZeneca’s shot, an unprecedented move that highlights challenges for governments struggling to tame fresh rises in infections. Vaccination programmes have…
Read MoreCanada Is Facing ‘Very Serious’ Third Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic: PM Trudeau
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s hospitalizations are surging, intensive care beds are filling up and COVID-19 variants are spreading as a third wave of the pandemic sweeps across much of the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday. “Around the…
Read MoreFrance Sees Biggest Jump in COVID-19 Intensive Care Patients in Months
PARIS (Reuters) – France reported on Friday that 5,254 people were in intensive care units with COVID-19, an increase of 145 people in one day and the highest daily increase in five months. The risk of emergency wards being unable…
Read MoreSuper-Spreader Events Give Life to Virus Variants
(Reuters) – Super-spreader events, in which an infected person transmits the virus to many other people, are critical to the survival and predominance of new variants, researchers have found. If coronavirus transmission only occurs one person at a time, a…
Read MoreExisting COVID Vaccines May Protect Against Brazilian Variant: Oxford Study
LONDON (Reuters) – Existing vaccines may protect against the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus, according to a University of Oxford study which also highlighted how a variant first found in South Africa poses the biggest headache for vaccine makers. Coronavirus…
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