Health News Roundup: Greece to step up vaccination rate; Measles resurgent in Congo and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Greece to step up vaccination rate, says PM; criticises slow EU rollout

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday criticized the slow pace of the EU's COVID-19 vaccine rollout but said Greece would double its inoculation rate in coming weeks and give everyone aged over 60 their first shot by the end of May. Greece, which coped relatively well during the first wave of the pandemic last year, has tightened restrictions to combat a surge in cases over recent months, with hospitalizations having risen to around 5,000, leaving the health system struggling to cope.

Exclusive: Fauci says U.S. may not need AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

The United States may not need AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, even if it wins U.S. regulatory approval, Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor told Reuters on Thursday. The vaccine, once hailed as another milestone in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has been dogged by questions since late last year, even as it has been authorized for use by dozens of countries, not including the United States.

U.S. CDC: travel 'low risk' for vaccinated people; not recommending trips

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely travel at "low risk" but still did not recommend Americans doing so because of high coronavirus cases nationwide.

The CDC's shift in guidance should be a shot in the arm for the travel industry, which is still struggling from the dip in passengers since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

U.S. administers 157.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

The United States has administered 157,606,463 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 204,719,335 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The tally is for Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson's vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday, the agency said.

Russia's COVID-19 death toll as of February crosses 225,000 - stats service

Russia has recorded over 225,000 deaths related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in April, the Rosstat statistics service said on Friday, a figure that is more than double the death toll cited by the government coronavirus task force. The statistics, which are reported on a monthly basis and with a lag, covering the period from April 2020 to February 2021, suggest that Russia has the third highest death toll in the world.

Turkey begins administering Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 shots

Turkey on Friday began administering Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 shots, introducing a second vaccine in its campaign as new cases reached record highs. Turkey has so far delivered nearly 16.6 million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech, including two shots each for about 7.1 million people and one shot each so far for about 2.4 million people.

Measles resurgent in Congo eight months after epidemic declared over

KINSHASA (Reuters) - A new measles outbreak has flared up in the Democratic Republic of Congo just eight months after authorities declared an end to the worst known outbreak in the country's history, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said. More than 13,000 cases of measles have been recorded in the country since Jan 1., the medical charity said, despite vaccination campaigns that have targeted millions of children across the country's remote jungle areas in the last two years.

Netherlands halts use of AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 60

The Netherlands on Friday temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for people under 60 following the death of a woman who had received a shot, the Health Ministry said. About 10,000 scheduled appointments for vaccinations were to be scrapped as a result of the decision, news agency ANP reported.

France sees biggest jump in COVID-19 intensive care patients in months

France reported on Friday that 5,254 people were in intensive care units with COVID-19, an increase of 145 people in one day and the highest daily increase in five months. The risk of emergency wards being unable to cope was one of the main reasons for President Emmanuel Macron to order a third nationwide lockdown this week, after unsuccessfully trying for months to contain the epidemic with a curfew and regional lockdowns.

Russian doctors complete open-heart surgery as tsarist-era hospital burns

Russian doctors stayed behind in a burning, tsarist-era hospital in the country's Far East on Friday to complete open-heart surgery after a fire broke out on the roof while they were operating. Firefighters who took more than two hours to put out the blaze in the city of Blagoveshchensk said they used fans to keep smoke out of the operating room and ran in a power cable to keep it supplied with electricity.

(With inputs from agencies.)