Health News Roundup: AstraZeneca China summoned over suspected fraud; U.S. orders 100 million additional COVID-19 tests to give out and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. AstraZeneca China summoned over suspected fraud Chinese authorities summoned officials of AstraZeneca China regarding an investigation of suspected medical insurance fraud by the company's employees, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said on Saturday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

AstraZeneca China summoned over suspected fraud

Chinese authorities summoned officials of AstraZeneca China regarding an investigation of suspected medical insurance fraud by the company's employees, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said on Saturday. The regulator of the state medical insurance fund said authorities ordered the arrest of all suspects, but did not give details of the suspected violations or the size of funds involved.

U.S. orders 100 million additional COVID-19 tests to give out

The United States government has procured more than 100 million additional COVID-19 tests from testmaker iHealth Lab Inc. as part of the White House's plan to distribute 500 million free at-home tests across the country, the Department of Defense said Friday. Starting in January, the U.S. government has been allowing households to order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the website COVIDTests.gov with shipping expected within seven to 12 days of ordering.

Easier to produce COVID vaccine shows promise in trials; nasal spray vaccine booster works in mice

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 has yet to be certified by peer review. New COVID-19 vaccine could be manufactured like flu shots

U.S. FDA says Empowered Diagnostics recalling COVID-19 tests

Empowered Diagnostics LLC is recalling its COVID-19 tests as they have not been cleared for use in the United States and could potentially lead to false results, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday. The regulator has labeled the recall of the CovClear COVID-19 rapid antigen test and the ImmunoPass COVID-19 neutralizing antibody rapid test as Class 1, or the most serious type of recall.

China reports jump in COVID cases among Olympic athletes, officials

Daily COVID-19 infections among athletes and team officials at the Beijing Winter Olympics jumped to 19 on Friday from two a day earlier, as Games organisers warned of more cases in coming days. Including the athletes and officials, 36 Games-related personnel were found to be infected - 29 when they arrived at the Beijing airport and seven already in the "closed loop" bubble that separates event personnel from the public, the organising committee said in a statement on Saturday.

Russia's daily COVID-19 cases exceed 100,000 for first time

Russia's daily coronavirus cases exceeded 100,000 on Saturday for the first time since the pandemic began, the coronavirus task force said. Russia confirmed 113,122 new daily infections, setting a record high for a ninth consecutive day, which the authorities blame on the spread of the Omicron variant.

Cuban children with disabilities pet jaguars and snakes for therapy

Baby jaguars and an intricately colored endemic boa known as the 'maja' are among the exotic animals at Cuba's national zoo that parents and teachers say provide unusually effective therapy to children with special needs. Children pet the jaguars and play with their paws, stroke the cool, moist skin of snakes and give milk to a zebu cow as part of a program aimed at helping those with special needs overcome fears, zookeepers said.

Merck's COVID-19 pill active against Omicron in lab studies

Merck & Co Inc and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said on Friday six lab studies showed their experimental oral COVID-19 drug molnupiravir was active against the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The data evaluated the antiviral activity of molnupiravir and other COVID-19 antiviral agents against COVID-19 variants of concern. Molnupiravir is yet to be studied against Omicron in human studies, the companies said.

Canada Omicron infections past peak, hospitalizations rising- health official

Canada has moved past the worst of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on some parameters, but Canadians still need to be prudent as hospitalizations were continuing to rise, the country's top health official said Friday. Omicron infections started spreading rapidly last month, taking over the dominant variant designation from Delta and forcing authorities to impose restrictions on businesses and social gatherings.

Omicron subtype has apparent transmission advantage - UKHSA

The BA.2 subtype of the Omicron coronavirus variant appears to have a substantial growth advantage over the currently predominant BA.1 type, Britain's UK Health Security Agency said on Friday. UKHSA said that there was an increased growth rate of BA.2 compared with BA.1 in all regions of England where there were enough cases to compare them, and that "the apparent growth advantage is currently substantial".

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