Health News Roundup: Australia's Melbourne back to the races, shops as vaccination rate hits 80%; Eleven states sue U.S. government over vaccine mandate for federal contractors and more

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still needs to advise on how the shot should be administered, which will be decided after a group of outside advisers discuss the plan on Tuesday. China has given 75.8% of population complete COVID-19 vaccine doses: health official China has given 1.07 billion people complete COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Oct. 29, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Saturday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Australia's Melbourne back to the races, shops as vaccination rate hits 80%

Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city which has endured nearly nine months of lockdowns since the start of the pandemic, saw people flocking to shops and gigs for the first time in months on Saturday as public health curbs eased. The city of five million, which re-emerged from its sixth lockdown last week, was reopening further as full vaccination rates across Victoria state, of which Melbourne is capital, was set to reach 80% for those 16 and older.

Eleven states sue U.S. government over vaccine mandate for federal contractors

Eleven U.S. states with Republican governors sued the Biden administration on Friday seeking to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, arguing it is unconstitutional and violates federal procurement law. Saying they were necessary to fight COVID-19, President Joe Biden issued a pair of executive orders on Sept. 9 requiring all executive branch federal employees and federal contractors be vaccinated.

Britain sending millions more COVID doses to developing nations

Britain will send 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to developing countries by the end of this year, in what Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell other world leaders is a much needed step to speed up the post-pandemic economic recovery. Leaders of the world's 20 richest countries are gathering in Rome at a meeting which Johnson hopes will make progress on producing firm commitments to cut emissions before climate talks in Glasgow at the United Nations COP26 summit.

Philippines logs record daily COVID-19 deaths as data reclassified

The Philippines on Saturday reported its highest single-day coronavirus deaths, mostly due to the reclassification of previous cases, the health ministry said. In a bulletin, the ministry recorded 423 COVID-19 deaths, eclipsing the 401 casualties reported on April. 9.

U.S. administers over 419 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

The United States has administered 419,020,753 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 514,925,015 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 417,795,537 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Oct. 28 out of 510,735,525 doses delivered.

China's COVID-19 outbreak developing rapidly, health official says

China's latest COVID-19 outbreak is developing rapidly, a health official said, as the authorities demanded high vigilance at ports of entry amid growing infections in a northeastern border city caused by the virus arriving from abroad. Some 377 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms were reported from Oct. 17-29, National Health Commission (NHC) data showed. China has tackled a series of outbreaks this year since it largely contained a national spread in early 2020.

U.S. FDA authorizes first COVID-19 shot for young kids

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE coronavirus vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years, making it the first COVID-19 shot for young children in the United States. The shot will not be immediately available to the age group. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still needs to advise on how the shot should be administered, which will be decided after a group of outside advisers discuss the plan on Tuesday.

China has given 75.8% of population complete COVID-19 vaccine doses: health official

China has given 1.07 billion people complete COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Oct. 29, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Saturday. That accounts for about 75.8% of China's 1.41 billion people.

Cheap antidepressant shows promise; virus can infect inner ear

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review. Cheap antidepressant shows promise against COVID-19

Universal Studios Beijing says close contacts of COVID patients visited park

Beijing's Universal Studios theme park boosted health monitoring and tested all staff after it was informed by health authorities that close contacts of COVID-19 cases visited the resort on Oct. 24, it said in a social media post on Saturday. The close contacts are under close monitoring and in isolation, and have tested negative for COVID-19, the theme park said in a post on its official Weibo account.

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