Tag Archives: DISEAS

Business

Chinese cities brace for wave of Foxconn workers from COVID-hit Zhengzhou

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BEIJING, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Cities in central China hastily drew up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their hometowns from a vast assembly facility of iPhone maker Foxconn (2317.TW) in COVID-hit Zhengzhou, fearing they could trigger coronavirus outbreaks.

Zhengzhou, capital of central
Henan province, reported 167 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the seven days to Oct. 29, up from 97 infections in the prior seven-day period.

Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn, based in Taiwan, currently has about 200,000 workers at its Zhengzhou complex and has not disclosed the number of infected workers, but said on Sunday that it would not stop workers from leaving.

Late on Saturday, cities near Zhengzhou, including Yuzhou, Changge and Qinyang, urged Foxconn workers to report to local authorities in advance before heading home.

Returning workers are to travel “point-to-point” in pre-arranged vehicles and are to be quarantined on arrival, they said in separate letters on their respective social media accounts addressed to Zhengzhou Foxconn workers.

Under China’s ultra-strict zero-COVID policy, cities are mandated to act swiftly to quell any outbreaks, with measures that could include full-scale lockdowns. On Oct. 19, Foxconn banned all dine-in at canteens and required workers to take their meals in their dormitories.

“The government agreed to resume dine-in meals to improve the convenience and satisfaction of employees’ lives,” Foxconn told Reuters in an emailed reply to queries on Sunday.

“At the same time, for some employees who want to return home, the (plant) is cooperating with the government to organise personnel and vehicles to provide a point-to-point orderly return service for employees from today.”

Disruptions from China’s COVID policies to commerce and industry have intensified in recent weeks as cases multiplied. Shanghai Disneyland said on Saturday it would operate at reduced capacity. On Wednesday, Universal Beijing Resort was suspended after the visit of one infected individual.

“We are very aware that under the current situation, it is a protracted battle,” Foxconn said.

But the situation was gradually coming under control, it said, and Foxconn would coordinate back-up production capacity with its other plants to reduce any potential impact.

Apple did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the Foxconn situation.

‘I COULDN’T HELP BUT FEEL SAD’

Foxconn did not respond to Reuters questions on how many cases had been detected at its Zhengzhou plant and how many workers had left.

Photographs and videos circulating on Chinese social media since Saturday showed Foxconn workers, apparently returning home, trekking across fields in the day and along roads at night. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the posts.

In a show of support, residents in the vicinity left bottled water and provisions next to roads with signs such as: “For Foxconn workers returning home”, according to social media posts.

“Some people were walking amid wheat fields with their luggage, blankets and quilts,” wrote a user of WeChat in a post about the social media images.

“I couldn’t help but feel sad.”

Reporting by Ryan Woo and Ziyi Tang; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Nick Macfie

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World

China steps up anti-COVID measures in megacities as infections mount

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  • China reports 2,089 new local cases for Oct. 10
  • Shanghai ramps up routine testing on its 25 million residents
  • China warns of dangers of any large-scale rebound

BEIJING, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Shanghai and other big Chinese cities, including Shenzhen, have ramped up testing for COVID-19 as infections rise, with some local authorities hastily closing schools, entertainment venues and tourist spots.

Infections have risen to the highest since August, with the uptick coming after increased domestic travel during the National Day “Golden Week” earlier this month.

Authorities reported 2,089 new local infections for Oct. 10, the most since Aug. 20.

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While many of the cases were found in tourist destinations, including scenic spots in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, megacities that are often the source of well-travelled tourists have started to report more cases this week.

Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, reported 28 local cases for Oct. 10, the fourth day of double-digit increases.

Keen to avoid a reprise of the economically and psychically scarring lockdown in April-May, Shanghai said late on Monday that all its 16 districts were to conduct mass testing at least twice a week until Nov. 10, a step up from once a week under a regime imposed after the last lockdown.

Checks on inbound travellers and in places such as hotels should also be strengthened, authorities said.

The expanding web of measures have already ensnared some.

Peter Lee, a long-time British expatriate, was out at lunch with his wife and seven-year-old son last week when he was notified his apartment block was to be locked down.

Lee and his son then checked into a hotel, which was soon also locked down, due to a prior visit by a virus carrier. Lee’s wife, who was planning to join them, had no choice but returned home to be locked in.

“It might be that we say, we miss home and we miss mum too much and maybe we just go home and just deal with it,” Lee told Reuters.

“We’re monitoring the situation because it seems like Shanghai is gradually shutting down anyway and if everything starts to close then there won’t be much benefit in being able to come and go.”

‘FINAL PRICE’

As of Monday, 36 Chinese cities were under various degrees of lockdown or control, affecting around 196.9 million people, versus 179.7 million in the previous week, according to Nomura.

In China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen, where the highly transmissible BF.7 Omicron subvariant has surfaced, local cases more than tripled to 33 on Oct. 10 from a day earlier.

Inbound travellers will be subject to three tests over three days, authorities in the city of 18 million people said on Tuesday.

In the northwestern city of Xian, which reported just over 100 cases from Oct. 1-10, authorities halted offline classes at schools and closed many public spaces including the famous Terracotta Warriors Museum.

Daily shuttle buses ferrying tens of thousands of people to work in Beijing from nearby Tianjin and Hebei will be suspended from Wednesday due to the COVID resurgence.

Despite China’s very small caseload versus the rest of the world, and the toll its counter-epidemic policies exact on the economy and population, the government has repeatedly urged people to accept the measures.

“Once a large-scale rebound occurs, the epidemic will spread, and is bound to have a serious impact on economic and social development, and the final price will be higher and losses will be greater,” state-controlled People’s Daily wrote in a commentary on Tuesday.

The COVID preventive steps come days ahead of a Communist Party congress starting on Oct. 16 where Xi Jinping is expected to extend his leadership. read more

“The latest resurgence of draconian COVID-19 restrictions is likely to be temporary given the priority to keep things under control ahead of the all-important meeting,” said analysts from U.S. alternative asset management firm Clocktower Group.

“However, the People’s Daily’s tripling down on the zero-COVID-19 narrative is indeed a major concern, which suggest that a major policy recalibration may still be far away.”

(This story has been refiled to restore dropped word in paragraph 6.)

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Reporting by Ryan Woo, Casey Hall and Jason Xue; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

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World

End of COVID pandemic is ‘in sight’ -WHO chief

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Sept 14 (Reuters) – The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people.

“We are not there yet. But the end is in sight,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference.

That was the most upbeat assessment from the UN agency since it declared an international emergency in January 2020 and started describing COVID-19 as a pandemic three months later.

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The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has killed nearly 6.5 million people and infected 606 million, roiling global economies and overwhelming healthcare systems.

The rollout of vaccines and therapies have helped to stem deaths and hospitalisations, and the Omicron variant which emerged late last year causes less severe disease. Deaths from COVID-19 last week were the lowest since March 2020, the U.N. agency reported.

Still on Wednesday, he again urged nations to maintain their vigilance and likened the pandemic to a marathon race.

“Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work.”

Countries need to take a hard look at their policies and strengthen them for COVID-19 and future viruses, Tedros said. He also urged nations to vaccinate 100% of their high-risk groups and keep testing for the virus.

The WHO said countries need to maintain adequate supplies of medical equipment and healthcare workers.

“We expect there to be future waves of infections, potentially at different time points throughout the world caused by different subvariants of Omicron or even different variants of concern,” said WHO’s senior epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.

With over 1 million deaths this year alone, the pandemic remains an emergency globally and within most countries.

“The COVID-19 summer wave, driven by Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, showed that the pandemic is not yet over as the virus continues to circulate in Europe and beyond,” a European Commission spokesperson said.

WHO’s next meeting of experts to decide whether the pandemic still represents a public health emergency of international concern is due in October, a WHO spokesperson said.

GLOBAL EMERGENCY

“It’s probably fair to say most of the world is moving beyond the emergency phase of the pandemic response,” said Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University.

Governments are now looking at how best to manage COVID as part of their routine healthcare and surveillance, he said.

Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States have approved vaccines that target the Omicron variant as well as the original virus as countries prepare to launch winter booster campaigns.

In the United States, COVID-19 was initially declared a public health emergency in January 2020, and that status has been renewed quarterly ever since.

The U.S. health department is set to renew it again in mid-October for what policy experts expect is the last time before it expires in January 2023.

U.S. health officials have said that the pandemic is not over, but that new bivalent vaccines mark an important shift in the fight against the virus. They predict that a single annual vaccine akin to the flu shot should provide a high degree of protection and return the country closer to normalcy.

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Reporting by Manas Mishra, Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru, Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Jennifer Rigby in London; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, William Maclean, Josephine Mason, Elaine Hardcastle

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Health

New York to ramp up polio vaccinations after virus found in wastewater

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference regarding new gun laws in New York, U.S., August 31, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

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NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) – New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency on Friday in a bid to accelerate efforts to vaccinate residents against polio after the virus was detected in wastewater samples taken in four counties.

Hochul’s executive order followed the discovery of the virus last month in samples from Long Island’s Nassau County, bordering the New York City borough of Queens. Earlier this year the virus was found in samples from Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties, all north of the city.

In July, the first confirmed case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade turned up in an adult in Rockland County, according to the state health department.

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“On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice,” State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement. “If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real.”

Polio can cause irreversible paralysis in some cases, but it can be prevented by a vaccine first made available in 1955. While there is no known cure, three injections of the vaccine provide nearly 100% immunity.

People of all ages are under threat, though the virus primarily affects children aged three and younger.

Officials urged unvaccinated adults and minors as young as two months old to get inoculated against the virus, and advised that vaccinated people receive a lifetime booster dose.

Hochul’s declaration authorizes paramedics, midwives and pharmacists to administer polio vaccinations, among other steps, to accelerate inoculation rates. The order also directs health-care providers to update the state with data on immunizations.

The state of emergency will stay in effect until Oct. 9. Health official set a goal of getting 90% of residents vaccinated.

The state health department warned people in New York City, Rockland, Orange, Sullivan and Nassau counties are at the highest risk.

Orange County has the lowest vaccination rate of the counties of concern with less than 59% being immunized, according to the state health department.

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Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York and Rami Ayyub
Editing by Alistair Bell and David Gregorio

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Health

Explainer: Monkeypox in the U.S.: Where could it spread next?

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A person arrives to receive a monkeypox vaccination at the Northwell Health Immediate Care Center at Fire Island-Cherry Grove, in New York, U.S., July 15, 2022. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

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CHICAGO, Aug 7 (Reuters) – The United States declared monkeypox a public health emergency last week, an effort to bolster the U.S. response to contain the outbreak.

The virus continues to be largely transmitted among gay and bisexual men, but experts say the disease could spill over into other populations, especially due to vaccine shortages. Monkeypox is spread by contact with puss-filled sores and is rarely fatal.

Here is the state of monkeypox now and some other the populations U.S. experts believe may be at risk:

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WHO IS GETTING MONKEYPOX NOW?

Last month, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global public health emergency. So far, 80 countries where the virus is not endemic have reported 26,500 cases of monkeypox, according to a Reuters tally. read more

In the United States, 99.1% of U.S. monkeypox cases occurred among those assigned the male sex at birth as of July 25, according to a technical report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among male patients, 99% reported having sexual contact with other men.

About 38% of cases occurred in among white, non-Hispanic males. Another 26% were in Black males and 32% in Hispanic males.

The pattern of sexual transmission in men is not typical. In Africa, where monkeypox has been circulating since the 1970s, 60% of cases are in men, and 40% occur in women. read more

One reason may be that the virus appears to be “very efficiently transmitted through anal receptive intercourse and to some degree oral sex,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist and an editor-at-large at Kaiser Health News.

WHO ELSE IS AT RISK?

Although the current explosion of cases has occurred in men, experts say there is no biological reason the virus will remain largely within the community of men who have sex with men.

“We certainly know it’s going to spread to family members and to other non-male partners that people have,” said Dr. Jay Varma, director of the Cornell Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response. He said the virus could also spread through massage parlors or spas.

The real question, he said, is whether it spreads as efficiently in those groups as it does among close sexual networks of men who have sex with men.

Experts point to the way HIV spread as a possible indicator for where the virus will go next.

“My greatest fear is that as we try to contain this, it’s going to seep along the fractures in our social geography and go where HIV did, and that’s going into communities of color in the rural South,” said Dr. Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University and a leading HIV/AIDS activist.

Those are places with limited infrastructure for testing, vaccines and treatments.

Gounder is especially concerned about infections among Black women, who account for the largest share of new HIV infections in the United States, and already suffer significantly higher rates of maternal complications and deaths.

WHO ELSE MIGHT BE AT RISK?

Other at-risk settings include college dormitories, health clubs and sports teams.

Gounder is aware of some sports leagues that are preparing for possible infections, noting that sports such as wrestling involve close skin-to-skin contact.

Wrestling, football, rugby and other sports teams have previously had outbreaks of the superbug MRSA, according to the CDC.

“I think it is something we need to be thinking about and prepared for,” she said.

Employers may also need to start preparing. Gounder said some theaters in New York, for example, are considering how they might protect their workers from possible monkeypox infections through contact with shared costumes.

“We’re still in the beginnings of that, but I am encouraged to see that some are already thinking about that.”

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Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Caroline Humer and Josie Kao

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US

U.S. declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency

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Aug 4 (Reuters) – The United States has declared monkeypox a public health emergency, the health secretary said on Thursday, a move expected to free up additional funding and tools to fight the disease.

The U.S. tally topped 6,600 on Wednesday, almost all of the cases among men who have sex with men.

“We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a briefing.

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The declaration will improve the availability of data on monkeypox infections that is needed for the response, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said, speaking alongside Bacerra.

The U.S. government has come under pressure for its handling of the outbreak.

The disease began spreading in Europe before moving to the United States, which now has the most cases in the world. Vaccines and treatments have been in short supply and the disease often left for historically underfunded sexual health clinics to manage. read more

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern,” its highest alert level. The WHO declaration last month sought to trigger a coordinated international response and unlock funding to collaborate on vaccines and treatments. read more

Governments are deploying vaccines and treatments that were first approved for smallpox but also work for monkeypox.

The U.S. government has distributed 600,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s (BAVA.CO) Jynneos vaccine and deployed 14,000 of Siga Technologies’ (SIGA.O) TPOXX treatment, officials said, though they did not disclose how many have been administered.

Walensky said the government aims to vaccinate more than 1.6 million high-risk individuals.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said the agency was considering freeing up more Jynneos vaccine doses by allowing doctors to draw 5 doses of vaccine from each vial instead of the current 1 dose by using a different subcutaneous method of inoculation.

U.S. President Joe Biden this month appointed two federal officials to coordinate his administration’s response to monkeypox, following declarations of emergencies by California, Illinois and New York. read more

First identified in monkeys in 1958, the disease has mild symptoms including fever, aches and pus-filled skin lesions, and people tend to recover from it within two to four weeks, the WHO says. It spreads through close physical contact and is rarely fatal.

Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, told Reuters on Thursday that it was critical to engage leaders from the gay community as part of efforts to rein in the outbreak, but cautioned against stigmatizing the lifestyle.

“Engagement of the community has always proven to be successful,” Fauci said.

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Reporting by Manas Mishra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, Caroline Humer and Leela de Kretser, Editing by Anil D’Silva, Deepa Babington and Howard Goller

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Business

China approves Genuine Biotech’s HIV drug for COVID patients

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BEIJING, July 25 (Reuters) – China on Monday gave conditional approval to domestic firm Genuine Biotech’s Azvudine pill to treat certain adult patients with COVID-19, adding another oral treatment option against the coronavirus.

The availability of effective COVID vaccines and treatments is crucial in laying the groundwork for China’s potential pivoting from its “dynamic COVID zero” policy, which aims to eliminate every outbreak – however small – and relies on mass testing and strict quarantining.

The Azvudine tablet, which China approved in July last year to treat certain HIV-1 virus infections, has been given a conditional green light to treat adult patients with “normal type” COVID, the National Medical Products Administration said in a statement.

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“Normal type” COVID is a term China uses to refer to coronavirus infections where there are signs of pneumonia, but the patients haven’t reached a severe stage.

China in February allowed the use of Pfizer’s oral treatment Paxlovid in adults with mild-to-moderate COVID and high risk of progressing to a severe condition. In 2020, it approved the use of Lianhuaqingwen capsules, a traditional Chinese medicine-style formula, to alleviate symptoms of COVID such as fever and cough.

In a late-stage clinical trial, 40.4% of patients taking Azvudine showed improvement in symptoms seven days after first taking the drug, compared with 10.9% in the control group, Henan province-based Genuine Biotech said in a statement earlier this month, without providing detailed readings.

Other Chinese companies developing potential oral COVID treatments include Shanghai Junshi Biosciences (688180.SS) and Kintor Pharmaceutical (9939.HK).

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Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo
Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter

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World

Shanghai enforces new COVID testing, some areas in China extend lockdowns

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SHANGHAI/BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) – Several large Chinese cities including Shanghai are rolling out new mass testing or extending lockdowns on millions of residents to counter new clusters of COVID-19 infections, with some measures being criticised on the internet.

China has reported an average of around 390 local daily infections in the seven days ending on Sunday, higher than about 340 seven days earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on official data as of Monday. read more

While that is tiny compared with a resurgence in other parts of Asia, China is adamant about implementing its dynamic zero COVID policy of eliminating outbreaks as soon as they emerge. Previously when a flare-up became a major outbreak, local officials had been compelled to take tougher measures such as month-long lockdowns, even at the cost of economic growth.

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Persistent outbreaks and more closures could add pressure on the world’s second-largest economy, which contracted sharply in the second quarter from the first after widespread COVID lockdowns jolted industrial production and consumer spending. read more

The commercial hub of Shanghai, yet to fully recover from the harsh two-month lockdown in spring and still reporting daily sporadic cases, plans to hold mass testing in many of its 16 districts and in some smaller areas where new infections had been reported recently, after similar testing last week. read more

“There is still an epidemic risk at the community level so far,” the city government said in a statement.

Shanghai reported more than a dozen new cases but none was found outside quarantined areas, local government data showed on Monday.

“I’m speechless,” said a Shanghai resident surnamed Wang, already subject to testing every weekend at her residential compound. “It sounds like a waste of resources that doesn’t address the real problem.”

The northern city of Tianjin, which launched multiple rounds of mass testing in recent months to curb earlier outbreaks, said on Monday it is again testing its more than 12 million residents, after two local infections were found.

In the northwestern city of Lanzhou, a lockdown in four major districts with around 3 million residents that started last week has been extended to July 24.

In the central Chinese city of Zhumadian, lockdowns for several million people in a few towns under its jurisdiction have been extended for a few days until Monday or Tuesday.

The southwestern city of Chengdu said on Monday it suspended various entertainment and cultural venues, widening such curbs over the weekend that had been limited to a few districts.

The capital Beijing, after a week of zero local infections, found two cases on Monday – one international flight crew member and the person’s roommate. Authorities have sealed affected buildings.

‘NO HUMANITY’

Authorities in the southern region of Guangxi said late on Sunday they removed two officials in the city of Beihai from their jobs for acting poorly in their COVID response.

Beihai, with a population of 1.9 million and currently clocking over 500 infections, has launched multiple rounds of mass testing and locked down some areas.

As of Sunday, over 2,000 tourists were stuck in the city.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, COVID control staffers broke down the locks of apartment doors without residents’ consent, stirring an outcry on social media over the weekend.

Authorities in one district in Guangzhou on Monday apologised to residents.

The issue was among the top trending topics on China’s Twitter-like social media Weibo.

“It’s too horrifying, too ridiculous,” wrote a Weibo user. “No humanity, no law.”

In the northeastern city of Changchun, subway passengers were told to wear N95 masks throughout their rides. Many cities including Beijing only mandate surgical masks.

Changchun has been clear of local cases since mid-May, while a smaller nearby town under its jurisdiction has reported fewer than 20 cases since July 15.

Jin Dong-yan, a virology professor at the University of Hong Kong, said N95 respirators are able to offer better protection than surgical masks during major outbreaks, but could be of low cost-efficiency in areas of low COVID risk.

“In a city without cases, N95 mask mandate would be painful and inconvenient.”

(This story corrects to show the two cases found in Beijing are not both local cases, clarifies Changchun case details, paragraphs 13, 22)

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Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Brenda Goh, Ryan Woo and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman

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World

North Korea sends aid to 800 families suffering from intestinal epidemic

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SEOUL, June 17 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other senior officials prepared aid to send to 800 families suffering from an unidentified intestinal epidemic, state media reported on Friday, as the country also battles its first COVID-19 outbreak.

North Korea revealed this week it was facing an “acute enteric epidemic” on top of a weeks-long outbreak of COVID. It did not elaborate what the disease was, but enteric refers to the gastrointestinal tract.

“The officials … prepared medicines, foodstuff and daily necessities needed for the treatment of the epidemic and stable life to render aid to the people in Haeju City and Kangryong County (of South Hwanghae Province),” the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

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Leader Kim called upon officials “to fulfil their duty in the work for easing the people’s misfortune and sufferings as soon as possible,” it added.

On Thursday, an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Seoul is monitoring the outbreak, suspected to be cholera or typhoid.

South Hwanghae Province is North Korea’s key agricultural region and the outbreak raised concerns may add to chronic food shortages amid the wave of COVID-19 infections. read more

North Korea has been reporting patient numbers with fever symptoms, rather than confirmed COVID cases, potentially due to a lack of testing ability.

KCNA on Friday reported 23,160 more people with fever symptoms, bringing the total number in the country since late April to above 4.58 million. The death toll linked to the outbreak is at 73.

The North has said more than 99% of fever patients have recovered and that the COVID wave has shown signs of subsiding, but the World Health Organization cast doubts on Pyongyang’s claims earlier this month, saying it believes the situation is getting worse. read more

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Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

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Health

Spain monkeypox cases tally reaches 30, mostly linked to sauna

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A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968. CDC/Handout via REUTERS

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MADRID/LISBON, May 20 (Reuters) – (This May 20 story corrects official tallies in headline and in first paragraph, and adds line on Extremadura case in fifth paragraph)

Health authorities in Spain reported on Friday 23 new confirmed cases of monkeypox, mainly in the Madrid region where the regional government closed a sauna linked to the majority of infections.

The total tally in Spain has now reached 30, while 23 confirmed cases have now been identified in neighbouring Portugal, where nine new cases were detected on Friday.

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Madrid authorities have been working on tracing the cases mainly from a single outbreak in a sauna, regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero told reporters on Friday. The word sauna is used in Spain to describe establishments popular with gay men looking for sex rather than just a bathhouse.

“The Public Health Department will carry out an even more detailed analysis… to control contagion, cut the chains of transmission and try to mitigate the transmission of this virus as much as possible,” he said.

The Extremadura region confirmed its first case on Friday afternoon. It is being investigated by national health authorities so is not yet included in the national tally.

Another 18 suspected cases are under investigation in Spain, 15 in the Madrid region, two in the Canary Islands and one in Andalusia, the health authorities said.

More than 100 cases of the viral infection more common to west and central Africa have been now reported in Europe. read more

It is a usually mild infection, with symptoms including fever, headaches and a distinctive bumpy rash. read more

Twenty cases have been detected in Britain – where authorities are offering a smallpox vaccine to healthcare workers and others who may have been exposed. read more

The UK Health Security Agency has said a notable proportion of recent cases in Britain and Europe have been found in gay and bisexual men. read more

Spain is assessing different therapeutic options, such as antivirals and vaccines, but so far all cases have mild symptoms and therefore no specific ad hoc treatment has been necessary, Spanish Health minister Carolina Darias told reporters on Friday.

The Portuguese cases remain under clinical follow-up but none have been hospitalized as they are all stable, the health authority said.

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Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Patricia Rua
Editing by Andrei Khalip, Inti Landauro, Toby Chopra and Frances Kerry

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