Japan on Friday eased its borders for foreign tourists and began accepting visa applications, but only for those on guided package tours who are willing to follow mask-wearing and other antivirus measures as the country cautiously tries to balance business and infection worries.

Friday is the first day to start procedures needed for the entry and arrivals are not expected until late June at the earliest, even though airport immigration and quarantine offices stood by for any possible arrivals.

A study documenting at least 22,000 Israeli overflights in Lebanon’s skies over the past 15 years has revealed the “huge scale and impact of Israeli incursions over Lebanon” as well as the “psychological effect on the country,” British newspaper The Guardian reported on Thursday.

Thousands of COVID-19 testing sites have popped up on sidewalks across Beijing and other Chinese cities in the latest twist to the country's "zero-COVID" strategy.

Lines form every day, rain or shine, even when the spread of the virus has largely stopped. Some people need to go to work. Others want to shop. All are effectively compelled to get tested by a requirement to show a negative test result to enter office buildings, malls and other public places.

Moderna's experimental COVID-19 vaccine that combines its original shot with protection against the omicron variant appears to work, the company announced Wednesday.

COVID-19 vaccine makers are studying updated boosters that might be offered in the fall to better protect people against future coronavirus surges.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that it is aware of more than 700 global cases of monkeypox, including 21 in the United States, with investigations now suggesting it is spreading inside the country.

Jada Pinkett Smith turned her husband's Oscar-night blowup into a teachable moment about alopecia areata, the hair-loss disorder affecting her and millions of others that, in some cases, can impact a person's sense of identity.

"Considering what I've been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories," Pinkett Smith said on Wednesday's episode of "Red Table Talk."

As health authorities in Europe and elsewhere roll out vaccines and drugs to stamp out the biggest monkeypox outbreak beyond Africa, some doctors acknowledge an ugly reality: The resources to slow the disease's spread have long been available, just not to the Africans who have dealt with it for decades.

Countries including Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, Israel and Australia have reported more than 250 monkeypox cases, many apparently tied to sexual activity at two recent raves in Europe. No deaths have been reported.

Dozens of doctors, nurses and medical personnel rallied Thursday outside the Central Bank in Beirut after declaring a two-day general strike to protest rapidly deteriorating economic conditions.

The strike was declared by two medical professionals' unions -- The Syndicates of Doctors in Beirut and the North and the Syndicate of Private Hospital Owners -- which say they could no longer put up with Central Bank policies that have allowed banks to impose random capital controls and other restrictions.

The monkeypox outbreaks in non-endemic countries can be contained and human-to-human transmission of the virus stopped, the World Health Organization said Monday.

The EU health agency ECDC said Monday the risk that the rare disease monkeypox would spread widely among the general population was "very low", though high for certain groups.