Health News Roundup: Half of U.S. population fully vaccinated against COVID-19: CDC; Australia's east coast continues to struggle with Delta outbreaks and more

The latest clusters were mainly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, officials said. Britain records 28,612 new COVID-19 cases, 103 deaths Britain recorded 28,612 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, down from 31,808 a day earlier, and 103 deaths, higher than the 92 reported on Friday, official data showed.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Half of U.S. population fully vaccinated against COVID-19: CDC

One out of two Americans were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Friday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The milestone comes roughly eight months after the United States launched its mass vaccination drive.

Australia's east coast continues to struggle with Delta outbreaks

Australia's three most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland reported a total of 282 COVID-19 new locally acquired infections on Sunday, with authorities struggling to quell outbreaks of the Delta variant. NSW reported 262 fresh cases, down from the pandemic high of 319 seen on Saturday, with more than five million people in Sydney regions along the coastline under a lockdown for six weeks already.

Philippines records near four-month high in daily COVID-19 cases

The Philippines' health ministry recorded on Saturday 11,021 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day case increase in almost four months, and 162 additional deaths. In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed infections in the Philippines have increased to almost 1.65 million, while deaths have reached 28,835.

New Jersey to require masks in schools as Delta variant spreads

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Friday said kindergarten through 12th-grade students and staff must wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status when public schools open, as the Delta variant of coronavirus increasingly threatens Americans. Reversing his earlier stance to conform with updated federal guidance, Murphy told a news conference the shift is a reaction to the worsening COVID-19 indicators in the state.

India reports 39,070 new coronavirus cases in last 24 hours

India reported 39,070 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the federal health ministry said on Sunday, taking its tally to 31.93 million cases. Deaths rose by 491, taking total fatalities to 427,862.

China reports 96 new COVID-19 cases vs 107 the day before

China reported 96 new cases of COVID-19 on the mainland for Aug. 7, down from 107 cases a day earlier, the country's health authority said on Sunday. The latest clusters were mainly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, officials said.

Britain records 28,612 new COVID-19 cases, 103 deaths

Britain recorded 28,612 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, down from 31,808 a day earlier, and 103 deaths, higher than the 92 reported on Friday, official data showed. The data also showed that 46,997,495 people have had the first dose of a vaccine and 39,210,356 have had two doses.

Italy reports 22 coronavirus deaths and 6,902 new cases

Italy reported 22 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, compared with 24 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 6,902 from 6,599. Italy has registered a total of 128,209 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth-highest in the world.

India approves J&J vaccine; no delivery timeline yet

India has approved Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet on Saturday, but the company said it was too early to give a delivery timeline. The pharmaceutical giant had applied for emergency use approval of its vaccine, the company had said on Friday. The shot will be brought to India through a supply agreement with homegrown vaccine maker Biological E Ltd, J&J had said.

U.S. administers over 350 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines -CDC

The United States has administered 350,627,188 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 407,550,175 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 349,787,479 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Aug. 6, out of 405,102,715 doses delivered.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)