Health News Roundup: India reports six cases of new UK variant of coronavirus; EU's marathon COVID vaccination drive off to uneven start and more

India reports six cases of new UK variant of coronavirus Indian health authorities said on Tuesday they had found six people who had returned from Britain in recent weeks positive for the new more infectious strain of the coronavirus.

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.

India reports six cases of new UK variant of coronavirus

Indian health authorities said on Tuesday they had found six people who had returned from Britain in recent weeks positive for the new more infectious strain of the coronavirus. All six patients have been kept in isolation, India's health ministry said in a statement. "Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine," the statement said.

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.

Study says Britain must vaccinate two million a week to prevent a third COVID-19 wave

Britain must vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has concluded. The UK has had more than 71,000 deaths from the coronavirus and has recorded over 2.3 million cases of COVID-19 infections as of late Monday, according to a Reuters tally.

U.S. Forces Japan begins first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations

The United States military has begun its first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations in Japan, prioritising frontline medical workers. Inoculations began on Monday at the Yokota Air Base, Lt. Stuart Thrift confirmed to Reuters. U.S. Forces Japan last week took delivery of just under 8,000 doses, a military spokesman said during a FaceBook Live event on Tuesday.

First U.S. troops vaccinated in South Korea as country reports record coronavirus deaths

American troops stationed in South Korea received the first doses of coronavirus vaccine to be administered in the country on Tuesday, as health officials in Seoul reported a daily record of 40 deaths amid a surge in new cases. U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), which includes around 28,500 American military personnel as well as thousands of other workers and family members, gave the first doses to "frontline health workers and first responders" in the force, a USFK official said.

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