Health News Roundup: Scared by Skopje flight, COVID test mandate; Cheaper saliva test seeks FDA approval and more

"The data shows that we are being very active in tracking and detecting the virus." Global coronavirus cases hit 20 million: Reuters tally Global coronavirus cases pushed past 20 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for more than half of all known infections.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Scared by Skopje flight, Finland to mandate COVID-19 tests for travelers

Finland will introduce mandatory coronavirus tests and quarantines for travelers from certain high-risk countries, the minister in charge said on Monday after 24 of 157 passengers arriving from Skopje in North Macedonia tested positive for COVID-19. The voluntary testing was organized at Turku airport in Finland on Saturday for all passengers arriving on a flight from Skopje after authorities had traced flights from North Macedonia and Bucharest in Romania as two main sources of recent new coronavirus infections in Finland, the minister of family affairs and social services Krista Kiuru told reporters.

A cheaper saliva test seeks FDA approval; stroke risks in younger patients

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

New saliva test for COVID-19 avoids supply chain shortages Gilead seeks U.S. approval for COVID-19 treatment remdesivir

Gilead Sciences Inc has filed an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking full approval for remdesivir, its experimental COVID-19 drug currently used under emergency authorization, the drugmaker said on Monday. The antiviral drug, which helped shorten the hospital recovery time in a U.S. trial, has been at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic after the FDA granted it emergency use authorization (EUA) in May.

U.S. COVID-19 deaths drop for first time in four weeks

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 fell 16% to about 7,200 people last week, the first decline in deaths after four weeks of increases, according to a Reuters tally of state and county reports. The country posted more than 376,000 new COVID-19 cases for the week ended August 9, or an average of roughly 53,000 per day. New cases have now fallen for three straight weeks, though the United States still accounts for a quarter of the global total of 20 million cases.

Brazil's BRF registers 1,138 COVID-19 cases at a single meat plant, state data shows

A single BRF SA unit accounted for about 29% of COVID-19 cases at slaughterhouses in Brazil's Parana state, according to the most recent data available, underscoring the challenges for stemming outbreaks at meat plants. The data shows BRF's Toledo unit has had 1,138 confirmed COVID-19 cases while its Carambei plant had just five. Parana health authorities, which sent the numbers to Reuters upon request, confirmed a total of 3,979 COVID-19 cases at the state's slaughterhouses through July 24.

Spain defends pandemic response as case numbers overtake Britain

Spain's government defended its response to the coronavirus pandemic on Monday after official data showed the country had overtaken Britain to register the highest total number of cases in Western Europe. "Appropriate measures are being taken to control the pandemic in coordination" with the regions, the government said in a statement, after experts questioned its policies. "The data shows that we are being very active in tracking and detecting the virus."

Global coronavirus cases hit 20 million: Reuters tally

Global coronavirus cases pushed past 20 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for more than half of all known infections. The respiratory disease has infected at least four times the average number of people struck down with severe influenza illnesses annually, according to the World Health Organization.

U.S. CDC reports 5,023,649 coronavirus cases

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported 5,023,649 cases of the coronavirus, an increase of 48,690 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 558 to 161,842. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on Aug. 9 versus its previous report a day earlier. (https://bit.ly/2UkMHx9)

WHO decries 'vast global gap' in funds needed to fight coronavirus

There is a "vast global gap" between funds needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic and funds committed, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday and the WHO was only "10% of the way" there. More than 19.92 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 729,883​ have died, according to a Reuters tally.

COVID-19 cases in U.S. children soared in late July, report says

The number of new COVID-19 cases among children in the United States rose 40% in the last two weeks of July, according to a report released just weeks before tens of millions of American students are scheduled to begin the new school year. Health experts are keeping an eye on coronavirus infections among kids and teenagers as officials struggle with the thorny question of whether to reopen schools for in-person classes, adopt a virtual learning model or a hybrid of the two.

(With inputs from agencies.)