Health News Roundup: 100,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine arrive in Venezuela; UK's Johnson optimistic COVID lockdown can be eased and more

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.

100,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine arrive in Venezuela

The first 100,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Venezuela on Saturday. In a tweet, President Nicolas Maduro said medical and health personnel would be the first to receive the vaccine, "given their exposure to COVID-19."

UK's Johnson optimistic COVID lockdown can be eased soon

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday he was optimistic he could announce the easing of some lockdown measures soon as the government nears its target of offering vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups. The government says it is on track to have offered an injection by Monday to everyone who is aged 70 and over, as well as those who are clinically vulnerable, frontline health and social care workers and older adults in care homes.

Two white tiger cubs in Pakistan likely died of COVID, zoo officials say

Two 11-week-old white tiger cubs that died in a Pakistani zoo last month appear to have died of COVID-19, officials said. The cubs died in the Lahore Zoo on Jan. 30, four days after beginning treatment for what officials thought was feline panleukopenia virus, a disease that zoo officials said is common in Pakistan and targets cats' immune system.

White House cites 'deep concerns' about WHO COVID report, demands early data from China

The White House on Saturday called on China to make available data from the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak, saying it has "deep concerns" about the way the findings of the World Health Organization's COVID-19 report were communicated. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that it is imperative that the report be independent and free from "alteration by the Chinese government", echoing concerns raised by the administration of former President Donald Trump, who also moved to quit the WHO over the issue.

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.

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.

Iran sees risk of fourth COVID wave fed by mutant virus

Iran's health minister warned on Saturday of a fourth COVID-19 surge with the possible spread of a mutated virus in the worst-hit country in the Middle East. President Hassan Rouhani told state television "alarm bells were ringing for a fourth coronavirus wave" as at least nine cities and towns in Iran's southwest were declared high-risk "red" zones after a rise in cases on Friday.

Oxford University to test COVID-19 vaccine response among children for first time

The University of Oxford has launched a study to assess the safety and immune response of the COVID-19 vaccine it has developed with AstraZeneca Plc in children for the first time, it said on Saturday. The new mid-stage trial will determine whether the vaccine is effective on people between the ages of 6 and 17, according to an emailed statement from the university.

France reports 21,231 new coronavirus cases over 24 hours

France reported 21,231 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, slightly up from 20,701 on Friday. The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 infections rose by 199 to 81,647 - the seventh-highest death toll globally - versus 320 on Friday.

China refused to provide WHO team with raw data on early COVID cases, team member says

China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to a World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, one of the team's investigators said, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began. The team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary, said Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious diseases expert who is a member of the team.

(With inputs from agencies.)