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China Approves Five COVID-19 Antigen Kits for Self-testing

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
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China Approves Five COVID-19 Antigen Kits for Self-testing

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
A medical worker collects a swab sample from a person at a mobile nucleic acid testing site for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), following the outbreak, in Beijing, China February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

China has granted approval to five COVID-19 antigen kits made by local companies to be used for self-testing, state broadcaster CCTV said on Saturday, as it tweaks its testing regime that has been pressured by Omicron.

China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) published a notice on Friday saying Beijing Huaketai Biotechnology had been allowed to make changes to its COVID-19 antigen test kit's device certificate, Reuters said.

It published a similar approval for four other companies, Nanjing Vazyme Biotech, Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech, Beijing Jinwofu Bioengineering Technology and a BGI Genomics subsidiary, Shenzhen Huada Yinyuan Pharmaceutical Technology, on Saturday.

While the NMPA did not provide more information, CCTV said the NMPA approvals marked the official market launch of new COVID-19 antigen self-test kits.

The approvals come after the country's health regulator on Friday said it would allow the general public to buy COVID-19 antigen self-test kits in stores and online for the first time.

In the past two years, medical workers in many Chinese cities have swabbed hundreds of thousands of noses and throats within days after just a handful of cases emerged, using nucleic acid tests that require labs to process samples. The scale of effort has helped China keep its caseload tiny by global standards.

However, some experts said it has become increasingly challenging for that strategy to keep up with the spread of the Omicron variant. China's daily rise of domestically transmitted cases reached a two-year high this week with many asymptomatic carriers.

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South Korea’s Yoon Attends Impeachment Trial Over Bid to Impose Martial Law 

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025. (EPA)
South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025. (EPA)
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South Korea’s Yoon Attends Impeachment Trial Over Bid to Impose Martial Law 

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025. (EPA)
South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025. (EPA)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended on Tuesday a Constitutional Court hearing of his impeachment trial where the detained leader may get a chance to argue his case or answer questions over his short-lived bid to impose martial law.

Near the start of the hearing, Yoon said he had worked in public service with "a firm commitment to free democracy", when invited by the acting chief justice, Moon Hyung-bae, to speak.

Dressed in a navy-colored suit with a burgundy tie, Yoon, a career prosecutor before his 2022 election as president, pledged to answer any questions the court might have.

Yoon has been incarcerated since last week under a separate criminal investigation into whether he led an insurrection by seeking to impose martial law in early December, which shocked the nation and was overturned within hours by parliament.

Before the hearing, his team of lawyers said in a statement Yoon intended to elaborate on his justification for declaring martial law on Dec. 3 and request through his lawyers a list of witnesses he wished to be called.

The Constitutional Court began the trial on Dec. 27 to review an impeachment motion that accused Yoon of violating his constitutional duty.

The judges will decide whether to remove him from office permanently or reinstate him.

Yoon may be questioned by Constitutional Court justices, a court spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Yoon's decision to attend the impeachment hearing contrasts with his vigorous resistance to criminal proceedings against him where he has refused to answer summons by investigators or attend interrogation sessions.

Yoon's legal team has denied he masterminded an insurrection, a crime in South Korea punishable by life imprisonment or even technically by the death penalty.

When oral arguments at the impeachment hearing began last week, lawyers for Yoon said the impeachment was a political attack against the president by opposition parties abusing their parliamentary majority and it had nothing to do with safeguarding constitutional order.

The main opposition Democratic Party, joined by minority parties and also 12 members of Yoon's People Power Party, voted with a two-thirds majority to impeach Yoon on Dec. 14.

Security has been heightened at the Constitutional Court in central Seoul, after a mob of angry Yoon supporters went on a rampage through the district court that issued a warrant to extend his detention early on Sunday.

Dozens of police buses were lined bumper-to-bumper on both sides of the street in front of the court to limit access to the premises hours before the start of the hearing.

Yoon was driven from the Seoul Detention Centre, where he is being held, in a correctional service vehicle escorted by a Presidential Security Service motorcade.