EU drug agency: 'no indication' AstraZeneca causes clots – latest updates

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

EMA: No indication AstraZeneca shot caused clots

The head of the European Medicines Agency says there is “no indication” that AstraZeneca vaccines are the cause of blood clots reported in some shot recipients. Those reports led several European countries to suspend use of the vaccine.

Emer Cooke said that the agency is “firmly convinced” that the benefits of the AstraZeneca shot outweigh the risks, but an evaluation is ongoing.

Cooke said experts are meeting this week to discuss the available information and will make a recommendation Thursday.

Turkey logs 16,749 new cases, highest daily rise this year

Turkey has recorded 16,749 new cases in the space of 24 hours, the highest daily increase this year, health ministry data showed.

Turkey has recorded a total of 2,911,642 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, the data showed, while 71 people have died in the the last 24 hours, raising the cumulative death toll to 29,623.

WHO: Report on virus origins delayed a week

A World Health Organization spokesman says a widely expected report by a team of experts who travelled to China to look into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic is “likely” to be pushed back until next week.

Spokesman Christian Lindmeier says the report was “simply not ready” and the team members who have been working with Chinese officials to draft it “want to get it right.”

Italy reports 502 deaths, 20,396 new cases

Italy reported 502 deaths against 354 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 20,396 from 15,267 the day before.

Some 369,375 tests were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 179,015, the health ministry said.

Italy has registered 103,001 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world.

UK reports 110 more deaths

Britain reported 110 more deaths from, taking the total number of people who have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test result to 125,690.

A further 5,294 people tested positive for the disease, while the number of people who have received at least one dose of vaccine rose to 24.840 million from 24.453 million, approaching half the adult population.

Dutch coronavirus infections jumped 24 percent last week

The number of new infections in the Netherlands increased by 24 percent in the week, the biggest weekly jump since mid-December, Dutch health authorities said.

A total 39,527 new cases were confirmed in the country of 17 million people in the past week, taking the total number of patients since the start of the pandemic to almost 1.2 million, with 16,119 related deaths.

South Africa approves Pfizer-BioNTech for emergency use

South Africa's drugs regulator SAHPRA said that it had approved a "section 21" emergency use application for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

SAHPRA added in a statement that the approval was subject to further efficacy and safety surveillance of the vaccine in the country, including monitoring its efficacy against the dominant local variant.

Iceland to open borders to all who have had Covid jab

Iceland is to allow entry to all visitors bearing proof of vaccination against Covid starting Thursday, the health ministry said.

The policy, already in place since January 20 for visitors from anywhere in the passport-free Schengen area, will be extended to all arrivals regardless of their country of origin, the ministry said in a statement.

Customs authorities will accept vaccination certificates from Schengen countries or the World Health Organization's "yellow card".

Iran starts domestic vaccine tests, curbs New Year trips

Iran launched human trials of its third domestic vaccine candidate, as authorities banned travel to 40 cities and towns during the Iranian New Year holidays.

Iran, a coronavirus epicenter in the Middle East, is developing several vaccines, including one in cooperation with Cuba, to help it fight the pandemic despite US sanctions interfering with its ability to import vaccines.

The new vaccine has been named Fakhra in honour of assassinated nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who headed a Defence Minis try research body which helped develop the drug, according to state media.

WHO experts to meet on AstraZeneca shot as virus cases surge

WHO safety experts are preparing to meet over the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine whose rollout has been halted in several European countries over blood clot fears, imperilling the pandemic fight as infection rates surge.

The three largest EU nations, Germany, Italy and France, joined others in suspending the shot Monday, dealing a blow to the global immunisation campaign against a disease that has killed more than 2.6 million people.

The World Health Organization, AstraZeneca, and the European Medicines Agency have insisted the shot is safe, and that there is no link between the vaccine and reported blood clots.

Manila orders anyone below 18 to stay indoors

The Philippine capital Manila will widen a ban on minors leaving their residences to include youths of up to 18 years old for two weeks starting, tightening restrictions in a bid to tackle a new surge of infections.

Only those aged 18-65 years old will be allowed out of their homes, the Metro Manila Development Authority said in a statement, citing an agreement among mayors.

Roche launches variant test to help monitor mutations

Roche is launching a SARS-CoV-2 variant test to help monitor emerging coronavirus mutations, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group has said. The test runs on widely used high-throughput systems and is for research purposes only.

"Periodic assessments against emerging variants have shown that Roche’s current diagnostic tests for detecting active SARS-CoV-2 infections remain accurate and effective," it said. 

New variant found in French region of Brittany

 A new variant has been found in the French region of Brittany, said the French Health Ministry in a statement, adding that initial analysis did not show this new variant to be more serious or transmissible than others.

The ministry said the new variant had been found in a cluster of cases in a hospital centre in Lannion.

German cases are growing exponentially again

German infections are again spreading exponentially, up 20 percent in the last week, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases has said.

"We are exactly on the flank of the third wave. That can no longer be disputed. And at this point we have eased the restrictions and that is speeding up the exponential growth," RKI epidemiologist Dirk Brockmann told German ARD television. 

Cambodia reports daily record as outbreak spreads

Cambodia has reported a daily record 105 new cases, as a rare outbreak spread further and authorities urged people not to travel between regions amid a sharp rise in infections.

Although Cambodia has recorded among the fewest number of confirmed cases in Asia, its 1,430 infections are nearly triple the number of a month ago, when its latest outbreak was first detected.

India widens curbs as infections top 20,000 for 6th day

India has reported 24,492 new coronavirus cases, the sixth straight day of more than 20,000 infections, as curbs to try to stop the spread of Covid-19 were expanded in parts of the country that have recorded a surge.

Total cases have now risen to 11.41 million, the highest in the world after the United States and Brazil. Deaths increased by 131 to 158,856 in the past 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed.

Japan PM Suga gets first dose of vaccine

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga received his first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in preparation for a meeting with US President Joe Biden next month, becoming the country's first government official to be publicly inoculated.

Some 80 to 90 officials will be vaccinated before heading to the United States early next month, where Suga will become the first world leader to meet Biden since he became president.

Thai PM gets first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha became the first person to be inoculated with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in the Southeast Asian country after the rollout had been temporarily put on hold over safety concerns.

Prayuth and other cabinet members had been initially due to get their vaccine shots on Friday, before Thailand suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports it could cause blood clots prompted a number of European countries to hit pause.

Venezuela will not authorise AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

Venezuela has announced that it would not authorise AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, as the three largest European countries suspended their rollouts of the jab.

"Venezuela will not authorise the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the process of immunizing our population due to complications" in vaccinated patients, vice president Delcy Rodriguez said on public television.

'Most discriminatory crisis' - UN Women

The head of UN Women called the Covid-19 pandemic “the most discriminatory crisis” that women and girls have ever experienced, pointing to women losing jobs far more often than men, a “shadow pandemic” of domestic violence, and 47 million more women being pushed into living on less than $1.90 a day this year.

Emerging from the pandemic, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the world also faces more orphans and child-headed homes, an increase in child marriage, 59 percent of women reporting having to spend more time on domestic work since the pandemic began, and a digital gender gap leaving many women unprepared for the future.

She spoke at the opening of the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women whose theme this year is on women's participation and decision-making in public life and combatting violence against women and girls.

Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director of the U.N. women’s agency, said the World Health Organization’s latest report shows that the highest rates of intimate partner violence in the past 12 months – 16 percent – was against young women aged 15 to 24.

Latvia, Slovenia suspend use of AstraZeneca

Latvia and Slovenia said on Monday they were joining other European nations in suspending use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab as a precaution over blood clot fears.

Latvia's "health authorities are asking doctors not to use the opened vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine and not to open new ones," the Baltic state's health agencies said in a joint statement.

Slovenia's Health Minister Janez Poklukar said the government had taken the decision in order to "ensure the highest possible level" of safety.

"There is no medical expertise justifying this halt" but it is a preventive measure pending an opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), he said.

Australia to proceed with AstraZeneca

Australia has no plans to halt the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said, as several European countries paused administering the vaccine after reports of possible serious side-effects.

Frydenberg said the European medicines regulator and the World Health Organization (WHO) had confirmed that the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine was effective and safe to use.

"So we will continue to proceed with the vaccine rollout of AstraZeneca," Frydenberg told Sky News.

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus joined several other European nations in temporarily suspending vaccinations with AstraZeneca shots after isolated reports of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet count.

WHO said there have been no documented deaths linked to Covid-19 vaccines and that people should not panic.

Brazil's president changes health minister again

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has announced that he will appoint cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga as health minister, the fourth to hold the post during the pandemic, as the country's health system staggers amid surging Covid-19 cases.

"It was decided now in the afternoon to appoint physician Marcelo Queiroga to the Ministry of Health," Bolsonaro said in a brief meeting with his supporters at the Alvorada presidential palace.

The transition process "should take one or two weeks," he added.

The appointment will be finalised on Tuesday. Bolsonaro made the announcement after meeting with Queiroga, and hours after current health minister Eduardo Pazuello told a press-conference that the president was seeking to replace him to "reorganise" the ministry.

China reports 13 new cases 

China has reported 13 new Covid-19 cases, up from five cases a day earlier, the national health authority has said.

The National Health Commission said in a statement that all of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to seven from nine a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 90,062, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.