Reuters Health News

The GAVI vaccines alliance is to launch an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for future COVID-19 vaccines which it says will help secure access to the new shots for poorer countries.

Sanofi said on Wednesday it would review available information and run consultations before deciding whether to enroll patients again for its COVID-19-related hydroxychloroquine trials.

The results of almost all tests for the coronavirus should be available within 24 hours by the end of this month, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 71 on Wednesday, against 55 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases was roughly stable at 321 versus 318 on Tuesday.

Brazil this month will start testing an experimental vaccine against the novel coronavirus being developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc, Brazil's health surveillance agency Anvisa and the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Unifesp) said.

The leader of Britain's COVID-19 test and trace programme said she hoped data on the numbers of people tested and contacts traced within 24 hours would be available from next week once it had been validated.

The Dutch government intends to cull the mink at farms where animals have been infected with the coronavirus, broadcaster RTL reported on Wednesday, citing sources in The Hague.

British doctors are trialling a formulation of anti-inflammatory ibuprofen to see if it reduces respiratory failure in patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Vietnam's most gravely-ill COVID-19 patient, a British pilot who works for its national airline, has started to recover from the illness and may no longer require a lung transplant, state media said on Wednesday.

Malaysian health authorities reported 93 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, raising the cumulative total to 7,970.

The Philippine health ministry on Wednesday recorded eight more deaths and 751 additional infections because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Indonesia reported 684 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 28,233, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.

Sweden should have done more to combat the coronavirus and prevent a much higher national COVID-19 death rate than in neighbouring countries, the man behind the Public Health Agency's pandemic strategy said on Wednesday.

India's government has approved Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for emergency use for five doses in treating COVID-19 patients.

Russia reported 8,536 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing its nationwide tally to 432,277, the third highest in the world.

China said on Wednesday a news report that said it delayed sharing COVID-19 information with the World Health Organization (WHO) is totally untrue.

Singapore's health ministry said on Wednesday it confirmed 569 new cases of coronavirus infection, taking its tally to 36,405.

Two children suspected to be South Korea's first cases of a life-threatening syndrome linked with the coronavirus were found to have contracted Kawasaki disease, a similar but separate infection, health authorities said on Wednesday.

India's coronavirus infections crossed 200,000, official figures showed on Wednesday, and a peak could still be weeks away in the world's second-most populous country, where the economy has begun re-opening after a lockdown imposed in March .

British medical journal the Lancet on Tuesday said it had concerns about data behind an influential article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients, a conclusion that undercut scientific interest in the medicine championed by U.S. President Donald Trump.