Health News Roundup: United, Delta passengers from Britain must show negative COVID-19 tests; U.S. CDC reports 325,096 total deaths from coronavirus and more

Herd immunity against the novel coronavirus could require vaccination rates approaching as high as 90%,

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most prominent U.S. infectious disease expert, said in an interview published on Thursday in The New York Times. More than 1 million Americans have received a first dose of a vaccine since Dec. 14, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, or only about 0.3% of the population.

Special Report-How a British COVID-19 vaccine went from pole position to troubled start

On June 5, researchers at the University of Oxford quietly made a change to a late-stage clinical trial of their COVID-19 vaccine. In an amendment noted in a document marked CONFIDENTIAL, they said they were adding a new group of participants. The adjustment might seem minor in a large-scale study. But it masked a mistake that would have potentially far-reaching consequences: Many of the United Kingdom trial subjects had inadvertently been given only about a half dose of the vaccine.

United, Delta passengers from Britain must show negative COVID-19 tests

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines are requiring all passengers on flights from the United Kingdom to the United States to present a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of departure. The decision follows the emergence of a highly infectious new coronavirus variant in Britain that has prompted many countries to shut their borders to travelers from there.

More than 600,000 people in UK get first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dose

More than 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began in the country earlier this month, the British government said on Thursday. "The government has today published figures which show the number of people who have received the vaccine between 8 December and 20 December in the UK is 616,933," the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement https://bit.ly/3mNRZwH.

'Best gift in 2020': COVID-19 vaccinations begin in Latin America

Mexico on Thursday inoculated its first person against COVID-19 to kick off a fightback from a pandemic that has killed 120,000 people in the country and battered the economy, celebrating a Christmas roll-out that also began elsewhere in Latin America. In a ceremony broadcast on national media and watched by the president, officials directed the administration of the Pfizer vaccine to 59-year-old nurse Maria Irene Ramirez, head nurse at the intensive care unit of Mexico City's Ruben Lenero hospital.

U.S. CDC reports 325,096 total deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday reported 325,096 deaths from the new coronavirus, an increase of 3,362 from its previous count. The agency said the number of cases had risen by 221,408 to 18,391,571.