Greece

Millions sweltering under extreme heat worldwide as summer arrives Deadly heatwaves are scorching cities on four continents as the Northern Hemisphere marks the first day of summer, a sign that climate change may again help to fuel record-breaking heat that could surpass last summer as the warmest in 2,000 years. Gloria Dickie Reuters

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Real-world study shows strong performance of COVID antivirals Focal Foto / Flickr cc CIDRAP

A new real-world study in Greece finds that for high-risk patients, COVID-19 antivirals are highly effective in reducing the risk of both hospitalization and death. The study is published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Patients who were older than 75, and reported good drug adherence benefitted the most from the drugs molnupiravir (Lagevrio) and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid)

Mask rules get tighter in Europe in winter's COVID-19 wave | AP News ROME (AP) — To mask or not to mask is a question Italy settled early in the COVID-19 outbreak with a vigorous “yes." Now the onetime epicenter of the pandemic in Europe hopes even stricter mask rules will help it beat the latest infection surge. AP NEWS

... Other countries are taking similar action as the more transmissible — yet, apparently, less virulent — omicron variant spreads through the continent.