Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
3 in 4 Americans Favor Face Coverings: Survey
Face coverings should be worn by people when they leave home, three-quarters of Americans say in a new poll.
It also found that two out of three people disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling the pandemic.
While support for wearing face coverings was highest among Democrats (89%), there was also strong support among Republicans (58%), according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey.
About 95% of Democrats and 75% of Republicans said they're wearing face coverings when leaving home. Overall, 86% of Americans said they're doing so, compared with 73% in May.
About half the survey respondents said they're extremely or very worried about themselves or someone in their families being infected with the new coronavirus, a sharp rise since June when only 32% expressed concern, the AP reported.
Support for limiting the size of gatherings was 66%, compared with a low of 59% in June, and 85% of respondents said they're avoiding large groups.
Only 24% of respondents said they approved of the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, while 55% disapproved, which was 7 percentage points higher than in May, the AP reported.
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U.S. Nursing Homes Get Another $5 Billion to Fight Coronavirus
U.S. nursing homes will receive another $5 billion to help them fight the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration announced Wednesday.
Nursing homes in coronavirus hotspots will be first in line to receive the new money, the Associated Press reported.
The nursing home industry and advocates have been pushing the Trump administration and Congress to provide more financial assistance for nursing homes.
The $5 billion is part of a package that includes efforts to offer more training and support for nursing homes and facilitate ongoing testing of nursing home staff, the AP reported.
Previously, nursing homes received $4.9 billion from pandemic relief funds approved by Congress.
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New Guidelines for Recovering COVID-19 Patients to Leave Isolation
Many recovering COVID-19 patients in the United States will now be able to leave isolation without further testing to show they're virus-free, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
They'll be allowed to return to their normal routines after 10 days if they're free of fever or other symptoms, The New York Times reported.
Under the new guidelines issued Wednesday, patients may be considered recovered if it's been 10 days since they first had symptoms; they no longer have symptoms such as shortness of breath or diarrhea; and they've been fever-free for 24 hours without taking fever medications.
The CDC said the revised guidelines, which aren't rules, should help ease the strain on the nation's coronavirus testing system, the Times reported.
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Kim Kardashian West Opens Up About Kanye West's Mental Health
Rapper Kanye West's wife Kim Kardashian West opened up on Instagram about her husband's struggles with bipolar disorder, asking for "compassion and empathy."
Questions about the 43-year-old rapper's mental health were raised recently after he said he would run for president and issued a number of bizarre statements and tweets, CBS News reported.
"Anyone who has [bipolar disorder] or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how complicated and painful it is to understand," Kardashian West wrote Wednesday on Instagram.
"I've never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye's right to privacy when it comes to his health."
Kardashian West said she decided to go public about the matter in an attempt to destigmatize bipolar disorder and clarify some misconceptions about mental illness, CBS News reported.
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U.S. Reaches Deal for Nearly 600 Million Doses of Coronavirus Vaccine
A nearly $2 billion contract with pharmaceutical company Pfizer and a German biotechnology firm will provide the United States with up to 600 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine being developed by the companies, the U.S. government says.
Large-scale safety trials of the vaccine are scheduled to start this month and a regulatory review could occur as early as October, according to The New York Times.
Under the deal, the U.S. government would receive the first 100 million doses of the vaccine for $1.95 billion, with the rights to obtain up to 500 million more. The vaccine would be free to Americans.
Before it could be distributed, the vaccine would have to receive at least emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Times reported.
