Health News Roundup: France close to 21,000 coronavirus deaths; NY charges Mallinchkrodt with insurance fraud over opioid claims and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

France close to 21,000 coronavirus deaths

Coronavirus fatalities in France increased steadily on Tuesday to nearly 21,000, but the number of patients in intensive care registered its sharpest decline since the beginning of the outbreak. Public health chief Jerome Salomon said the rate of increase of confirmed coronavirus cases, now 117,324 in total, was up for the second day running, but the number of people in hospital was down for the seventh consecutive day.

New York charges Mallinckrodt with insurance fraud over opioid claims

New York state brought civil charges on Tuesday accusing Mallinckrodt Plc of insurance fraud for misrepresenting the safety and efficacy of its opioid drugs, leading to medically unnecessary prescriptions. Governor Andrew Cuomo said the charges brought by New York's Department of Financial Services are the first against a major opioid manufacturer in the regulator's probe into entities that contributed to the nationwide opioid crisis.

Lebanon legalizes cannabis farming for medicinal use

The Lebanese parliament legalized cannabis farming for medicinal use on Tuesday, a potentially lucrative export for an economy in dire need of foreign currency as it grapples with a paralyzing financial crisis. Although growing the plant is illegal in Lebanon, cannabis has long been farmed openly in the fertile Bekaa Valley.

U.S. coronavirus cases top 800,000, doubling in two weeks: Reuters tally

U.S. coronavirus cases topped 800,000 on Tuesday, doubling in about two weeks, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has by far the world's largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, almost four times as many infections as Spain, the country with the second-highest number. Globally, cases topped 2.5 million on Tuesday, with North America accounting for one-third of all cases.

Coronavirus very likely of animal origin, no sign of lab manipulation: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggests the novel coronavirus originated in animals in China late last year and was not manipulated or produced in a laboratory. U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic emerged in December.

Global coronavirus cases pass 2.5 million as U.S. tally surpasses 800,000

Global coronavirus infections surpassed 2.5 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, with U.S. cases surpassing 800,000. The figure includes more than 170,000 deaths, two-thirds of which have been reported in Europe.

Coronavirus preys on inequalities in working class Paris suburb

Resuscitation nurse Aline Lheureux feared there would be trouble in the impoverished Paris suburb where she works when she heard youngsters playing sport in the streets outside even though France was under tough lockdown rules. "During meetings, you could hear football matches being played," Lheureux said. "People here live on top of each other in small flats that make it difficult to respect the lockdown."

We can make more ventilators if government ups order, says UK business consortium

A group of firms, including Airbus and Ford, could build more than the current government order of 20,000 ventilators and continue once normal operations begin to resume, the head of the project told Reuters on Tuesday. Several engineering, aerospace, automotive and Formula One companies have clubbed together to produce the equipment with the aim of building over 1,500 per week.

U.S. replaces director of agency overseeing COVID-19 vaccines, drugs

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday it has replaced Rick Bright as director of a key U.S. agency charged with developing drugs and vaccines for COVID-19. Bright, who was director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, since 2016, has been moved to a new public-private partnership under the National Institutes of Health announced last week. He will oversee the acceleration of testing platforms for COVID-19, according to a Health and Human Services representative.

After ventilators, Xerox now plans to make hand sanitizers

Xerox Holdings Corp said on Tuesday it will make hand sanitizer in its factories in the United States and Canada to fight the spread of coronavirus, and start deliveries to healthcare organizations later this month. The U.S. printer maker, which walked away from its $35 billion bid for HP Inc last month, plans http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20200421:nBw8HRKBca to produce about 140,000 gallons of hand sanitizer gel by June.