Health News Roundup: CDC reports 1,005,147 coronavirus cases, 57,505 deaths; Vietnam says it contains coronavirus outbreak and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

CDC reports 1,005,147 coronavirus cases, 57,505 deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday reported 1,005,147 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 23,901 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 2,247 to 57,505. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on April 28, compared with its count a day earlier. (https://bit.ly/2IVY1JT)

After aggressive mass testing, Vietnam says it contains coronavirus outbreak

Businessman Phan Quoc Viet was making his usual prayers at a pagoda in Tay Ninh, a province in southern Vietnam when the government official's call came. It was late January, just after the Lunar New Year. Vietnam had detected its first two cases of the new coronavirus days earlier, and the government was contacting companies with experience of medical testing for urgent help.

U.S. coronavirus outbreak soon to be deadlier than any flu since 1967 as deaths top 60,000

U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 60,000 on Wednesday and the outbreak will soon be deadlier than any flu season since 1967, according to a Reuters tally. America's worst flu season in recent years was in 2017-2018 when more than 61,000 people died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html.

Trump, Fauci see hope with Gilead's drug in coronavirus fight

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday greeted as good news reports that a Gilead Sciences Inc experimental antiviral drug might help fight the coronavirus, and infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said data shows it appears to help patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Fauci, though, told reporters during a White House meeting with Trump that the data on the drug, remdesivir, needs to be further analyzed.

Brazil has record number of new cases of coronavirus, deaths total 5,466

The number of confirmed cases of new coronavirus in Brazil soared by a record number on Wednesday to 78,162 from 71,886 the day before, with 449 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said. The death toll now stands at 5,466 deaths in the country, which on Tuesday joined eight other nations with more dead from the pandemic that China.

Data on Gilead drug raises hopes in pandemic fight, Fauci calls it 'highly significant'

The top U.S. infectious disease official said Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental antiviral drug remdesivir will become the standard of care for COVID-19 after early results from a key clinical trial on Wednesday showed it helped patients recover more quickly from the illness caused by the coronavirus. Preliminary results from a U.S. government trial showing that patients given remdesivir recovered 31% faster than those given a placebo, were hailed by Dr. Anthony Fauci as "highly significant."

Most Americans cannot or will not use COVID-19 contact tracing apps: poll

More than half of all Americans either do not own smartphones or would not use apps backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and Apple Inc to trace who has been exposed to the new coronavirus, according to a poll by the Washington Post and University of Maryland released on Wednesday. The two tech companies have been working with public health experts and researchers to write apps that people can use to notify those they have come in contact with if they come down with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

U.S. FDA gives broader approval to GSK's Zejula for ovarian cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday cleared expanded use of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Zejula as a first option to keep advanced ovarian cancer at bay in women who have responded to chemotherapy. The approval, which does not limit the drug to women with certain genetic anomalies, should open up Zejula to expanded use in a larger patient population and could signal a similar opportunity for other drugs in the same class, known as PARP inhibitors.

Trump administration to speed coronavirus vaccine development: senior administration official

The Trump administration is planning to speed up development of a coronavirus vaccine with the goal of having 100 million doses ready by the end of 2020, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. The official declined to be publicly identified.

COVID-19 complication seen in children is 'rare', WHO says

The "vast majority" of children with COVID-19 have mild cases and recover completely, but a small number in a few countries have developed a rare inflammatory syndrome, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the coronavirus pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease in infants who are arriving in hospital with high fever and swollen arteries.