Mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers is a "dangerous trend" and could lead to chaos as there is limited data on it on practice, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Monday.

Unfounded allegations by some U.S. politicians that the COVID-19 virus escaped from a Chinese lab are making it harder for nations to collaborate on ending the pandemic and fueling online bullying, according to a recent news article in the British scientific journal Nature.

"Even without strong supporting evidence," calls to investigate Chinese laboratories have reached a fever pitch in the United States, said the article, adding that for many researchers, the tone of the growing demands is unsettling, which could thwart efforts to study the virus's origins.

Amid the spread of new coronavirus variant Omicron, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said the world has a "toxic mix" of low vaccine coverage and very low testing - a recipe for breeding and amplifying variants.

The city of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province, where 12 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in a latest outbreak, announced that it received over 4.47 million passenger trips during the National Day holidays in early October, prompting concerns of epidemic spread, but locals and experts assured the public that the risk of wider spread of infections is low.

The outbreak in Qingdao has a certain risk of spreading, public health experts reached by the Global Times warned, as a large number of tourists had been to the tourist city during the holidays, but the scope of spread should be limited and confined to people who had connection with the Qingdao Chest Hospital.

Re-released sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" continued its dominance of the Chinese mainland box office chart on Wednesday, figures from the China Movie Data Information Network showed Thursday.

Directed by James Cameron, the Oscar-winning film was renowned for its fascinating visual effects. It generated a daily box office of more than 6.3 million yuan (about 960,000 U.S. dollars) on its 13th day of re-release in China.

China is ringing in the Year of the Ox, a new beginning of great significance for both the Chinese people and the Communist Party of China (CPC) that has led the whole nation to overcome many challenges, including COVID-19. The new year will also be defined by the "three cattle spirit."

The term first appeared in Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at a New Year's gathering late last December held in Beijing by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. It was later repeated in his Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Wednesday.

The ancient Huang Ju Irrigation Project, located in southeast China's Fujian province, has started to supply water once again, having been put into operations in early May.

The project, with a history of more than 1,400 years, was named after its designer Huang Ju, an official of the Sui Dynasty (581-618). The system comprises two canals and could provide water to a total land area of more than 20,000 mu (1,333 hectares) when it was first put into practical use in ancient China. It was the most advanced irrigation project constructed during the Sui Dynasty.

During the Covid years from 2020 to 2022, around 180,000 more people died in Germany than would have been normally expected. This is the finding of calculations by the ifo Institute. “The elderly were especially poorly protected,” says Joachim Ragnitz, Managing Director of ifo Dresden. In the 80+ age group alone, 116,000 more people died than expected; in the 60–79 age group, the figure was 51,000. In the large age group of 30–59, on the other hand, there were only 12,000 additional deaths and only about 900 among those aged 0–29.

Fun cultural phenomena during the pandemic: unbearable imps, humble brags and the young Tibetan star

During the first months of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to stay indoors as much as possible. In certain cities which were recognized by health authorities as high-risk areas, quarantine and home-isolation were imposed on citizens to avoid unnecessary contact.

2020 has been a tough year. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has swept the whole world and has wreaked havoc in every aspect of our lives, has brought negativity and great loss to us all. Out of sorrow and difficulties grow miracles and hope. Though China was struck heavily by the virus during its early stage, with great efforts made by the selfless public and efficient government, the pandemic is now under control. What happened in China during the pandemic? How did the pandemic affect Chinese people’s lives? What is the secret behind China’s success to curb the spread of COVID-19? From our 2020 journal, you may find the answers.

Unity is strength: Public efforts to tackle COVID-19

On January 18, 2020, on a high-speed train to Wuhan, one of the world's most populous cities, people were chatting excitedly. A festive atmosphere filled the air, as passengers could not wait to get back for the Chinese Lunar New Year. None of them could know that in just a few days, their destination would become a forbidden zone plagued by a novel coronavirus.

Nearly 3,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide as airlines cite COVID-19 staffing issues, according to reports.

United Airlines confirmed that more than 100 flights that were scheduled for Christmas Eve have been canceled by the company as it grapples with the spread of the omicron variant, according to the Hill.

A 90-year-old Belgian woman, who was infected with both the Alpha and Beta variants of coronavirus at the same time died due to a double variant infection, the medical researchers confirmed on Saturday.

The woman was taken to the OLV hospital in the city of Aalst on March 3 and tested positive for coronavirus during her stay.

Statistic Finland’s mortality statistics report shows that a total of 952 people died from coronavirus disease in 2021. In 200 cases COVID-19 contributed to the death of a person in addition to an underlying disease.

"People with coronavirus disease as a contributing cause of death were often multi-morbid. Nearly 40% of them had cardiovascular disease as the underlying cause of death and around 45% had memory problems or cancer," says Senior Specialist at Statistics Find Airi Pajunen.

China is less a competitor and more a wannabe of the world, and the United States and China should learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses to achieve prosperous coexistence, said American economist Richard Wolff.

In a video of Richard Wolff’s radio program Economic Update posted on Aug. 24, 2020, the professor rejected the demonization of China, noting that China and the United States have more similarities than many would realize.

England on Monday lifted almost all the remaining COVID-19 restrictions in the country after more than a year of lockdowns and announced 'freedom day' from the pandemic life, even though COVID-19 cases in the country have been rising.

New analysis by Amnesty International has found that at least 7,000 health workers have died around the world after contracting COVID-19. At least 1,320 health workers are confirmed to have died in Mexico alone, the highest known figure for any country. 

Amnesty International also recorded high numbers of health worker deaths in the USA (1,077) and Brazil (634), where infection and death rates have been high throughout the pandemic, as well as alarming figures in South Africa (240) and India (573), where infection rates have soared in recent months. 

A new study analysing the link between people’s reduced movement and the spread of coronavirus in 2020 shows that in some countries, the virus spread more rapidly when people stayed at home. In addition, restricting people’s mobility to some extent appeared, retrospectively, to be better at minimising the spread of SARS-CoV-2 than extreme mobility restrictions, in many countries.

The anti-China bias "has blinded too many for too long to opportunities" in a changing world, a major British newspaper has reported.

"The world order is changing, yet many are missing this because of a persistent anti-China bias," said the Financial Times in a recent opinion article.

Anti-China forces are planning a new round of smearing campaigns against China's Xinjiang policy as the "Uyghur Tribunal," an organization formed by secessionists and Western anti-China forces in London, is about to hold what it terms as a first hearing of whether China's policy in Xinjiang is tantamount to genocide starting from Friday to Monday.

"Such a 'tribunal' is neither legal nor credible. It is just another anti-China political farce concocted by a few people. It attempts to run in the name of "tribunal" to engage in anti-China political and public opinion manipulation. This is nothing but an insult on the law," Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.