For more than two years, the NHS COVID App dictated the lives of those living in the UK - it told us which counties were safe to travel into, who people could spend Christmas with, and how close the public could get to their loved ones. But on Thursday, it is being switched off for the final time. No more "getting pinged", or needing a bar code to enter a restaurant. The app is estimated to have saved thousands of lives and stopped millions of infections but now the fight against the virus enters a new phase and it is no longer needed. An upgrade to the app will take place from 10.30am on Thursday, telling users that the app is no longer in use. It is expected to take … 阅读全文

A new COVID-19 sub-variant called "Arcturus" has emerged in some parts of the world. A risk assessment released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the first report of the strain - a sub-variant of Omicron - was made on 9 January 2023, with the variant under investigation since 22 March. As of 17 April 2023, it has become a "variant of interest" (VOI) after cases were reported from 33 countries - with most coming from India. Other countries where the variant has also been detected include the US, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Brunei, Japan and the UK. However, the WHO said the "global risk assessment for XBB.1.16 is low as compared to XBB.1.5 and the other currently circulating variants, at this current time and with available evidence". Here's everything you … 阅读全文

A "fit and healthy" doctor who was one of the first people to be given the AstraZeneca COVID vaccination died after a "rare" severe reaction to the jab, a coroner has ruled. Dr Stephen Wright, of Sevenoaks, Kent, died 10 days after receiving the inoculation in mid-January 2021. The 32-year-old NHS clinical psychologist and frontline health worker was among the earliest groups of people to be given the vaccine during the pandemic. Scientists and medical experts were not aware of the vaccine's possible deadly side effects because Dr Wright's case happened so early in its rollout, said Dr Mark Howard, a consultant pathologist and medical examiner at King's College Hospital. He said: "It is a truly tragic and very rare complication of a well-meant vaccination. "It was a rare and … 阅读全文

Scientists have developed a sensor that can test for COVID and flu at the same time and tell which one you have within 10 seconds. The super thin nanomaterial inside their new device can detect the viruses that cause both infections - and at lower levels and more quickly than conventional options like lateral flows. It is made from graphene - a single layer of carbon atoms, arranged in a hexagonal lattice pattern. Its extreme thinness is what makes it so sensitive to any electrical changes in its environment, hence being able to detect and distinguish between the presence of different viral proteins. The University of Texas at Austin researchers took the antibodies the human immune system creates to fight both viruses, and linked them to the graphene. It means … 阅读全文

Joe Biden has vowed his administration will "declassify" as much information about the origins of COVID-19 as possible - including any potential links to a Chinese research lab. Having ordered intelligence agencies including the FBI to investigate where the virus came from in 2021, the US president has now signed legislation that requires any details uncovered to be made public. "We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19's origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics," he said. Mr Biden's bill, which he said would only limit the sharing of any information that "would harm national security", comfortably passed through both the Senate and House of Representatives. Any relevant documents must be published within 90 days of the bill being signed. It comes after FBI director Christopher … 阅读全文

People around the world did not report being more unhappy during the COVID pandemic than in the years before it, according to a study. Published on 20 March - International Day of Happiness - the 2023 World Happiness Report revealed positive emotions outweighed negative ones at a rate of two to one in the years from 2020 to 2022. People were asked to rank their happiness on a scale of one to ten, and gave scores over the pandemic years that were just as high as in the previous years. The polling, conducted by Gallup, also found feelings of positive social support were twice as strong as feelings of loneliness. For the second year in a row, acts of kindness that both led to and stemmed from greater happiness were … 阅读全文