Tag - covid-19

 
 

COVID 19

JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 28, 2023
Japan approves first domestically developed COVID-19 XBB vaccine
The XBB-adapted coronavirus vaccine will be available as a booster under the nation’s free COVID-19 vaccination program beginning next week.
Police officers block Wulumuqi Street in Shanghai on Nov. 27, 2022, amid protests over China's 'zero-COVID' policy.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 26, 2023
'Still suffocated': Mourning China's 'zero-COVID' protests a year on
Vigils for victims of a fire quickly morphed into calls to end zero-COVID measures — and in some cases, to topple Xi Jinping.
Children and their parents wait at an outpatient area at a children's hospital in Beijing on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Nov 25, 2023
What we know so far about surging respiratory illnesses in China
While emphasizing that the full situation remains unclear, experts say there is little to suggest the cases were caused by a new virus.
A survey found that the number of children newly hospitalized for anorexia nervosa in Japan came to 183 in fiscal 2022, up around 60% from fiscal 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 24, 2023
Anorexia in children remained an issue three years into pandemic
Cases in fiscal 2022 were 40% higher than the level in fiscal 2019, before the pandemic.
Children and their parents wait at a hospital in Beijing on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 23, 2023
WHO asks China for more data on respiratory illness outbreak
Northern China has reported an increase in "influenza-like illness" since mid-October when compared to the same period in the previous three years.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2023
Visitors to Japan in October exceed pre-COVID level for first time
Visitor numbers improved to 100.8% of levels seen in 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19 led to travel curbs around the world.
WeWork sought U.S. bankruptcy protection on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 7, 2023
SoftBank's WeWork, once most valuable U.S. startup, goes bankrupt
The company reported estimated assets and liabilities ranging from $10 billion to $50 billion, according to a bankruptcy filing.
A health care worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a child in Rio de Janeiro in January 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023
How we got COVID’s risk right but the response wrong
It was not the initial consensus on the fatality rate that drove the response but rather the way the risks of COVID-19 were balanced with the costs.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 27, 2023
Tokyo promotes awareness of children's COVID-19 aftereffects
The leaflet shows a wide range of aftereffects seen among elementary and junior and senior high school students.
Troy Sutton, a virologist at Pennsylvania State University, on July 25, 2023. Sutton says that health officials referred to the public controversy over the lab leak theory in advising him to pursue different experiments.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 18, 2023
Lab leak fight casts chill over virology research
While some believe practices such as gain-of-function research could fend off the next pandemic, others worry that they are more likely to start one.
When COVID-19 first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2023
Life after COVID turns rocky for reshaped health care businesses
When the coronavirus first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
Medics tend to COVID-19 patients at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2023
Japan-led team identifies how severe COVID-19 cases develop
The research results are expected to facilitate the development of drugs to prevent serious COVID-19 complications.
A new study defines some critical differences in certain biomarkers of people with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023
Long COVID is real. Now the evidence is piling up.
In what the researchers believe is a first, they did a detailed study of the differences between people with long COVID and those who are healthy.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023
Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance
Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
A screen at the Karolinska Institute shows this year's laureates Katalin Kariko of Hungary (left) and Drew Weissman of the U.S. during the announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2023
Pair win medicine Nobel for work related to COVID-19 vaccines
Their findings "fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system," the Nobel committee said.
Chinese tourists watch the North Korean border on the Yalu river in the Chinese border town of Dandong, in China's northeastern Liaoning province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 2, 2023
China's gateway to North Korea waits in vain for border opening
The bustling northeastern city of Dandong offers a window into isolated North Korea.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks to members of the media earlier this year in Wellington.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023
New Zealand PM tests positive for COVID-19 amid election campaign
Chris Hipkins has cold and flu symptoms, according to a statement from his office, and will be isolating for five days or until he tests negative.
People visit the area near Sensoji Temple, a popular tourist destination, in Tokyo's Asakusa district on Sept. 7.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023
Japan's schools face double whammy of the flu and COVID-19
In the period between Sept. 11 and 17, the average national influenza case count rose to over 7.03 per medical institution from just 4.48 the week prior.
A nurse pushes a bed at the COVID-19 ward at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2023
Long COVID linked to multiple organ changes, research suggests
A third of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have "abnormalities" in multiple organs months after getting infected, the study said.
A visitor looks at portraits of former United Nations Secretaries-General at U.N. headquarters ahead of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2023
World disappointed by the U.N. now looks elsewhere for answers
If the body's strongest members keep resisting reform, the Global South may have no choice but to seek new options, including those offered by China.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes