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Coronavirus category, Page 29

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Covid-19 and pregnancy: Women regret not getting the vaccine
PHENIX CITY, Ala. — Sometimes when she’s feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude. She is lucky to be here, holding her baby. Harrison was 29 weeks pregnant and unvaccinated when she got sick with covid-19 in August. Her...
U.S. Homeland Security secretary tests positive for covid
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tested positive Tuesday for covid-19 and is isolating at home, the agency said. The secretary has been fully vaccinated and is experiencing only “mild congestion,” DHS said in a statement. The agency said he will work from home under the protocols recommended by the U.S....
Vaccine mix-and-match approach poised to get FDA clearance
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is poised to clear the use of a covid-19 booster from a different manufacturer than the one that supplied a patient’s original inoculation, according to people familiar with the matter. The FDA is still considering the scope of the measure, including whether to...
Russia’s coronavirus infections over 8 million; daily deaths high
MOSCOW — Russia’s total number of coronavirus infections has topped 8 million, more than 5% of the population, and the daily infection toll hit a new record. The national coronavirus task force said Monday that 34,325 new infections over the past day raised the pandemic total to 8,027,012. It also...
Why covid boosters weren’t tweaked to better match variants
More covid-19 booster shots may be on the way — but when it’s your turn, you’ll get an extra dose of the original vaccine, not one updated to better match the extra-contagious delta variant. And that has some experts wondering if the booster campaign is a bit of a missed...
Lawsuits demand unproven ivermectin for covid patients
NEW YORK — Mask rules, vaccination mandates and business shutdowns have all landed in the courts during the covid-19 outbreak, confronting judges with questions of science and government authority. Now they are increasingly being asked to weigh in on the deworming drug ivermectin. At least two dozen lawsuits have been...
UPMC doctors offer perspective as more covid booster shots near approval
As federal regulators move closer to approving booster shots of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson covid-19 vaccines, UPMC doctors remain focused on the unvaccinated — those they called most vulnerable people. “I want to make sure we do not put the cart in front of the horse,” said Dr....
FDA panel endorses booster shot for J&J covid vaccine
WASHINGTON — A panel of U.S. health advisers endorsed booster doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot covid-19 vaccine Friday, saying they should be offered at least two months after immunization. J&J has asked the Food and Drug Administration for flexibility with its booster, arguing the extra dose adds important protection...
France requires unvaccinated to pay for covid tests
PARIS — Covid-19 tests in France are no longer free for unvaccinated adults unless they are prescribed by a doctor. While tests remain free for vaccinated adults and all children under 18, adults who have not gotten their shots will have to pay $25-$52 to get tested as of Friday....
U.K.: 1000s may have gotten false negative covid test results
LONDON — British health officials said Friday that 43,000 people may have been wrongly told they don’t have the coronavirus because of problems at a private laboratory. The U.K. Health Security Agency said the Immensa Health Clinic Ltd. lab in Wolverhampton, central England, has been suspended from processing swabs after...
Alaskan state senator banned from airline for refusing to wear a mask has covid
An Alaska state senator’s refusal to wear a mask on a plane forced her to drive 750 miles and take a ferry to vote against a public health emergency bill. Now, she has covid-19. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, announced this week that she has tested positive and has devised her...
FDA panel endorses lower-dose Moderna covid shot for booster 
U.S. health advisers said Thursday that some Americans who received Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine at least six months ago should get a half-dose booster to rev up protection against the coronavirus. The panel of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously to recommend a booster shot for seniors,...
Alaska GOP legislators urge easier ivermectin access for covid
ANCHORAGE — Several Republican state lawmakers are urging easier access for Alaskans to ivermectin amid the pandemic, though ivermectin is not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for preventing or treating covid-19. Senate Majority Leader Shelley Hughes of Palmer said she urged Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state...
Covid vaccinations on the rise in Allegheny County, statewide
First-dose covid vaccinations in Allegheny County rose for the 18th straight day on Wednesday, data show, and officials said the county has surpassed the 800,000 mark for residents with at least once dose. At the same time, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that 70% of Pennsylvanians ages 18 and older are...
Vaccine mix-and-match approach bolsters antibodies, study finds
Mixing covid-19 vaccines produces as much or more antibodies as using the same shot as a booster, according to preliminary results of a widely awaited U.S. government-sponsored trial. The trial is the first major U.S. study to compare the effects of using different vaccines as boosters from the initial shot...
Penn State will now mandate covid-19 vaccine for University Park employees
All of Penn State’s faculty and staff at University Park are now required to be fully vaccinated for covid-19 by Dec. 8, in order to be compliant with an executive order issued last month, the university announced late Tuesday. Although President Joe Biden’s order requiring vaccination for all federal employees...
Romanian doctors issue ‘cry of despair’ amid virus surge
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romanian doctors sent an open letter Wednesday titled “a cry of despair” as the country’s overwhelmed and deteriorated health care system copes with a record-setting surge of coronavirus infections and deaths. The College of Physicians of Bucharest, a nongovernmental organization representing doctors in Romania’s capital, said in...
FDA grapples with timing of booster for J&J covid-19 vaccine
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it is wrestling with whether and when recipients of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson covid-19 vaccine need another dose — at six months or as early as two months. In an online review, FDA scientists didn’t reach a firm conclusion, citing...
Report says U.K.’s slow virus lockdown cost thousands of lives
LONDON — The British government failure to impose a lockdown in the early days of the covid-19 pandemic ranks among England’s worst public health blunders, lawmakers concluded Tuesday in the country’s first comprehensive report on the pandemic. The deadly delay led to thousands of unnecessary deaths and derived from the...
California coronavirus death count tops 70,000 as cases fall
SACRAMENTO — California’s coronavirus death toll reached another once-unfathomable milestone — 70,000 people — on Monday as the state emerges from the latest infection surge with the lowest rate of new cases among all states. Last year at this time, cases in the state started ticking up and by January...
Russia’s new covid-19 infections, deaths near all-time highs
Russia’s daily coronavirus infections and deaths hovered near all-time highs Monday amid sluggish vaccination rates and the Kremlin’s reluctance to toughen restrictions. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 29,409 new confirmed cases — the highest number this year and just slightly lower than the pandemic record reached in December. After...
Merck asks FDA to authorize promising anti-covid pill
WASHINGTON — Drugmaker Merck asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its pill against covid-19 in what would add an entirely new and easy-to-use weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic. If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration — a decision that could come in a matter of weeks...
Allen West, Texas GOP candidate for governor, contracts covid-19
AUSTIN — Republican gubernatorial hopeful Allen West has contracted covid-19 and suspended in-person campaign events as he recuperates. West spokesman Luke Twombly confirmed late Saturday that West, 60, tested positive for the virus. West, who hours earlier tweeted that he had not been vaccinated against coronavirus, disclosed that his wife,...
Western Pa. hospitals: We won’t deny organ transplants to patients who refuse covid-19 vaccine
Medical providers in Colorado and Washington state have begun denying organ transplants to patients who refuse to get vaccinated for covid-19. That’s not happening in Western Pennsylvania, the Tribune-Review has learned. Neither of the region’s two largest hospital systems and transplant providers are linking transplant eligibility to covid-19 vaccination status....
Officials: Breakthrough covid cases increase, but vaccinations remain effective against severe illness, death
State health officials on Friday released new data that sheds some light on the frequency of covid-19 breakthrough cases as well as the related rates of hospitalization and death, though a lack of demographic data means some key questions about such cases remain unanswered. Over the past month, 135,098 people...


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