Reuters Health News Summary

Factbox: AstraZeneca's potential coronavirus vaccine AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine was safe and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers, data showed on Monday. The experimental vaccine, which has been licensed to AstraZeneca , produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials, data showed on Monday, preserving hopes it could be in use by the end of 2020.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. California reports nearly 12,000 COVID cases, biggest increase since pandemic started

California reported a record increase of more than 11,800 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, according to a Reuters tally of county data, as the Trump administration pushes for schools to reopen to help businesses return to normal. If California were a country, it would be rank fifth in the world for total cases at nearly 400,000, behind the United States, Brazil, India and Russia. South Korea's SK Bioscience in deal with AstraZeneca on vaccine

South Korea's SK Bioscience has agreed to manufacture AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine to help the British company build global supplies of the vaccine that has shown promise against the new coronavirus, it said on Tuesday. Data on Monday showed that the vaccine, jointly developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials. Biogen to assess Spinraza benefits after treatment with Novartis' Zolgensma

Biogen Inc said on Tuesday it plans to start a global clinical study to assess the safety and benefits of its spinal muscular atrophy drug, Spinraza, in children who were previously treated with Novartis AG's rival therapy, Zolgensma. The post-marketing study is testing if Spinraza can improve clinical outcomes in some patients who do not respond sufficiently to the gene therapy Zolgensma, Biogen said. Factbox: AstraZeneca's potential coronavirus vaccine

AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine was safe and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers, data showed on Monday. Drugmakers are racing to combat the pandemic that has now killed nearly 600,000 people. Wave of promising study results raises hopes for coronavirus vaccines

Early data from trials of three potential COVID-19 vaccines released on Monday, including a closely-watched candidate from Oxford University, increased confidence that a vaccine can train the immune system to recognize and fight the novel coronavirus without serious side effects. Whether any of these efforts will result in a vaccine capable of protecting billions of people and ending the global pandemic that has claimed more than 600,000 lives is still far from clear. All will require much larger studies to prove they can safely prevent infection or serious disease. U.S., Canada order 177 million syringes, needles from Becton Dickinson

Medical device maker Becton Dickinson and Co said on Tuesday it received additional orders from the United States and Canada governments for 177 million syringes and needles for COVID-19 vaccination programs. The new order for 140 million syringes and needles brings Becton's total U.S. orders to 190 million devices, while the new Canadian order for 37 million devices brings the country's total orders to 75 million. Oxford COVID-19 vaccine developer cautious on 2020 roll-out

The University of Oxford's possible COVID-19 vaccine could be rolled out by the end of the year but there is no certainty, the lead developer of the vaccine said on Tuesday. The experimental vaccine, which has been licensed to AstraZeneca , produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials, data showed on Monday, preserving hopes it could be in use by the end of 2020. People are more likely to contract COVID-19 at home, study finds

South Korean epidemiologists have found that people were more likely to contract the new coronavirus from members of their own households than from contacts outside the home. A study published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 16 looked in detail at 5,706 "index patients" who had tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 59,000 people who came into contact with them. Iran hits record 229 deaths from coronavirus in past 24 hours - health ministry

Iran has seen a record 229 deaths in the past 24 hours from its outbreak of the novel coronavirus, health ministry figures showed on Tuesday. Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic, began relaxing its lockdown in mid-April, at least partly to boost an economy battered by U.S. sanctions. Graphic: U.S. COVID-19 deaths rise for second week in a row

U.S. deaths from COVID-19 rose for a second week in a row to more than 5,200 people in the week ended July 19, up 5% from the previous seven days, a Reuters analysis found. The country reported over 460,000 new coronavirus cases last week, up nearly 15% from the prior week, according to the analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.