Health News Roundup: UK minister failed to 'expeditiously' provide for Northern Irish abortion services, court rules; Midnight vigils, snaking queues as some Indians await COVID vaccines and more

Infection numbers in Britain are currently much higher than in other western European countries, but have not risen above summer levels following the return of schools in September in England despite higher infection rates in children. Second Ebola case confirmed in eastern Congo, health official says A second case of Ebola has been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a health official said on Thursday, a week after a young boy died of the disease, raising fears of another outbreak.


Reuters | Updated: 14-10-2021 18:38 IST | Created: 14-10-2021 18:33 IST
Health News Roundup: UK minister failed to 'expeditiously' provide for Northern Irish abortion services, court rules; Midnight vigils, snaking queues as some Indians await COVID vaccines and more
Representative Image Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

UK minister failed to 'expeditiously' provide for Northern Irish abortion services, court rules

The United Kingdom's Northern Ireland Secretary failed to comply with his duties to "expeditiously" provide women in the region with access to high-quality abortion and post-abortion services, a judge in the British-run province ruled on Thursday. Mr Justice Colton declined, however, to issue an order compelling British Secretary of State Brandon Lewis to set out a timetable for the provision of the services, and dismissed a claim for a judicial review against the jurisdiction's minister of health and the Executive Committee.

Midnight vigils, snaking queues as some Indians await COVID vaccines

Residents of a city in northeast India are spending nights in snaking queues outside vaccination centres awaiting their turn for a COVID-19 shot, an anomaly in a country with a surplus of vaccines. In Siliguri, a city in West Bengal state close to India's border with Bangladesh, local police sometimes have to be brought in to control unruly crowds of people gathered outside vaccination centres.

New Zealand reports biggest rise in COVID-19 cases in six weeks

New Zealand reported on Thursday its biggest rise in COVID-19 infections in six weeks, with all cases detected in Auckland, raising prospects of a further extension of lockdown restrictions in the country's largest city beyond next week. Some 1.7 million people in Auckland are under strict stay-home orders until Monday as officials look to stamp out the highly infectious Delta outbreak, the first major spate of community cases in the country since early in the pandemic.

EU starts real-time review of AstraZeneca COVID-19 antibody cocktail

Europe's drug regulator said on Thursday it had started a real-time review of the antibody-based COVID-19 therapy developed by AstraZeneca, roughly a week after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker sought emergency approval from U.S. authorities. The decision to begin the assessment by the human medicines committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was based on early results from clinical studies, the regulator said in a statement, without specifying when a conclusion was expected.

Russia's daily COVID-19 cases, deaths surge to record highs

Russia on Thursday reported a record 986 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours and 31,299 new cases, its highest one-day infection tally since the pandemic began. The Kremlin has blamed the rising death toll on Russia's slow vaccination campaign and has appealed to people to get the shot. Take-up has been slow, with many Russians citing distrust of the authorities and fear of new medical products.

U.S. pastors, advocacy groups mobilize against COVID-19 vaccine mandates

From the outside, First Harvest Ministries in Waveland, Mississippi, could almost be mistaken for a storage shed were it not for the steeple. From the modest building however, Shane Vaughn, the Pentecostal church's pastor, has helped spearhead an online movement promoting personal faith as a way around workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Britain's COVID-19 situation stable - health minister

Britain's defences against COVID-19 are working and the pandemic situation is currently stable, health minister Sajid Javid said on Thursday. "Overall things feel quite stable at this point. The numbers are a bit up, a bit down over the last few weeks," he told Times Radio.

English school return spurred COVID in children, but cases fell in adults - study

COVID-19 infections in children in England rose in September after schools returned from summer holidays, helping to keep cases high even as there was a fall among adults, a large prevalence study showed on Thursday. Infection numbers in Britain are currently much higher than in other western European countries, but have not risen above summer levels following the return of schools in September in England despite higher infection rates in children.

Second Ebola case confirmed in eastern Congo, health official says

A second case of Ebola has been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a health official said on Thursday, a week after a young boy died of the disease, raising fears of another outbreak. A 42-year-old woman tested positive in the city of Beni on Wednesday, the same day that medics began an Ebola vaccination campaign there, city health official Michel Tosalisana said.

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

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