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[1/8] Seho Uyan, who survived a deadly earthquake, but lost his four relatives, sits in front of a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey February 11, 2023. Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, with more than 1 million in temporary shelters. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths described the earthquake as the region's worst event in 100 years, predicting the death toll would at least double. He praised Turkey's response, saying his experience was that disaster victims were always disappointed by early relief efforts. It has killed 24,617 inside Turkey, and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated since Friday.

☆ Malawi cholera death toll crosses 1,300: health official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The death toll from a cholera outbreak in Malawi has crossed 1,300, a senior Malawian health official said on Thursday, as the southern African country battles its deadliest outbreak yet. Cholera outbreaks happen regularly in Malawi, usually in the rainy season from November to March, but they only average an annual death toll of about 100. Malawi has conducted two oral cholera vaccination campaigns, but a global surge in cholera outbreaks means vaccine supplies are under strain. Other African countries, including Malawi's neighbours Mozambique and Zambia, have reported cholera cases. On Sunday, South Africa reported two imported cholera cases from Malawi, with the husband of one of the first two cases subsequently testing positive.

☆ Factbox: Turkey quake: international support and offers of aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Governments and international organisations have responded with offers of support after an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria. POLANDPoland will send rescue group HUSAR consisting of 76 firemen and eight rescue dogs, Interior and Administration Minister Mariusz Kamiński said. UKRAINEPresident Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was ready to send support. "We are in this moment close to the friendly Turkish people, ready to provide the necessary assistance," he said. GREECEGreek Prime Minister Kyrikos Mitsotakis offered condolences and support to Turkey, saying Greece was mobilizing its resources and will assist immediately.

☆ 'I feel my eyes burn': Thailand says stay indoors as air pollution spikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A view of the city amid air pollution in Bangkok, Thailand, February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Athit PerawongmethaBANGKOK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Air pollution in Bangkok and neighbouring Thai provinces spiked past safe levels on Thursday, prompting authorities to urge people to stay indoors and avoid strenuous outdoor activity. The country's pollution control department said "stagnant weather conditions" were exacerbating vehicle emissions and seasonal fires on agricultural lands. The level in Bangkok and the surrounding areas is currently 70.5 micrograms per cubic metre. Every year, exposure to outdoor air pollution is estimated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths, according to the WHO.

☆ WHO says Covid remains a global emergency but pandemic could near its end in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was hopeful that the world will transition out of the emergency phase of the pandemic this year. The World Health Organization on Monday said Covid-19 remains an global health emergency as the world enters the fourth year of the pandemic. The WHO decision comes after the U.S. earlier this month extended its public health emergency until April. Last month, the WHO chief said the end of the emergency phase of the pandemic is closer than ever before. "We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic.

DUBLIN, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A battle for compensation is brewing over delays in the delivery of commercial jets, with a Dublin aviation summit descending into a blame game over the worst industrial disruption in years. Aircraft contracts contain dense descriptions of adverse factors which excuse manufacturers for multiple types of delay, meaning they can avoid paying penalties or "liquidated damages". Excusable delays include "acts of God", natural disasters, fire, flood, earthquakes and epidemics, among other examples, according to extracts of past contracts filed with regulators. Non-excusable delays include anything that falls outside this catalogue, but are rare, experts say. 'OVER-OPTIMISTIC'"They are not excusable at all," Aengus Kelly, chief executive of lease giant AerCap (AER.N) told the Airfinance Journal conference when asked about the delays.

☆ Davos 2023: The World Economic Forum explained
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Siddharth K | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The World Economic Forum (WEF) returns to its snowy winter residency in the Swiss Alps this week with a record attendance of business and government leaders. The WEF's roots stretch back to 1971 when its founder Klaus Schwab invited executives from European companies to the then tiny ski resort of Davos, high in the Swiss Alps. With climate change top of the agenda, chiefs of major energy companies are back after a COVID-related hiatus. Others include IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He. Climate change topped the WEF's survey of global risk and energy company executives will mix with climate activists and environment ministers at the forum.

☆ Household wealth optimism collapses, global survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Barely two in five people believe their families will be better off in the future, according to a regular global survey that also identified growing levels of distrust in institutions among low-income households. It further confirmed how societies have been divided by the impacts of the pandemic and inflation. Higher-income households still broadly trust institutions such as government, business, media and NGOs. Globally, only 40% agreed with the statement "my family and I will be better off in five years" compared to 50% a year before, with advanced economies most downbeat: the United States (36%), Britain (23%), Germany (15%) and Japan (9%). While Edelman's longstanding Trust Index registered an average 63% trust level in key institutions among high-income U.S. respondents, that figure fell to just 40% among low-income groups.

After three years of strict and suffocating anti-virus controls, China in early December abruptly abandoned its "zero COVID" policy, letting the virus run freely through its 1.4 billion population. Several experts forecast more than one million people in China will die from the disease this year. TRAVEL RUSHBeijing's main rail station has been packed with passengers leaving the capital in recent days, according to Reuters witnesses. Meanwhile, daily arrivals in the gambling hub of Macau exceeded 55,000 on Saturday, the highest daily arrivals since the pandemic began. China's transport ministry has said it expects more than 2 billion trips in the weeks around the holidays.

[1/5] A Chinese police officer stands guard at in the mainland port area of West Kowloon High-Speed Train Station Terminus on the first day of the resumption of rail service to mainland China, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Hong Kong, China, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Tyrone SiuHONG KONG/BEIJING, Jan 15 (Reuters) - China resumed on Sunday high-speed rail services between Hong Kong and the mainland for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it dismantles travel curbs after Beijing scrapped quarantine for arrivals a week earlier. Operations at West Kowloon station have been smooth, with a flow of about 1,400 passengers by 10 a.m., said Cheung Chi-keung, head of operator MTR Corp’s (0066.HK) cross-boundary operations. Hong Kong's transport secretary, Lam Sai-hung, said he could not confirm when long-haul journeys would resume, but that would be after talks with mainland authorities. Reporting by Joyce Zhou and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong and Martin Quin Pollard and Shuyan Wang in Beijing; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The holiday, known before the pandemic as the world's largest annual migration of people, comes amid an escalating diplomatic spat over COVID curbs that saw Beijing introduce transit curbs for South Korean and Japanese nationals on Wednesday. The virus is spreading unchecked in China after Beijing abruptly began dismantling its previously tight curbs in early December following historic protests. Among them, South Korea and Japan have also limited flights and require tests on arrival, with passengers showing up as positive being sent to quarantine. COUNTING DEATHSSome of the governments that announced curbs on travellers from China cited concerns over Beijing's data transparency. Annual spending by Chinese tourists abroad reached $250 billion before the pandemic, with South Korea and Japan among the top shopping destinations.

☆ COVID wave past its peak in many parts of China - state media
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Bernard Orr | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BEIJING, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Many parts of China are already past their peak of COVID-19 infections, state media reported on Tuesday, with officials further downplaying the severity of the outbreak despite international concerns about its scale and impact. One official was quoted as saying nearly 90 million people had already been infected in Henan province. On Tuesday, a Health Times compilation of reports from local government officials and health experts across the country, suggested the COVID wave may be past its peak in many regions. Yin Yong, acting mayor of Beijing, was cited as saying the capital was also past its peak. Separately in the state-run China Daily, a prominent health official said the percentage of severe cases remained unclear.

☆ WHO backs mask-wearing on long flights given rapid US spread of Omicron variant
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Countries should consider recommending passengers wear masks on long haul flights to counter the latest Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 given its rapid spread in the United States, World Health Organisation officials said on Tuesday. In Europe, the XBB.1.5 subvariant is being detected in small but growing numbers, WHO/Europe officials said in a press briefing. That did not mean the agency recommends the testing of passengers coming from the United States at this stage, she added. XBB.1.5 is yet another descendant of Omicron, the most contagious variant of the virus causing COVID-19 that is now globally dominant. It is an offshoot of XBB, first detected in October, which is itself a recombinant of two other Omicron sub-variants.

☆ Bank of America just added these biotech stocks to its list of first-quarter picks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

BofA has added a number of biotechnology stocks — a sector that is hot on Wall Street right now – to its list of top picks for the first quarter. The bank identified the biotech stocks, as well as some medical technology companies, as part of its thematic investing picks, on themes it says are related to a "transforming world." BofA listed the stocks under themes such as ageing, obesity and pandemic. The bank added biotech firm BioNTech , as well as medical equipment company ResMed , to its list under this theme. The bank added medical technology firm Silk Road Medical , along with biotech firms Cerevel and Denali , to its list of stocks to play this theme.

Long queues formed at the Hong Kong international airport's check-in counters for flights to mainland cities including Beijing, Tianjin and Xiamen. Hong Kong media outlets estimated that thousands were crossing. Beijing has quotas on the number of people who can travel between Hong Kong and China each day. I'm thrilled, I can't believe it’s happening,” said a businesswoman surnamed Shen, 55, who flew in from Hong Kong. The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that China's COVID data underrepresents the number of hospitalisations and deaths from the disease.

☆ China's 'great migration' kicks-off under shadow of COVID
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Casey Hall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

BORDER REOPENINGSunday marks the reopening of China's border with Hong Kong and the end of China's requirement for inbound international travellers to quarantine. More than a dozen countries are now demanding COVID tests from Chinese travellers, as the World Health Organisation said China's official virus data underreported the true extent of its outbreak. In Shanghai, for example, the city government on Friday announced an end to free PCR tests for residents from Jan. 8. China has relied on nine domestically-developed COVID vaccines approved for use, including inactivated vaccines, but none have been adapted to target the highly-transmissible Omicron variant and its offshoots currently in circulation. China reported three new COVID deaths in the mainland for Friday, bringing its official virus death toll to 5,267, one of the lowest in the world.

☆ Taiwan offers China help again to deal with COVID surge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/StaffTAIPEI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan has again offered to provide China with assistance to help it deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases but Chinese authorities have not yet responded, official Taiwan media reported late on Thursday. Victor Wang, Head of Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre, told the official Central News Agency it sent an email to Chinese authorities this week and asked how Taiwan could help with the surge of cases in China. Rising cases in China has sparked concerns from the World Health Organisation that Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths. Wang said Taiwan has also sent an email to China in early December to "remind" authorities there about an community outbreak and severe cases among children. Taiwan and China have repeatedly sparred over their respective measures to control the spread of COVID.

The aviation industry, battered by years of pandemic curbs, has also been critical of the decisions to impose testing on travellers from China. China reported five new COVID deaths in the mainland for Thursday, bringing its official virus death toll to 5,264, one of the lowest in the world. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways (0293.HK) said on Thursday it would more than double flights to mainland China. Except for airplane wastewater testing by Malaysia and Thailand for the virus, the region's 11 nations will treat Chinese travellers like any others. As many as 76% of Chinese travel agencies ranked Southeast Asia as the top destination when outbound travel resumed, according to a survey released in December by trade show ITB China.

China reported one new COVID-19 death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to 5,259. Chinese health officials have said only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths. The methods for counting COVID deaths have varied across countries since the pandemic first erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. British-based health data firm Airfinity has estimated about 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID. TESTING WASTEWhile countries try to get more information on the extent and severity of China's outbreak, several have imposed requirements on travellers from China to be tested for COVID.

☆ EU recommends pre-flight testing of passengers from China, wastewater testing in airports
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

China plans to ease travel restrictions on Jan 8, despite a wave of new infections which has left Chinese hospitals and funeral houses overwhelmed. The IPCR also recommended that all passengers on flights to and from China should wear face masks, that EU governments introduce random testing of passengers arriving from China and that they test and sequence wastewater in airports with international flights and planes arriving from China. "The Member States agree to assess the situation and review the introduced measures by mid-January 2023," the IPCR said in statement. The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) said last week it did not currently recommend measures on travellers from China, because the variants circulating in China were already in the European Union. The ECDC also said EU citizens had relatively high vaccination levels and the potential for imported infections was low compared to daily infections in the EU, with healthcare systems currently coping.

☆ EU to discuss coordinated response to China COVID situation on Wed
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Jan 2 (Reuters) - European Union government health officials will hold talks on Wednesday on a coordinated response to the surge in COVID-19 infections in China, the Swedish EU presidency said on Monday, after December talks concluded with no decisions on the matter. At a similar meeting on Dec. 29, held online among over 100 representatives from EU governments, EU health agencies and the World Health Organisation, Italy urged the rest of the EU to follow its lead and test travellers from China for COVID, with Beijing poised to lift travel restrictions on Jan. 8. "There is a scheduled Integrated Political Crisis Response meeting on Wednesday, January 4, for an update of the COVID-19 situation in China and to discuss possible EU measures to be taken in a coordinated way," a spokeswoman for the Swedish presidency of the EU said. Kyriakides said the bloc should be "very vigilant" as reliable epidemiological and testing data for China were scarce, advising EU health ministers to assess their current practices on genomic sequencing of the coronavirus "as an immediate step". The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said last week it did not currently recommend measures on travellers from China.

☆ EU urges more checks for COVID variants given surge in China
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The commissioner's letter, dated Dec. 29, followed an online meeting of over 100 representatives from EU members, EU health agencies and the World Health Organisation to discuss how to deal with the outbreak in China. Italy has urged the rest of the European Union to follow its lead and test travellers from China, but most EU members have said they saw no need to do so. Kyriakides said some EU members had proposed measures such as the random testing of travellers. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says it does not currently recommend measures on travellers from China. It said the variants circulating in China were already in the European Union, EU citizens had relatively high vaccination levels and the potential imported infections were low compared to the number of daily infections in the EU, with health care systems currently coping.

The country spent big on quarantine and testing facilities over the past three years rather than bolstering hospitals and clinics and training medical staff, these people said. "There is no transition time for the medical system to prepare for this," said Zuofeng Zhang, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. The failure to boost vaccination rates among the vulnerable could imperil China's health system, more than a dozen experts said. The death of a 23-year-old medical student in Chengdu on Dec. 14 fueled public ire at the strain on China's health system. Chen Jiming, a researcher at China's Foshan University, said there was every chance that China's medical system could cope now that the country has ended quarantine for asymptomatic and mild cases.

Dec 21 (Reuters) - China may be struggling to keep a tally of COVID-19 infections as the country experiences a big spike in cases, a senior World Health Organization official said on Wednesday, amid concerns about a lack of data from the country. "In China, what's been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up," WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan said. "I wouldn't like to say that China is actively not telling us what's going on. REUTERS/Denis BalibouseThe WHO said it was ready to work with China to improve the way the country collects data around critical factors such as hospitalisation and death. China has nine domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines approved for use, more than any other country, but they have not been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant.

☆ Maiden Pharma hopes to reopen plant as Indian lab clears syrups suspected by WHO in Gambia deaths
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Krishna N. Das | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

I have not done anything wrong," Maiden Managing Director Naresh Kumar Goyal told Reuters. "We will now try to request the authorities to reopen the factory. Somani, said that tests on samples of Maiden's products had "been found to be complying with specifications" and no ethylene glycol or diethylene glycol was detected in them. A spokesperson for India's health ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The tests were carried out by the state-run Regional Drug Testing Laboratory in the northern city of Chandigarh, the government said earlier.

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