Moderna Inc on Thursday said its experimental messenger RNA-based influenza vaccine generated a strong immune response against A strains of the flu but was inferior to an approved vaccine versus less prevalent influenza B.

Leading politicians, military officers and diplomats from around the world gather in Munich on Friday to survey a European security landscape transformed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The move to end the United States’ national emergency and public health emergency declarations on COVID-19 would formally treat the virus as an endemic threat.

COVID-19 is likely at a “transition point”, WHO says, and continues to be a public health emergency of international concern – the agency’s highest alert level.

China’s current wave of COVID-19 infections is nearing an end, and there was no significant rebound in cases during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest weekly update.

The highly-contagious Omicron subvariant XBB has surged to more than 50% of COVID-19 cases in the northeastern United States and risks spreading fast as millions of Americans begin holiday travel on Friday.

China’s abrupt change in COVID-19 policy has caught a fragile health system unprepared, with hospitals scrambling for beds and blood.