A World Health Organization official has said that only public health measures, not vaccines, can prevent a new surge of COVID-19 cases as the first vaccines are administered in Britain.
The UK started rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the first Western country to begin vaccinating its population against infection from the new coronavirus.
Turkey could start administering China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month after analysis for domestic licensing is complete, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has told a national newspaper.
And Japan announces fresh $708bn economic stimulus package to speed up the recovery from the country’s deep coronavirus-driven slump.
Here are the latest updates:
UK’s initial AstraZeneca shots will come from Europe, taskforce says
Britain’s initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will come from Europe rather than a domestic supply chain, the country’s Vaccine Taskforce said.
The “vast, vast, vast majority” – over 80 percent – of the 100 million doses AstraZeneca will produce for the United Kingdom will be made there, Ian McCubbin, manufacturing lead for the Vaccine Taskforce, said, but this year’s first batches will not.
“The initial supply and it’s a little bit of a quirk of the programme actually comes from the Netherlands and Germany,” he told reporters, adding: “But once that’s supplied, which we expect will be all by the end of this year, then the remainder of the supply will be a UK supply chain.”
Study links Japan’s domestic travel campaign to increased COVID-19 symptoms
Researchers in Japan found a higher incidence of COVID-19 symptoms among people who have participated in a domestic travel campaign promoted by the government, suggesting that it is contributing to a spread in the virus.
The findings will make dismal reading for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has defended the travel campaign, saying it was needed to stop many small businesses in the hospitality sector from going bust due to the lack of customers as a result of the virus scare.
High fever was reported by 4.8 percent of users of the Go To Travel campaign compared with 3.7 percent for non-users, according to a preprint of a study that examined data from an internet survey of more than 25,000 adults. Participants also had higher rates of throat pain, cough, headache, and a loss of the sense of taste or smell.
South Korea to buy millions of coronavirus vaccine doses
South Korea said it had signed deals to provide coronavirus vaccines for 44 million people next year but it would not hurry inoculation to allow more time to observe potential side effects.
Its cautious approach comes as the country of almost 52 million people battles surging COVID-19 infections that health authorities say threaten to overwhelm the medical system.
Other countries are moving ahead to grant emergency use approval for the vaccines in a bid to contain virus transmission.
Israel to get initial Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shipment on Thursday: minister
Israel will receive a first shipment of Pfizer Inc coronavirus vaccines and will administer them to the elderly and other high-risk populations, a cabinet minister said.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech last month agreed to provide Israel with 8 million doses of the vaccine, which Britain became the first country to administer.
Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen confirmed media reports that a first batch would be flown to Tel Aviv from Chicago on Thursday.
India may authorise some COVID-19 vaccines in weeks: health secretary
India’s government regulator could grant a license to some developers of COVID-19 vaccines in the next few weeks, the country’s top health official said.
Six vaccines, including Astra Zeneca’s Covidshield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, are in trial stages, Federal health secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a press conference.
Bhushan said Bharat Biotech had sought emergency-use authorization from India’s drug regulator for its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer and Astra Zeneca have already applied for emergency-use authorisation in India.
WHO says immune barrier from vaccines ‘still far off’
A World Health Organization official said that only public health measures, not vaccines, can prevent a new surge of COVID-19 cases.
“Vaccines are a great tool, they will be very helpful, but the effect of the vaccine in providing some kind of immune barrier is still far off,” said Dr. Margaret Harris in response to a question at a Geneva briefing about whether the vaccines would come in time to prevent a third wave of cases in Europe.
“The things that must be done to prevent an increase, an uptick, a surge or whatever you want to call it are the public health measures,” she added.
Japan sends military nurses to Hokkaido to cope with coronavirus: media
Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi ordered the country’s Self Defense Forces to send nurses to a city in northern Hokkaido prefecture that was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, media said.
Kishi ordered the dispatch of two teams of five Self Defense Force nurses to hospitals in the city of Asahikawa, public broadcaster NHK said.
Poland has bought over 60 million COVID-19 vaccine doses: PM
Poland has bought over 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from six producers, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
“We are secured – and now is the time for a great challenge, which is the implementation of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Bio Farma: Interim data for Sinovac vaccine shows up to 97 percent efficacy
Indonesia’s state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma said that interim data on trials it was conducting on vaccines produced by the Chinese company Sinovac showed up to 97 percent efficacy.
“Our clinical trial team found, within one month, that the interim data shows up to 97% for its efficacy,” said Iwan Setiawan, a spokesman for Bio Farma, at a news conference.
He did not elaborate whether the interim result was from a late-stage clinical trial, but another Bio Farma spokesman told the Reuters news agency later that the company is still gathering data on efficacy from ongoing Phase 3 trial.
UK’s Hancock hopes to start lifting COVID curbs from spring
British health minister Matt Hancock said he hoped life would get back to normal from the spring of next year, following the start on Tuesday of the roll-out of a vaccine against coronavirus.
“Because we’ve been able to get this vaccination programme running sooner than anywhere else in the world, we will be able to bring that date forward a bit. I have great hopes for summer 2021 and I hope we can lift restrictions from the spring,” Hancock told the BBC.
Hong Kong to limit dining, close gyms and beauty salons
Hong Kong said the city would once again ban dining in restaurants after 6pm (10:00 GMT) and close all gyms and beauty salons, to curb a rise in coronavirus cases in the densely packed financial hub.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the government would also study additional relief measures for the industries affected by the latest restrictions that take effect on Thursday, having been enforced and lifted repeatedly this year.
“The situation is very worrying. This wave is more complicated and more severe than the last wave. The confirmed cases are widely spread out,” Lam told reporters at a weekly media briefing. “If we don’t control it strictly, there will be bigger risks. This time we will roll out suppressing measures aimed at limiting foot traffic flow on the streets.”
UK minister says he will have the COVID-19 jab when appropriate
British health minister Matt Hancock said that he would have the COVID-19 vaccine when it was appropriate.
“I’m looking forward to having it, I’ll have it when it’s appropriate,” Hancock told LBC radio.
When asked if London would soon be moved into the top tier of coronavirus restrictions, he said that case numbers were going up in parts of London and Londoners should respect current rules.
Fauci warns of post-Christmas COVID-19 surge in the US
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, has warned that the upcoming holiday season may be even worse than Thanksgiving in terms of spreading the coronavirus.
Fauci told CNN that because the traditional Christmas season is an extended period that stretches into New Year’s, the prospects for spreading the virus as people travel “may be even more compounded than what we saw at Thanksgiving.”
After millions ignored expert advice and travelled for the Thanksgiving holiday in November, Fauci anticipated Americans would once again behave recklessly during Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities.
Turkey could start Chinese COVID-19 vaccination this month: report
Turkey could start administering China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month after analysis for domestic licensing is complete, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca was quoted as saying by Sozcu newspaper.
Koca said shipments of Sinovac’s Coronavac vaccine will arrive after December 11. The vaccine, which has been undergoing Phase 3 trials in Turkey and other countries, will need another two weeks of testing and analysis, the paper said.
In November, Turkey signed a contract to buy 50 million doses of Coronavac, to be delivered in batches between December and February.
UK’s Johnson thanks health workers after COVID vaccine launch
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the start of a COVID vaccination programme and thanked health workers, scientists and people who had volunteered for testing.
“We will beat this together,” Johnson said in a message on social media, and urged the public to continue to follow guidance aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
British grandmother is the first person to get Pfizer vaccine outside trial
Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Britain, has become the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outside of a trial following its rapid clinical approval, Reuters reported.
Keenan received the jab at her local hospital in Coventry, central England, on Tuesday morning at 06:31 GMT, a week before she turns 91.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” said Keenan.
India reports lowest daily rise in COVID-19 cases since July
India has reported 26,567 new coronavirus infections, data from the health ministry showed, the lowest daily increase since July 10, according to a Reuters tally.
Daily cases have been falling in India since hitting a peak in September. The country has 9.7 million cases, second-highest caseload in the world after the US.
Deaths rose by 385, the health ministry said, with the total now at 140,958.
Australia’s western state removes quarantine requirements for more travellers
The state of Western Australia has begun allowing travellers from Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) to enter without having to quarantine for the first time in eight months, the latest sign the country is returning to some kind of normalcy.
Passengers on a Qantas flight arrived in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, from Sydney to emotional scenes of families reuniting after months of separation.
The move comes as Australia’s two most populous states have seen little to no new cases in recent weeks, and underscores Australia’s success in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide.
Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 14,054: RKI
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 14,054 to 1,197,709, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases show.
The reported death toll rose by 423 to 19,342, the tally showed.
Japan unveils $708bn in fresh stimulus for COVID-19 recovery
Japan has announced a fresh $708bn economic stimulus package to speed up recovery from the country’s deep coronavirus-driven slump, while targeting investment in new growth areas such as green and digital innovation.
The new package will include about 40 trillion yen ($384.54bn) in direct fiscal spending and initiatives aiming to reduce carbon emissions and boost the adoption of digital technology, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in a meeting with ruling party executives.
Policymakers globally have unleashed a wall of monetary and fiscal stimulus to prevent a deep and prolonged recession as the coronavirus closed international borders and sent millions out of work.
