South Korea began easing restrictions on large concerts and sports events on Monday after announcing last week it would loosen a series of coronavirus curbs as the country pushes ahead with its vaccination drive. Up to 4,000 people will be allowed to attend K-Pop concerts and other cultural shows from …

South Korea will exempt some travellers who have received their COVID-19 vaccine shots overseas from its mandatory two-week quarantine starting July 1, health authorities said on Sunday. As of May 5, the quarantine exemption was only applicable to people fully vaccinated in South Korea. The new policy will apply only …

Russia has tested a nasal spray form of its COVID-19 vaccine that is suitable for children aged 8-12, and plans to launch the new product in September, the scientist who led the development of the Sputnik V vaccine said on Saturday. Alexander Gintsburg, who heads the Gamaleya Institute that developed …

Iraq recorded 4320 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Friday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 20 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 4130 patients have achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in …

Wealthy nations begin a key summit with Biden in attendance, as some campaign groups condemn vaccine ‘charity’ plan as a drop in the ocean. G7 leaders are meeting for their first in-person talks in nearly two years, with an expected pledge to donate one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the …

India reported on Thursday the highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 in the world, at 6,148, after a big eastern state revised its figures to account for people who succumbed to the disease at home or in private hospitals. The health department of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, revised …

Two passengers on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean have tested positive for Covid-19. The pair were traveling on the MSC Seaside cruise ship and disembarked with their families in Syracuse, Sicily, on Tuesday, MSC said on Wednesday. The two passengers were asymptomatic. The cruise had previously docked in Malta …

The leaders of the European Union and the United States are set to commit at a summit in Brussels next week to ending their transatlantic trade disputes and to call for a new study into the origins of COVID-19, according to a draft communique. The seven-page draft, seeks to show …

China administered about 14.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on June 8, bringing the total number administered to 808.96 million, data from the National Health Authority showed on Wednesday.

Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it will begin testing its COVID-19 vaccine in a bigger group of children under age 12 after selecting a lower dose of the shot in an earlier stage of the trial. The study will enroll up to 4,500 children at more than 90 clinical sites …

Mongolia goes to the polls on Wednesday to choose its sixth democratically-elected president, with the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) on the cusp of consolidating its power following a low-key campaign crimped by COVID-19 curbs. The vote is the first after constitutional amendments stripped the office of some of its …

Sergio Busquets has left Spain’s pre-Euro 2020 training camp after testing positive for Covid-19, the country’s football federation (RFEF) announced on Sunday. In a statement, the RFEF said Spain captain Busquets, 32, tested positive earlier on Sunday, with the rest of the squad all testing negative. The RFEF added that …

China administered about 14.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on June 6, bringing the total number administered to 777.88 million, data from the National Health Authority showed on Monday.

Australia’s second-most populous state Victoria on Sunday reported two new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, with the low number raising hopes that a hard lockdown in the state’s capital Melbourne will be eased on June 10. Two other new cases were reported on Sunday by an aged care home, but the …

Filming in Britain on the latest installment of the Tom Cruise franchise is halted for two weeks after people working on the movie tested positive for coronavirus. Filming in Britain on the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie has been shut down for two weeks after some people working on the movie …

Diversity in flu virus strains and lineages has declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some experts speculating the potential extinction of certain virulent strains, news reports revealed. Over the years, flu continuously evolves to weaken and evade immune defenses developed by humans to fend them off and in the years …

With COVID-19 infections coming down to the lowest level country-wide in nearly two months to 120,529 new cases in the last 24 hours, India’s major cities today announced significant relaxations in lockdowns in New Delhi and Mumbai. Government and private offices will be allowed to reopen with 50 percent attendance …

Iraq recorded 4157 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Friday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 26 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 4126 patients have achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Iraq, …

The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged more than 100 million workers into poverty, the UN has said, warning that employment won’t reach pre-pandemic levels again until 2023 at the earliest. “In 2020, an estimated 8.8% of total working hours were lost – the equivalent of the hours worked in one year …

Australia’s Victoria state on Wednesday extended a snap COVID-19 lockdown for a second week in Melbourne in a bid to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious virus strain first detected in India but will ease some restrictions in other regions. Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, was plunged into lockdown …