Health

Britain has increased the amount of dexamethasone it has in stock and on order to 240,000 doses, health minister Matt Hancock said on Wednesday, after a preliminary trial result showed it reduced mortality in the most severe COVID-19 cases.

Shares of Chembio Diagnostics Inc slumped more than 60% on Wednesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 antibody test kit on concerns about its accuracy.

There is no reason to stockpile the generic steroid drug dexamethasone, a German health ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, after British trial data showed it reduced death rates among patients with the most severe COVID-19 infections.

Mink at a farm in Denmark were found to be infected with the new coronavirus and all 11,000 of the animals there will have to be culled, Danish authorities said on Wednesday.

Germany is not currently planning to take any further stakes in biotech firms, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday after Berlin announced it would take a stake in German vaccine developer CureVac.

Indonesia reported 1,031 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday taking the total to 41,431 and overtaking Singapore with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia.

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Russia already uses dexamethasone to treat patients with the novel coronavirus, but does not view it as a panacea against COVID-19, the RIA news agency cited Russian health ministry official Sergei Avdeev as saying on Wednesday.

Beijing cannot rule out the possibility that the number of COVID-19 cases in the city will stay at current levels for some time, a city official said on Wednesday.

The situation in China, where a second wave of coronavirus infection is feared, is "worrying" but trends in France remain positive, Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud said on Wednesday.

A vaccine against the coronavirus pandemic by CureVac could be on the market in mid-2021, the unlisted German company said on Wednesday.

Russia said on Wednesday that differences between other nations over the role of the World Health Organization have delayed a video conference being organized between the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the RIA news agency reported.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to temporarily relax rules on trials of drugs involving genetically engineered organisms as an emergency measure to speed the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus.

The report on Tuesday of a powerful treatment for the new coronavirus brought skepticism along with optimism among U.S. doctors, who said the recent withdrawal of an influential COVID-19 study left them wanting to see more data.

Russia on Wednesday reported 7,843 new cases of the novel coronavirus, its lowest daily caseload registered since April 30, pushing the nationwide total to 553,301.

It wasn’t easy to build a COVID-19 antibody test during Illinois’ statewide lockdown.

Britain's health minister on Wednesday hailed the use of a steroid called dexamethasone for treating coronavirus patients as the best news so far of the outbreak.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, is receiving treatment and will work remotely and through his aides, he said late on Tuesday.

Scores of domestic flights in and out of Beijing were cancelled on Wednesday as officials ramped up attempts to contain a coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese capital over the past week that has sparked fears of renewed wider contagion.

Thailand on Wednesday reported no new coronavirus infections or deaths, marking 23 successive days without a domestic transmission.