Reuters Health News Summary

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a briefing on Friday that "reports that there is an intention to put in place new requirements, such as testing, are not accurate." Melbourne starts snap virus lockdown, no crowds at Australian Open Australia's second most populous state Victoria entered a five-day lockdown on Saturday as authorities raced to prevent a third wave of COVID-19 cases sparked by the highly infections UK variant.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Busiest U.S. seaport in California starts giving COVID-19 vaccinations

About 800 longshoremen from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday got the first COVID-19 vaccinations for dockworkers at the United States' busiest seaport complex, which has been hard hit by pandemic-related workforce disruptions and surging imports. The shots were a welcome relief for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members who snapped up the appointments in about 20 minutes. Brazil health regulator approves additional AstraZeneca vaccine imports

Brazil's health regulator Anvisa on Friday approved a request by biomedical institute Fiocruz to import more doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford from the Serum Institute of India, without specifying how many. Also on Friday, Fiocruz said in a statement, without referencing Anvisa's approval, that it was negotiating imports of 2 million more doses from the Serum Institute, in addition to 2 million already agreed. China refuses to give WHO raw data on early COVID-19 cases: WSJ

Chinese authorities refused to provide World Health Organization investigators with raw, personalized data on early COVID-19 cases that could help them determine how and when the coronavirus first began to spread in China, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing WHO investigators. U.S. CDC recommends schools reopen with masks and rigid health protocols

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued new guidance for U.S. schools to reopen, recommending universal mask-wearing and physical distancing as key COVID-19 mitigation strategies to get children back in the classroom quickly. The guidelines https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/index.html, which also emphasize the need for facility-cleaning, personal hygiene and contact tracing, are intended to give school districts a road map to bring the nation's 55 million public school students back to classrooms without sparking COVID-19 outbreaks. White House says no intention to require COVID-19 testing on domestic flights

The White House said on Friday it was not planning to require people to take COVID-19 tests before domestic airline flights after the prospect of new rules raised serious concerns among U.S. airlines, unions and some lawmakers. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a briefing on Friday that "reports that there is an intention to put in place new requirements, such as testing, are not accurate." Melbourne starts snap virus lockdown, no crowds at Australian Open

Australia's second most populous state Victoria entered a five-day lockdown on Saturday as authorities raced to prevent a third wave of COVID-19 cases sparked by the highly infections UK variant. One new locally acquired case was confirmed in the past 24 hours, health authorities said on Saturday, taking the number of cases tied to a quarantine hotel at Melbourne airport to 14 and total active cases in the state to 20. French coronavirus infections ease further

France's pace of infection with the coronavirus again slowed on Friday, with 20,701 new confirmed COVID-19 cases compared to 21,063 on Thursday and 22,139 last Friday. The seven-day moving average of new cases has been on a downward trend for 11 days and now stands at 18,663. Vaccinated COVID-19 patients appear less contagious; arthritis drug in spotlight

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. COVID-19 post-vaccination may be less contagious Analysis: Collapsed health system makes Venezuela vaccination campaign an uphill battle

Venezuela's deteriorated health system and collapsed economy will make the country one of the toughest places in the region to conduct a coronavirus vaccination campaign, an effort that already trails most of South America, experts said. The country has one of the region's lowest coverage rates for even basic vaccines, according to regional health figures, driven by years of blackouts, loss of medical personnel and decay of local clinics that are crucial for such campaigns. Exclusive: EU drugs regulator plans to fast track variant-modified COVID vaccines

Europe's medicines regulator is planning to speed up assessments of any COVID-19 vaccines that are modified to protect against variants of the virus, the head of the agency's COVID-19 task-force told Reuters on Friday. Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaluation team at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said there should be no need for lengthy large-scale trials like those needed to evaluate the first COVID-19 vaccines, since tweaks for new variants can be tested on smaller groups.