Health

Moderna Inc said on Friday it had started dosing patients in a mid-stage study with its experimental coronavirus vaccine and eventually plans to enroll 600 patients for the trial.

Once the coronavirus pandemic forced her Orangetheory gym to close, Chiaki Osaka was eager to stay in shape while staying inside her home in Cupertino, California.

Egypt registered 1,289 new coronavirus cases and 34 deaths, the health ministry said on Friday, marking another record of daily increases on both counts despite stricter curfew rules.

The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Friday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its immunotherapy Tecentriq in combination with its drug Avastin for the most common kind of liver cancer.

Sanofi has temporarily stopped recruiting new COVID-19 patients for two clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine and will no longer supply the anti-malaria drug to treat COVID-19 until concerns about safety are cleared up, it said on Friday.

France's coronavirus deaths rose by less than 100 for the ninth day running on Friday and new confirmed cases slowed again as the country gears up for easing lockdown.

Thirty-seven countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) appealed on Friday for common ownership of vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tools to tackle the global coronavirus pandemic, taking aim at patent laws they fear could become a barrier to sharing crucial supplies.

Quebec nurses and orderlies are pleading for time off this summer, ahead of a possible second wave of coronavirus infections in the fall, as Canada's hardest-hit province from the virus wrestles with a staffing crunch in its health sector.

At least 25 imported cases of the coronavirus have been detected in Spain over the past month, health authorities said on Friday, despite a strict ban on foreign tourism imposed since mid-March.

South Africa has a backlog of more than 96,000 unprocessed specimens awaiting coronavirus tests, the health ministry said on Friday, reflecting what it called a global shortage of test kits.

The United Kingdom's death toll from confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen by 324 to 38,161, finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday.

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 87 on Friday, against 70 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 516 from 593 on Thursday.

Robots that speak more than 53 languages, detect fever and determine if people are wearing face masks properly have been rolled out in Belgium as a first line of control in hospitals and shops.

U.S. hospitals said they have pulled way back on the use of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment, after several studies suggested it is not effective and may pose significant risks.

Spain's Health Ministry said recorded deaths from the coronavirus outbreak reached 27,121 on Friday, increasing by two in the last 24 hours.

Fewer people died in France in early May than in the same period in the two previous years following high excess death rates during the peak of the coronavirus epidemic in March-April, statistics agency INSEE said on Friday.

Thirty countries led by Costa Rica and the World Health Organization launched an initiative on Friday aimed at sharing vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tools to tackle the global coronavirus pandemic.

Healthcare professionals should closely monitor COVID-19 patients receiving malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for serious side effects, the European health regulator said on Friday, stressing the need for in-depth clinical data on benefits and risks.

The Philippines on Friday reported 21 more novel coronavirus deaths and 1,046 additional infections.