The pandemic coronavirus' debut wrought universal havoc—not even seasonal flu viruses were spared. Amid travel restrictions, quarantines, closures, physical distancing, masking, enhanced hand washing, and disinfection, the 2020-2021 flu season was all but canceled. That meant not just an unprecedented global decrease in the number of people sick with the flu but also a dramatic collapse in the genetic diversity of circulating flu strains.

A new SARS-CoV-2-like virus discovered in Russian bats is capable of infecting humans, and is resistant to current vaccines against COVID-19, a study has found. A team led by researchers at Washington State University (WSU), US, found spike proteins from the bat virus, named Khosta-2, can infect human cells and is resistant to both the antibody therapies and blood serum from people vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2.

Although the daily death rates have ticked down slightly from August, updated federal data shows that the U.S. is still losing hundreds of Americans to COVID-19 every day, and 225,000 people in the U.S. have been lost to the virus since the start of 2022. On average, more than 350 American deaths related to COVID-19 are still reported each day, and over the last seven days, the U.S. has reported nearly 2,500 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus was found in a population of bats in Russia.

If a woman contracts COVID-19 during her pregnancy, the infection, even if it’s mild, damages the placenta’s immune response to further infections, a UW Medicine-led study has found. The study was published Sept. 17 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

A sensor built into a mask was able to detect the COVID-19, H5N1 and H1N1 influenza viruses in the air within 10 minutes and send notifications to a device, according to the study led by six scientists working with Tongji University in Shanghai.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suggested that the isolated country could begin COVID-19 vaccinations in November, state media reported on Friday.

The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday relaxed its Covid-19 guidelines, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6ft (about 2 metres) away from others.

Original court documents tell a different story than the one contained in a viral blog post from a convoy-friendly National Post columnist.

Regardless of disease severity, people who have lingering smell loss after covid-19 are more likely to have cognitive problems than those who regain or never lose their sense of smell  

Some of the thermal scanners and cameras sold to schools to detect fevers would regularly fail if someone walked in with a hot coffee or after spending too much time in the sun.

Apple will no longer require corporate employees to wear masks at "most locations," according to an internal email from the company's COVID-19 response team seen by The Verge. "We are writing to share an update to our current protocols," the email reads. "In light of current circumstances, wearing a face mask will no longer be required in most locations."

North Korea has reported no new “fever” cases for the first time since mid-May when it abruptly announced its first domestic outbreak of COVID-19, and imposed tough measures to curb the spread of the virus. The North’s state emergency anti-epidemic centre said it had found zero fever patients in the most recent 24-hour period, state media reported on Saturday.

Covid-19 infections can lower sperm count and the virus may even bind to receptors on the surface of sperm cells. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the effects differ to those seen after other illnesses that involve fever, such as the flu.

While advocates called for a move to more livable communities, the experience in Canada has proven more halting, and less permanent, than in other countries

Researchers have developed a new N95 face mask that can not only reduce COVID-19 spread but also kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus upon contact with it.

In what definitely feels like a case of way too little, way too late, the WTO last week finally decided to grant the TRIPS waiver on COVID vaccines, allowing others to make more of the vaccine with…

During the coronavirus pandemic, several substance use behaviors decreased among youths, namely drinking, smoking, vaping, and cannabis use, according to a recent study published in the journal Current Psychiatry Reports.

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday will consider whether to recommend Novavax Inc's (NVAX.O) COVID-19 vaccine for adults, which the drugmaker hopes can become the shot of choice among some American vaccine skeptics. Novavax's shot is a more traditional type of vaccine employing technology that has been used for decades to combat diseases including Hepatitis B and influenza.