Reuters Health News Summary

Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted Planned Parenthood a temporary restraining order against the anti-abortion group, Texas Right to Life, blocking the group and its allies from using an unusual mechanism of the Texas law that enables private citizens to sue anyone who provides or "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks. Australia's reports record daily COVID-19 cases, braces for worse Australia, struggling to quell its worst wave of COVID-19, reported 1,756 infections on Saturday, another record high, and officials warned that worse is yet to come, urging people to get vaccinated.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

France could ease health pass restrictions in large shopping malls - minister

France could ease health pass restrictions that are hurting the activity of large shopping malls if the COVID-19 epidemic situation keeps improving, Labour Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Saturday. "The health situation is improving. If this is confirmed, we will be able to ease the rules," Borne told France Inter radio, adding that this could be decided "in the coming days".

U.S. administers 374.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines -CDC

The United States had administered 374,488,924 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 450,175,825 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 373,516,809 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Friday, out of 447,619,715 doses delivered.

Britain's COVID-19 cases up by 2.4% over past week

Britain has reported 37,578 new cases of COVID-19, government data showed on Saturday, meaning cases reported between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4 were up 2.4% compared with the previous seven days. A further 120 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19, leaving the seven-day total unchanged from the previous week.

Planned Parenthood wins restraining order against Texas anti-abortion group

A Texas judge on Friday temporarily barred an anti-abortion group from suing Planned Parenthood to enforce a near-total ban on abortion in the state, handing the nation's largest abortion provider a small victory in the bitter legal fight. Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted Planned Parenthood a temporary restraining order against the anti-abortion group, Texas Right to Life, blocking the group and its allies from using an unusual mechanism of the Texas law that enables private citizens to sue anyone who provides or "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks.

Australia's reports record daily COVID-19 cases, braces for worse

Australia, struggling to quell its worst wave of COVID-19, reported 1,756 infections on Saturday, another record high, and officials warned that worse is yet to come, urging people to get vaccinated. Most of the cases were again in New South Wales, which has been fighting an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant since mid-June. The state reported 1,533 new cases and four further deaths.

New Zealand reports first death from Delta variant of COVID-19

New Zealand reported on Saturday the first death from the Delta variant of the new coronavirus and 20 further daily infections, all in Auckland, the epicentre of the outbreak. The woman who died was in her 90s and had a number of underlying health conditions, health officials said in a statement. It is the first coronavirus-related death in the country since mid-February.

Bahrain approves third booster shot of Sputnik V vaccine

Bahraini authorities have authorised the use of a booster dose of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the first time the Russian shot has been approved for a third dose, the state-run Bahrain News Agency said on Saturday. The booster shot was approved for use among all over-18s at least six months after receiving their second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine, the news agency reported.

Ex-UK PM Brown accuses West of 'moral outrage' over COVID vaccine stockpiling

Former British prime minister Gordon Brown accused rich countries of committing a "moral outrage" by stockpiling COVID-19 doses while poor countries are struggling to get supplies. Brown, who is a United Nations special envoy, called on U.S. President Joe Biden and other Group of Seven leaders to urgently ship vaccines from warehouses in America and Europe to Africa.

Moderna seeks EU authorization for COVID-19 vaccine booster dose

Moderna Inc said on Friday it had asked the EU drugs regulator for conditional approval of a booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine at a 50 microgram dose. The company also said it had completed data submission for the use of a third booster dose of its two-shot vaccine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Florida teachers on edge as mask war, COVID surge mark first weeks of school

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten crouched to sit at a first-graders’ table in a Florida school, chatting with masked 6-year-olds about books and their former kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Smith. Lillian Smith, a local union steward who taught at William A. Chapman Elementary in Miami-Dade County for more than 30 years, died last month of COVID-19. At least four Miami-Dade County teachers or staff have died from COVID so far this school year, as cases and hospitalizations in Florida have soared.