Health News Roundup: UK says 15,841 COVID test results weren't transferred; India seeks up to 500 million COVID and more

Irish health chiefs recommend return to full lockdown: RTE Ireland's National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) recommended to the government on Sunday that the country be moved to the highest level of COVID-19 restrictions and return to a full lockdown, national broadcaster RTE reported.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

UK says 15,841 COVID test results weren't transferred to contact tracers

England's public health authority said on Sunday a technical issue had led to 15,841 COVID-19 test results not being transferred into data dashboards used for contact tracing. "NHS (National Health Service) Test and Trace and PHE (Public Health England) have worked to quickly resolve the issue and transferred all outstanding cases immediately into the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system," said PHE Interim Chief Executive.

India seeks up to 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses by July

India hopes to receive up to 500 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by July to inoculate about 250 million people, health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, as infections in the world's second-worst affected country continue to surge. India's has recorded some 6.55 million infections, with 75,829 in the past 24 hours, while COVID-19-related deaths have totalled 101,782, health ministry data showed.

Doctors monitoring Trump's lungs, giving steroid to fight COVID-19

The medical team treating President Donald Trump for COVID-19 is monitoring the condition of his lungs after he received supplemental oxygen on Thursday and Friday, but declined on Sunday to provide details of what they had seen. Trump, 74, who was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington on Friday, has taken two doses of a five-day course of the intravenous antiviral drug Remdesivir, as well as the steroid dexamethasone, which is used in severe cases.

Irish health chiefs recommend return to full lockdown: RTE

Ireland's National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) recommended to the government on Sunday that the country be moved to the highest level of COVID-19 restrictions and return to a full lockdown, national broadcaster RTE reported. NPHET made the recommendation to move to Level 5 restrictions in a letter sent to government, RTE said. All of Ireland’s 26 counties are currently on Level 2 with the exception of Dublin and Donegal, which are under stricter Level 3 controls.

Latest on the worldwide spread of coronavirus

President Donald Trump said the next few days will be the "real test" of his treatment for COVID-19, after a series of contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about his condition.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

As cold weather arrives, U.S. states see record increases in COVID-19 cases

Nine U.S. states have reported record increases in COVID-19 cases over the last seven days, mostly in the upper Midwest and West where chilly weather is forcing more activities indoors. On Saturday alone, four states - Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin - saw record increases in new cases and nationally nearly 49,000 new infections were reported, the highest for a Saturday in seven weeks, according to a Reuters analysis. Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming also set new records for cases last week.

UK COVID cases jump to 22,961 after technical glitch

Britain reported 22,961 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, up from 12,872 a day earlier, but authorities said the jump was partly due to a technical problem that had caused the transfer of more than 15,000 test results into computer systems to be delayed.

U.S. CDC reports 703 coronavirus deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 7,359,952 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 49,327 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 703 to 208,821. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19 as of 4 p.m. ET on Oct. 3 compared with its previous report a day earlier. (https://bit.ly/3kZDvsN)

UK's vaccine task force head says vaccinating all of UK 'not going to happen': FT

Britain's vaccine task force chair, Kate Bingham, said that vaccinating everyone in the country for the coronavirus was 'not going to happen', telling the Financial Times that they need to vaccinate only those at risk. "There's going to be no vaccination of people under 18. It's an adult-only vaccine, for people over 50, focusing on health workers and care home workers and the vulnerable", Bingham said in an interview with the newspaper https://on.ft.com/33suPFq.

France reports 12,565 new coronavirus cases in past 24 hours

France on Sunday reported 12,565 new confirmed coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, falling from the previous daily toll that had a set a new record. The total number of infections since the start of the epidemic rose to 619,190 cases, the health ministry said. France reported nearly 17,000 new infections on Saturday.