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In the UK, dealing with the new variant of the virus, cases have again risen to 57,725 in one day, with 445 deaths, while the Pfizer vaccine has been given to one million Britons so far. And if the government has given in, deciding to close primary schools across London, the unions are pushing for a strike for the entire country. This is as the president of the Royal College of Physicians, Andrew Goddard, warned that hospitals across the territory must prepare for the same high pressure that is handling the health care system in London and the south-east of England.
Government data shows that the country has recorded five consecutive daily highs, all above 50,000 and almost double the levels of two weeks ago. Additionally, hospitals have started receiving batches of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, approved by UK regulators this week. About 530,000 doses will be available nationwide starting Monday. Nursing home residents and caregivers, those over 80 and hospital staff will receive the first doses. More than a million people in the UK have received the Pfizer vaccine.
Meanwhile, there is a new step forward on the coronavirus vaccine front: The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the emergency use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, opening up to vaccines in middle-income countries and low. The drug was first approved on December 8 in the United Kingdom, followed by approval in the European Union, Canada and the United States. Places that have started their own vaccination campaigns. The WHO green light, reported by CNN, allows immunization to begin even in states that do not have their own regulatory bodies or means of evaluating the efficacy and safety of drugs.
The fair distribution of vaccines around the world is a constant concern. The WHO said in a statement that organizations such as UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization can thus obtain the drug for distribution. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca announces that two million doses of the vaccine will be ready each week, starting in mid-January. But in several countries there is no shortage of criticism about the management and timing of vaccination. In the United States, the first nation in the world in infections (more than 20 million) and deaths (more than 347 thousand), the Warp Speed operation organized by Donald Trump has delivered millions of doses, but is not delivering on promises. The media predict that it will take years, at the current rate, to vaccinate enough Americans to stop the pandemic. According to forecasts, 20 million people should have received the first dose by 2020, less than 3 million. President-elect Joe Biden has harshly criticized the Trump administration and vowed to speed up operations.
In the EU, European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides responded to the criticism: “The eye of the needle is currently not the number of orders, but the global shortage of production capacity. This also applies to Biontech.” Meanwhile, India has started national testing of its vaccination system, while the Netherlands, after the controversy, accelerates by promising to vaccinate healthcare workers as soon as possible. Criticisms also in France, by the Academie de Medecine and hospitals, who complain about the slowness of the process compared to other countries, such as Germany.
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