Health News Roundup: U.S. charges firm president, trader in COVID-19 fraud schemes; Retracted COVID-19 studies expose holes in vetting of data firms and more

U.S. charges firm president, trader in COVID-19 fraud schemesU.S. authorities on Tuesday said they have charged the head of California medical technology firm Arrayit Corp and an investor in the company, alleging that they had roles in schemes related to COVID-19 claims.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

U.S. charges firm president, trader in COVID-19 fraud schemes

U.S. authorities on Tuesday said they have charged the head of California medical technology firm Arrayit Corp and an investor in the company, alleging that they had roles in schemes related to COVID-19 claims. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California charged Mark Schena, president of Arrayit Corp, with taking part in schemes to defraud the U.S. Medicare program and to mislead investors over COVID-19 tests. It was the Department of Justice's first criminal securities fraud prosecution related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Retracted COVID-19 studies expose holes in vetting of data firms

The scramble to research the novel coronavirus has exposed weaknesses in the vetting of healthcare data being supplied by a growing number of U.S. firms, a flaw that forced two of the most respected medical journals to pull studies last week. The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) retracted COVID-19 studies over questionable patient health data supplied by a small company called Surgisphere.

Widespread mask-wearing could prevent COVID-19 second waves, study shows

Population-wide facemask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a UK study published Wednesday. The research, led by scientists at the Britain's Cambridge and Greenwich Universities, suggests lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but that even homemade masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people wear them in public.

Japan's Fujifilm to spend $928 million to double capacity of Danish drug facility

Fujifilm Holdings Corp will spend $928 million to double capacity at a drug manufacturing facility in Denmark, which it has pledged to use in producing COVID-19 treatments, as the Japanese company steps up its pivot towards healthcare. The investment in Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies will expand production lines for bulk drug substances and cultivate cells for producing viral vaccines, Fujifilm announced on Tuesday. It bought the facility in Hillerod, Denmark, in August from Biogen Inc for about $890 million.

Australia on track to see coronavirus largely gone by July, sport resumes

Australia is on course to have largely eradicated the coronavirus by July, a public health official said on Wednesday, as the country's most populous state announced the removal of restrictions on community sports. "Our view has been that we had hoped that by June/July that we would see coronavirus largely disappearing from the country, so this is pretty much on track," said Bill Rawlinson, a senior medical virologist with New South Wales Health.

California, Southwest face new coronavirus woes as U.S. economy reopens

Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are spiking in parts of California and the U.S. Southwest, prompting Arizona to reactivate its emergency plan for medical facilities and California to place counties where half its population lives on a watch list. The uptick in cases, which could lead authorities to reimpose or tighten public health restrictions aimed at slowing the virus' spread, complicates efforts to reopen the U.S. economy, which has been devastated by shelter-at-home rules.

Brazil restores detailed COVID-19 data after Supreme Court ruling

Brazil on Tuesday restored detailed COVID-19 data to its official national website following controversy over the removal of cumulative totals and a ruling by a Supreme Court justice that the full set of information be reinstated. The move came after days of mounting pressure from across the political spectrum and allegations the government was trying to mask the severity of the outbreak, now the world's second-largest.

Half of Californians live in areas with worrying resurgence of coronavirus

Nearly half of all Californians live in areas where coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are rising quickly enough to put their counties on a watch list for the potential reinstatement of shutdowns, a Reuters analysis of state data show. More than 18 million of the most populous U.S. state's 39 million residents live in counties where rates of increase have put them on a watch list that may eventually require them to roll back reopening efforts, the Reuters analysis shows. Overall, there were 133,489 cases in California by Tuesday and nearly 4,700 deaths.

U.S. government offers $25 billion in COVID-19 relief to some hospitals

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday it would distribute about $25 billion to hospitals that have not previously received relief funds as they grapple with a rise in COVID-19 cases. The agency said it would provide about $15 billion of the total to hospitals serving patients covered by federal Medicaid program for low-income individuals and children's health insurance program, and $10 billion to safety net hospitals that treat patients regardless of their insurance status.

Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 318 to 184,861: RKI

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 318 to 184,861, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by 18 to 8,729, the tally showed.