Health News Roundup: Gilead increases enrollment target in COVID-19 patients; Seattle Genetics wins early U.S. approval for $18,500 and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Gilead increases enrollment target for remdesivir trial in COVID-19 patients

Gilead Sciences Inc on Friday increased enrollment target by 3,600 for a trial testing its experimental drug, remdesivir, in severe COVID-19 patients, a day after a media report said the drug was showing promise. Shares of the company rose 8% after medical news website STAT detailed rapid recovery in fever and respiratory symptoms in COVID-19 patients at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital.

Seattle Genetics wins early U.S. approval for $18,500 breast cancer therapy

Seattle Genetics Inc's add-on therapy for an advanced form of breast cancer that has progressed despite prior treatment was on Friday approved months ahead of schedule by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The oral therapy, Tukysa, will have a wholesale acquisition cost or list price of $18,500 for a 30-day supply of the pills, administered twice daily, Seattle Genetics said.

French nursing home learns costly lessons on containing coronavirus

When managers at La Riviera nursing home on France's Cote D'Azur found out a resident had the COVID-19 virus, they put into action a standard playbook they believed would contain the spread. It did not. "We kept on seeing new cases and we could not understand why," said Antoine Ruplinger, an executive with the company that runs the home.

China's revised COVID figures are a bid to 'leave no case undocumented': WHO

A sharp upward revision in China's coronavirus death toll on Friday was "an attempt to leave no case undocumented" after medical services in Wuhan were overwhelmed at the start of the outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Nearly 1,300 people who died of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan, or half the total, were not counted in death tolls because of lapses, state media said on Friday, but Beijing dismissed claims that there had been any kind of cover-up.

GM dispatches first batch of ventilators for COVID-19 patients

General Motors said on Friday it had started delivering the first batch of 54 ventilators to U.S. hospitals treating severely ill COVID-19 patients. GM said the Franciscan Health Olympia Fields hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois, and Chicago's Weiss Memorial Hospitals will receive shipments of 10 ventilators each via package delivery company UPS Inc on Friday.

Reasons for hope: the drugs, tests, and tactics that may conquer coronavirus

With much of the world living in lockdown, the spread of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that was first detected in China late last year is beginning to slow in some places. As of Friday, 2.18 million people had been infected and 147,000 killed by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. While a safe, effective vaccine is still more than a year away, researchers are rushing to repurpose existing drugs and non-drug therapies as well as testing promising experimental drugs that were already in clinical trials.

U.S. CDC reports 661,712 coronavirus cases, 33,049 deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 661,712 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 29,164 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,978 to 33,049. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on April 16, compared with its count a day earlier. (https://bit.ly/2IVY1JT)

Global coronavirus death toll hits 150,000: Reuters tally

The number of deaths worldwide linked to the novel coronavirus reached 150,000 on Friday, according to a Reuters tally. The first death came in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Jan. 9. It took 83 days for the first 50,000 deaths to be recorded and just eight more for the toll to climb to 100,000. It took another eight days to go from 100,000 to 150,000.

Trump's coronavirus reopening plan has big holes, health experts say

The U.S. economy has imploded in the past month amid aggressive measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, with 22 million people filing for unemployment benefits and most factories, stores and other businesses at a virtual standstill. The governors of Michigan, Florida and other states outlined tentative steps on Friday to reopen their economies, a day after the White House issued guidelines to help states decide when to lift lockdown orders and allow firms to restart and workers to return to their jobs.

In lockdown Britain, 'Mancunian Motivator' brings fun and fitness to neighbors

In a suburban enclave on the northeastern fringes of London residents are having their heart rates - and their spirits - lifted by the "Mancunian Motivator." So popular have the street workout routines of Elyse Blemmings become in these times of enforced idleness that some of the neighbors are also meeting new friends amongst all the bending and stretching.