Health News Roundup: Verity Pharma and India's SII apply to distribute AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada; UK begins door-to-door testing of 80,000 people as new COVID variants spread and more

The United States needs more complete data on the race and ethnicity of people who have been vaccinated, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which released the data.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Verity Pharma and India's SII apply to distribute AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada

Verity Pharmaceuticals and Serum Institute of India (SII) have applied to distribute SII's licensed version of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, potentially easing shortages as European manufacturing sites struggle to meet global demand. AstraZeneca Canada had filed a rolling application for its vaccine with Health Canada in October, but online records show Canada's Verity Pharmaceuticals and SII on Jan. 23 filed a separate application to sell the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University researchers.

UK begins door-to-door testing of 80,000 people as new COVID variants spread

Britain begins a door-to-door COVID-19 testing of 80,000 people on Tuesday in a bid to stem the spread of a new highly infectious so called South African variant of the novel coronavirus. Public Health England said it had identified a total of 105 cases of the South African variant since Dec. 22, and to contain new outbreaks, residents in eight areas of the country will now be tested whether or not they are showing symptoms, a process known as "surge testing".

New U.S. transit mask rules ordered by Biden take effect

New rules took effect just before midnight Tuesday requiring millions of travelers in the United States to wear masks on airplanes, trains, buses, ferries, taxis and ride-share vehicles and in airports, stations, ports and other transit hubs. The new rules were ordered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late Friday to address the spread of COVID-19 after being blocked by President Donald Trump from imposing the requirements in August.

Over half in New Delhi may have had COVID, govt survey suggests

More than half of New Delhi's 20 million inhabitants may have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a government serological survey whose findings echoed earlier private-sector research. India has reported 10.8 million COVID-19 infections, the most anywhere outside the United States. But Tuesday's survey, based on some 28,000 samples, suggests the true figure among its 1.35 billion population is dramatically higher and approaching herd immunity levels.

Early U.S. data indicates Black and Hispanic Americans lagging in COVID-19 vaccinations

Early data on U.S. coronavirus vaccinations released on Monday suggests that Blacks and Hispanics received a smaller proportion of shots than their representation among healthcare workers and nursing home residents, two priority groups for COVID-19 inoculations. The United States needs more complete data on the race and ethnicity of people who have been vaccinated, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which released the data.

'Oxygen, oxygen, oxygen': Nigeria battles shortages amid COVID-19 surge

The Lagos businesswoman recalled the "horrendous" week she spent in the COVID-19 wing of a city public hospital, where the sense of crisis was lifted only briefly by whoops of joy when a patient secured one of the few available tanks of oxygen. "There was a shortage," the 47-year-old, who did not wish to be named in order to protect the staff who struggled to treat her, told Reuters. "It was discussed all around. It felt like that was the main issue – oxygen, oxygen, oxygen," she said, convalescing in a private hospital to which she moved.

PM Suga says Japan plans to start vaccinations in mid-February Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday that Japan planned to begin COVID-19 vaccinations in mid-February, which would be earlier than original plans to start at the end of this month. Suga was speaking at a news conference at which he announced the government's decision to extend a COVID-19 state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas.

Breast cancer overtakes lung as most common cancer - WHO Breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the most common form of the disease, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. "For the first time, breast cancer now constitutes the most commonly occurring cancer globally," Andre Ilbawi, a cancer specialist at the WHO, told a U.N. briefing ahead of World Cancer Day on Thursday.

WHO-led COVID-19 probe team in China visits animal health facility A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Tuesday at an animal health facility in China's central city of Wuhan in the search for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The independent team has already visited key hospitals, the regional disease control centre and the city's Huanan seafood market, where the first cluster of infections was believed to have originated late in 2019.

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine 91.6% effective in late-stage trial Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was 91.6% effective in preventing people from developing COVID-19, according to peer-reviewed results from its late-stage clinical trial published in The Lancent international medical journal on Tuesday. Scientists said the Phase III trial results meant the world had another effective weapon to fight the deadly pandemic and justified to some extent Moscow's decision to roll out the vaccine before final data had been released.