IN BRIEF (Page 4)

51% of newborns not the first child

A total of 17.58 million babies were born in Chinese hospitals in 2017, down from 17.86 million in 2016, according to figures released by the National Health Commission. Fifty-one percent of the newborns were not the first in their families, the commission said. China allowed married couples to have two children beginning in 2016, ending its long-standing one-child rule. Last year, the maternal mortality rate dropped to 19.6 per 100,000 births versus 19.9 in 2016, and the infant mortality rate decreased to 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births from 7.5.

Rabies vaccine producer probed