Covid Europe

Germany's birth rate has plummeted as worries about the economy, the Ukraine war and the Covid pandemic saw families put off having children, a think-tank said on Wednesday.

Scientists have warned that a "more contagious" variant of Covid-19, dubbed XEC, is spreading more rapidly across Europe and could soon become the dominant strain.

A new Covid-19 subvariant named XEC is spreading rapidly across Europe, having first been detected in Germany.

Britain let down its citizens by leaving the nation ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic because of significantly flawed planning and failures by ministers and scientific experts, a public inquiry concluded in a scathing report on Thursday.

Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested 22 people and seized assets from villas to Rolexes worth over 600 million euros ($652 million) as part of an investigation into alleged fraud tied to European Union and Italian funding schemes.

Spain's government proposed a nationwide mandate for people to wear masks in hospitals and health clinics on Monday, and Italy said respiratory illness infection rates had hit a record, as flu and COVID spread across Europe.

A higher dose of the COVID-19 drug, dexamethasone, may have less beneficial effects for patients in India as compared with those in Europe, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia journal.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Putin had invited Kim Jong to Russia for what will be the North Korean's second known visit to Russia and his first trip abroad since the COVID pandemic.

A UN anti-racism committee on Thursday urged rich countries -- particularly Britain, Germany, Switzerland and the United States -- to waive coronavirus vaccine patents and said they violated a guarantee against racial discrimination.

North Korea has moved to further open up from strict pandemic-era isolation, with state media reporting Sunday that citizens living abroad have been allowed to reenter the country.

A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.

The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the most transmissible Covid-19 subvariant so far, is spreading quickly across the United States and was predicted on Friday to become Europe's dominant strain in a matter of weeks.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it did not expect a surge of Covid-19 cases in China to "significantly impact" the situation in Europe.

The world's eight billion people on Saturday prepared to usher in 2023 and farewell a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises and Lionel Messi's world cup glory.

Infections from some antibiotic-resistant pathogens known as superbugs have more than doubled in health care facilities in Europe, an EU agency said on Thursday, providing further evidence of the wider impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany's birth rate has plummeted as worries about the economy, the Ukraine war and the Covid pandemic saw families put off having children, a think-tank said on Wednesday.

Scientists have warned that a "more contagious" variant of Covid-19, dubbed XEC, is spreading more rapidly across Europe and could soon become the dominant strain.

A new Covid-19 subvariant named XEC is spreading rapidly across Europe, having first been detected in Germany.

Britain let down its citizens by leaving the nation ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic because of significantly flawed planning and failures by ministers and scientific experts, a public inquiry concluded in a scathing report on Thursday.

Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested 22 people and seized assets from villas to Rolexes worth over 600 million euros ($652 million) as part of an investigation into alleged fraud tied to European Union and Italian funding schemes.

Spain's government proposed a nationwide mandate for people to wear masks in hospitals and health clinics on Monday, and Italy said respiratory illness infection rates had hit a record, as flu and COVID spread across Europe.

A higher dose of the COVID-19 drug, dexamethasone, may have less beneficial effects for patients in India as compared with those in Europe, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia journal.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Putin had invited Kim Jong to Russia for what will be the North Korean's second known visit to Russia and his first trip abroad since the COVID pandemic.

A UN anti-racism committee on Thursday urged rich countries -- particularly Britain, Germany, Switzerland and the United States -- to waive coronavirus vaccine patents and said they violated a guarantee against racial discrimination.

North Korea has moved to further open up from strict pandemic-era isolation, with state media reporting Sunday that citizens living abroad have been allowed to reenter the country.

A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.

The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the most transmissible Covid-19 subvariant so far, is spreading quickly across the United States and was predicted on Friday to become Europe's dominant strain in a matter of weeks.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it did not expect a surge of Covid-19 cases in China to "significantly impact" the situation in Europe.

The world's eight billion people on Saturday prepared to usher in 2023 and farewell a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises and Lionel Messi's world cup glory.

Infections from some antibiotic-resistant pathogens known as superbugs have more than doubled in health care facilities in Europe, an EU agency said on Thursday, providing further evidence of the wider impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.