Pfizer, BioNTech launch vaccine trial in kids under 12 – latest updates

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Pfizer, BioNTech launch vaccine trial in kids under 12

Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE have begun testing their vaccine in children under 12, with hopes of expanding vaccination to that age range by early 2022, the US drugmaker said.

The first volunteers in the early-stage trial were given their first injections on Wednesday, Pfizer spokesperson Sharon Castillo said.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorised by US regulators in late December for people age 16 and older. 

Nearly 66 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in the United States as of Wednesday morning, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biden aims for 200M vaccine doses in first 100 days

President Joe Biden has launched a new goal of administering 200 million doses of vaccine in the United States within his first 100 days in office, double his original pledge.

"Today I'm setting a second goal, and that is, we will by my 100th day in office have administered 200 million shots in people's arms," Biden told reporters in his first press conference since taking office on January 20.

"I know it's ambitious, twice our original goal," he added. "But no other country in the world has even come close — not even close — to what we are doing, and I believe we can do it."

AstraZeneca says vaccine 76 percent effective in new analysis

AstraZeneca has said its vaccine was 76 percent effective in a new analysis of its US trial — only slightly lower than the level in an earlier report this week criticised for using outdated data.

Interim data published on Monday had put the vaccine's efficacy rate at 79 percent but had not included more recent infections, leading to a highly unusual public rebuke from US health officials.

The small revision to the efficacy rate will go a long way to putting the vaccine back on track for gaining US emergency use authorisation — which it plans to seek in the coming weeks — and help AstraZeneca in its efforts to dispel doubts about its effectiveness and side-effects, independent experts said.

France puts region around Lyon under tighter restrictions

Three additional French regions including the Rhone department around the city of Lyon will be put under tightened restrictions for four weeks from Friday, the government has announced.

The move follows similar measures imposed a week earlier on the Paris region and a large part of northern France, where most non-essential stores have been ordered to close and people are limited in how far they can travel from their homes.

The new restrictions take effect from Friday at midnight.

US gives Palestinians $15M for virus response

The Biden administration will give the Palestinians $15 million to aid in their response in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the US State Department has said in a statement.

The funds from the US Agency for International Development would help support efforts by the Catholic Relief Services in healthcare facilities as well as address food insecurity, the statement said.

Bahrain says it has dealt with prison outbreak

Bahraini authorities has said a number of cases discovered in a prison earlier this week had been isolated and the individuals concerned were stable.

Western-allied Bahrain has come under pressure from human rights organisations over prison conditions including overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of medical care.

Hundreds of opposition politicians, activists, journalists and human rights defenders are in prison following an uprising in 2011 and subsequent years of government crackdowns.

Italy reports over 23,600 new cases

Italy has reported 460 deaths against 460 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 23,696 from 21,267 the day before.

Italy has registered 106,799 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. 

The country has reported 3.46 million cases to date.

Germany's Merkel defends decision to procure vaccines via EU

Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her government's decision to procure coronavirus vaccines jointly with other European Union member states, saying a failure to do so would shake the bloc to its core.

"Despite all the complaints, it was right to rely on the joint procurement and approval of vaccines by the European Union," she told German lawmakers ahead of an EU summit.

"Now that we see even small differences in the distribution of vaccines cause big discussions, I would not like to imagine if some member states had vaccines and others did not. That would shake the internal market to its core," she said.

China administers 85.9 million vaccine doses by March 24

China has administered 85.86 million doses of virus vaccines in the country as of Wednesday, the National Health Commission said.

That compares with around 82.85 million doses given as of Tuesday, up approximately 3.0 million doses. 

Russia starts large-scale trials of third vaccine

Russia's Chumakov Center has started phase three trials of CoviVac, Russia's third vaccine against Covid-19, the Interfax news agency cited a government minister as saying.

The most well known Russian coronavirus vaccine is Sputnik V. 

Moscow has also given emergency approval to two others, EpiVacCorona and CoviVac. 

Belarus starts mass production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine

Belarus' health ministry has said the country had started mass producing Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and planned to produce up to 500,000 doses of the shot per month. 

Sri Lanka to buy 7 million Sputnik V doses

Sri Lanka has decided to purchase 7 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

The government says it will pay $69.65 million for the shots.

Sri Lanka aims to inoculate 14 million people out of the population of 22 million. So far, over 850,000 people have received their shots using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Sri Lanka has received 1.2 million AstraZeneca doses out of at least 10 million it plans to purchase for $52.5 million. It has also approved China's Sinopharm shots.

Of the 1.2 million doses, Sri Lanka got 500,000 as a donation from India and bought another 500,000. The other 264,000 came through the COVAX facility.

US needs to boost vaccine efforts in LatAm, Caribbean

The chief of the Organization of American States has called on Washington to boost its efforts to deliver virus vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Luis Almagro appeared before a hearing of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, urging the United States to collaborate with its neighbours on vaccination efforts, as Russia and China have already made promises to the region. 

"The recent US commitment to support its immediate neighbours' access vaccines is a welcome start," Almagro said.

Philippines reports record high 8,773 new infections

The Philippine health ministry has recorded 8,773 new coronavirus cases, its highest single-day increase, as the country battles a surge in new infections.

The ministry said total confirmed cases have increased to 693,048, while deaths reached 13,095, after 56 additional fatalities reported.

A third of Danes wouldn't accept AstraZeneca shot - survey

One in three Danes would decline to get a Covid-19 shot using AstraZeneca's vaccine, local media outlets TV 2 and Politiken reported late on Wednesday, citing a recent survey.

Two weeks ago, Denmark was among the first countries in Europe to temporarily suspend the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine due to a small number of reported cases of rare brain blood clots, registered both in Denmark and elsewhere.

The survey, conducted by Megafon among 1053 persons, showed 33 percent of Danes would decline to get a shot with AstraZeneca's vaccine, however. Only 7 percent would decline regardless of which vaccine, they were offered.

CanSinoBIO offers tens of millions of vaccine doses to COVAX 

China's CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) has proposed supplying "tens of million of doses" of its single-dose virus vaccine to global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX, a senior company executive said.

China has four locally developed virus vaccines approved for public use and pledged earlier to supply 10 million doses to COVAX without specifying the time frame of delivery. CanSinoBIO, Sinovac Biotech Ltd and China National Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (Sinopharm) have applied to join the initiative.

Pierre Morgon, senior vice president at CanSinoBIO, said the firm made the proposal in December to supply vaccines between late 2021 and the end of 2022.

"We are happy to go beyond 2022 if there was still an expectation to do so," he told Reuters in an interview, adding it made its offer at a middle single digit US dollar per dose.

More than half of Israelis receive both vaccine doses

Israel has administered two doses of Covid-19 vaccine to more than half its 9.3 million population, its health minister said, a rapid roll-out that has helped the country begin emerging from pandemic closures.

Distribution of Pfizer Inc's vaccine in Israel began in December, with eligibility extended to citizens and residents over 16. People who receive it are deemed fully protected a week after the second shot.

In a statement announcing the milestone amid a sustained drop in new virus cases, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein called on citizens "to follow (health) guidelines so that the coronavirus does not return".

Cuomo gave family members special access to Covid-19 tests

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave family members, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, special access to state-administered Covid-19 tests in the early days of the pandemic, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, faces bipartisan calls to resign over accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct from at least eight women and disclosures that his administration under-reported nursing home deaths from the pandemic.

The 63-year-old third-term governor has denied the allegations and repeatedly said he would not resign.

Ukraine daily cases, deaths rise to records

Ukraine has registered a record daily high of 16,669 new virus cases over the past 24 hours, health minister Maksym Stepanov said.

The previous high of 16,294 cases was on November 28.

Stepanov said in Facebook post a record 363 coronavirus-related deaths were registered over Wednesday, exceeding the previous high of 342 cases on Tuesday.

The country of 41 million people has been hit by a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks that Prime Minister Denys Shmygal has described as a third wave of the pandemic.

Ukraine has reported 1,596,575 virus cases during the course of the pandemic and 31,135 deaths.

Hungary flags delay in reopening of schools as virus cases surge

Hungary's planned reopening of schools and kindergartens on April 7 now appears "optimistic", Zoltan Maruzsa, a state secretary in charge of education, said in a newspaper interview.

Hungary's hospitals are under "extraordinary" pressure from rising coronavirus infections, its surgeon general said on Wednesday, as the country became a hotspot in the third wave of a pandemic that has hit Central Europe especially hard.

India's daily infections rise to five-month high

India has added 53,476 Covid-19 infections overnight, the highest daily rise since October 23, the health ministry data showed.

India has 11.8 million virus cases, the third-highest amount behind the United States and Brazil.

The country reported 251 new deaths, taking the overall tally to 160,692, the data showed. 

Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 22,657

The number of confirmed virus cases in Germany has increased by 22,657 to 2,713,180, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 228 to 75,440, the tally showed. 

Philippine leader orders mayors investigated

The Philippine president has ordered at least nine city and town mayors investigated for possible charges after they reportedly jumped ahead of a priority list led by 1.7 million health workers and got injected with a Covid19 vaccine amid a shortage in supply.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in a televised meeting with key Cabinet members that aside from the mayors, the son of an actress also got immunised. He expressed fears that the Philippines may lose the chance to get more donated vaccines arranged by the World Health Organization if its conditions would continue to be violated.

Covid-hit Papua New Guinea shuts border used by Indigenous groups

Papua New Guinea has ordered the snap closure of borders used by Indigenous groups to cross to and from Australia, as fears grew about the spread of Covid-19 to remote communities.

Police Commissioner David Manning said travel between small islands that straddle the two countries' maritime border in the Torres Strait would be closed "with immediate effect."

Under a 1978 agreement, Indigenous inhabitants of the islands can pass between Australia and Papua New Guinea without passports or visas.

UK could add France to 'red list' over variants

Britain could shortly place France on a travel "red list" and tighten Channel border controls due to the risk of new coronavirus variants, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

France is struggling with a third wave of cases and expanded virus lockdowns to three more areas including the city of Lyon.

The prevalence in France of cases of South African and Brazilian variants, which are potentially more transmissible, has caused particular concern.

Rapid tests work as well as quarantine for travel -research

Rapid antigen tests on arrival after travel can be just as effective as quarantining to stop imported cases of the virus, according to new research which the travel industry hopes will convince Britain to open up its borders this summer.

Britain currently bans all foreign travel, except for work, education or health reasons. However, the government is to review that next month and possibly allow it from May 17.

But rising levels of virus infections in some European countries and warnings from UK government ministers not to book trips has led to worries that the holiday ban could be extended.

Research commissioned by airlines British Airways-owner IAG , Virgin Atlantic and others found that a single on-arrival antigen test is as effective as a ten-day self-isolation period in reducing imported cases of Covid-19.

Africa's second wave was worse but saw fewer measures

Research has shown that Africa experienced a 30 percent rise in infections in its second wave of coronavirus last year but implemented fewer public health measures than in the first.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, researchers said a loosening of public health measures such as distancing and intermittent lockdowns probably contributed to higher death tolls during the second wave.

The study looked at Covid-19 case, death, recovery and test data carried out across all 55 African Union member states between February 14 and December 31, 2020.

Using publicly available data, it also analysed health control measures such as school closures and travel restrictions.

At the end of 2020, the continent had reported nearly 2.8 million Covid-19 cases – three percent of the global total – and just over 65,000 deaths.

Daily new cases during the first wave numbered 18,273. During the second wave this figure stood at 27,790 – a 30 percent rise.

Canada adds blood clot warning to AstraZeneca's vaccine

Canada's health department has said that it has updated the product label for AstraZeneca Plc's Covid-19 vaccine to provide information on "very rare reports of blood clots associated with low levels of blood platelets."

Health Canada continues to back the vaccine, saying that it had not received any reports of these blood clots to date.

Canada, which is using AstraZeneca doses made at the Serum Institute of India, has received 500,000 doses and expects to get 1.5 million more by May.

Brazil surpasses 300,000 deaths

Brazil's death toll in the coronavirus pandemic has surpassed 300,000, as a deadly surge that has pushed hospitals to the brink made it the second country after the United States to pass the bleak milestone.

A total of 300,685 people in Brazil have now died of Covid-19, the health ministry said, as the country struggled to deal with an explosion of cases blamed on a local variant of the virus that is believed to be more contagious.

Brazil currently has the highest daily death toll in the pandemic by far. It has more than tripled since the start of the year, to an average of 2,273 for the past week.

President Jair Bolsonaro announced earlier he was launching a crisis committee to deal with the pandemic, a change of course amid mounting pressure over a situation he has repeatedly minimised.

France reports 65,373 new confirmed cases

France has reported 65,373 new virus cases, more than four times the number of cases officially registered the previous day, health ministry data showed.

The number of deaths due to the Covid-19 disease was up by 248 over the last 24 hours, totalling 93,180, the ministry said.

China reports 11 new mainland cases

Mainland China has reported 11 new Covid-19 cases, up from 10 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said.

The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 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, rose to 10 from eight cases a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed virus cases in mainland China now stands at 90,136, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.

AstraZeneca vaccine 76 percent effective in updated US trial results

AstraZeneca has said its Covid-19 vaccine was 76 percent effective at preventing symptomatic illness, citing a new analysis of up-to-date results for its major US trial.

US health officials earlier in the week publicly rebuked the drug maker for using "outdated information" when calculating that the vaccine was 79 percent effective.

That marked a new setback for the vaccine that was once hailed as a milestone in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, but has been dogged by questions over its effectiveness and possible side-effects.

AstraZeneca reiterated on Thursday that the shot, developed with Oxford University, was 100 percent effective against severe or critical forms of the disease.

It also said the vaccine showed 86 percent efficacy in adults 65 years and older.

The latest trial data, which has yet to be reviewed by independent researchers or regulators, was based on 190 infections and 32,449 participants in the United States, Chile and Peru. The earlier interim data was based on 141 infections through February 17.

Tokyo Olympic torch relay begins in Fukushima

The torch relay for the postponed Tokyo Olympics has begun its 121-day journey across Japan and is headed toward the opening ceremony in Tokyo on July 23.

The relay began in northeastern Fukushima prefecture, the area that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the meltdown of three nuclear reactors.

About 18,000 died in the tragedy,

The first runner with the torch was Azusa Iwashimizu, a player from the Japan team that won the Women's World Cup in 2011.

The opening ceremony for the start of the relay was held at J-Village, a soccer training site.

The ceremony was closed to the public because of the fear of spreading Covid-19, but was shown on national television.

The relay is a big test for the upcoming Olympics with fear among the public that the event could spread the virus to rural and more isolated parts of the country.

About 10,000 runners are expected to take part, with the relay touching Japan's 47 prefectures.