Health News Roundup: Cambodia bat researchers on a mission to track the origin of COVID-19; Brazil reports over 150,000 COVID-19 cases in one day amid Rio backlog and more

Schools and offices will still remain closed at level 3 but businesses can operate contactless services. Sydney COVID-19 cases fall as curbs ease in virus hotspots Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state on Monday reported its lowest rise in daily COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks as some lockdown restrictions were eased in Sydney, the state capital, amid higher vaccination levels.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Cambodia bat researchers on a mission to track the origin of COVID-19

Researchers are collecting samples from bats in northern Cambodia in a bid to understand the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a region where a very similar virus was found in the animals a decade ago. Two samples from horseshoe bats were collected in 2010 in Stung Treng province near Laos and kept in freezers at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh.

Brazil reports over 150,000 COVID-19 cases in one day amid Rio backlog

Brazil reported 935 COVID-19 deaths on Saturday and some 150,106 additional cases, according to data released by the nation's Health Ministry, an unusually large number due to what officials said was an adjustment in how case numbers are tabulated. Some 92,614 cases occurred in Rio de Janeiro in recent months, but only entered into the official count in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

Stockpiled COVID vaccines must be handed to poorer nations, says former UK PM

A vaccine summit being hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden must come up with a plan this week to transfer 100 million stockpiled COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries before they reach their expiry date, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. Biden is due to convene a virtual COVID-19 summit on Wednesday on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly, aimed at boosting vaccinations worldwide with the goal of ending the pandemic by the end of 2022.

World leaders return to U.N. with focus on pandemic, climate

World leaders are returning to the United Nations in New York this week with a focus on boosting efforts to fight both climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, which last year forced them to send video statements for the annual gathering. As the coronavirus still rages amid an inequitable vaccine rollout, about a third of the 193 U.N. states are planning to again send videos, but presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers for the remainder are due to travel to the United States.

Key data on U.S. J&J, Moderna COVID-19 boosters weeks away, Fauci says

Data needed to determine the advisability of booster shots of the Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines is just weeks away, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday. Health officials signaled they expected boosters would ultimately be recommended for a broad swath of the population but urged Americans not to seek booster doses until they have FDA approval.

Scientists in Singapore transform fruit leftovers into antibacterial bandages

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore are tackling food waste by turning discarded durian husks into antibacterial gel bandages. The process extracts cellulose powder from the fruit's husks after they are sliced and freeze-dried, then mixes it with glycerol. This mixture becomes soft hydrogel, which is then cut into bandage strips.

New Zealand sees small increase in daily COVID-19 cases over weekend

New Zealand reported 24 new locally acquired coronavirus cases on Sunday, up from 20 on Saturday, showing an upturn after several days of lower numbers, as the country's largest city Auckland awaits to hear if its lockdown restrictions will ease. All of the new cases have been reported in greater Auckland, a city of about 1.7 million people which has been in a full level 4 lockdown since mid-August.

New Zealand's Auckland COVID-19 restrictions eased slightly

Coronavirus restrictions in New Zealand's largest city Auckland will be eased slightly from Wednesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference. The city, which is at the center of the latest Delta variant outbreak, will move to alert level 3 from alert level 4 starting midnight on Tuesday, Ardern said. Schools and offices will still remain closed at level 3 but businesses can operate contactless services.

Sydney COVID-19 cases fall as curbs ease in virus hotspots

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state on Monday reported its lowest rise in daily COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks as some lockdown restrictions were eased in Sydney, the state capital, amid higher vaccination levels. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said 935 new cases had been detected in NSW, the lowest daily tally since Aug. 27, and down from 1,083 on Sunday. The state reported four more deaths.

U.S. administers about 385.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines -CDC

The United States has administered 385,586,012 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and distributed 466,561,785 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from 384,911,290 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Sept. 18 out of 466,569,635 doses delivered.

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