Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Melbourne set for COVID lockdown exit despite record cases as vaccinations spike
Melbourne will exit months of COVID-19 lockdown next week helped by a faster-than-expected vaccine uptake, Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday, ahead of schedule even though daily infections hit a record the same day. In the worst day of an outbreak of the Delta variant coronavirus that began in early August, Victoria logged 2,297 new cases on Thursday, up from 1,571 the day before and the highest for any Australian state or territory since the pandemic began. Eleven people died, bringing the total toll in the latest outbreak to 125.
Maine can bar religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate, judge rules
A U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday that Maine can bar religious exemptions to its requirement that healthcare workers in the state get vaccinated against COVID-19, a day after a judge ordered New York to allow such exemptions to its mandate. U.S. District Judge Jon Levy in Bangor, Maine, said the healthcare workers who brought the case have not been prevented from staying true to their religious beliefs, although refusing the vaccine will cost them their jobs.
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.
Suicides among Japanese children at record high during pandemic -media
Child suicides in Japan are the highest they have been in more than four decades, local media have reported, citing the country’s education ministry. As the COVID-19 pandemic prompted school closings and disrupted classrooms last year, 415 children from elementary to high school age were recorded as having taken their own lives, according to the education ministry’s survey.
WHO says it may be ‘last chance’ to find COVID origins
GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday its newly formed advisory group on dangerous pathogens may be “our last chance” to determine the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and urged China to provide data from early cases. The first human cases of COVID-19 were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. China has repeatedly dismissed theories that the virus leaked from one of its laboratories and has said no more visits are needed.
Ebola vaccination campaign begins in Congo after virus resurfaces
Medics in eastern Congo began an Ebola vaccination campaign on Wednesday, the World Health Organisation said, days after the death of a two-year-old boy raised fears of another major outbreak. The toddler died last Wednesday in a clinic in the eastern city of Beni, one of the epicenters of a 2018-2020 outbreak which killed more than 2,200 people and infected about a thousand more.
U.S. COVID-19 vaccine rates up thanks to mandates; cases and deaths down -officials
Vaccination rates against COVID-19 in the United States have risen by more than 20 percentage points after multiple institutions adopted vaccine requirements, while case numbers and deaths from the virus are down, Biden administration officials said on Wednesday. White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that 77% of eligible Americans had received at least one shot of a vaccine.
FDA scientists’ analysis of J&J COVID-19 booster data raises red flags
U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists said on Wednesday they did not receive enough data in time to do their own analysis of Johnson & Johnson’s application for a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, but the agency’s review of company studies raised some red flags. Advisers to the FDA will meet on Oct. 15 to assess the risks and benefits of a booster shot of J&J’s vaccine, which is currently given as a single dose.
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. The REACT-1 study, led by Imperial College London, is the latest to find that more children are getting infected with COVID-19 following the reopening of schools at the start of September.
J&J COVID-19 shot gets better boost from Moderna or Pfizer in NIH study
People who got Johnson & Johnson Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine as a first shot had a stronger immune response when boosted with vaccines from Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc, a study run by the National Institutes of Health showed on Wednesday. The study, which is preliminary and hasn’t been peer-reviewed, is the latest challenge to J&J’s efforts to use its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster in the United States.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
