Page 67 - Heca News Today

The U.S. government will not reimburse private health insurance companies for covering the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests, a White House official said on Thursday.

Panama on Thursday said it would temporarily ban the entry of travelers from eight African countries due to concerns over the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

India expects the Omicron variant of coronavirus to cause less severe disease, the health ministry said on Friday, thanks to vaccinations and high prior exposure to the Delta variant that infected nearly 70% of the population by July.

Pharmaceutical firms have agreed to cut prices by 61.7% on average for 67 medicines to be included in China's national medical insurance coverage in a new round of negotiations, Chinese authorities said on Friday.

Shares in Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) plunged 23% on Friday after U.S. private equity firm Advent International and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund said they were withdrawing their bid for the drugmaker.

Spain's Hipra is confident there will be European Union demand for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine once approved for use as it is designed to protect against new variants, can be moved easily and produced in mass quantity, a top executive said.

New York has confirmed five cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, its governor said on Thursday, bringing to five the number of U.S. states having detected the variant, with 10 reported infections nationwide.

The Swiss cantons of Geneva and Vaud have placed 2,000 people, most of them children, into quarantine after two cases of the Omicron variant were detected at an international school.

Australia, despite restrictions on international visitors, became the latest country on Friday to report community transmission of Omicron, a day after the coronavirus variant was found locally in five U.S. states.

South Africa is being hit by a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections driven by the Omicron variant which has been detected in seven of the country's nine provinces, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday.