Pfizer raises vaccine sales forecast to $36B – latest updates

Tuesday, November 2, 2021 

Pfizer tops Q3 forecasts as total vaccine sales soar

Pfizer Inc. has raised the full-year sales forecast for its vaccine by 7.5 percent to $36 billion, as it signs deals with countries for booster doses and receives clearances for using its shots in children.

The company had in July forecast sales of $33.5 billion from the vaccine it sells with BioNTech.

Turkey: No plans to vaccinate children under 12

Turkey is not considering vaccinating children under 12 years old, the country's top public health official has said.

"I can say that vaccinating children under the age of 12 is not on our agenda," Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters at parliament in the capital Ankara.

Koca reiterated that random PCR testing in schools continued. The measure had started in pilot schools as part of coronavirus measures introduced after the resumption of in-person classes in September.

Noting that surveys showed that the positive-test rate was "not very high" in school-age children, as opposed to the general population, he assured that "there is nothing to worry about it."

UK reports over 33,800 further cases

Britain has reported a further 293 deaths within 28 days of a positive test and 33,865 more cases, according to official data.

The number of deaths is the highest since March, although a note said that two days' worth of deaths data from England may be included in the figure as daily numbers were not received from the National Health Service in England.

Greece tightens measures for non-vaccinated

Greece has reported 6,700 new infections in the preceding 24 hours, breaking a previous single-day record of 5,449 that was recorded on Monday.

Health officials announced tighter measures for the non-vaccinated and heavier fines for non-compliance in response to a surge in cases.

From Saturday, anyone who has not been vaccinated against the virus will need to provide a negative test before they can enter public buildings, shops and banks, the Health Ministry announced.

Italy reports over 2,800 new cases

Italy has reported 41 deaths, against 20 the day before, the Health Ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 2,834 from 2,818.

Italy has registered 132,161 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.78 million cases to date.

AstraZeneca increases vaccine supply to Thailand after row

AstraZeneca Plc has provided Thailand 10.5 million doses of its vaccine last month, the firm said months after an official said the government was considering curbing exports from its local plant because of lower supplies.

Thailand had been pushing for 10 million doses each month to be able to fight back against infections in the country of about 66 million people.

Russia's daily death toll rises to new record high

Russia's daily Covid-19 death toll rose to a record high of 1,178 amid a surge that has forced officials to re-impose a partial lockdown nationwide.

The government coronavirus task force also reported 39,008 new infections in the last 24 hours, including 5,736 in Moscow. 

More than 8.5 million infections have been recorded in the country of 146 million during the pandemic. 

Russia's official Covid-19 death count stands at almost 241,000, the largest in Europe and fourth-highest in the world behind the United States, Brazil, and India.

Shortage of intensive care beds in Romania

Romania reported record numbers of daily coronavirus deaths, and there were no available intensive care beds across the European Union's second-least vaccinated state.

New infections in the preceding 24 hours topped 11,000 but down from a peak seen in October, while 591 people died of the virus, preliminary official data showed.

The pandemic has killed 48,664 people in the country so far.

Cambodia achieves 10M vaccination target

Cambodia said it has achieved its target of vaccinating 10 million people against Covid-19.

The vaccination drive in the Southeast Asian country has “reached 100.05 percent of the targeted 10 million people above 18 years of age,” said a statement by the prime minister’s office.

It added that 97.93 percent of some 1.83 million people under the age of 18 have been covered, along with 101.46 percent of around 1.89 million under-12s, and 8.81 percent of about 304,300 kids under the age of 5.

India's daily cases fall below 10,500

India's daily Covid-19 cases fell below 10,500, the country's Health Ministry has said.

There were 10,423 new infections registered in the past 24 hours, the lowest in 259 days.

The ministry said 15,021 recoveries were also reported during the same period.

As of Tuesday morning, the country’s confirmed infections totalled 34.29 million, while the death t oll stood at 458,880.

While India is seeing a decline in new cases in most parts of the country, there are fears that cases may rise due to the festival season as many areas are witnessing gatherings and events.

Pakistan records lowest single-day cases

In an indication of a dwindling fourth wave of coronavirus, Pakistan logged slightly more than 450 new infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest single-day tally since October last year, the country's Health Ministry has said.

The daily tally had fallen below 500 last year in October.

With 457 new cases, the country's overall caseload has reached 1,273,560, with 1,222,559 recoveries.

Another 10 people lost their lives due to the coronavirus, raising the death toll to 28,456.

According to the Health Ministry, some 70 million citizens have taken at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine - of them 40 million are fully vaccinated.

Restrictions in Sydney to ease weeks ahead of schedule

Australia's biggest city will lift more Covid-19 curbs for vaccinated residents ahead of schedule next week, while delaying freedoms it has promised for unvaccinated Sydneysiders as officials aim to boost inoculations.

Vaccinated people in the harbour city of around 5 million will be allowed unlimited numbers of guests in their homes from November 8.

Pubs and clubs will also be able to accommodate more guests and reopen dance floors, in changes that were initially planned to come into force on December 1.

Mexico reports additional 99 deaths

Mexico's health ministry reported 99 more confirmed coronavirus fatalities, bringing the country's overall death toll from the pandemic to 288,464.

Officials have said the ministry's figures likely represent a significant undercount of both cases and deaths.

Brazil registers 98 fatalities

Brazil registered 98 new deaths, according to data released by the Health Ministry, the lowest daily number since April 2020.

The Health Ministry also reported 3,838 additional confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Brazil has reported 607,922 deaths due to the virus, the world's second highest tally behind only the United States.

White House says 15M shots will roll out to children by next week

The United States is rolling out Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 this week, but most of the 15 million shots being shipped initially are unlikely to be available before next week, the White House said.

Millions of doses specifically formulated for children of that age group will start arriving at distribution centres over the next few days, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said, and the federal government has purchased enough supply for all eligible 28 million children.