Reuters Health News Summary

South Africa weighs options for AstraZeneca shots ahead of J&J rollout South Africa's health minister said on Wednesday the government may sell or swap its doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, but it would wait for advice from scientists as it prepares to roll out an alternative U.S. shot next week.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Vaccine vs variant: Promising data in Israel's race to defeat pandemic

Israel’s swift vaccination rollout has made it the largest real-world study of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine. Results are trickling in, and they are promising. More than half of eligible Israelis - about 3.5 million people - have now been fully or partially vaccinated. Older and at-risk groups, the first to be inoculated, are seeing a dramatic drop in illnesses. South Korean dog has its coronavirus test day

A pet dog owned by a coronavirus patient in South Korea was tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday after showing symptoms, including a runny nose. The 8-year-old female Cocker Spaniel will now be isolated at home for 14 days with only its owner for company, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said. India's Biological E looking to make 600 million J&J vaccine shots a year - CEO

Indian pharmaceutical company Biological E Ltd is looking to contract-manufacture roughly 600 million doses of Johnson and Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine candidate annually, Mahima Datla, managing director of the privately-held company said on Wednesday. "We are targeting 600 million doses for J&J," said Datla. "This will be in addition to our own product for which we are targeting approximately 1 billion doses." Explainer: The WHO's theories about the origins of COVID-19 after Wuhan probe

A team of experts appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) completed its 28-day mission to the Chinese city of Wuhan this week seeking clues about the origins of COVID-19. The following looks at their findings. To sell or swap? South Africa weighs options for AstraZeneca shots ahead of J&J rollout

South Africa's health minister said on Wednesday the government may sell or swap its doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, but it would wait for advice from scientists as it prepares to roll out an alternative U.S. shot next week. South Africa paused the rollout of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University following data in a small clinical trial that showed it did not protect against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant of the coronavirus now dominant in the country. WHO's Wuhan probe ends, U.S.-China bickering over COVID continues

China called on the United States on Wednesday to invite the World Health Organization to investigate origins of the COVID-19 outbreak there, as sparring over the pandemic continued after the WHO wrapped up its field work in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Hours after the WHO team revealed preliminary findings at a Wuhan news conference on Tuesday, Washington said it wants to scrutinize data used by the team, which concluded that the virus causing COVID-19 did not originate in a laboratory in Wuhan, and that bats remain a likely source. California surpasses New York as U.S. state with most COVID-19 deaths

California surpassed New York on Tuesday as the U.S. state with the most coronavirus deaths, a grim reminder of the pandemic's toll even as the vaccine rollout and a sharp drop in new cases buoyed hopes of life eventually returning to normal. More than 45,000 people have died as of late Tuesday from COVID-19 in California, the most populous of the 50 states and one of the hardest hit in recent months. New York, severely stricken in the early stages of pandemic last spring, has reported 44,693 lives lost, according to a Reuters tally. https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-CALIFORNIA/xegvbwkqwpq Health care, employer groups call for broadening Affordable Care Act

A coalition of eight health care and employer groups on Wednesday called on the U.S. government to broaden the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and move towards universal healthcare coverage. The Affordable Coverage Coalition, which includes the American Medical Association, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and employer groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said they serve hundreds of millions of patients, consumers and employers. What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Promising data from Israel COVID maths: All the virus in the world would fit in a coke can

All the COVID-causing virus circulating in the world right now could easily fit inside a single cola can, according to a calculation by a British mathematician whose sum exposes just how much devastation is caused by minuscule viral particles. Using global rates of new infections with the pandemic disease, coupled with estimations of viral load, Bath University maths expert Kit Yates worked out there are around two quintillion - or two billion billion - SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the world at any one time.