BEIJING, Dec 26  (Reuters):  In more than three decades of emergency medicine, Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein said, he has never seen anything like this. Patients are arriving at his hospital in ever-increasing numbers; almost all are elderly and many are very unwell with Covid and pneumonia symptoms, he said. Bernstein’s account reflects similar testimony from medical staff across China …

  BEIJING, Dec 25 (Reuters):  China’s National Health Commission (NHC) stopped publishing daily Covid-19 data on Sunday, amid doubts about their reliability as infections have exploded in the wake of an abrupt easing of tough restrictions. “Relevant Covid information will be published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for reference and research,” the commission said in a …

  CHONGQING, Dec 23 (AFP): “Deceased, deceased,” a staffer in full protective gear shouted as she handed a nurse a death certificate, their hospital in central  China overflowing with COVID patients. China is battling a wave of infections that has hit the elderly hard, but has officially logged only a handful of deaths from the coronavirus after the government redefined …

  BEIJING, Dec. 23 (INP): Landing Med, a medical technology company based in Wuhan, China, dispatched three self-developed cervical cancer screening devices along with 5,000 sets of supporting consumable items to Pakistan. With these AI-powered devices, 10,000 Pakistani women will receive free cervical cancer screening and early diagnosis of tumors, China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Friday. This is the …

  SHANGHAI, Dec 22 (Reuters):  A Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a “tragic battle” with Covid-19 as it expects half of the city’s 25 million people to get infected by the end of the year while the virus sweeps through China largely unchecked. After widespread protests and a relentless rise in cases, China this month took …

  BEIJING, Dec 21 (FD): China said Wednesday that not a single person had died of Covid-19 the previous day, after changing the criteria for recording virus deaths to mean most are no longer counted. Hospitals are struggling, pharmacy shelves are stripped bare, and crematoriums are overwhelmed in the wake of the Chinese government’s sudden decision to lift years of …

  ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (FD): Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child (SPARC) organized an interactive session with social media influencers to address the need to ban the online sale and advertisement of emerging tobacco products. The speakers emphasized that tobacco industry has been manipulating our children and youth into buying novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, nicotine …

  BEIJING, Dec 20  (Reuters):  Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as the United States said Beijing s surprise decision to let the virus run free was a concern for the world. China this month abruptly began dismantling its stringent “zero-COVID” regime of mass lockdowns after protests against curbs that had …

  BERLIN, Dec 15 (AFP): When Debora Zilz rushed her baby son Andreas to a Berlin hospital because of a serious respiratory illness, she got a shock. “There was no space,” she recalled. Medics desperately rang other hospitals in the German capital and neighbouring Brandenburg state in an effort to find a bed for the 13-day-old. “Finally, after a night …

  ISLAMABAD, Dec 14 (FD): In a dialogue arranged by Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC), health activists raised concerns that federal cabinet has approved SRO to regularize heated tobacco products. According to tobacco control activists and health experts this decision will put Pakistani children in grave danger. Malik Imran Ahmed, Country Head, Campaign for Tobacco …