(VOVWORLD) - The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health reported on Wednesday that the city’s infectious disease surveillance system has detected the emergence of sub-variant JN.1 of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in hospitalized patients in December last year.

(VOVWORLD) - Without COVID-19 vaccines, the cumulative death toll in Europe would have been around 4 million, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

(VOVWORLD) - January 1st marks 4 years since the world recorded the first death from COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, where the disease broke out. Although COVID-19 is now an endemic and no longer a global health emergency, it still poses potential threats to the global health system.

(VOVWORLD) - The head of the UN health agency said Wednesday that holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent COVID variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month.

(VOVWORLD) - A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.

(VOVWORLD) - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday the new BA.2.86 lineage of coronavirus may be more capable than older variants in causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received vaccines.

(VOVWORLD) - The Biden administration plans to urge all Americans to get a booster shot for the coronavirus this autumn to counter a new wave of infections, a White House official said on Sunday.

(VOVWORLD) - Moderna said on Thursday an initial study data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine to be effective against the "Eris" and "Fornax" subvariants in humans.

(VOVWORLD) - US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that it was tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19.

(VOVWORLD) - The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.