Health News Roundup: Melbourne readies to exit world's longest COVID-19 lockdown; WHO says it continues to assess Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and more

The South American country has now registered 21,680,488 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 604,228, according to ministry data, in the world's third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest. India celebrates 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses with song, film India is set to administer one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by early Thursday, an important milestone after a slow start, even as a recent drop in inoculations worries the government and healthcare providers.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Melbourne readies to exit world's longest COVID-19 lockdown

Millions in Melbourne are readying to come out of the world's longest COVID-19 lockdown later on Thursday even as cases hover near record levels, with pubs, restaurants and cafes rushing to restock supplies before opening their doors. Since early August, residents in Australia's second-largest city have been in lockdown - their sixth during the pandemic - to quell an outbreak fuelled by the highly infectious Delta strain.

WHO says it continues to assess Russia's Sputnik V vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) is still assessing the Russia-designed Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, according to an update on the WHO's website on Wednesday. "As with other candidate vaccines, WHO continues to assess Sputnik V vaccines from different manufacturing sites and will publish decisions on their EUL (Emergency Use Listing) status when all the data are available and the review is concluded," WHO said in emailed comments to Reuters.

Brazil has 373 COVID deaths in 24 hours, lowest since April 2020 -ministry

Brazil has had 15,609 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 373 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Wednesday, reporting the lowest death toll for a Wednesday since April last year. The South American country has now registered 21,680,488 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 604,228, according to ministry data, in the world's third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest.

India celebrates 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses with song, film

India is set to administer one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by early Thursday, an important milestone after a slow start, even as a recent drop in inoculations worries the government and healthcare providers. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will launch a song and an audio-visual film at the Mughal-era Red Fort in New Delhi around noon to "celebrate the landmark milestone", his ministry said.

Hospitals in Canadian province Saskatchewan face prolonged COVID-19 crisis, modelling shows

COVID-19 patients will keep crowding hospital intensive care units (ICUs) in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan well into next year without government orders to limit public mixing, modeling data showed on Wednesday. As the pandemic ebbed during the summer, the western farming and mining province lifted restrictions at the fastest rate in Canada along with neighboring Alberta. Saskatchewan has since become the country's COVID-19 hotspot, with the lowest vaccination rate among provinces, and had to hastily reimpose restrictions such as masking in indoor public places.

Japan's Shionogi announces start of Phase II/III clinical trial for new COVID-19 vaccine

Japan's Shionogi & Co Ltd said on Wednesday it started a Phase II/III clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The trial for the recombinant protein-based vaccine will take place in Japan and follows a Phase I trial in the country, Shionogi said in a statement. The company will also prepare to conduct multiple trials globally, it said.

New Zealand's COVID-19 cases hit record for second time this week

New Zealand reported record daily COVID-19 cases for the second time in three days on Thursday, as the Delta variant continued to spur a spike in infections in the country's biggest city, Auckland. Authorities reported 102 new COVID-19 infections, of which 94 were in Auckland, taking the total number of cases in the current outbreak to 2,260. There have been 28 deaths in total since the pandemic began and 46 people are currently hospitalized because of the virus.

Children with mild COVID-19 may not develop antibodies; oral vaccine booster shows promise in monkey study

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review. Children with mild COVID-19 may lack antibodies afterward

India administers 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, says health minister

India on Thursday crossed the milestone of 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, the health minister said.

U.S. FDA clears Moderna, J&J COVID-19 boosters, backs use of different vaccine for boost

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson and said Americans can choose a different shot from their original inoculation as a booster. That means all three vaccines authorized in the United States can also be given as boosters to some groups.

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