Health News Roundup: Benefits of mRNA COVID vaccines outweigh rare heart risks, says WHO; U.S. administers nearly 333.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines- CDC and more

Von der Leyen, who had tweeted on May 9 that the EU was on track to meet its goal of inoculating 70% of adults by summer, urged EU countries to increase vaccinations and said about 500 million doses would be distributed across the union by Sunday. Russia reports recording high daily COVID-19 deaths, over 25,000 new cases Russia on Saturday reported 752 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since the pandemic began, pushing the national death toll to 142,253.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Benefits of mRNA COVID vaccines outweigh rare heart risks, says WHO

The benefits of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the very small risk they might cause heart inflammation, as the jabs reduce hospitalizations and deaths, an advisory panel of the World Health Organization said on Friday. In a statement, the WHO said that reports of two rare conditions - myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, and of its lining, called pericarditis - had typically occurred within days of vaccination, mainly among younger males after the second dose.

U.S. administers nearly 333.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines- CDC

The United States had administered 333,565,404 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 386,985,420 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its website. The figures were up from the 332,966,409 doses the CDC said had been administered by Friday out of 386,058,070 doses delivered.

FDA seeks probe into its talks with Biogen before Alzheimer's drug approval

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday called for an independent federal probe into its representatives' interactions with Biogen Inc that led to the approval of the company's Alzheimer's disease drug last month. The drugmaker's shares closed down 3% after the agency's acting commissioner Janet Woodcock asked the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services to probe if the talks were inconsistent with the regulator's policies.

Australia reports first 2021 COVID-19 death, highest case number

Australia reported its first coronavirus-related death of the year on Sunday and a 2021 record 77 new cases of the virus in the state of New South Wales, which is battling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the numbers in and around the country's biggest city Sydney, already under a hard lockdown, are expected to rise.

EU delivers enough doses to vaccinate 70% of adults, von der Leyen says

The European Union has delivered enough coronavirus vaccine doses to member states to reach a target to fully vaccinate at least 70% of adults in the bloc, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Saturday. Von der Leyen, who had tweeted on May 9 that the EU was on track to meet its goal of inoculating 70% of adults by summer, urged EU countries to increase vaccinations and said about 500 million doses would be distributed across the union by Sunday.

Russia reports record high daily COVID-19 deaths, over 25,000 new cases

Russia on Saturday reported 752 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since the pandemic began, pushing the national death toll to 142,253. The coronavirus task force also reported 25,082 new coronavirus cases, including 5,694 in Moscow. That pushed the national case total to 5,758,300.

S.Korea new coronavirus cases dip from record high

South Korea reported 1,324 new coronavirus cases as of midnight on Saturday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Sunday, down from a record 1,378 the day before as the country battles a surge of infections. Reported cases often dip over weekends with fewer tests conducted, and authorities have warned that cases may continue to rise.

Vietnam receives 2 million COVID-19 vaccines to fight worst outbreak

Vietnam has received 2 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the U.S. government, the American embassy in Hanoi said on Saturday, as the Southeast Asian country battles its worst outbreak of the pandemic. The shipment, delivered via the COVAX sharing facility, is part of the 80 million vaccine doses that President Joe Biden committed from U.S. vaccine supplies to support global needs, the embassy said in an emailed statement.

Canada says COVID booster shots may be needed, closely monitoring variants

Canada on Friday said that while booster COVID-19 shots may be needed, it has received no request from Pfizer to approve one, and health authorities are currently studying the duration of protection from two doses. Pfizer and BioNTech plan to ask U.S. and European regulators within weeks to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, based on evidence of greater risk of infection six months after inoculation and the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

TSMC says it is in the process of signing a deal for BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines

Taiwan chipmaker TSMC said on Sunday it was in the middle of the contract signing process to buy COVID-19 vaccines from Germany's BioNTech SE, part of a drawn-out and highly politicized process for Taiwan to access the shot. Taiwan's government has tried for months to buy the vaccine directly from BioNTech and has blamed China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory, for nixing a deal the two sides were due to sign earlier this year. China denies the accusations.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)