Health News Roundup: China's COVID cases rise, record daily numbers seen in Beijing and other cities; Chinese cities including Beijing report record COVID cases and more

The facility, bought from a Novartis unit, will be its first messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, facility in Singapore and support its vaccines production for the Asia Pacific region, BioNTech said in a statement, without disclosing financial details. China's Silk Road Fund to invest in Indonesian pharma firms China's Silk Road Fund (SRF) and Indonesia's INA sovereign fund INA invest in two state-owned Indonesian pharmaceuticals companies in a deal worth about 1.86 trillion rupiah ($120 million), a deputy minister said on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

China's COVID cases rise, record daily numbers seen in Beijing and other cities

China reported 14,878 new COVID-19 infections for Nov. 12, including a record number of new daily cases in capital city Beijing, as well as in manufacturing hubs Guangzhou and Zhengzhou. The new cases come as industrial activity in Guangzhou and Zhengzhou has been disrupted by restrictions aimed at controlling outbreaks.

Chinese cities including Beijing report record COVID cases

Beijing and several other major cities in China reported record COVID-19 infections on Monday, putting authorities under more pressure to quell outbreaks quickly while also trying to reduce the impact on people's lives and on economic activity. Nationwide, 16,072 new locally transmitted cases were reported by the National Health Commission, up from 14,761 on Sunday and the highest in China since April 25, when Shanghai was battling with its most serious outbreak.

Shanghai reports 2 symptomatic, 13 asymptomatic COVID cases for Nov 13

Shanghai reported two new domestically transmitted symptomatic coronavirus cases for Nov. 13, up from one a day earlier, and 13 local asymptomatic cases, up from nine the previous day, the city government said on Monday. One case was reported outside quarantined areas versus none the previous day.

Germany's BioNTech says to set up mRNA vaccine facility in Singapore

BioNTech SE, the German biotech that developed a widely used COVID-19 vaccine with Pfizer Inc, acquired a manufacturing facility in Singapore, its first in Asia, the company said on Monday. The facility, bought from a Novartis unit, will be its first messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, facility in Singapore and support its vaccines production for the Asia Pacific region, BioNTech said in a statement, without disclosing financial details.

China's Silk Road Fund to invest in Indonesian pharma firms

China's Silk Road Fund (SRF) and Indonesia's INA sovereign fund INA invest in two state-owned Indonesian pharmaceutical companies in a deal worth about 1.86 trillion rupiah ($120 million), a deputy minister said on Sunday. Both SRF and INA will invest in listed PT Kimia Farma Tbk and its PT Kimia Farma Apotek unit, Indonesia's deputy minister for state-owned enterprises, Pahala Mansury, told a news conference in Bali on the sidelines of a G20 summit.

Uganda confirms Ebola case in country's east as outbreak expands

An Ebola case has been confirmed in Jinja in eastern Uganda, the country's health minister said on Sunday, the first time the outbreak has spread to a new region of the country from central Uganda where cases have been confined so far. Authorities have been struggling to contain the highly infectious and deadly hemorrhagic fever since the epidemic was declared on Sept. 20.

(With inputs from agencies.)