Live News on Coronavirus: Poorest Countries Will Receive Vaccine in Weeks, WHO Says; Deaths in Brazil exceed 200,000 | World News

The WHO granted emergency validation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 31, paving the way for countries around the world to give swift approval to its import and distribution, reports AFP.

According to the WHO overview of candidate vaccines, 63 have been tested in humans, 21 of which have reached the final stage of mass testing.

172 more candidate vaccines are being developed in laboratories with a view to eventual human trials.

“There are a lot of vaccines that are coming in,” O’Brien said.

“We are actively reviewing data on other vaccines and hope to include additional vaccines for emergency use in the coming weeks and months.

“We have 15 manufacturers who have contacted us believing they have the data necessary to meet these higher standards.”

As for the new virus mutations detected in Britain and South Africa, WHO experts have said that while they appear more transmissible, there is no indication that current vaccines do not work against those variants, and the vaccines are easily adaptable in any case. .

“The assessment of whether existing vaccines will be affected at all is underway,” O’Brien said.

However, “the kinds of changes you see in these variants are not believed to change the impact,” he added.

O’Brien said it was too early to say how long protection would last after vaccination, and WHO did not yet have data to make recommendations on receiving doses of different vaccines, having fully reviewed only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. .

The world’s poorest countries can expect to start receiving their first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine between late January and mid-February, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

AFP: Vaccination is already underway in some of the richest nations in the world, including the United States, Great Britain, European Union countries and Canada.

Covax, the globally bundled vaccine procurement and distribution effort, has struck deals to secure two billion doses, with the first dose set to start rolling out in a few weeks, said WHO’s chief of vaccines Kate O ‘Brien.

Covax aims to secure vaccines for 20 percent of the population in each participating country by the end of the year, with funding covered for the 92 low- and lower-middle-income economies involved in the scheme.

It is co-led by WHO, the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI).

When asked how quickly low-income African nations would receive vaccines, O’Brien said at a WHO live event on social media: “The facility has access to more than two billion doses of vaccine.

“We will start delivering those vaccines probably in late January and, if not, certainly in early February and mid-February.

“This is how the countries in Africa and South Asia, and other countries in the world of these 92 that have less capacity to pay for vaccines, are actually going to receive vaccines.”

The Australian state of Queensland imposed a three-day lockdown on the city of Brisbane since Friday night, after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for the most contagious variant of Covid-19 that emerged in Britain on last month.

State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters:

We know that this UK strain is very infectious. It is 70% more infectious, and we are going to make an effort and go early to do everything possible to stop the spread of this virus. “

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

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The world’s poorest countries can expect to start receiving their first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine between late January and mid-February, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Vaccination is already underway in some of the richest nations in the world, including the United States, Great Britain, European Union countries, and Canada.

Meanwhile, Brazil surpassed 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday. That is the second highest total in the world.

The Health Ministry said the country had 1,524 deaths in the previous 24 hours, increasing to a total of 200,498 from the pandemic.

• the UK It said it will extend the ban to travelers entering England to southern African countries in a move to prevent the spread of a new variant of Covid-19 identified in South Africa. The restriction will take effect on Saturday and will remain in effect for two weeks, the government said.
• France reported 21,703 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, up from 25,379 on Wednesday. The Health Ministry also reported 277 new virus deaths in hospitals compared to 283 on Wednesday.
• From Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the supply deals with Pfizer meant that all Israelis over the age of 16 could be vaccinated by the end of March, or perhaps even earlier.
• Germany reported more than 1,000 Covid-related deaths. Health authorities recorded 26,391 new coronavirus infections on Thursday and 1,070 deaths. But the government’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said the figures remain skewed after they were not reported over the Christmas holidays, and a real picture of where the virus is in Germany will not be clear until the 17th. January at the earliest.
• Europe It has overcome more than 25 million Covid cases, according to a Reuters analysis. Several countries are reestablishing or expanding blockades as the resurgence of the pandemic threatens to overwhelm health services.
• the UK recorded the highest number of daily deaths since April 21. The UK government said another 1,162 people died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday. This is the highest daily total on record since April 21, when 1,224 were recorded. It brings the total number of deaths in the UK to 78,508. Separate figures released by UK statistical agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, along with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show that there have now been 94,000 Covid-19 related deaths in the UK.
• Japan declared a state of emergency for the Tokyo area as Covid-19 cases increase. Japan has declared a month-long state of emergency in the capital Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures to halt the spread of coronavirus infections, as new daily cases rose to a record high of more than 7,000, media reported.
• the who called for intensified action on the “alarming” virus variant. The European branch of the World Health Organization said more needs to be done to address the alarming situation caused by a recently discovered variant of the coronavirus. WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge also called for safe flexibility in the time between the first and second doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
• RussiaThe official number of deaths from coronavirus exceeded 60,000. Russia reported 23,541 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,332,142.
• At UK, Covid killed half the residents of a nursing home in Sussex over Christmas. A nursing home in East Sussex has been devastated by Covid, 6 losing half of its residents to the disease over Christmas, fueling fears that the new variant of the most communicable virus plaguing the southeast of England is just starting. to break down the defenses of homes.
• FranceThe border with the UK will remain closed “for the foreseeable future,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said. So far, 19 cases of the new fast-moving variant of the coronavirus have been identified, identified by scientists in the UK and called the “English variant” in France. Castex said bars, restaurants and ski resorts would not open at the end of the month and that it was too early to say if they could reopen in mid-February.