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Spain aims for all residents of its nursing homes to have received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the week, Health Minister Salvador Illa said today after a cabinet meeting.
Since starting its vaccination campaign at the end of December and with the increase in new infections, Spain has focused its efforts on inoculating nursing home residents who are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19.
During the first wave of contagion from March to May, the virus devastated the population of nursing homes, killing about 20,000 people, according to preliminary data reported by the newspaper El País and the radio station RTVE. The official total death toll from the virus now stands at 52,275.
Beginning January 18, health authorities will begin administering the second round of the Pfizer-BioNTech double-dose jab to the first recipients of the first injection.
“We believe that this week Spain will reach cruising speed in its vaccination plan,” Illa said, adding that the inoculation campaign continued in many places despite the chaos caused by snowstorm Filomena.
Spain received 35,700 doses of the vaccine recently approved by the American pharmaceutical company Moderna this morning, and expects to receive 600,000 doses by the third week of February, Illa said.
Data from the Health Ministry showed that about 406,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered yesterday, about 55% of total stocks.
The vaccination campaign is even more important given the sharp increase in contagion since the Christmas holidays.
The northern region of Castilla y León urged citizens to adhere to voluntary confinement, although it lacks the power to legally enforce a confinement.
At the national level, Spain reported 25,438 new infections today, bringing the cumulative total to 2,137,220, while the death toll increased by 408 to 52,683.
Japan works to isolate and analyze new virus variant
Japan is working to isolate and analyze a new variant of the coronavirus detected in four people who arrived from Brazil, a Health Ministry official said.
Japan announced the detection of the new variant on Sunday, but officials have gone to great lengths to emphasize that there is still no evidence that it is more transmissible or dangerous than others.
“To further analyze the variant, we must first isolate it,” said a health ministry official.
“It is difficult to say at this point when we can release the details,” he said, adding that the process could take weeks or months.
The variant was found in two adults and two children who arrived in Japan on January 2 from Brazil.
The health ministry said one of the four, a man in his 40s, has been hospitalized with breathing difficulties, while a woman and a boy developed mild symptoms and a girl was asymptomatic.
The World Health Organization said Japan notified it about the new variant, warning that “the more the virus spreads, the greater the possibility of new changes in the virus.”
Experts note that viruses mutate regularly, and not all mutations make the disease easier to contract or more serious.
But the discovery of a variant in the UK that is significantly more transmissible, and a second strain in South Africa, has raised concerns about whether a vaccine-resistant version could eventually develop.
Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases has said there are some similarities between the newly detected strain and those found in the UK and South Africa.
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Meanwhile, WHO scientists warned that mass vaccinations would not generate herd immunity to the coronavirus this year, even as a leading producer boosted its production forecast.
The number of infections is increasing around the world, especially in Europe, where nations have been forced to increase virus restrictions even as vaccines are implemented.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan warned that it would take time to produce and administer enough injections to stop the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 90 million people around the world with deaths close to two million.
“We are not going to achieve any level of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” he said, emphasizing the need to maintain physical distancing, hand washing and the use of masks.
Experts are also concerned about the rapid spread of new variants of the virus, such as the one first detected in Britain and which is feared to be significantly more transmissible.
German company BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to produce the first vaccine approved in the West, said it could produce millions more doses than originally expected this year, increasing the production forecast from 1.3 to two billion.
The announcement was a boost for countries struggling to administer the injections, but the company also warned that Covid-19 “would likely become an endemic disease,” with vaccines needed to combat new variants and a “naturally waning immune response.”
Officials in Russia said they would test a one-dose version of the country’s Sputnik V vaccine as part of efforts to provide an interim solution for the worst-affected countries.
India, with the second highest number of infections in the world, will begin to inject its 1.3 billion people from Saturday into a colossal and complex undertaking.
US President-elect Joe Biden, who has pledged to devote all available resources to fighting the pandemic, received his second dose of the vaccine on Monday.
Another Chinese city locked in for new infections
Chinese authorities introduced new Covid-19 curbs in areas surrounding Beijing on Tuesday, putting 4.9 million residents under lockdown, as new infections raised concerns about a second wave in a nation that has mostly contained the disease. .
The number of new cases in mainland China reported today almost halved from the previous day and remained a small fraction of what was seen at the height of the outbreak early last year.
However, local authorities are implementing strict restrictions whenever new cases emerge to prevent the kind of economic paralysis seen a year ago.
The National Health Commission reported 55 new cases of Covid-19, compared to 103 the day before. Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, accounted for 40 of the 42 locally transmitted infections, with the capital and northeastern Heilongjiang province each reporting one local case.
Hebei City of Langfang said its 4.9 million residents will be placed in home quarantine for seven days and will be subject to massive testing for Covid-19.
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei, has been hit hardest by the latest surge in infections and has already shut down its 11 million residents. The province has closed certain sections of roads and is ordering vehicles registered in Shijiazhuang to reverse.
Other provinces in China are reporting new confirmed or asymptomatic cases. Heilongjiang Province reported 36 new asymptomatic cases in Wangkui County, which was also closed yesterday.
Authorities do not classify asymptomatic cases as confirmed Covid-19 infections.
Authorities in Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first detected in late 2019, launched contact tracing work after two infected people from Hebei visited the city.
Israel may start vaccinating children in March
Israel may include children over the age of 12 in groups receiving Covid-19 vaccines within the next two months if research shows this to be safe, a senior health official said.
Israel says it aims to have administered one or both injections to 5 million of its 9 million citizens and to reopen the economy in mid-March.
Priority has been given to the Israeli elderly and adults with medical conditions or jobs in critical high-risk sectors.
But with Israeli officials anticipating more regular vaccine shipments, the eligibility categories have widened.
Nachman Ash, national coordinator on the pandemic, predicted that pharmacological research would establish that the minimum age threshold for vaccines could be safely lowered from 16 to 12, and that FDA approval for such use could be obtained in March.
“The fact that children under the age of 16 are not currently being vaccinated is certainly worrying, in terms of the ability to achieve herd immunity,” he told 103 FM radio.
“I estimate that in another month or two, there will be another cohort, 12 years and older, that we can vaccinate.”
About 7.75% of Israel’s population is between the ages of 12 and 16, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
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