Global Health

Paxlovid reduces risk of long Covid, Veterans Affairs study finds | CNN Paxlovid, the antiviral pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19, also reduces the risk of long Covid, according to a new study by researchers at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Jamie Gumbrecht CNN

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What exit? China doubles down on zero-Covid pledge despite public frustration China has reiterated its unswerving commitment to its longstanding zero-Covid policy, despite mounting public frustration the stringent measures are costing the very lives they're intended to protect. By Nectar Gan, CNN CNN

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The unrelenting campaign has kept infections and deaths low at great economic and social cost, as new fast-spreading variants make containing the virus near impossible....

Reports say China aiming for less disruptive COVID policies BEIJING (AP) — Chinese officials are trying to quell an outcry over the death of a 3-year-old boy from a quarantined residential compound that added to public anger at anti-virus controls that have confined millions of people to their homes. AP NEWS

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The boy died at a hospital in Lanzhou of carbon monoxide poisoning blamed on a gas leak. His father accused health workers who were enforcing the closure of the compound of refusing to help and trying to stop him as he rushed his son to the hospital.

Two early US programs successfully traced COVID case contacts One report details a massive NYC effort to probe 941,035 COVID-19 cases and follow up with their contacts. CIDRAP

A pair of new studies describe how two US jurisdictions quickly mobilized teams of contact tracers to identify and isolate people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, with a massive New York City effort finding 1.4 contacts per case and a college student-led Central Pennsylvania initiative that may have led to fewer symptomatic household infections.