Health News Roundup: Novavax cuts full-year revenue forecast again amid weak demand; Uganda shortens school term by two weeks to curb Ebola and more

As local cases across China reached their highest level since April 30, authorities announced on social media that five districts representing more than half Guangzhou's population of almost 19 million would need to undergo mass testing. New Mexico city passes ordinance to block abortion clinics from operating A New Mexico town near the Texas border on Monday unanimously passed an ordinance designed to ban abortions, despite the procedure being legal in the state.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Novavax cuts full-year revenue forecast again amid weak demand

Novavax Inc cut its full-year revenue forecast on Tuesday for the second time in three months, hurt by a global supply glut in COVID-19 vaccine and waning demand. The company now expects annual revenue to be near the low end of its prior forecast range of between $2 billion and $2.3 billion.

Uganda shortens school term by two weeks to curb Ebola

Uganda will shorten the school term by two weeks to reduce daily contact amongst students and help curb the spread of Ebola, the education minister said on Tuesday. Authorities have been struggling to contain the highly infectious and deadly haemorrhagic fever since the epidemic spilled into the capital Kampala, home to around two million people.

Factbox-Michigan passes initiative protecting abortion rights

Voters in five states considered abortion-related ballot measures on Tuesday, initiatives that have taken on new urgency since the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide. In August, voters in conservative Kansas defeated a ballot measure aimed at eliminating abortion rights from the state's constitution. Here is a look at Tuesday's results, as forecast by data provider Edison Research.

China reports 8,335 new COVID cases for Nov 8 vs 7,691 a day earlier

China reported 8,335 new COVID-19 infections on Nov. 8, of which 1,346 were symptomatic and 6,989 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday. That is compared with 7,691 new cases a day earlier – 890 symptomatic and 6,801 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

China's COVID epicentre shifts to Guangzhou as outbreaks widen

New coronavirus cases surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, official data showed on Tuesday, with the global manufacturing hub becoming China's latest COVID-19 epicentre and testing the city's ability to avoid a Shanghai-style lockdown. Nationwide, new locally transmitted infections climbed to 7,475 on Nov. 7, according to China's health authority, up from 5,496 the day before and the highest since May 1. Guangzhou accounted for nearly a third of the new infections.

Indonesia suspends licences of two more drug firms amid probe into child deaths

Indonesia's food and drug agency said on Wednesday it had suspended the licences of two more local drug companies producing syrup-type medications, as authorities investigate the deaths of nearly 200 children due to acute kidney injury. The Southeast Asian country temporarily banned sales of some syrup-based medications in October after it identified the presence in some products of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol as possible factors for causing the illness.

China's Guangzhou brings back mass testing to fight city's worst COVID outbreak

Millions of residents of China's southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou were told on Wednesday to get tested for COVID-19, as infections topped two thousand for two days running in the city's worst outbreak so far. As local cases across China reached their highest level since April 30, authorities announced on social media that five districts representing more than half Guangzhou's population of almost 19 million would need to undergo mass testing.

New Mexico city passes ordinance to block abortion clinics from operating

A New Mexico town near the Texas border on Monday unanimously passed an ordinance designed to ban abortions, despite the procedure being legal in the state. The so-called "sanctuary city for the unborn" ordinance blocks abortion clinics from operating and its passage by the Hobbs city commission marks a first for a town in a state controlled by the Democratic Party, according to anti-abortion advocates. Hobbs does not have an abortion clinic, but could be a place for such a clinic that could serve people from Republican-controlled Texas, to the east. Whole Woman's Health, one of the largest providers of abortions in the United States, has told Reuters it was interested in opening a clinic in Hobbs or nearby Clovis.

Three-quarters of UK long COVID sufferers working less -survey

More than three-quarters of British people who have suffered persistent ill health following a COVID-19 infection have had to cut back or change the work they do, according to a survey on the impact of long COVID published on Wednesday. The survey of 1,002 people, conducted by market research company Censuswide in October for recruitment website Indeed, adds to signs that long COVID continues to be a factor behind widespread labour shortages in Britain.

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Bristol Myers cancer-drug patent fight with Gilead

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a bid by Bristol Myers Squibb Co's Juno Therapeutics Inc to reinstate a $1.2 billion award it won in its patent fight with Gilead Sciences Inc subsidiary Kite Pharma Inc over a lymphoma drug. The justices turned away Juno's appeal of a lower court's ruling throwing out the award in the litigation over Kite's biologic drug Yescarta, in a case that could have repercussions for the cutting-edge biologic drug industry.