Reuters Health News Summary

Russia says its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is 92% effective Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is 92% effective at protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results, the country's sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday, as Moscow rushes to keep pace with Western drugmakers in the race for a shot.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. EU seals deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for supply of 300 million doses of COVID vaccine

The European Commission said on Wednesday it had sealed a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for the supply of up to 300 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The move follows Pfizer's announcement on Monday that its experimental vaccine developed with BioNTech was more than 90% effective, making them the first drugmakers to show successful interim data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. China's Sinopharm says data 'better than expected' from unit's COVID-19 vaccine trials

China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) said on Wednesday the data from large-scale, late-stage clinical trials for its unit's COVID-19 vaccine are "better than expected". Sinopharm's unit China National Biotec Group (CNBG) has moved two vaccine candidates into Phase 3 clinical trials outside China in multiple countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt involving more 50,000 participants in total. Russia reports record high of 432 coronavirus deaths, 19,851 cases

Russia reported a record high of 432 new deaths related to the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the official death toll to 31,593. Authorities also reported 19,851 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, including 4,477 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national tally to 1,836,960. Europe COVID death toll tops 300,000 as winter looms and infections surge

More than 300,000 people have died of COVID-19 across Europe, according to a Reuters tally on Tuesday, and authorities fear that fatalities and infections will continue to rise as the region heads into winter despite hopes for a new vaccine. With just 10% of the world's population, Europe accounts for almost a quarter of the 1.2 million deaths globally, and even its well-equipped hospitals are feeling the strain. Russia says its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is 92% effective

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is 92% effective at protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results, the country's sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday, as Moscow rushes to keep pace with Western drugmakers in the race for a shot. Russia's results are only the second from a late-stage human trial, following on swiftly from data released on Monday by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, which said their shot was also more than 90% effective. Tibet Rhodiola Pharma obtains right to develop Russia's Sputnik-V vaccine in China

Chinese firm Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holding said on Wednesday it had obtained the non-exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, import or commercialize Russia's COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The Sputnik V vaccine is 92% effective at protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said earlier, as Moscow rushed to keep pace with Western drugmakers in the race for a vaccine. UK ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccine once regulator gives safety all clear

Britain is ready to roll out tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccines to the public with care-home residents and the elderly first in line for a jab that medics hope will allow the world to return to some semblance of normality. News that a vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech was more than 90% effective raised hopes that there may soon be an end to the lockdowns that have cast gloom across the world by shedding millions of jobs and upending normal life. Germany sees spike in COVID-19 deaths

Germany on Wednesday reported the biggest spike in deaths linked to COVID-19 since April, and its health minister warned that the number of daily infections had not fallen enough yet to flatten the curve. Europe's biggest economy, in a partial lockdown since Nov. 2 designed to tame a second wave of the coronavirus, recorded 18,487 new infections and 261 deaths in a day, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said. Q&A: Where are we in the COVID-19 vaccine race?

Drugmakers and research centers around the world are working on COVID-19 vaccines, with large global trials of several of the candidates involving tens of thousands of participants well underway. The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 1.26 million lives worldwide: U.S. reports more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases for seventh day in a row

The United States reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases for the seventh day in a row on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, while the number of deaths surged to their highest daily count since August. With case numbers still being filed by a handful of states, the U.S. had reported at least 134,000 new infections by late Tuesday. It has reported an average of 120,000 cases every day for the past week.

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