Reuters Health News Summary

In a statement, the WHO said that reports of two rare conditions - myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, and of its lining, called pericarditis - had typically occurred within days of vaccination, mainly among younger males after the second dose. Locked-down Sydney warned worse may be ahead, COVID-19 cases at 2021 high Australia's New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired coronavirus infections this year on Saturday, with authorities warning that worse may yet to come for Sydney, which is in a three-week hard lockdown.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Benefits of mRNA COVID vaccines outweigh rare heart risks, says WHO

The benefits of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the very small risk they might cause heart inflammation, as the jabs reduce hospitalisations and deaths, an advisory panel of the World Health Organization said on Friday. In a statement, the WHO said that reports of two rare conditions - myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, and of its lining, called pericarditis - had typically occurred within days of vaccination, mainly among younger males after the second dose.

Locked-down Sydney warned worse may be ahead, COVID-19 cases at 2021 high

Australia's New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired coronavirus infections this year on Saturday, with authorities warning that worse may yet to come for Sydney, which is in a three-week hard lockdown. There were 50 new cases of community transmission in the country's most populous state, up from 44 a day earlier, the previous 2021 record high. This brings the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 489 cases.

S.Korea reports third consecutive record high new COVID-19 cases -KDCA

South Korea posted its highest-ever number of new daily COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Saturday, the third consecutive day of record highs in new infection cases. Starting on Monday, coronavirus curbs will be tightened to the strictest level possible in Seoul and neighbouring regions for the first time, South Korea said on Friday, as the streak of record new cases fanned concern.

U.S. administers nearly 333.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines- CDC

The United States had administered 333,565,404 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 386,985,420 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its website. The figures were up from the 332,966,409 doses the CDC said had been administered by Friday out of 386,058,070 doses delivered.

FDA seeks probe into its talks with Biogen before Alzheimer's drug approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday called for an independent federal probe into its representatives' interactions with Biogen Inc that led to approval of the company's Alzheimer's disease drug last month. The drugmaker's shares closed down 3% after the agency's acting commissioner Janet Woodcock asked the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services to probe if the talks were inconsistent with the regulator's policies.

EU delivers enough doses to vaccinate 70% of adults, von der Leyen says

The European Union has delivered enough coronavirus vaccine doses to member states to reach a target to fully vaccinate at least 70% of adults in the bloc, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Saturday. Von der Leyen, who had tweeted on May 9 that the EU was on track to meet its goal of inoculating 70% of adults by summer, urged EU countries to increase vaccinations and said about 500 million doses would be distributed across the union by Sunday.

EU finds potential link between heart inflammation and mRNA COVID shots

Europe's drug regulator has found a possible link between very rare heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, it said on Friday, stressing that the benefits of the shots outweighed any risks. The conditions, myocarditis and pericarditis, must be listed as side-effects of the two mRNA vaccines, the safety committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said, adding that such cases primarily occurred within 14 days of inoculation.

Russia reports record high daily COVID-19 deaths, over 25,000 new cases

Russia on Saturday reported 752 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since the pandemic began, pushing the national death toll to 142,253. The coronavirus task force also reported 25,082 new coronavirus cases, including 5,694 in Moscow. That pushed the national case total to 5,758,300.

Vietnam receives 2 million COVID-19 vaccines to fight worst outbreak

Vietnam has received 2 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the U.S. government, the American embassy in Hanoi said on Saturday, as the Southeast Asian country battles its worst outbreak of the pandemic. The shipment, delivered via the COVAX sharing facility, is part of the 80 million vaccine doses that President Joe Biden committed from U.S. vaccine supplies to support global needs, the embassy said in an emailed statement.

Canada says COVID booster shots may be needed, closely monitoring variants

Canada on Friday said that while booster COVID-19 shots may be needed, it has received no request from Pfizer to approve one, and health authorities are currently studying the duration of protection from two doses. Pfizer and BioNTech plan to ask U.S. and European regulators within weeks to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, based on evidence of greater risk of infection six months after inoculation and the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

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