Reuters Health News Summary

Swiss to get Moderna vaccine in tranches until mid-year: Blick Moderna will deliver 7.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Switzerland in batches in the months ahead, putting the country among the world leaders in inoculating its population, the head of Moderna's European business said.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. U.S. COVID-19 vaccine supplies strain to meet wider eligibility, second doses

Scattered shortages of COVID-19 vaccines persisted on Saturday under pressure from growing demand, as previously inoculated Americans returned for their required second shots and millions of newly eligible people scrambled to get their first. The supply gaps, coming as the U.S. vaccination effort enters its second month, prompted some healthcare systems to suspend appointments for first-time vaccine seekers and one New York healthcare system to cancel a slew of existing ones. Swiss to get Moderna vaccine in tranches until mid-year: Blick

Moderna will deliver 7.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Switzerland in batches in the months ahead, putting the country among the world leaders in inoculating its population, the head of Moderna's European business said. "We are working at full speed to steadily expand our production capacities. If everything goes as planned, just under half the population could be treated with our vaccine by the summer," Dan Staner told the SonntagsBlick newspaper in an interview. Bayer aims to help CureVac with COVID-19 vaccine output, says CEO

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer is examining whether it can help CureVac to produce its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, its chief executive was quoted as saying on Sunday. Though inoculation campaigns have started around the world using various COVID-19 vaccines, many countries say their ability to get shots into arms is being limited by lower than expected supplies owing to a shortage of production. Retired doctors and more syringes: Biden lays out plan to get America vaccinated

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Friday said he would order increased production of syringes and other supplies to ramp up vaccinations against COVID-19 and improve upon the Trump administration rollout that he called a "dismal failure." Under Biden's plan, federal disaster-relief workers would set up thousands of vaccination centers, where retired doctors would administer shots to teachers, grocery store workers, people over 65 years old and other groups who do not currently qualify. UK hopes to ease lockdown from March: minister

Britain's government hopes to ease some lockdown restrictions in March as it presses ahead with Europe's fastest rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday. The country, which also has Europe's highest COVID-19 death toll, has been under national lockdown since Jan. 5, with schools closed for most pupils, non-essential businesses shut and people ordered to work from home where possible. India's COVID-19 vaccination drive hits bump due to app glitch

India's COVID-19 vaccination drive hit a bump on the first day due to glitches in an app called Co-Win that is being used to coordinate the campaign, according to several officials involved in the immunisation programme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched what his government has described as the "world's largest vaccination programme" on Saturday to rein in the pandemic in India, which has reported the second highest number of cases after the United States. China reports 109 new COVID-19 cases to keep concerns simmering before Lunar New Year

Worries simmered in mainland China about a potential fresh wave of coronavirus cases ahead of the Lunar New Year next month as authorities on Sunday reported 109 new COVID-19 cases, most of them in Hebei province surrounding Beijing. Though the Jan. 16 tally of new cases was less than the previous day's 130, China has in the past week seen the number of daily cases jump to an over 10-month high. Brazilian approval of Sputnik V vaccine delayed by missing data

Brazil's health regulator is seeking further data on Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before considering its approval for emergency use. Documents supporting drugmaker Uniao Quimica's application for emergency use of the vaccine have been returned to the company because they did not meet its minimum criteria, the watchdog said on Saturday. Lebanon inks final deal for 2.1 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

Lebanon's caretaker health minister signed a final deal on Sunday to secure 2.1 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine as the country battles a steep rise in infections. The vaccines are expected to arrive in batches starting February, the ministry said in a statement. Argentina receives second batch of Russia's Sputnik vaccine

The second batch of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Argentina on Saturday, allowing the South American country to apply the second part of the two-dose program aimed at inoculating front-line health workers. Some 300,000 doses of the vaccine arrived from Moscow on a special flight of flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas.

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