Health News at Your Fingertips

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will likely be authorised for emergency use in the US in April, the chief adviser for the country’s vaccine program has said on Wednesday.

Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said recruitment for the British drugmaker’s late-stage US trial is almost complete with over 29,000 participants already enrolled, Reuters reported.

“We project, if everything goes well with readout and emergency use authorisation may be granted somewhere in April,” he said.

It comes after the was approved by the UK medicines regulator this morning, raising hopes that immunisation against Covid-19 could be increased within days.

Elsewhere, in China, health officials are encouraging tens of millions of migrant workers not to travel home during next February’s Lunar New Year holiday, the most important time for family gatherings, to limit coronavirus transmissions.

The measure from the country’s National Health Commission is not a direct travel ban but remains extraordinary because the traditional holiday – know as the world’s greatest annual human migration – is the only time of the year when many workers have the opportunity to travel home to see their families.

The commission said it is encouraging provincial governments to persuade workers to follow the suggestion while taking into account their personal wishes, the Associated Press reported.

It also said workers who stay behind should receive overtime pay for the work they do and be offered other opportunities to take vacation.

China has all but eradicated local transmission of the coronavirus, but authorities remain on high alert over a possible resurgence. Already, schools are scheduled to begin the vacation a week early and tourists have been told not to visit Beijing, the capital, during the holiday.

“Local governments should step up publicity efforts to encourage enterprises and institutions to … guide workers to vacation at their place of work to the extent possible,” the commission said in a notice on its website.

The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival as it is called in China, is traditionally a time when families gather for meals and to visit temple fairs and watch firework displays. For tens of millions of migrant workers, it means traveling long distances by train, plane and bus to their rural hometowns.

Along with discouraging travel, Chinese authorities are also carrying out a campaign to vaccinate 50 million people before the holiday.

And Johnson ends the presser again imploring people to celebrate sensibly tomorrow night “so as not to spread the disease”.

Asked whether further financial support would be available given the widespread severe restrictions, Johnson mentions the extension of the furlough scheme and says loans made available earlier in the pandemic will remain open for application. He then goes on to discuss the difference between the “old variant” and the “new variant”, and says the government is working quickly to roll out the vaccine. So no new financial support then, with many self-employed and unemployed people relying solely on benefits.

Pressed for more detail on what he meant by the possibility of things being “much better” by April, Johnson suggests success would be defined by whether the government deems hospitality venues can reopen, “if the vaccination does have the positive effects we think it can have”.

Van-Tam adds that he does not know if vaccines will reduce transmission, yet, but expresses his hope people will be able to safely “go back to bingo halls and all the rest of it” following mass immunisation. He says he cannot give an assurance that people would not still “pose a hazard” in still being able to pass on the virus.

Johnson says there will be tens of millions of vaccine doses by the end of March and that he doesn’t wish to give specific numbers at the moment. “We are shifting heaven and earth to roll them out as fast as we can,” he says.

Van-Tam warns against “kitchen table mathematics” scaling up the vaccine rollout thus far, as it is likely to rise exponentially.

“Our aim is to get the jab into people’s arms as quickly as the manufacturers can get that vaccine to us,” Powis adds.

Johnson says the government would be making sure Nightingale hospitals are available, but they are not to be used widely immediately.

Powis adds that they are an insurance policy, “our last resort”, and are operational in a few places for various backroom purposes. He says the best way to use NHS staff is through expanding capacity within existing hospitals.

Boris Johnson has been asked by a member of the public what assurance he can provide to businesses on when they can reopen. He cites April as when he is confident “things will be much better” and says he is keen to bring that prospective date forward.

Van-Tam says the vaccine’s protective effect would kick in within 14 to 21 days following the jab and that both vaccines are adjudged to provide high levels of protection after the first dose. He says the second dose is integral; important for longer term protection but the priority is the first dose.

Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, pays tribute to NHS staff and warns that the new variant is fuelling the spiralling cases.

“Its absolutely vital that this year everybody continues to follow the guidance by staying at home and not mixing,” he says, referring to New Years Eve. “Covid loves a crowd so please leave the parties for later in the year.”

The NHS hasn’t seen the impact of transmissions which will have occurred recently during households mixing over the festive period, Van-Tam says, and he implores people to play their part to mitigate “this very dangerous situation”.

And he pleads, see in the new year tomorrow within your own households: “Let’s follow the rules, protect the NHS and together, make 2021 the year we leave this tunnel behind us.”

And he passes over the deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam who goes through slides showing case rates doubled from the fortnight after 10 December.

Johnson leaves the door open for further action on schools in the most affected areas and says all secondary school students will be tested upon their return and regularly thereafter.

He says medical courses and others requiring face to face teaching at universities should be prioritised, suggesting others should not return to campuses.

At this critical moment, with the prospect of freedom within reach, we’ve got to redouble our efforts to contain the virus, Johnson says.

No-one regrets these measures more bitterly than I do, but we must take firm action now, and that’s why we must think very hard about schools … Keeping children in education is a national priority and schools are safe, but we must face reality about the pace of the spread of the new variant.

He reiterates Williamson’s announcements earlier, which you can read below.