Health News Roundup: Congo starts Ebola vaccinations to stem outbreak in northwest, WHO says; China's Beijing finds positive samples in COVID testing this week and more

The study issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention marks the first time in which more than half of the U.S. population has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus at least once, and offers a detailed view of the impact of the Omicron surge in the United States. As U.S. abortion access wanes, this doctor travels to fill a void Inside Planned Parenthood’s Birmingham, Alabama, clinic, a quiet space with few windows and stock photos of the city lining the walls, a woman tapped her hand against her stomach as Dr. Shelly Tien performed a surgical abortion.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

China's capital in race to detect COVID cases, avoid Shanghai's distress

Millions of people in Beijing took their second COVID-19 tests of the week on Wednesday as the Chinese capital tried to keep an outbreak numbering in the dozens from spiralling into a crisis like the one the locked-down city of Shanghai is enduring. Evidence that Shanghai's month-long isolation has become almost unbearable for many of the city's 25 million people is emerging on an almost daily basis on the country's heavily censored internet.

China's Beijing finds positive samples in COVID testing this week

China's capital of Beijing has detected some positive COVID-19 cases in the first round of mass testing conducted in a dozen districts this week, a municipal official said on Wednesday. Based on the results from 19.80 million out of the 19.81 million samples taken, 12 tubes of mixed samples tested positive, a Beijing health official said.

Congo starts Ebola vaccinations to stem outbreak in northwest, WHO says

The Democratic Republic of Congo has kicked off Ebola vaccinations to stem an outbreak in the northwest city of Mbandaka, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Two people are known to have died so far in the city of over one million inhabitants where people live in close proximity to road, water and air links to the capital Kinshasa.

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the pandemic right now: China's capital in race to detect COVID cases

UK's transfer of old patients to care homes in pandemic was unlawful - court

Britain's government acted unlawfully early in the COVID-19 pandemic when it moved elderly patients from hospitals to care homes without considering that people without symptoms could spread the virus, a court found on Wednesday. Britain's coronavirus death toll soared during early 2020, outstripping its European peers, boosted by the deaths of elderly people, many of whom had been moved out of hospital into residential care to make room for COVID patients.

Measles cases jump 79% in 2022 after COVID hit vaccination campaigns

Measles cases jumped by 79% in the first two months of this year compared to 2021, after COVID-19 and lockdowns disrupted child vaccination campaigns around the world, according to data from UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). In January and February, there were 17,338 measles cases reported worldwide, up from 9,665 in the same period last year.

Malaysia to lift more COVID curbs, eases mask mandate

Malaysia will ease more COVID-19 curbs from the start of next month, including lifting restrictions on those who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus and scrapping the need to wear masks outdoors, its health minister said. The Southeast Asian nation has seen some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the region, but infection surges have since subsided amid a ramped up vaccination programme.

EU estimates up to 80% of population has had COVID

The European Commission said that between 60% and 80% of the EU population was estimated to have been infected with COVID-19, as the bloc enters a post-emergency phase in which mass reporting of cases was no longer necessary. In preparing for this less acute phase, European Union governments should ramp up COVID-19 immunisations of children, the bloc's executive body said, signalling it was considering plans to develop antivirals.

More than half of Americans have had COVID infections -U.S. study

Following the record surge in COVID-19 cases during the Omicron-driven wave, some 58% of the U.S. population overall and more than 75% of younger children have been infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to a U.S. nationwide blood survey released on Tuesday. The study issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention marks the first time in which more than half of the U.S. population has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus at least once, and offers a detailed view of the impact of the Omicron surge in the United States.

As U.S. abortion access wanes, this doctor travels to fill a void

Inside Planned Parenthood's Birmingham, Alabama, clinic, a quiet space with few windows and stock photos of the city lining the walls, a woman tapped her hand against her stomach as Dr. Shelly Tien performed a surgical abortion. Tien, 40, had flown to Birmingham the day before, and she would return home to Jacksonville, Florida, that night. A week earlier, she performed abortions at a clinic in Oklahoma. She's among an estimated 50 doctors who travel across state lines, according to the National Abortion Federation, to provide abortions in places with limited abortion access.