Health News Roundup: In Paris cemetery, fresh plots tell story of COVID-19's toll; Drug companies to face first opioid trial following pandemic delays and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Moderna expects vaccine shipments to Britain, Canada to be delayed, EU, Swiss roll-out on track

Moderna Inc said on Friday a shortfall in COVID-19 vaccine doses from its European suppliers will delay deliveries to countries including Canada and Britain, but shipments to the European Union and Switzerland are on track. The drugmaker will deliver about 650,000 doses by the end of April, not the expected 1.2 million, Canada's Procurement Minister Anita Anand said.

Brazil asks women to delay pregnancy over new coronavirus variant fears

Brazil asked women on Friday to delay getting pregnant until the worst of the pandemic passes, saying the virus variant that is devastating the South American country appears to affect expectant mothers more than earlier versions of the coronavirus.

The recommendation comes as Brazil continues to be one of the global epicenters of the pandemic, with more Brazilians dying of the virus each day than anywhere else in the world.

In Paris cemetery, fresh plots tell story of COVID-19's toll

France passed the grim milestone of 100,000 people dead from COVID-19 this week, but a warden at a Paris cemetery has already been witnessing the death toll as she oversees a constant procession of burials. The number of burials carried out at Raymonde Boulon's cemetery in Thiais, a south-eastern suburb of Paris, was 700 higher in 2020 than in the previous year.

Blood type not a COVID-19 risk factor in U.S.; inhaled asthma drug may keep mild illness from worsening

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. Blood type not a factor in COVID-19 risks in U.S. patients

Senators urge Biden to back temporary WTO waiver of IP rights to speed vaccine access

Bernie Sanders and nine other Democratic senators urged President Joe Biden on Friday to back a temporary patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines that would allow countries to manufacture treatments locally and accelerate the global vaccination effort.

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonko-Iweala on Wednesday urged WTO member to address inequitable access to vaccines, with low-income countries administering just 0.2% of 700 million global doses.

Drug companies to face first opioid trial following pandemic delays

Four drugmakers, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, will go to trial on Monday over claims they helped fuel an opioid crisis that has resulted in nearly 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States. The trial is one of several looking to hold companies accountable for the overdose and abuse crisis that are set to take place this year after the coronavirus pandemic delayed litigation, putting renewed pressure on them to enter into multi-billion dollar settlements.

U.S. administers 202.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines: CDC

The United States has administered 202,282,923 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 258,502,815 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. Those figures are up from the 198,317,040 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by April 15 out of 255,400,665 doses delivered.

COVID cases in Canada's Ontario could spike to 30,000 per day by June: expert panel

New cases of COVID-19 in Canada's most populous province could rise more than six fold, topping 30,000 per day by early June if public health measures are weak and vaccination rates remain flat, a panel of experts advising the province of Ontario said on Friday. Even if measures to control the virus are "moderate," the number of patients in Ontario ICUs could reach 2,000 in May, up from 695 on Friday.

Biden administration to invest $1.7 billion to fight COVID-19 variants

The Biden administration on Friday said it will invest $1.7 billion to help states and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fight COVID-19 variants that are rapidly spreading across the United States. The investment, which will be part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will improve detection, monitoring, and mitigation of these variants by scaling up genomic sequencing efforts - a key step in containing the spread, the White House said.

J&J scientists refute idea that COVID-19 vaccine's design linked to clots

Scientists at Johnson & Johnson on Friday refuted an assertion in a major medical journal that the design of their COVID-19 vaccine, which is similar AstraZeneca's, may explain why both have been linked to very rare brain blood clots in some vaccine recipients. The United States earlier this week paused distribution of the J&J vaccine to investigate six cases of a rare brain blood clot known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), accompanied by a low blood platelet count, in U.S. women under age 50, out of about 7 million people who got the shot.