4 Min Read
WUHAN, China (Reuters) - A World Health Organization-led team of experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 on Friday visited a hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was one of the first to treat patients in the early days of the outbreak.
The hospital visit was the team’s first in the field after two weeks in quarantine, and a WHO spokeswoman said the group’s contacts in Wuhan will be limited to visits organised by their Chinese hosts due to health restrictions.
“The team will go out but they will be bussed to wherever, so they won’t have any contact with the community. They will only have contact with various individuals that are being organised as part of the study,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva on Friday.
A World Health Organization-led team of experts investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic began meeting with Chinese scientists on Friday, and the WHO said the group plans to visit labs, markets and hospitals in Wuhan.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian authorities have seized 27 boxes of the antiviral drug remdesivir from a woman at an airport in Cucuta who said the drugs were a coronavirus vaccine, officials said on Friday.
The boxes seized by police contained a version of the drug called Bemsivir with a value of $18,000 on the black market, Colombia’s tax and customs police (POLFA) said in a statement.
Bemsivir, produced by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, is a generic form of remdesivir, a COVID-19 treatment developed by Gilead Sciences Inc.
“During a routine check that was carried out on Thursday at the airport in Cucuta, the boxes with the medicine were found in the luggage of a woman who said it was the vaccine against COVID-19,” POLFA director Brigadier General Gustavo Franco said in a telephone interview.
Coronavirus: Dubai blamed by several countries for spreading virus World wrap: WHO visits hospitals in Wuhan where Covid-19 was first treated
Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 10:26 Updated: Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 10:28
People surf in waves off Jumeira beach near the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai. Dubai replaced its top health official on Sunday after coronavirus cases in the United Arab Emirates, of which it is part, spiked in recent weeks. Photograph: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg
After opening itself to New Year revellers, Dubai is now being blamed by several countries for spreading the coronavirus abroad, as questions swirl about the city-state’s ability to handle record spikes in Covid-19 cases.