Health News at Your Fingertips

Some of the world’s wealthiest countries are promising to share coronavirus vaccines with the poorest, but details of when and how many remain scarce as leaders of the Group of Seven economic powers hold their first meeting of 2021 on Friday, AP reports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, which holds the G-7 presidency this year, is meeting virtually with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and the United States. The leaders, joined by top European Union officials, will discuss international challenges – chief among them the pandemic that has killed almost 2.5 million people around the world.

Johnson, whose country has had almost 120,000 coronavirus deaths, will hail the speed with which vaccines have been developed against Covid-19 in less than a year, and announce a push to cut the time needed to create new ones to 100 days.

The British government said Johnson will ask UK Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance to work with the World Health Organization and others on “speeding up the process for developing vaccines, treatments and tests for common pathogens.”

“The development of viable coronavirus vaccines offers the tantalising prospect of a return to normality, but we must not rest on our laurels,” Johnson said in comments released by his 10 Downing Street office.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• Africa’s death toll passed 100,000. 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.
• Japan finds new strain, immigration centre reports infections. 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.
• Rich nations stockpiling a billion more shots than needed. 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.
• Weekly Covid infections worldwide fell to their lowest figure since October Reported daily coronavirus infections have been falling across the world for a month and on Tuesday hit their lowest since mid-October, figures that suggest the seasonality of the virus show.Reuters: But optimism over a way out of the crisis has been tempered by new variants of the virus, raising fears about the efficacy of vaccines.
• Hong Kong to start vaccinations next week. 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.
• New Zealand confirmed one new local case. New Zealand confirmed one new locally transmitted case of coronavirus on Friday, which was linked to the existing cluster in its biggest city Auckland. The new case was a household contact of some of the previously reported cases, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. It also said there were three new cases in managed isolation facilities at the border.
• An Australian family tested positive to Covid a day after state emerges from lockdown. Three members of a family from the Australian state of Victoria, two of whom quarantined at the Melbourne airport Holiday Inn, have tested positive to coronavirus a day after the state’s five-day lockdown was lifted.
• Fauci said he hopes for return to normal by Christmas. TopUS infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said that a post-pandemic return to “normal” could come by the end of the year, aligning his forecast with a Christmas target US President Joe Biden set earlier this week. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), had guided Americans to the long-sought return to something approaching normal life in the early Autumn.
• China donated 200,000 Covid jabs to Algeria. Beijing will gift Algeria 200,000 Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines, the Chinese ambassador to Algiers said Thursday, boosting supplies in the North African nation, AFP reports.Ambassador Li Lianhe told the official APS news agency that Beijing will “continue to provide the support and necessary backing” Algeria needs.
• Israel extended its coronavirus border closure to 6 March. Israel said Thursday it will extend the closure of its airports and land borders for 14 more days in a bid to stem the coronavirus pandemic. A joint statement from the prime minister’s office and the health minister said the country’s borders will remain closed until March 6, except for urgent reasons. Israel had suspended international flights on January 24, before also closing the border crossings with Jordan and Egypt.
• An Israeli study found the Pfizer vaccine 85% effective after first shot. 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.
• Fifth of Australians say they are unlikely to get vaccine. More than one in five Australians say they will “probably” or “definitely” not be vaccinated against coronavirus, with the spike in vaccine hesitancy potentially spelling trouble for the rollout.

Japan will receive its second shipment of coronavirus vaccines on Sunday, vaccine programme chief Taro Kono said, according to news agency Jiji Press.

Japan launched its inoculation drive on Wednesday, giving medical personnel the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine. It is the last of the Group of Seven grouping of industrialised nations to begin vaccinations.

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.