Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
South African variant may 'break through' Pfizer vaccine protection, but vaccine highly effective, Israeli study says
The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can break through the protection provided by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found. However, the variant's prevalence in Israel is very low and the vaccine remains highly effective. The study was released on the medRxiv pre-print site on April 9 and has not been peer reviewed. It compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics. The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit. But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant's prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated - 5.4% versus 0.7%.
Number of COVID-19 patients in French intensive care edges up
The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units in France edged up on Sunday, the health ministry said, amid a nationwide lockdown to try to stem a third wave of infections. Health ministry data showed that 5,893 people were in intensive care units with COVID-19, 16 more than on Saturday. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital rose by 460 to 30,789, ending a streak of five consecutive daily falls.
'Dire need of beds, oxygen': India's capital under siege from COVID-19
India's capital New Delhi recorded 25,500 coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, with about one in three people tested returning a positive result, its chief minister said, urging the federal government to provide more hospital beds to tackle the crisis. Less than 100 critical care beds were available in the city of more than 20 million people, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday, as social media was flooded with people complaining about lack of beds, oxygen cylinders and drugs.
Britain is investigating variant originating in India
British health officials are investigating a COVID-19 variant originating in India but as yet they do not have enough evidence to classify it is as a variant of concern, Susan Hopkins of Public Health England (PHE) said on Sunday. Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC television, Hopkins said: "We have not got enough data about this variant yet to be able to clarify whether it's a variant of concern. We have put it as a variant under investigation."
COVID vaccination a requirement to perform Umra pilgrimage - Saudi state TV
Vaccination against COVID-19 is a requirement to perform the Umra pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi state TV said on Sunday, citing a government official. Umra is a shorter version of the annual Hajj pilgrimage and it can be performed any other time of the year.
U.S. administers 209.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines
The United States has administered 209,406,814 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Sunday morning and distributed 264,505,725 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday. Those figures are up from the 205,871,913 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by April 17 out of 264,499,715 doses delivered.
France's Macron sees no immediate need for Russia's COVID shot
Russia's Sputnik V anti-COVID shot is unlikely to play a part in France's efforts to accelerate its vaccination rollout because it does not yet have approval from the European regulator, President Emmanuel Macron said. France made a slow start to its vaccination campaign, in part due to procurement difficulties and more recently links between the AstraZeneca shot and rare cases of blood-clotting, but is now finding its stride.
'A very good weird': Israel drops outdoor COVID mask order
Israelis went about barefaced on Sunday after the order to wear masks outdoors was rescinded in another step towards relative normality thanks to the country's mass-vaccination against COVID-19. With about 81% of citizens or residents over 16 - the age group eligible for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Israel - having received both doses, contagions and hospitalisations are down sharply.
Cambodia uses wedding halls for COVID patients as cases surge
Cambodia began setting up thousands of hospital beds in two wedding party halls on Sunday to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients in a country that up until recently had largely managed to contain infections. Cambodia also reported a daily record 618 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, its health ministry said, in a spike in infections following an outbreak first detected in late February.
Dr. Fauci predicts resumption of J&J COVID-19 vaccine use
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday predicted that U.S. health regulators will end the temporary pause on distributing Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, adding he expects a decision could come as soon as Friday. "My estimate is that we will continue to use it in some form. I doubt very seriously if they just cancel it. I don't think that's going to happen. I do think that there will likely be some sort of warning or restriction or risk assessment," Fauci said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
