Reuters Health News Summary

Australia's locked down Victoria state reports 2 new local COVID-19 cases Australia's second-most populous state, Victoria, reported two new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection on Sunday, day two of a snap lockdown as authorities scrambled to curb the spread of the highly infectious UK variant of the disease.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. EU to speed approval of variant-modified coronavirus vaccines: paper

The European Union will fast track approvals of coronavirus vaccines adapted to combat mutations, the bloc's Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a newspaper interview on Sunday. "We have now decided that a vaccine that has been improved by the manufacturer on the basis of the previous vaccine to combat new mutations no longer has to go through the entire approval process," she told Bavaria's Augsburger Allgemeine. Nearing vaccine target, Britain offers COVID shots to more people

Britain will begin giving COVID-19 shots to those aged 65 and over on Monday as it closes in on its target to offer vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups including the elderly and frontline healthcare workers. The government set Monday as the deadline to deliver a first vaccine dose to everyone in its top four priority segments, including all those aged 70 and over, a goal it looks likely to reach. Australia's locked down Victoria state reports 2 new local COVID-19 cases

Australia's second-most populous state, Victoria, reported two new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection on Sunday, day two of a snap lockdown as authorities scrambled to curb the spread of the highly infectious UK variant of the disease. The two cases, including a 3-year-old child, were the first two who were not household contacts of a cluster of infected workers at a quarantine hotel at Melbourne airport which had triggered the five-day lockdown, health authorities said. The hotel cluster has now affected 16 people. Sanofi's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate not ready this year, CEO says

A COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Sanofi and U.S. group Translate Bio "will not be ready this year," the French drugmaker's chief executive told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. Clinical trials of this vaccine, which will be based on a technology known as mRNA -- on which lean approved vaccines of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna --, are expected to start this quarter. 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. 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. Over 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered: U.S. CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered over 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and delivered about 69.9 million doses. The tally of vaccine doses are for both Moderna andPfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ETon Saturday, the agency said. 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. New Zealand reports three new COVID-19 local cases, first since January

New Zealand on Sunday reported three new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, the country's first since late January, when a returned traveller tested positive after leaving quarantine. New Zealand's minister for COVID-19 response, Chris Hipkins, said the three cases were a couple and their daughter in Auckland, and that genomic testing was being conducted to see if the family's infection was linked to any highly infectious variants.