Health News Roundup: China's new COVID-19 outbreaks; 11.1 million administered in US and more

Explainer: China's new COVID-19 outbreaks China has put millions of people in lockdown in response to new outbreaks of COVID-19 in the north and northeast, with Hebei province reporting the first new coronavirus death on the mainland since May last year.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Explainer: China's new COVID-19 outbreaks

China has put millions of people in lockdown in response to new outbreaks of COVID-19 in the north and northeast, with Hebei province reporting the first new coronavirus death on the mainland since May last year.

HOW DID THESE NEW OUTBREAKS OCCUR?

Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

China is stealing a march on Western drugmakers in the COVID-19 vaccine race in developing nations, with Indonesia and Turkey rolling out huge campaigns with a Chinese shot this week, Brazil due to follow soon, and even EU member Hungary signing up. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.

American tells pilots to take vaccine on own time but plans airport-based rollout

American Airlines has told pilots they should take a COVID-19 vaccine on their own time while preparing a broader voluntary program for employee vaccinations at airports around the country. Vaccines could be ready for Chicago-based staff as soon as mid-February, though American is not requiring them, said Jennifer Saddy, managing director of absence management who is part of the team leading American's vaccine efforts.

30.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 11.1 million administered: U.S. CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 11,148,991 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Thursday morning and distributed 30,628,175 doses. The tally of vaccine doses distributed and the number of people who received the first dose are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 9:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, the agency said.

Caught off-guard by scant testing, Japan battered by COVID winter

Japan missed opportunities to coordinate coronavirus testing and secure hospital beds in the months before the pandemic's third wave, health officials, doctors and experts say, missteps that hampered its response as winter set in. Japan has stood out for containing infections while avoiding the strict lockdowns that devastated economies elsewhere. The death toll, now at 4,315, is one of the lowest among developed nations and around 1% of that of the United States.

American teachers grapple with patchy COVID-19 vaccine rollout

For New York City high school teacher Rebecca Crawford, receiving the coronavirus vaccine meant taking the first concrete step towards seeing her students in person again, after an uncertain year that she spent mostly teaching online. On Wednesday afternoon, Crawford, 39, was administered the first dose of a two-shot COVID-19 vaccine at Kings County Hospital in the borough of Brooklyn, days after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo opened up inoculations for teachers.

Japan's Hiroshima to conduct large-scale PCR tests to battle COVID-19

Japan's Hiroshima prefecture said on Friday it will carry out large-scale polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to curb the spread of coronavirus, a rarity in a nation that lags far behind many other countries in the number of tests conducted. The western Japan prefecture aims to conduct PCR tests for 800,000 people in the city of Hiroshima, which has a population of 1.2 million.

Three dozen mayors ask Biden for direct shipments of COVID-19 vaccine

Mayors of some three-dozen U.S. cities have asked the incoming Biden administration to send COVID-19 vaccine shipments directly to them, bypassing state governments, saying local officials were best positioned to ramp up lagging inoculations. The move came as Biden, who takes office on Wednesday, readies a $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposal intended to bolster the nation's response to the virus and galvanize the slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 infection gives some immunity, but virus can still be spread, study finds

People who have had COVID-19 are highly likely to have immunity to it for at least five months, but there is evidence that those with antibodies may still be able to carry and spread the virus, a study of British healthcare workers has found. Preliminary findings by scientists at Public Health England (PHE) showed that reinfections in people who have COVID-19 antibodies from a past infection are rare - with only 44 cases found among 6,614 previously infected people in the study.

One-way Cook Island travel bubble to New Zealand to start next week

People from the Cook Islands can start quarantine-free travel to New Zealand next week, the two governments said on Friday, but New Zealand-based people will have to wait until later in the year to visit the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands is one of the few countries to remain COVID-free.