Updated: Australia urges EU to send one million COVID-19 vaccines for PNG amid fresh outbreak
Updated: 5:30pm (AEDT)Canberra, AustraliaReuters Australia said on Wednesday it will ask the European Union to release one million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to help Papua New Guinea battle a dangerous outbreak that authorities fear could spread to other parts of the region. The request could inflame existing tensions between Canberra and Brussels amid claims […]
Health experts pore over AstraZeneca safety data as Europe reels from vaccine suspensions
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsReuters Global health experts came under increasing pressure on Tuesday to clear up questions over the safety of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot, as Sweden and Latvia joined countries suspending their use in a further blow to Europe’s vaccination rollout. The European Medicines Agency said it was investigating reports of 30 cases of unusual blood […]
“Don’t panic”: WHO says after widespread suspension of AstraZenaca vaccine
Reuters The World Health Organisation on Monday urged countries not to panic as several nations halted the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The WHO appealed to countries not to suspend vaccinations against a disease that has caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide. WHO Director-General Tedros said systems were in place to protect public […]
Australia approves AstraZeneca vaccine, bolstering inoculation program
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia’s medical regulator granted provisional approval for AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, bolstering a national inoculation program it plans to begin rolling out next week. The vaccine boost came as Australia’s second-most populous state neared the likely end of a five-day snap lockdown sparked by a fresh cluster of cases. A person […]
WHO approves AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The World Health Organization on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world. “We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up production,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO […]
“Jury is out” on need for new COVID vaccines, says Oxford’s Pollard; WHO team says COVID may have taken a “convoluted path” to Wuhan
London, UKReuters It is not yet clear whether the world needs a new set of vaccines to fight different variants of the novel coronavirus but scientists are working on new ones so there is no reason for alarm, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said on Tuesday. South Africa has paused a planned rollout […]
Vaccine shock: South Africa halts Astra shot on fears it does not stop mild illness
London, UKReuters South Africa halted the rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccinations after data showed it gave minimal protection against mild infection from one variant, stoking fears of a much longer cat-and-mouse battle with the pathogen. The novel coronavirus has killed 2.3 million people and turned normal life upside down for billions but new variants of […]
COVAX allocates first tranche of 330 million vaccine doses to poor countries
Geneva, Switzerland/London, UKReuters The COVAX vaccine-sharing facility has allocated at least 330 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer countries and will aim to deliver these and many millions more in the first half of 2021, agencies leading the scheme said on Wednesday. Publishing an interim distribution plan, the COVAX Facility said distribution would cover […]
In Europe, enthusiasm over COVID-19 vaccines tempered by talk of protectionism and hoarding
Vilnius, LatviaReuters Europe urged pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday to honour their commitments to supply coronavirus vaccines, as delivery cuts and delays dim hopes of a quick fix to COVID-19 and increase talk of protectionism and hoarding. Countries around the world, anxious to reboot economies and restart travel by the European summer, hailed the rapid development […]
New Zealand confirms first coronavirus case in months; Australia approves vaccine
Wellington, New ZealandReuters New Zealand on Monday confirmed its first case of COVID-19 in the community in months in a 56-year-old woman, but said close contacts of the recently returned traveller had so far tested negative. The woman, who returned to New Zealand on 30th December, had tested positive for the South African strain of […]