Health News Roundup: EU urges more flu vaccinations; Moderna Phase 1 results of coronavirus vaccine and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

UN warns of dangerous drop in vaccinations during COVID pandemic

Levels of childhood immunizations against dangerous diseases such as measles, tetanus and diphtheria have dropped alarmingly during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting millions of children at risk, United Nations agencies said on Wednesday. "The avoidable suffering and death caused by children missing out on routine immunizations could be far greater than COVID-19 itself," World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a joint report with UNICEF.

UK health minister says will not be recommending masks in offices

British Health Minister Matt Hancock said that the government would not be recommending that people wear face masks in offices, after speculation that rules for workplaces could follow shops. "We will not be recommending masks in the office," Hancock told Sky News on Wednesday.

Fearing COVID 'cocktail of risks', EU urges more flu vaccinations

The European Union executive urged member states on Wednesday to launch earlier and broader vaccination campaigns against flu this year to reduce the risk of simultaneous influenza and COVID-19 outbreaks in the autumn. The European Commission wants to head off the risk of hospitals being again overwhelmed by a surge of patients, as happened at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe in March and April.

China reports skin disease outbreaks in cattle due to virus

China is facing outbreaks of a debilitating virus in cattle that causes a condition called 'lumpy skin disease', following an incident on a farm in the eastern province of Zhejiang this week, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. On its website, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said five cases were found during June in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian and the eastern provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui.

More U.S. schools go online-only as coronavirus cases and deaths rise

With coronavirus infections and deaths rising in many parts of the country, U.S. educators from California to Wisconsin are opting for online learning rather than a return to classrooms when the school year begins in a few weeks. Schools from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Fort Bend County, Texas, joined California's two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, in announcing plans to keep teachers and students from the close contact that classrooms demand.

Thousands of Catalans return to lockdown as Spain fights new virus clusters

Some 160,000 people in the Spanish region of Catalonia went back into confinement on Wednesday as authorities scrambled to control a fresh surge of coronavirus infections in the area, just weeks after a nationwide lockdown was lifted. But just as a judge approved the regional government's stay-at-home order for residents of the Lleida area, about 180 km (110 miles) west of Barcelona, tensions rose over how to handle an increase in cases in a suburb of the Catalan capital.

U.S. government agrees to buy Becton's COVID-19 testing devices

The U.S. government will buy Becton, Dickinson and Co's COVID-19 testing devices and kits, the company said on Wednesday, as it ramps up its testing for the virus that has been spreading at an alarming rate. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to buy 2,000 of its BD Veritor Plus Systems and 750,000 of its SARS-CoV-2 antigen test kits, the company said.

Positive news on Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine could come on Thursday: ITV

Positive news on initial trials of the University of Oxford's potential COVID-19 vaccine that has been licensed to AstraZeneca could be announced as soon as Thursday, ITV's political editor Robert Peston said, citing a source. The potential vaccine is already in large-scale Phase III human trials to assess whether it can protect against COVID-19, but its developers have yet to report Phase I results which would show whether it is safe and whether or not it induces an immune response.

Moderna Phase 1 results show coronavirus vaccine safe, induces immune response

Moderna Inc's experimental vaccine for COVID-19 showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. Volunteers who got two doses of the vaccine had high levels of virus-killing antibodies that exceeded the average levels seen in people who had recovered from COVID-19, the team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

South Korean city seeks pre-arrival coronavirus tests for U.S. soldiers

A South Korean city that is home to the largest U.S. overseas military base has asked for coronavirus tests on American soldiers before they arrive, amid concerns over a recent spike in imported cases, officials said on Wednesday. U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has reported at least 25 virus infections among its troops and employees in the past two weeks, including 11 on Monday. All were confirmed upon arrival or while spending two weeks in mandatory quarantine.

(With inputs from agencies.)