US considers Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine approval – latest updates

Thursday, December 10, 2020

US considers Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine approval

US experts met to assess whether to grant emergency approval for Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine and allow America to become the next country to move ahead with mass immunisation.

The independent committee of experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a non-binding vote at the end of the day, and the US regulator will determine after that whether to issue an emergency use authorisation (EUA).

The arguments in favour seem to be overwhelming — it has already been green lit by Britain and Canada — and the full results of a huge clinical trial of the vaccine were published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, another major milestone.

Turkey reports over 30,000 new cases

Turkey reported 30,424 more coronavirus infections, including 5,918 symptomatic patients, over the past 24 hours, according to Health Ministry data released Thursday.

The total number of patients reached 564,435 with the latest additions, the data showed.

As many as 5,232 patients recovered over the past day, bringing the tally to 452,593, while the death toll rose to 15,751 with 220 additions.

Across the country, more than 206,000 Covid-19 tests were carried out, pushing the total to over 20.5 million.

The number of patients in critical condition now stands at 5,943, though the rate of increase in severe cases is declining.

The country has reported a total of 1,748,567 Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Health Ministry data.

Italy reports new spike in virus-related deaths

Italy reported a new jump in daily deaths from the novel coronavirus, signalling that the virus is still highly deadly, even though the contagion curve is slowing down.

According to the latest Health Ministry data, daily fatalities stood at 887, almost double from a day before, raising the nationwide death toll to 62,626 – still the highest in Europe after the UK.

While the daily figure is still below the peak of almost 1,000 deaths recorded on December 3 , it rose substantially for the first time in a few days.

Italy also reported 16,999 new cases, up from 12,756 on Wednesday, over a higher number of swab tests performed.

Saudi Arabia approves Pfizer-BioNTech virus vaccine

Saudi Arabia approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech novel coronavirus vaccine, state media reported, becoming the second Gulf country after Bahrain to green-light the drug.

"The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) ... has approved the registration of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," it said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"Health authorities in the kingdom can import and use the vaccine," it added.

The SFDA did not specify when it would begin the rollout of the vaccine by US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Data from by Pfizer/BioNTeh, Moderna for Covid-19 vaccines 'very robust' - EMA

The data submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna for their Covid-19 vaccine candidates is "very robust," its executive director said.

"We have a data set of over 30,000 subjects who have been followed through the clinical trials. This gives us a very robust data set on which to make a decision, both on safety and efficacy," Emer Cooke said at a committee meeting of the European Parliament.

The agency is expected to complete reviews by December 29 for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Jan 12 for the Moderna vaccine at the latest. 

US jobless claims jump to 853,000 amid resurgence of virus

The number of people applying for unemployment aid jumped last week to 853,000, the most since September, evidence that companies are cutting more jobs as new virus cases spiral higher.

The US Labour Department said that the number of applications increased from 716,000 the previous week. Before the coronavirus paralysed the economy in March, weekly jobless claims typically numbered only about 225,000. 

The latest figures coincide with a surging viral outbreak that appears to be weakening the job market and the economy and threatening to derail any recovery. Consumers thus far haven't spent as much this holiday shopping season as they have in previous years, according to credit and debit card data. And in November, employers added jobs at the slowest pace since April. Restaurants, bars and retailers all cut jobs last month.

Russia reports 27,927 new cases, 562 deaths

Russia confirmed 27,927 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the national tally to 2,569,126.

Authorities said 562 people had died overnight, taking the official death toll to 45,280.

Tokyo's daily infections top 600 for first time

The number of new virus infections in Japan’s capital topped 600 in a day for the first time, while experts warned of the increased burden on hospitals.

Tokyo reported 602 new cases, while the daily tally for the entire nation was 2,810. Japan has reported 168,573 infections since the pandemic began, including 2,465 deaths.

The surge in infections has placed an added burden on Tokyo's hospitals, making it harder for many to treat ordinary patients, said Masataka Inokuchi, who is on the city's virus task force.

Infections and deaths in Germany likely to rise 

Virus infections and related deaths in Germany are likely to rise further in the coming weeks, a senior health official at the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI) said.

The current rise in infections is worrying, especially in the federal states of Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, the head of RKI's surveillance unit, Ute Rexroth, said. 

Covid-19 scare aboard Royal Caribbean cruise a false alarm

A passenger who tested positive for Covid-19 aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise from Singapore, forcing the ship to return to dock and hundreds of guests to isolate, has been found not to have the virus, Singapore's Health Ministry said.

"A final confirmatory test ... has confirmed that the 83 year-old male Singaporean on board Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum of the Seas does not have Covid-19 infection," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Australian scientists develop genome sequencing

Australian scientists said they had developed a rapid genome sequencing method that would cut to within four hours the time taken to trace the source of coronavirus cases, helping to quickly contain any future outbreaks.

Genome sequencing can help scientists monitor small changes in the virus at a national or international scale to understand how it is spreading and provide insight into how different cases are linked.

"When a new 'mystery' coronavirus case is identified, every minute counts," Ira Deveson, scientist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said in a report, prepared in collaboration with the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

South Korea scrambles to build container hospital beds to combat third wave

South Korea authorities have scrambled to build hospital beds in shipping containers to ease strains on medical facilities stretched by the latest virus wave, which shows little sign of abating with 682 new cases.

The resurgence of infections has rekindled concerns about an acute shortage of hospital beds, prompting Seoul city to begin installing container beds for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Health authorities plan to step up testing by launching temporary sites at some 150 locations across the greater Seoul area.

Germany's confirmed cases rise by 23,679

The number of virus cases in Germany have increased by 23,679 to 1,242,203, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 440 to 20,372, the tally showed.

Japan to buy 10,500 freezers for vaccines

Japan's Ministry of Health has said it will buy 10,500 deep freezers to store vaccines and is considering purchasing dry ice in bulk as it prepares to protect its population from the virus.

Japan has agreements to buy a total of 290 million doses of the vaccines from Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Inc, or enough for 145 million people if everyone gets two shots as required.

Pfizer's vaccines need to be kept at around minus 75 Celsius (minus 103 Fahrenheit), and Moderna's at about minus 20C (minus 68 Fahrenheit), posing logistics problems.

India’s case level a third of its September peak

India has reported 31,521 newly confirmed virus infections in the past 24 hours, dropping to just over a third of the peak level seen in mid-September.

India’s single-day cases have remained below 50,000 for more than a month.

The health ministry also reported 412 deaths, raising India’s total fatalities to 141,772.

'Vaccine nationalism'

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that “vaccine nationalism” is moving “at full speed.” 

He says that is leaving people in developing nations around the world watching preparations for the rollout of inoculations against the coronavirus in some rich countries and wondering if and when they will be vaccinated.

Guterres repeatedly called for vaccines to be treated as “a global public good” available to everyone on the planet, and appealed Wednesday for $4.2 billion in the next two months for a World Health Organization program to buy and deliver virus vaccines for the world’s poorest people.

Guterres says that “what we’re seeing today is an enormous effort by several countries in order to ensure vaccines for their own populations.”

US reports more than 3,000 cases

The United States has crossed an ominous new threshold of 3,000 lives lost to Covid-19 in a single day while public health officials stepped up preparations for a vaccine campaign of historic scope ahead of imminent regulatory approval.

Steady movement toward a vaccine rollout on the eve of a critical review by leading US medical experts comes as Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations surged alarmingly higher, straining healthcare systems in some pandemic hot spots to the breaking point.

The number of patients hospitalised nationwide grew to a new all-time high of 105,805, up 18% over the previous two weeks.

With close to 16 million cases and 300,000 fatalities, the US has been the country worst-affected by Covid-19.

China reports 12 new cases

Mainland China has reported 12 new Covid-19 cases, down from 15 cases a day earlier, the national health authority said.

The National Health Commission said in a statement 11 of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. The commission said one locally transmitted case was reported in the Inner Mongolia region.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to five from one a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Mainland China now stands at 86,673, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

South Korea sees spike

South Korea has reported 682 new coronavirus cases, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

The daily tally continued to inch closer to 700, a level not seen in nine months, despite stricter social distancing rules.

Mexico's cases bordering 12,000

Mexico's health ministry has reported 11,974 new Covid-19 cases and 781 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,205,229 cases and 111,655 deaths.

The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.