Australian researchers at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute have discovered some of the ways COVID-19 damages the heart and identified a class of drugs that could potentially protect or reverse this cardiac injury.

Researchers during a recent study identified a potential new treatment that suppresses the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

For a normal person, the loops, kinks and folds in the single strand of RNA that makes up the coronavirus genome might look like a bowl of spaghetti. However, to researchers like Amanda Hargrove, who is a chemistry professor at Duke University, the complex shaped RNA had untapped therapeutic potential in the fight against COVID-19. Hargrove and her colleagues had identified chemical compounds that could latch onto these 3D structures and block the virus's ability to replicate.

Tighter Covid-19 restrictions for the unvaccinated go hand in hand with greater willingness to get the shot. That is the finding of an ifo study on vaccine willingness in the German-Austrian border region.

Amid the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic and a reeling global economy, trade and economic ties between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) have demonstrated an unusually strong resilience, setting an example of transregional practical cooperation for the deeply challenged world community.

Fresh data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed that in 2020, China's total trade volume with the 17 CEECs hit 103.45 billion U.S. dollars, registering an 8.4-percent spike, and crossing the 100-billion-dollar mark for the first time.

Debris from China's Long March-5B Y2 carrier rocket, which sent the first section of China's space station into orbit, is very likely to fall in international waters and people needn't worry, Chinese space analysts told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Wreckage from rocket launches falling back to Earth is common in the aerospace field, and the Pentagon's reported claim that the rocket wreckage will fly back "out of control" and "may cause damage if it hits inhabited areas" is nothing but Western hype of the "China threat" in space technology advancement, observers noted.

Russia registered 16,474 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 16,643 the day before, taking the tally to 3,901,204, the coronavirus response center said on Wednesday.

"Over the past day, 16,474 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 regions, including 1,748 cases (10.6 percent) that were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms,"

Russian's Sputnik V is 91.6 per cent effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to the result of an interim analysis of the phase 3 trials published by the journal Lancet on Tuesday.

 "In the interim efficacy analysis of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, where data on 19,866 volunteers were included in the efficacy analysis (14,964 of whom received the vaccine and 4,902 the placebo),

According to a study led by the American Society for Microbiology, saliva samples can identify COVID-19 more quickly than testing with nasal swabs.

The study was published in the journal, 'Microbiology Spectrum'.

Far too many China "experts" have put focus on changing the country instead of understanding how it works and why it succeeds, said David Dodwell, executive director of the Hong Kong-APEC Trade Policy Study Group.

HONG KONG, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The reason why China has been deeply misunderstood by some observers is that they have tried to change the country rather than to truly know it, espe

During a recent study, an international team of scientists identified antibodies that neutralize omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

These antibodies target areas of the virus spike protein that remain essentially unchanged as the viruses mutate. The study's findings were published in the journal Nature.

Research collaboration between scientists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified and tested an antibody that limits the severity of infections from a variety of coronaviruses, including those that cause COVID-19 as well as the original SARS illness.

Rutgers University's top health researchers are calling for a change in approach to developing COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines to fight future pandemics to incorporate both conventional and challenging trials.

A new study led by the US Geological Survey outlines a means to better estimate COVID-19 occurrence and trends in populations.

Currently, COVID-19 testing is primarily limited to self-selected individuals, many of whom are symptomatic or have had contact with someone who is symptomatic. While these tests are useful for individual medical treatment and contact tracing, they do not provide health officials with a complete picture of the disease across the population.

The consequences of the UK Government’s decision to press ahead with Brexit despite the COVID-19 pandemic are to be debated in the Scottish Parliament.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, on Friday held a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the latter's request.

Noting that dialogue and cooperation should be the mainstay of China-U.S. relations, Yang said cooperation must be mutually beneficial and address each other's concerns in a balanced manner.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, attributed China's success to a "huge partnership between communities, scientific institutions, public health institutions in the government" and "a lot of cooperation, very sustained commitment to getting the job done."

Senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Monday congratulated the front-line health workers and the people in China for having reached a successful outcome in fighting COVID-19.

Seven cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in Finland as of Saturday, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) said.

"Finland has identified seven cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant so far. All identified cases are related to the same chain of infections," the THL said in a statement.

The EU has awarded a 6.55 million EUR funding to a HUS Helsinki University Hospital-led consortium to examine the mechanisms behind the long-term effects of a COVID-19 infection. The objective is also to create a Decision support system for prediction and management of Long Covid Syndrome (LCS).

As China accelerates its vaccination pace, the Global Times found that six cities - Beijing, four cities in South China's Hainan Province, and Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province - have a first-dose coverage rate above 80 percent, touching the threshold for herd immunity. In Southwest China's Yunnan Province, 25 land border ports have also achieved the goal.

Fresh data for Shanghai, and some major cities in South China's Guangdong and Central China's Hubei provinces, show first-dose vaccination rates close to or exceeding 70 percent. They are soon to reach herd immunity when people get their second doses as scheduled, observers said on Wednesday.