Health News Roundup: French new coronavirus cases lower than week ago; Two masks likely better than one, CDC says and more

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

65.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines delivered, 44.7 million administered: U.S. CDC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 44,769,970 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Wednesday morning and delivered 65,972,575 doses. The tally of vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the agency said.

Vaccine vs variant: Promising data in Israel's race to defeat pandemic

Israel's swift vaccination rollout has made it the largest real-world study of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine. Results are trickling in, and they are promising. More than half of eligible Israelis - about 3.5 million people - have now been fully or partially vaccinated. Older and at-risk groups, the first to be inoculated, are seeing a dramatic drop in illnesses.

Biden is "interested in getting all the facts" about China and origins of COVID-19

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he wants to know all the facts when he was asked about "punishing" China for possibly not disclosing all of its information on the coronavirus that first appeared in its country slightly more than a year ago and is now killing thousands each day in a global pandemic. "I'm interested in getting all the facts," Biden said when a reporter asked if he has "any interest in punishing China for not being truthful about COVID last year.

French new coronavirus cases lower than week ago

France reported 25,387 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, up from 19,348 on Tuesday but slightly lower than last Wednesday's 26,362 as average daily increases continued slowing. The health ministry also reported 296 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals, from 436 on Tuesday, bringing the cumulative death toll to 80,443. Total cases now stand at 3.38 million.

South Africa may sell AstraZeneca shots as it switches to J&J vaccine to fight variant South Africa's health minister said on Wednesday the government may sell doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine it may not need or swap for a different vaccine, as it scrambles to start inoculating its citizens with an alternative U.S. shot next week. The unusual move comes just days after South Africa paused the rollout of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant dominant in the country.

Two masks protect better than one; asthma, antiviral drugs show promise as treatments The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Two masks likely better than one, CDC says

AstraZeneca vaccine could get WHO emergency approval by mid-February: WHO AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine is in the final stages of review for a World Health Organization emergency-use listing and could receive approval by mid-February, the United Nations health agency said on Wednesday. In a joint briefing with the WHO's SAGE expert panel on immunisation, officials recommended the shot should be widely used, emphasising that its benefits outweigh any risks.

WHO's Wuhan probe ends, U.S.-China bickering over COVID continues China called on the United States on Wednesday to invite the World Health Organization to investigate origins of the COVID-19 outbreak there, as sparring over the pandemic continued after the WHO wrapped up its field work in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Hours after the WHO team revealed preliminary findings at a Wuhan news conference on Tuesday, Washington said it wants to scrutinize data used by the team, which concluded that the virus causing COVID-19 did not originate in a laboratory in Wuhan, and that bats remain a likely source.

Belgian plant says it complies with AstraZeneca contract amid vaccine supply cuts A plant in Belgium said to be the main cause of big cuts in AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine supplies to the European Union said on Wednesday it had complied with all its obligations under a contract it has with the Anglo-Swedish firm. The apparent dispute could lead to further EU pressure on AstraZeneca to deliver more doses in the winter, as its COVID-19 vaccine began being rolled out in the 27-nation bloc this week.

U.S. government partnering with Texas to build three mass vaccination sites The federal government is partnering with the state of Texas to build three mass vaccination sites, following last week's announcement that it would build such sites in California, federal health officials said during a Wednesday media briefing. Each site will be able to administer 10,000 shots per day, according to Jeffrey Zients, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, and should begin giving the shots by Feb. 22.

(With inputs from agencies.)