Health News Roundup: New coronavirus variant in Germany; EU's marathon COVID vaccination drive off to uneven start and more

Novavax Inc has begun a large late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, the drug developer said on Monday, after delaying the trial twice due to issues in scaling up the manufacturing process.

Novavax Inc has begun a large late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, the drug developer said on Monday, after delaying the trial twice due to issues in scaling up the manufacturing process. It will enroll up to 30,000 volunteers across about 115 sites in the United States and Mexico, with two-thirds of them receiving the shot 21 days apart and the rest getting placebo, the company said.

New coronavirus variant in Germany since November - Die Welt

The new coronavirus variant discovered in Britain seems to have been present in Germany since November as doctors detected it retrospectively in samples of an older patient who later died, Die Welt daily reported on Monday. Specialists at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) were able to determine the virus variant B1.1.7 in samples of the patient who had medical preconditions, the newspaper said, citing the regional ministry of health in the state of Lower Saxony.

EU's marathon COVID vaccination drive off to uneven start

The EU's campaign to vaccinate Europeans against COVID-19 has got off to an uneven start in what will be a marathon effort to administer shots to enough of the bloc's 450 million people to defeat the viral pandemic. In one mishap, eight workers at a care home in Stralsund on the north German coast were injected with five times the recommended dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Four were hospitalised.

U.S. COVID-19 deaths and new cases drop over Christmas week

The United States recorded more than 15,000 deaths from COVID-19 and over 1.2 million new cases in the last week, though those numbers may be artificially low due to reporting gaps over the Christmas holiday. Reported deaths fell 17% in the week ended Dec. 27 and new cases fell 16%, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports, the first declines in both figures since the week after the Thanksgiving holiday in late November. Weekly cases and deaths have otherwise been rising since early October.

Brazil's vice president taking the antimalarial drug for COVID-19

Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao is taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as part of an unproven treatment after contracting the novel coronavirus, his office said on Monday. In a statement, Mourao's office said the vice president's health is "good" and he is continuing to self-isolate at his official residence in Brasilia after testing positive for the virus on Sunday.

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Indonesia bans foreign visitors for two weeks over new coronavirus variant