Health News Roundup: China's Dicos adds plant-based egg from U.S. firm; WHO recommends two doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine within 21-28 days and more

Euromonitor International, a market research provider, predicted China's meat substitutes market would be worth $12.3 billion by 2025 up from $10.8 billion in 2020. WHO recommends two doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine within 21-28 days People should get two doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine within 21-28 days, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as many countries struggled to administer the jabs that can ward off the COVID-19 virus.

The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday

He was "very disappointed" that China has still not authorised the entry of a team of international experts to examine the origins of the coronavirus. The 10-strong team had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to probe early cases of the coronavirus, first reported over a year ago in China's Wuhan.

Explainer-How safe is it to switch and space COVID-19 vaccine doses?

LONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Britain and other nations are considering ways to stretch scarce supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, including by delaying second doses, reducing dose sizes, and switching vaccine types between the first and second shots. The proposals have generated fierce debate among scientists. Here is the rationale behind, and criticism of, these alternative strategies:

China's Dicos adds plant-based egg from U.S. firm

Eat Just to fast food menus U.S. startup Eat Just Inc said on Wednesday that Dicos, one of China's largest fast-food chains, has added plant-based egg products supplied by the San Francisco firm to menus at more than 500 outlets across China. Dicos will replace its conventional egg patty in items like breakfast burgers and bagels with the U.S. firm's 'Just Egg' - made from mung beans - at restaurants in cities including Beijing and Shanghai, Eat Just's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Josh Tetrick told Reuters in a telephone interview. Though still a tiny business compared to China's giant animal based supply chain, vegetarian alternatives to meat, dairy, and seafood are rapidly gaining in popularity. Euromonitor International, a market research provider, predicted China's meat substitutes market would be worth $12.3 billion by 2025 up from $10.8 billion in 2020.

WHO recommends two doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine within 21-28 days

People should get two doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine within 21-28 days, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as many countries struggled to administer the jabs that can ward off the COVID-19 virus. Many are experiencing intensifying pressure on their health services due to surging coronavirus cases and the emergence of new variants that appear to spread more easily.

Bleak start to new year for Britain as it enters third lockdown

Britain began its third COVID-19 lockdown on Tuesday with the government calling for one last major national effort to defeat the spread of a virus that has infected an estimated one in 50 citizens before mass vaccinations turn the tide. Finance minister Rishi Sunak announced a new package of business grants worth 4.6 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) to help keep people in jobs and firms afloat until measures are relaxed gradually, at the earliest from mid-February but likely later.

Ambulances put on alert as Los Angeles hospitals swamped by COVID-19 patients Los Angeles health officials have told first responders to stop bringing adult patients who cannot be resuscitated to hospitals, citing a shortage of beds and staff as the latest COVID-19 surge threatened to overwhelm healthcare systems in America's second-largest city. The order, issued late on Monday and effective immediately, marked an escalation of measures being taken by state and local officials nationwide in the face of alarming increases in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.

Studies to see if Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses can be halved may take two months Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc may take about two months to determine whether doses of the company's COVID-19 vaccine can be halved to double the supply of the shots in the U.S., according to the agency. The news comes as the country grapples with a surge in cases, with the number of vaccinations falling far short of early targets.

South Korea rolls out mass testing for 70,000 prisoners and staff South Korea rolled out mass testing for 52 prisons in the country after a massive prison outbreak and may extend flight suspensions from Britain in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus cases, the health minister said on Wednesday. Over half of the total 2,292 inmates and personnel in a prison in southeastern Seoul were tested positive after a first cluster infection was reported within the prison last month, Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told a briefing.

17 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 4.8 million administered: U.S. CDC The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 4,836,469 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 17,020,575 doses. The tally of vaccine doses distributed and the number of people who received the first dose is for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 9:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the agency said.