Health News

Tumbling COVID-19 case counts have some schools around the U.S. considering relaxing their mask rules, but deaths nationally have been ticking up over the past few weeks

Federal health officials are extending until mid-January its rules that cruise ships must follow to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has blocked three anti-abortion laws that were scheduled to take effect Nov. 1

First lady Jill Biden visited South Carolina on Monday, promoting efforts toward finding a cure for cancer and touring a cancer center in the state that played a pivotal role in her husband’s victory in the 2020 Democratic primary

Moderna says its low-dose COVID-19 vaccine is safe and appears to work in 6- to 11-year-olds

The European Medicines Agency said a booster dose of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine “can be considered” in people aged 18 and above

Ohio’s top lawyer has filed suit against the Biden administration seeking to restore a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics that was reversed earlier this month

Children under 18 and people from dozens of countries with a shortage of vaccines will be exempt from new rules requiring most travelers to the United States be vaccinated against COVID-19

Russia has reported another daily record of confirmed coronavirus cases as a surge in infections has prompted the Kremlin to tell most people to stay away from work starting later this week

Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Health, Dr. John Brownstein, discusses rollout and if parents should have their children get the flu shot at the same time as their COVID vaccination.

Several Chinese provinces and cities say they'll start giving COVID-19 vaccines to children as young as 3 after already fully vaccinating 76% of the population

The Dutch government is seeking advice from a panel of experts on whether it needs to reintroduce COVID-19 restrictions amid sharply rising infection rates

People in Estonia no longer can use negative test results to obtain the coronavirus certificates needed to attend sporting events, movie showings, indoor public meetings and other events

Pharmaceutical company Merck has asked the European Medicines Agency to authorize its COVID-19 antiviral treatment

People in Tokyo can eat and drink in bars and restaurants later in the evening starting Monday as officials ease social distancing rules with the country’s daily coronavirus cases reaching their lowest levels in more than a year

Dr. Courtney Tracy and CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Dan Gillison, discuss the increase in mental illness amid the pandemic and breaking stigmas that keep many from seeking help.

Florida's top health official was asked to leave a meeting after refusing to wear a mask at the office of a state senator who told him she had a serious medical condition

The state has some of the strictest vaccine mandates and masking policies.

A team of young scientists in South Africa is assembling the equipment needed to reverse engineer Moderna's coronavirus vaccine

Some American workers are deciding to quit their jobs in defiance of what they consider intrusive vaccine mandates

U.S. health officials may have solved the mystery of how four people in different states came down with a serious tropical disease, even though none had traveled internationally

Russia is reporting a record high number of coronavirus infections and deaths.

Serbia is set to launch partial COVID-19 passes while Croatia and Slovenia reported high daily rates of infections as countries with low vaccination rates grapple with persisting virus surge

Complications wrought by the pandemic persist in schools and often fall hardest on those least able to weather them

Austria's chancellor has warned that unvaccinated people could face a lockdown

Ukraine’s coronavirus infections and deaths have reached all-time highs for a second straight day, a growing challenge for the country where the share of vaccinated is one of Europe’s lowest

A former politician who called for the overthrow of the French government has been charged with terrorism in connection with what authorities have said was a far-right plot to attack vaccination centers, a masonic lodge and other targets

Ukraine’s coronavirus infections and deaths have reached all-time highs for a second straight day, a growing challenge for the country where the share of vaccinated is one of Europe’s lowest

Sri Lanka has announced plans to offer booster shots to front-line workers followed by the elderly as the island nation gears up to further ease COVID-19 restrictions

Federal scientists say kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine appear highly effective at preventing symptomatic infections among elementary school children

ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth speaks with Renee and Miguel Chavez and their two children on why they decided to enroll their children in the Pfizer vaccine trial for young children.

ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth speaks with CDC Pediatric Vaccine Advisory panel member Dr. Yvonne Maldonado on the next steps for authorizing the Pfizer vaccine for young children.

A judge in California has ruled that state prison guards who work in and around facilities’ health care settings must be vaccinated against the coronavirus

The Supreme Court is allowing the Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in place for now, but has agreed to hear arguments in the case on Nov. 1

Protests are being held in Warsaw and other Polish cities to mark the one-year anniversary of a constitutional court ruling that severely restricted abortion rights in the country

A Colorado day care owner convicted of keeping 26 children hidden in the basement of her business in 2019 has received a six-year prison sentence

Doctor Petruta Filip is working 100-hour weeks at a hospital in Romania’s capital Bucharest which, like hospitals throughout the country, is struggling under an onslaught of coronavirus patients requiring treatment amid worryingly low vaccination rates

Belarusian authorities have abolished mask mandates, less than two weeks after their introduction for the first time in the pandemic and a day after the country registered a record number of new coronavirus infections

The British government’s scientific advisers have urged the government to ensure coronavirus restrictions can be introduced rapidly, as the rate of new infections continues to grow

The Spanish government has ordered that all citizens who paid fines during a nearly 3-month state of emergency declared last year to slow the spread of the coronavirus be remunerated

Coronavirus infections and deaths in Russia have climbed to another pandemic record high, putting additional strain on the country’s health care system

"There is no safe temperature rise from a health standpoint."

Amnesty International is calling for an independent parliamentary inquiry into COVID-19 deaths in Italian nursing homes and reports of retaliation against nursing home staff who spoke out about unsafe conditions there

In Russia's fifth-largest city, Nizhny Novgorod, seriously ill coronavirus patients at an infectious disease hospital lie in crowded wards with little space between beds

Thailand is accelerating plans to reopen the country to foreign tourists, slashing mandatory quarantines beginning Nov. 1 for fully vaccinated visitors arriving by air from 46 countries and territories

Millions more Americans are now eligible for COVID-19 boosters and they can get a different vaccine than their first shots

Germany’s state governors are pressing for a nationwide legal framework for coronavirus rules to be kept in place, after the outgoing health minister suggested that the current legislation be allowed to expire next month

As people head indoors for the winter, coronavirus cases may rise, experts say.

Worried that the flu and COVID-19 could together trigger a winter-time double-whammy of new infections and deaths, France is forging ahead with a nationwide vaccination and booster-shot program against both diseases

Qantas Airways has brought forward its plans to restart international travel from Sydney as Prime Minister Scott Morrison predicted tourists would be welcomed back to Australia this year