Health News Roundup: Brazil's biggest cities start reopening as COVID-19 surges; U.S. coronavirus cases now over 2 million and more

Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic in Brazil, recorded 340 new deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the state's confirmed death toll to 9,862, a fourth of the country's total fatalities, the governor's office said.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Brazil's biggest cities start reopening as COVID-19 surges

Brazil's most populous state Sao Paulo reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths for the second day running on Wednesday even as its metropolis allowed shops to resume business and prepared to reopen its malls. Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the pandemic in Brazil, recorded 340 new deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the state's confirmed death toll to 9,862, a fourth of the country's total fatalities, the governor's office said.

U.S. coronavirus cases now over 2 million: Reuters tally

Total U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as health officials urge anyone who took part in massive protests for racial justice to get tested. Nationally, new infections are rising slightly after five weeks of declines, according to a Reuters analysis. Part of the increase is due to more testing, which hit a record high on June 5 of 545,690 tests in a single day but has since fallen, according to the COVID-Tracking Project https://covidtracking.com.

WHO hopes to work with U.S. on Ebola despite Trump criticism

The World Health Organization hopes to work "side by side" with the United States to contain an outbreak of Ebola in Congo, its chief said on Wednesday, despite their differences over the new coronavirus. President Donald Trump said last month he was ending the U.S. relationship with the WHO over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

UK lockdown a week earlier could have halved COVID-19 death toll, scientist says

Britain's death toll from COVID-19 could have been halved if lockdown had been introduced a week earlier, a former member of the UK government's scientific advisory group said on Wednesday. Britain has an official death toll from confirmed COVID-19 cases of over 40,000, rising to over 50,000 cases when deaths from suspected cases are included.

Special Report: Pandemic exposes systemic staffing problems at U.S. nursing homes

One night in April, as coronavirus swept through the Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, Robyn Esaw, a double amputee, signaled for help with her bedpan. She said she hit the bedside button that turns on a red hallway light. None of the few remaining staff showed up - and one of them turned the light off. Esaw only got help, eventually, by wheeling herself to the nursing station and yelling. On another night in another room of the New Jersey home, Barbara Grimes noticed her roommate sitting in a puddle of urine, which seeped into a wound on her tailbone. No one checked on the roommate for three hours. The woman, Grimes said, had given up on calling for help.

Washington, D.C. urges anti-racism protesters to get tested for coronavirus

Washington, D.C. on Wednesday urged people who had participated in protests against police brutality and systematic racism to get tested for the coronavirus. The federal district joins a number of other locales, including Boston, Dallas, and the state of New York, that have asked protesters to be tested after thousands of people flooded the streets in demonstrations amid the pandemic that has sickened nearly 2 million Americans and killed about 112,000.

Explainer: Summer might slow coronavirus but is unlikely to stop it

The arrival of warmer weather in the Northern Hemisphere raises the question of whether summer could slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Here is what science says. While warmer weather typically ends the annual flu season in temperate zones, climate alone has not stopped the COVID-19 pandemic from sweeping any part of the globe. In fact, outbreaks in hot and sunny Brazil and Egypt are growing.

pExclusive: Lilly COVID-19 treatment could be authorized for use as soon as September - chief scientist

Eli Lilly and Co could have a drug specifically designed to treat COVID-19 authorized for use as early as September if all goes well with either of two antibody therapies it is testing, its chief scientist told Reuters on Wednesday. Lilly is also doing preclinical studies of a third antibody treatment for the illness caused by the new coronavirus that could enter human clinical trials in the coming weeks, Chief Scientific Officer Daniel Skovronsky said in an interview.

J&J moves up start of coronavirus vaccine human trials to July

Johnson & Johnson moved up the start of human clinical trials for its experimental vaccine against the highly contagious coronavirus by two months to the second half of July, as the drugmaker rushes to develop prevention for COVID-19, the company said on Wednesday. The acceleration should allow J&J to take part in the massive clinical trials program planned by the U.S. government, which aims to have an effective vaccine by year end.

U.S. states accuse 26 drugmakers of generic drug price fixing in sweeping lawsuit

Twenty-six drug manufacturers were sued on Wednesday by the attorneys general of most U.S. states and several territories, which accused them of conspiring to reduce competition and drive up generic drug prices. The lawsuit accused Novartis' Sandoz unit, Teva Pharmaceuticals' Actavis unit, Mylan, Pfizer Inc, and other drugmakers of conspiring to rig the market between 2009 and 2016 for more than 80 drugs.