Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. 'A disaster': Roche CEO's verdict on some COVID-19 antibody tests

Some blood tests being marketed to tell people if they have had the new coronavirus are a "disaster", Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Wednesday as he prepares to launch the drugmaker's own antibody test next month. Roche's diagnostics business has moved out of the shadow of its main medicines unit during the pandemic, as the Swiss pharma giant confirmed its 2020 sales and profit outlook amid rising demand for COVID-19 testing. Germany approves trials of COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Germany gave the green light for human trials of potential coronavirus vaccines developed by German biotech company BioNTech, which is racing teams in Germany, the U.S. and China to develop an agent that will stop the pandemic. The trial, only the fourth worldwide of a vaccine targeting the virus, will be initially conducted on 200 healthy people, with more subjects, including some at higher risk from the disease, to be included in a second stage, German vaccines regulator the Paul Ehrlich Institut said on Wednesday. Recovered, almost: China's early patients unable to shed coronavirus

Dressed in a hazmat suit, two masks and a face shield, Du Mingjun knocked on the mahogany door of a flat in a suburban district of Wuhan on a recent morning. A man wearing a single mask opened the door a crack and, after Du introduced herself as a psychological counsellor, burst into tears. It'll be months before coronavirus vaccine is ready: German minister

Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Wednesday that it would take months to get any vaccine for coronavirus ready after Germany's vaccines regulator approved live human testing of a potential vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. "It's a good sign that development in Germany has reached the point where we can begin initial clinical trials," Spahn told reporters. UK confident of hitting 100,000 COVID-19 daily tests target, Raab says

British foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Wednesday the government was confident it would meet its target of carrying out 100,000 tests a day for the coronavirus by the end of the month. Official figures on Tuesday showed 18,206 tests had been carried out the previous day. 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. Mask fashionistas get creative in the age of coronavirus

In the weeks since the coronavirus pandemic put the world into a tailspin, the humble face mask has evolved into an American fashion statement. Now available in a myriad of styles and patterns, the now-ubiquitious facial covering has quickly replaced the T-shirt as the coolest way for nearly anyone - from firefighters and National Basketball Association fans to punk rocker and cat lovers - to tell the world about what they love. "People are getting creative with these masks. I love the individuality," said Johnny Pisano, a touring musician who has added masks to a line of T-shirts he sells online to his fans. His masks feature an image of Pisano performing his signature stage move - leaping into a split while playing bass guitar.In the United States, 55% of adults reported wearing masks out in public, according to an ABC/Ipsos survey released on April 10. LabCorp to expand availability of antibody tests for COVID-19

Laboratory and drug development services provider LabCorp said on Wednesday it would expand the availability of its antibody tests for the new coronavirus to more hospitals and healthcare organizations starting next week. The tests, earlier made available mainly to healthcare workers in late March, aim to identify individuals exposed to the virus but without any visible symptoms by detecting the presence of antibodies to the virus in blood samples. South Korea finds patients testing positive post-recovery from coronavirus barely infectious

Patients who tested positive for novel coronavirus after recovering from their first bout of the illness appeared to be far less infectious the second time round, South Korea's health authorities said on Wednesday. While the trend in new cases in the country remained downward, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has begun investigating a growing number of people testing positive after recovering. Dutch coronavirus cases rise by 708 to 34,842: health authorities

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 708 to 34,842, health authorities said on Wednesday, with 138 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,054, the Netherlands Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update. The RIVM repeated the actual numbers are likely higher, as not all likely cases are tested.