Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Chinese vaccine could be ready by year-end, government body says

A Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine could be ready for market as early as the end of this year, China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said in a social media post. In trials, more than 2,000 people have received vaccines developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the Beijing Institute of Biological Products. A vaccine could be ready for the market as early as the end of this year or early 2021, according to the May 29 post on Chinese social media platform WeChat. French coronavirus case numbers extend decline

France's coronavirus case numbers are continuing to decline, health officials said on Saturday, with 14,380 patients currently in hospital, down from 14,695 a day earlier. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also fell to 1,325 from 1,361, the health directorate said in a statement. The hospital death toll from the virus rose by 57 to 18,444 - the 10th consecutive daily increase below 100. Trump cutting U.S. ties with World Health Organization over virus

The United States will end its relationship with the World Health Organization over the body's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday, accusing the U.N. agency of becoming a puppet of China. The move to quit the Geneva-based body, which the United States formally joined in 1948, comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus outbreak. The virus first emerged in China's Wuhan city late last year. Saturated hospitals, airlifts as California border region virus cases surge

Coronavirus cases are surging in a scorching hot desert region straddling south California and a city near Mexico's Tijuana, leading to saturated hospitals, a cross-border overspill of patients and airlifts from rural U.S. clinics. Mexicali, capital of the Mexican state of Baja California, has the third-highest number of confirmed COVID cases in Mexico, with its main hospitals at four-fifths capacity, state health department data shows. Taiwan approves Gilead's remdesivir to treat COVID-19

Taiwan's government said on Saturday it had approved Gilead Sciences' potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, to treat the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Governments are racing to bolster supplies of remdesivir, which U.S. regulators this month approved for emergency use. California-based Gilead has said it will donate 1.5 million doses of remdesivir, enough to treat at least 140,000 patients, to combat the global pandemic. Drugs standards group nixes plan to kick pharma's crab blood habit

Horseshoe crabs' icy-blue blood is set to remain the drug industry's standard for safety tests after a powerful U.S. group ditched a plan to put on an equal footing a synthetic substitute pushed by Swiss biotech Lonza and animal welfare groups. The crabs' copper-rich blood clots in the presence of bacterial endotoxins and has long been used in tests to detect contamination in shots and infusions. U.S. CDC reports total of 1,737,950 coronavirus cases, 102,785 deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported a total 1,737,950 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 18,123 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,074 to 102,785. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. EDT on May 29 versus its previous report released on Friday. Russia plans coronavirus vaccine clinical trials in two weeks: report

Russian scientists plan to start clinical trials within two weeks on a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus, the health minister was quoted as saying on Saturday as authorities approved the country's first anti-COVID-19 drug. Russia has the world's third-highest toll of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil, and Kremlin officials have said the nation's researchers are working on almost 50 different vaccine projects. Exclusive: Sanofi stops enrolling COVID-19 patients in hydroxychloroquine trials

Sanofi has temporarily stopped recruiting new COVID-19 patients for two clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine and will no longer supply the anti-malaria drug to treat COVID-19 until concerns about safety are cleared up, it said on Friday. The moves come after the World Health Organization paused its large trial of hydroxychloroquine, prompting several European governments to ban the use of the drug, also used in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Malaysia reports 30 new COVID-19 infections

Malaysia reported 30 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, taking the cumulative total to 7,762. A senior Ministry of Health official told reporters the total number of deaths remained at 115.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)