Health News Roundup: Japan finds new COVID-19 strain; AstraZeneca vaccine faces resistance in Europe and more

Pryor took the call: COVID-19 had taken yet another American life -- pushing the nation's death toll closer to the half-million mark -- and another grieving family required the services of the exhausted funeral director and his staff. Study in Israel shows Pfizer vaccine 85% effective after first dose: The Lancet The first dose of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is 85% effective, a study of Israeli healthcare workers published in The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2821%2900448-7 medical journal has found.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Japan finds new COVID-19 strain, while immigration centre reports infections

Japan confirmed a new variant of COVID-19, and an infection cluster emerged at a Tokyo immigration facility, presenting new challenges as the country tries to overcome a third wave of the pandemic. The new variant has been found in 91 cases in the Kanto area of eastern Japan and in 2 cases at airports, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters on Friday. The government is raising surveillance against mutant varieties as they may be more resistant to vaccines, which Japan started to distribute this week.

AstraZeneca vaccine faces resistance in Europe after health workers suffer side-effects

Health authorities in some European countries are facing resistance to AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine after side-effects led hospital staff and other front-line workers to call in sick, putting extra strain on already-stretched services. Such symptoms, as reported in clinical trials for the AstraZeneca shot, can include a high temperature or headache and are a normal sign that the body is generating an immune response. They usually fade within a day or so.

Fauci hopes for return to normal by Christmas, in line with Biden target

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said that a post-pandemic return to "normal" could come by the end of the year, aligning his forecast with a Christmas target U.S. President Joe Biden set earlier this week. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), had guided Americans to the long-sought return to something approaching normal life in the early Autumn.

South Carolina passes abortion ban, Planned Parenthood sues

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster Thursday signed into law a ban on almost all abortions in the state and the women's health group Planned Parenthood followed with a lawsuit, arguing the measure was unconstitutional. As one of the most restrictive abortion bans, the so-called "fetal heartbeat" law bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, often at six weeks and before a woman realizes she is pregnant.

UK Black and South Asian groups lag in COVID-19 vaccinations

Only 55% of Black people in England in their 70s had been vaccinated against COVID-19 by last week compared with 86% of white people that age, a study showed, as celebrities and officials encourage minorities to accept the vaccine shots. Britain has outpaced most other countries by giving at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine to more than a quarter of its population.

Israeli study finds Pfizer vaccine 85% effective after first shot

The first dose of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine is 85% effective, a study of healthcare workers at an Israeli hospital has found, potentially fuelling a debate over the recommended two-dose schedule as governments try to stretch out supplies. The Sheba Medical Center's findings compare with overall efficacy of around 95% in a two dose regimen 21 days apart for the shot developed with Germany's BioNTech.

'I just ask God to help me': Texas funeral home crushed by death as U.S. COVID toll nears 500,000 Sunday is traditionally a quiet day for Chuck Pryor's Houston funeral home, but on this Sunday in February, almost a year after the global pandemic reached Texas, the phone was still ringing. Pryor took the call: COVID-19 had taken yet another American life -- pushing the nation's death toll closer to the half-million mark -- and another grieving family required the services of the exhausted funeral director and his staff.

Study in Israel shows Pfizer vaccine 85% effective after first dose: The Lancet

The first dose of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is 85% effective, a study of Israeli healthcare workers published in The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2821%2900448-7 medical journal has found. The research was conducted on more than 7,000 healthcare workers who were vaccinated at the Sheba Medical Centre in Israel. Researchers saw an 85% reduction of symptomatic COVID-19 between 15 and 28 days after they were given the vaccine.

Researchers urge delaying Pfizer vaccine's second dose as first highly effective

The second dose of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine could be delayed in order to cover all priority groups as the first one is highly protective, two Canada-based researchers said in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The vaccine had an efficacy of 92.6% after the first dose, Danuta Skowronski and Gaston De Serres said, based on an analysis of the documents submitted by the drugmaker to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Rich nations stockpiling a billion more COVID-19 shots than needed: report

Rich countries are on course to have over a billion more doses of COVID-19 vaccines than they need, leaving poorer nations scrambling for leftover supplies as the world seeks to curb the coronavirus pandemic, a report by anti-poverty campaigners found on Friday. In an analysis of current supply deals for COVID-19 vaccines, the ONE Campaign said wealthy countries, such as the United States and Britain, should share the excess doses to "supercharge" a fully global response to the pandemic.

(With inputs from agencies.)