Health News at Your Fingertips

Japan confirmed a new variant of Covid, and an infection cluster emerged at a Tokyo immigration facility, presenting new challenges as the country tries to overcome a third wave of the pandemic.

The new strain appears to have originated overseas but is different from other types that have been found sporadically in Japan, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. It has the E484K mutation on the spike protein of the virus that has been found in other variants, which may undermine the effectiveness of vaccines.

Rich countries are on course to have over a billion more doses of Covid vaccines than they need, leaving poorer nations scrambling for leftover supplies as the world seeks to curb the coronavirus pandemic, a report by anti-poverty campaigners found on Friday.

Reuters: The report looked specifically at contracts with the five leading vaccine makers – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax. It found that to date, the United States, the European Union, Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan have already secured more than 3 billion doses – over a billion more than the 2.06 billion needed to give their entire populations two doses.

US President Joe Biden heads to Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Friday to visit the Pfizer Inc manufacturing plant that is churning out Covid vaccines, as state and local governments across the country clamour for more, Reuters reports.

Biden is due to tour Pfizer’s largest manufacturing site and its only facility in the United States making the Covid vaccine at a time when less than 15% of the U.S. population is vaccinated.

The United States has rolled out ambitious vaccination programs in recent weeks that include large sites capable of putting shots into thousands of arms daily, as well as hospitals and pharmacies. But officials are begging for more doses.

The Biden administration has been working to increase the number of doses it sends out to states, cities and pharmacies every week, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s top medical adviser, said on Tuesday that demand far outpaced supply at the moment.

The White House said earlier this month it was using the Defense Production Act to help Pfizer get additional equipment fast so that it could keep ramping up production. Biden is expected to discuss that initiative – which officials say is starting to pay dividends – with Pfizer executives during his tour.

Pfizer has not yet delivered to the European Union about 10 million vaccine doses that were due in December, EU officials told Reuters.

Jeff Williams, mayor of Arlington, Texas, who met with Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in recent weeks, said his city of 400,000 was ready to vaccinate 40,000 people a day but only had enough supply to administer 3,000 doses.

Thailand on Friday reported 130 new coronavirus cases, taking its total infections to 25,241.

One additional death was confirmed, taking fatalities to 83 overall, the country’s Covid taskforce said at a briefing.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 9,113 to 2,369,719, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.

The reported death toll rose by 508 to 67,206, the tally showed.

Hong Kong will start its public free vaccination program next week, after authorising emergency use of the Chinese vaccine, Sinovac. Online reservation for the voluntary vaccinations will open on 23 February, with vaccination starting from 26 February.

Prioritised groups include people aged 60 or above, people who live or work at care facilities. and people with chronic medical problems aged between 16 and 59 years old.

The first million doses of Sinovac are expected to arrive in Hong Kong today, the Hong Kong secretary for food and health said on Thursday.
Hong Kong already gave the nod last month to the emergency use of an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine developed by Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, and the first one million doses are expected to arrive in late February.

Oh Thursday the chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, said on Facebook she would receive the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech.

After more than two months of tight restrictions amid one of the city’s worst outbreaks of the pandemic, Hong Kong has lately relaxed its social distancing rules. Residents can dine in the restaurant and go to cinemas again. But Lam pleaded with public on Facebook: “please do not relax your vigilance against the epidemic, and take adequate personal protective measures.”

Africa’s reported Covid death toll surpassed 100,000 on Friday, a fraction of those reported on other continents but rising fast as a second wave of infections overwhelms hospitals.

The continent’s reported deaths, at 100,354, compare favourably with North America, which has registered more than half a million, and Europe, which is approaching 900,000, a Reuters tally shows.

But deaths are rising sharply across Africa, driven by its southern region, especially economic powerhouse South Africa, which accounts for nearly half. South Africa was ravaged by a second wave caused by a more contagious variant that has jammed up casualty wards.

“The increased number (of infections) has led to many severe cases and some of the countries really found it quite difficult to cope,” Richard Mihigo, coordinator of the immunisation programme at the World Health Organization’s Africa office, told Reuters.

The first dose of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine is 85% effective, a study of healthcare workers at an Israeli hospital has found, potentially fuelling a debate over the recommended two-dose schedule as governments try to stretch out supplies, Reuters reports.

The Sheba Medical Center’s findings compare with overall efficacy of around 95% in a two dose regimen 21 days apart for the shot developed with Germany’s BioNTech.

The Sheba study, to be published in The Lancet medical journal, comes a day after Canadian researchers suggested that the second Pfizer dose be delayed given the high level of protection from the first shot in order to increase the number of people getting vaccinated.

Their research showed efficacy of 92.6% after the first dose, based on an analysis of the documents submitted by the drugmaker from its late-stage human trials to the US Food and Drug Administration in December.

The FDA said in December data from those trials showed that the vaccine began conferring some protection to recipients before they received the second shot, but more data would be needed to assess the potential of a single-dose shot.

Pfizer has said alternative dosing regimens of the vaccine have not been evaluated yet and that the decision resided with the health authorities.