Health News Roundup: U.S. COVID-19 vaccine supplies strain to meet wider eligibility, second doses; Biden lays out plan to get America vaccinated and more

UK sees third-highest daily death toll with new cases at three-week low Britain reported its lowest number of daily new coronavirus infections since the start of the year on Saturday, adding to signs that a national lockdown is slowing the spread of a more infectious variant of the disease.


Reuters | Updated: 17-01-2021 10:50 IST | Created: 17-01-2021 10:28 IST
Health News Roundup: U.S. COVID-19 vaccine supplies strain to meet wider eligibility, second doses; Biden lays out plan to get America vaccinated and more
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Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

U.S. COVID-19 vaccine supplies strain to meet wider eligibility, second doses

Scattered shortages of COVID-19 vaccines persisted on Saturday under pressure from growing demand, as previously inoculated Americans returned for their required second shots and millions of newly eligible people scrambled to get their first. The supply gaps, coming as the U.S. vaccination effort enters its second month, prompted some healthcare systems to suspend appointments for first-time vaccine seekers and one New York healthcare system to cancel a slew of existing ones.

Retired doctors and more syringes: Biden lays out plan to get America vaccinated

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Friday said he would order increased production of syringes and other supplies to ramp up vaccinations against COVID-19 and improve upon the Trump administration rollout that he called a "dismal failure." Under Biden's plan, federal disaster-relief workers would set up thousands of vaccination centers, where retired doctors would administer shots to teachers, grocery store workers, people over 65 years old and other groups who do not currently qualify. In Tokyo's lockdown, some drink on even after authorities call time

For Yuuki Hamazono, it was a relief to find bars and restaurants in Tokyo flouting the Japanese government's request to close by 8 p.m. The 30-year-old financial trader was one of many people out in the Shimbashi nightlife district during the first weekend of an expanded state of emergency, with the government pleading for residents to stay home to contain the coronavirus. Reeling again from COVID-19, Amazonas gets respirators, oxygen from Brazil Air Force and Venezuela

The Brazilian jungle state of Amazonas received more emergency supplies of oxygen and respirators on Saturday, as the military and neighboring Venezuela scrambled to alleviate an unfolding humanitarian crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Air Force also said it had evacuated 12 patients from hospitals in the state capital Manaus to the northern city of Sao Luis overnight, with hospitals at breaking point with no oxygen supplies and overflowing intensive care wards. UK sees third-highest daily death toll with new cases at three-week low

Britain reported its lowest number of daily new coronavirus infections since the start of the year on Saturday, adding to signs that a national lockdown is slowing the spread of a more infectious variant of the disease. However the effect of the recent surge in cases remains clear in the death toll, which was the third-highest on record. Health experts have warned it has further to rise. Small coronavirus cluster emerges in Sydney suburb

A cluster of new coronavirus cases has emerged in Australia's New South Wales State, health officials said on Sunday, just as the country appeared on the verge of snuffing out all community transmission. Health authorities were still investigating a mystery case in a man who tested positive on Friday in the western Sydney suburb of Berala. All six locally acquired cases registered on Sunday were close contacts of the man. 'Go for it,' says first person vaccinated in India's massive COVID-19 campaign

Hospital cleaning worker Manish Kumar became the first person in India to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on Saturday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched one of the world's largest immunisation campaigns to bring the pandemic under control. Kumar received his shot at Delhi's premier All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), one of 3,006 vaccination centres established around the country. Denmark logs 256 cases of more contagious coronavirus variant

Denmark on Saturday found its first case of a more contagious coronavirus variant from South Africa, and saw a rise in the number of infections with the highly transmissible B117 variant first identified in Britain, health authorities said. The Nordic country extended a lockdown for three weeks on Wednesday in a bid to curtail the spread of the new variant from Britain, which authorities expect to be the dominant one by mid-February. Argentina receives second batch of Russia's Sputnik vaccine

The second batch of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Argentina on Saturday, allowing the South American country to apply the second part of the two-dose program aimed at inoculating front-line health workers. Some 300,000 doses of the vaccine arrived from Moscow on a special flight of flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas. Mexico records deadliest coronavirus week yet with 7,000 deaths

Mexico has registered its worst week yet of the pandemic, with a record number of infections from the new coronavirus and more than 7,000 COVID-19 deaths, government data showed on Saturday. There were 20,523 new coronavirus cases and 1,219 more fatalities on Saturday, pushing total confirmed infections to 1,630,258 and deaths to 140,241, the Health Ministry said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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