USA administers the first dose of vaccine over 100 m, as it happened | World News

“Don’t go to other sources, they are not reliable,” says Morrison. This is perhaps the closest it has ever come to fellow MPs (and former party members) sharing misinformation about the pandemic. The health department recently launched a new website to counter misinformation about Covid and vaccines.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Director Paul Kelly are addressing the media.

The NSW hotel worker who tested positive had received the first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, But there is a time lag between vaccination and the development of immunity, Kelly says. It is the first case acquired by the state community in 55 days.

Morrison also defends the government against criticism that the vaccine launch is not going as planned. He says Australians believe the government has been transparent and that Australia “is pulling the world out of this pandemic.”

Hello this is Helen davidson in Taipei, here to blog for the next few hours. Thanks to Clea for everything so far.

Hong Kong is facing its fifth wave of infection, with a growing group focused on a high-end gym that has recorded 99 cases so far. The gym is popular with workers in the city’s central business district, local media reported, and several major banks and law firms are among the dozens of businesses receiving mandatory trial orders. Authorities also closed four residential buildings on the middle levels, in another ambush-style operation to ensure that all residents are screened overnight before they are allowed to move freely again.

From Bloomberg’s Senior Healthcare Editor, as the United States reports a daily record number (over 4.5 million) of vaccine doses administered:

The CDC said 68,884,011 people had received at least one dose, while 36,929,777 people were fully vaccinated.

Brazil has registered 1,997 more deaths and 76,178 new cases of Covid-19, the country’s Health Ministry said.

The country, which has suffered the second deadliest outbreak in the world after the U.S, has registered a total of 277,102 deaths and 11,439,558 cases, according to Reuters.

Authorities in the U.S have administered a first dose of vaccine to more than 100 million people, according to the country’s national public health agency, reaching the milestone on Friday.

More than a third of this number have taken both hits.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said more than 101 million injections had been given since the country’s vaccination campaign began late last year.

In total, 10.5% of the U.S. population (more than 35 million people) have received both doses, the CDC said.

Covid-19 infection levels in the major Tokyo The area appears to be increasing, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said, and threatens to jeopardize the lifting of the state of emergency scheduled for March 21.

The new cases “have stopped falling or have increased in Tokyo”, Saitama, Chiba Y Kanagawa prefectures, Tamura told a news conference, the Japan Times reports.

Although coronavirus measures, including restrictions for the hotel industry, have reduced cases to about a tenth of the peak recorded in early January, the levels are still far from the target figures.

“The number of new positive cases has stopped declining, and we must be very vigilant about the possibility of a resurgence due to mutant strains,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Friday.

The seven-day average of new infections in Tokyo has ranged from 200 to 200 since late February, while the daily number of new cases topped 300 for the fourth day in a row on Saturday.

ArgentinaThe government is concerned about the increase in Covid-19 cases in the region and will increase border controls and preventive measures, the country’s health minister said.

“There is a sustained and worrying increase in the countries of the region,” said Carla Vizzotti, adding that the government was concerned about the new variants of the virus in circulation, according to a report by the Buenos Aires Times.

Vizzotti said the government was advising Argentines to avoid traveling to countries, such as Brazil, with new variants of the virus.

The government will begin to issue warnings “about the regional situation and discourage the population from traveling to places where there are new variants.”

AustraliaThe center-left Labor Party has been re-elected in the state of Western australia after implementing some of the strictest measures in the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“The magnitude of what happened today is not lost on me. This comes with great responsibility, ”State Prime Minister Mark McGowan told supporters in Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

The statewide vote was seen as a referendum on McGowan’s tough approach to tackling the pandemic.

Thousands of people have gathered in Montreal for a demonstration against Quebec’s coronavirus measures.