Health News Roundup: British regulator says AstraZeneca COVID shot clots rise to 168; France lifts domestic travel limits but curfew stays in place and more

Health officials across northern and western India, including the capital, New Delhi, said they were in crisis, with most hospitals full and running out of oxygen. U.S. administers 218.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC The United States has administered 218,947,643 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 282,183,915 doses as of Thursday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

In COVID-plagued Michigan, warning signs that vaccinations are stalling

When Michigan’s St. Clair County held a walk-in COV1D-19 vaccination clinic last week with 1,600 shots at the ready, only about 800 people signed up in advance. Walk-in traffic was slow. A quarter of the available shots went unused, says Jennifer Michaluk, a county health department official. St. Clair County, which sits on the Canadian border just northeast of Detroit, is a COVID hotbed. Earlier in the month, 30% of virus tests were coming back positive. Michigan has seen the biggest case spike of any state in recent weeks.

'Unnecessary sadness': Inside Ontario's strained intensive care units

Over the course of a single shift last week, critical care physician Laveena Munshi saw her intensive care unit (ICU) at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital fill with pregnant and post-partum COVID-19 patients. During that week, the ICU doubled the total number of pregnant COVID-19 patients it had previously seen throughout the entire pandemic. Swamped with patients with complex medical needs, one day Munshi ended up pulling a 36-hour shift.

British regulator says AstraZeneca COVID shot clots rise to 168

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's medicines regulator on Thursday said there had been 168 major blood clots following a dose of COVID-19 vaccine, a rate of 7.9 clots per million doses, a jump in incidence from the previous week's figure. This was up from the 100 cases reported last week, when the overall case incidence was 4.9 per million doses.

Pfizer COVID-19 shot effective for people with chronic diseases- Israel study

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is effective at preventing symptomatic and severe disease in people with some chronic illnesses, like diabetes and heart disease, the biggest real-world study showed on Thursday. The analysis of almost 1.2 million people by Israel's largest healthcare provider will offer further hope for countries as they get shots into citizens' arms, particularly those considered vulnerable, and curb the pandemic that has killed more than 3.1 million people.

Canada, under pressure to bar India, Brazil flights, could soon make announcement: official

Canada's government, under pressure to suspend flights from India and Brazil over fears about the spread of the coronavirus, could make an announcement on the matter shortly, a senior medical official said on Thursday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this week that officials were studying the example of Britain, which is obliging foreigners who have been in India in the past 10 days to spend 10 days in quarantine.

EU preparing legal case against AstraZeneca over vaccine shortfalls - sources

The European Commission is working on legal proceedings against AstraZeneca after the drugmaker cut COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the European Union, sources familiar with the matter said. The move would mark a further step in an EU plan to sever ties with the Anglo-Swedish company after it repeatedly cut supplies to the bloc, contributing to major delays in Europe's vaccine rollout.

Mass cremations begin as India's capital faces deluge of COVID-19 deaths

Delhi resident Nitish Kumar was forced to keep his dead mother's body at home for nearly two days while he searched for space in the city's crematoriums - a sign of the deluge of death in India's capital where coronavirus cases are surging. On Thursday Kumar cremated his mother, who died of COVID-19, in a makeshift, mass cremation facility in a parking lot adjoining a crematorium in Seemapuri in northeast Delhi.

India posts world record COVID cases with oxygen running out

India recorded the world's highest daily tally of 314,835 COVID-19 infections on Thursday as a second wave of the pandemic raised new fears about the ability of crumbling health services to cope. Health officials across northern and western India, including the capital, New Delhi, said they were in crisis, with most hospitals full and running out of oxygen.

U.S. administers 218.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

The United States has administered 218,947,643 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 282,183,915 doses as of Thursday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 215,951,909 vaccine doses the CDC said had been given to people by April 21 out of 277,938,875 doses delivered.

France lifts domestic travel limits but curfew stays in place

France will lift domestic travel restrictions from May 3 but a 7 p.m. curfew will remain in place until the COVID-19 epidemic is under control, the prime minister said. In a first step towards ending a third nation-wide lockdown, which has been in place since early April, Jean Castex said schools would reopen on Monday and people would be able to travel all over the country after being confined to their own region and within 10 km of their residence.

(With inputs from agencies.)