Health News Roundup: Shanghai to hold mass COVID testing exercise over July 19-21; North Korea says it is nearing end of the COVID crisis as Asian neighbors fight resurgence and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Shanghai to hold mass COVID testing exercise over July 19-21

Shanghai will require residents across nine of the city's districts and some smaller areas to undergo testing for COVID-19 from July 19-21 in an effort to stem any community spread of the virus, the city government said on Monday. Residents of the districts, which include Xuhui, Jingan, and Huangpu, will be required to take two COVID-19 tests over the three-day period.

North Korea says it is nearing end of the COVID crisis as Asian neighbors fight resurgence

North Korea is on the path to "finally defuse" a crisis stemming from its first acknowledged outbreak of COVID-19, the state news agency said on Monday, while Asian neighbors battle a fresh wave of infections driven by Omicron subvariants. The North says 99.98% of its 4.77 million fever patients since late April have fully recovered, but due to an apparent lack of testing, it has not released any figures for those that proved positive.

India's COVID vaccinations hit 2 billion, new cases at a four-month high

The Indian government's COVID-19 vaccinations hit 2 billion on Sunday, with booster doses underway for all adults, as daily infections hit a four-month high, official data showed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extolled the vaccination milestone, celebrating the world's largest and longest-running inoculation campaign, which began last year.

Shanghai enforces new COVID testing as some parts of China extend lockdown

Several large Chinese cities including Shanghai are on their toes due to new outbreaks of COVID-19 infections, rolling out repeated mass testing or extending lockdowns on millions of residents, with some measures triggering a public outcry. China has reported an average of around 390 local daily infections in the seven days ending on Sunday, higher than about 340 seven days earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on official data as of Monday. That is tiny compared with a resurgence in other parts of Asia.

Macau begins 11th round of mass testing in worst COVID outbreak

Macau kicked off the 11th round of COVID-19 testing for residents on Monday, as the world's biggest casino hub extended a lockdown of casinos and other businesses in the fight against its worst outbreak since the pandemic began. Despite a steady fall in infections that saw just 27 new cases reported on Sunday, authorities said the city's more than 600,000 residents must stay home, with all non-essential businesses shut, until Friday.

Japan's daily COVID infections exceed 110,000 to hit record -Jiji

Japan's daily COVID-19 infections hit a record of more than 110,000, the Jiji news agency reported on Saturday. Faced with a seventh COVID wave, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday urged the public to exercise maximum vigilance.

Ghana confirms its first outbreak of highly infectious Marburg virus

Ghana has officially confirmed two cases of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola, its health service said on Sunday, after two people who later died tested positive for the virus earlier this month. Tests conducted in Ghana came back positive on July 10, but the results had to be verified by a laboratory in Senegal for the cases to be considered confirmed, according to the World Health Organization.