Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. UK government took decision to stop mass testing and tracing in March: advisers

Britain decided to end mass testing and contact tracing of those with or suspected of having COVID-19 in March because a surge in new cases at that time would have been beyond the system's capacity, government advisers said on Friday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for scaling back testing and tracing in March, only to ramp up the system in recent weeks to try to ease out of a lockdown to tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has all but shut down the economy. UK's Blair: Patchy data means Africa could use antibody tests to track COVID-19

African nations should use antibody tests to find out whether the slower spread and lower mortality rate of the new coronavirus on the continent is due to patchy data or a more resilient population, former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Friday. That information would guide leaders in deciding whether to extend lockdowns or other restrictions that are damaging economies, exacerbating hunger and slowing the fight against other deadly diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, he said. U.S. doctors call for remdesivir data to guide coronavirus treatment

U.S. doctors and others in the scientific community are calling for the release of data that convinced health regulators to authorize emergency use of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19, so they can direct limited supplies on the right patients. Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc Chief Executive Mihael Polymeropoulos on Wednesday published an open letter asking for a full download of the trial findings that led to emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. China to bolster disease control system in post-virus overhaul

China will strengthen its disease control centres and improve the deployment of resources to resolve shortcomings in its health system exposed by the novel coronavirus outbreak, the state planning agency said on Friday. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said great progress had been made in the "people's war" against the coronavirus, but it had "also exposed a large number of shortcomings and systemic problems in the prevention and control of major epidemics". China's Wuhan says conducted 1,000,729 COVID-19 tests on May 21

The city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, conducted 1,000,729 nucleic acid tests on May 21, the local health authority said on Friday, compared with 887,321 tests a day earlier. Wuhan kicked off a campaign on May 14 to look for asymptomatic carriers - infected people who show no outward sign of illness - after confirming on May 9-10 its first cluster of COVID-19 infections since its release from a virtual lockdown on April 8. What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Post-pandemic China Human trials of British coronavirus vaccine to reach 10,000

Oxford University and AstraZeneca are recruiting around 10,000 adults and children in Britain for trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a day after receiving U.S. backing worth up to $1.2 billion. Institutions across Britain had begun enrolling up to 10,260 adults and children to see how well the human immune system responds to the vaccine and how safe it is, the university said. Delegates at China's virus-delayed congress tested and masked

China's top leaders took the stage in front of a sea of masked delegates for the opening of parliament on Friday, the culmination of intensive planning at a time when gatherings around the world have been curtailed by the new coronavirus. President Xi Jinping and other top leaders appeared without masks in front of about 5,000 delegates from parliament, known as the National People's Congress (NPC), and a government advisory body, for the top annual political assembly. Yemen's health system 'has in effect collapsed' as COVID spreads: U.N.

The new coronavirus is believed to be spreading throughout Yemen where the health care system "has in effect collapsed", the United Nations said on Friday, appealing for urgent funding. "Aid agencies in Yemen are operating on the basis that community transmission is taking place across the country," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a Geneva briefing. U.S. demands review of WHO's handling of pandemic starts now, seeks reforms

The United States called on the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday to begin work immediately on investigating the source of the novel coronavirus, as well as its handling of the response to the pandemic. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused the agency of being "China centric", threatened in a tweeted letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday to permanently halt funding if the WHO did not commit to improvements within 30 days, and to reconsider his country's membership of the agency.