Health News Roundup: Philippines approves emergency use of Pfizer's COVID-19 drug Paxlovid; Hong Kong leader urges vaccinations as COVID infections swamp city and more

Biosecurity experts say Russia's movement of troops into Ukraine and bombardment of its cities have raised the risk of an escape of disease-causing pathogens, should any of those facilities be damaged. China's local symptomatic COVID cases nearly double; curbs start to bite Mainland China reported 402 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections with confirmed symptoms for March.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Philippines approves emergency use of Pfizer's COVID-19 drug Paxlovid

The Philippines has approved the emergency use of Paxlovid, Pfizer's COVID-19 drug, the country's food and drug agency said on Friday. It is the third COVID-19 drug approved by the agency for emergency use, after Roche's antibody cocktail and Merck & Co Inc's treatment pill.

Hong Kong leader urges vaccinations as COVID infections swamp city

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Friday that the city's vaccination program would focus on its elderly and children, as authorities battled to reduce a surge of coronavirus infections and climbing death rates which have ripped through care homes and overwhelmed hospitals. The global financial hub has reported more than 600,000 COVID-19 infections and more than 3,100 deaths - most of them in the past two weeks.

U.S. to extend airplane, transit mask mandate through April 18

President Joe Biden's administration will extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains, and in transit hubs through April 18 as public health authorities review when mask requirements should be dropped, the White House confirmed. The move extends the current requirements that were set to expire on March 18 by a month.

'You got rich off our dead bodies' opioid victims tell Purdue's Sacklers

Victims of America's opioid epidemic confronted members of the Sackler family that owns Purdue Pharma on Thursday with wrenching stories of suffering they said was caused by the painkillers that built the company's fortune. "You got rich off our dead bodies and told us it was our own fault for dying," Ryan Hampton told Richard Sackler, a former board member, during a Zoom hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

98% of U.S. population can ditch masks as COVID eases -CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late on Thursday said some 98% of the U.S. population live in locations where COVID-19 levels are low enough that people do not need to wear masks indoors. The CDC on Feb. 25 dramatically eased its COVID-19 guidelines for when Americans should wear masks indoors, saying they could drop them in counties experiencing what it described as low or medium COVID-19 levels.

Exclusive-WHO says it advised Ukraine to destroy pathogens in health labs to prevent disease spread

The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country's public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters on Thursday. Biosecurity experts say Russia's movement of troops into Ukraine and bombardment of its cities have raised the risk of an escape of disease-causing pathogens, should any of those facilities be damaged.

China's local symptomatic COVID cases nearly double; curbs start to bite

Mainland China reported 402 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections with confirmed symptoms for March. 9, official data showed on Thursday, nearly doubling from the daily count a day earlier. Of those, 165 were in the northeastern province of Jilin, the National Health Commission said in a statement. That marks the highest daily count for the province since China contained its first national outbreak in early 2020.

China daily local COVID infections exceed 1,000 as symptomless cases spike

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new local COVID-19 infections on Friday, the highest daily count since Beijing contained its first national outbreak in early 2020, driven by a jump in asymptomatic infections amid the spread of the Omicron variant. The size of the latest outbreak is much smaller than many others outside mainland China, but the increase in the number of cases could add pressure to China's "dynamic-clearance" ambition to curb each transmission as quickly as possible.

U.S. FDA asks Philips Respironics to notify patients about ventilator recall

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked Dutch medical equipment maker Philips Respironics on Thursday to notify patients about the company's recall of certain ventilators and other breathing assistance machines in June last year. FDA said in a statement that it had determined the order necessary, citing the risk of harm posed by the recalled products.

Japan considers offering fourth COVID vaccine shot - Yomiuri

Japan is considering offering a fourth coronavirus vaccine shot later this year, a newspaper reported on Friday, while a government spokesman said a decision would be made based on the severity of the pandemic. The Yomiuri daily said if a decision was made to give a fourth shot they would likely be vaccines supplied by Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc, and they could be offered this summer.