WHO team wants 'more data' on early Covid cases in China – latest updates

The coronavirus has killed nearly 2.4 million people and infected almost 109 million globally. Here are the virus-related developments for February 13:

Peter Ben Embarek, head of WHO's expert mission to Wuhan, speaks during a press conference in Wuhan, China on February 9, 2021.
AFP

Peter Ben Embarek, head of WHO's expert mission to Wuhan, speaks during a press conference in Wuhan, China on February 9, 2021.

Saturday, February 13, 2021

WHO experts want 'more data' from China on possible early Covid cases

WHO experts have told AFP in an interview that they had not received access to enough raw data while in China probing the pandemic's origins, saying more was needed to detect possible early Covid cases.

Peter Ben Embarek, head of WHO's expert mission to Wuhan, said the team would have been keen to have access to raw data about earlier cases of illnesses, including pneumonia, flu and fever, that could conceivably have been Covid.

"There is a mix of frustration but also a mix of realistic expectations in terms of what is feasible under which time frame," he said, adding he hoped the requested data would be made available going forward.

The four-week WHO mission to China to uncover the origins of the coronavirus wrapped up earlier this week with no conclusive findings.

South Africa to reopen 20 land borders to normal travel next week

South Africa will reopen 20 land border crossings to allow normal travel, lifting restrictions implemented last month to control rising coronavirus infections, the Home Affairs Ministry said.

The ministry said land border points, including those with Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, would reopen after being closed on January 11.

South Africa has recorded the highest number of infections and deaths on the African continent, with more than 1.4 million cases and over 47,000 deaths.

Iran sees risk of fourth wave fed by mutant virus

Iran's health minister has warned of a fourth Covid-19 surge with the possible spread of a mutated virus in the worst-hit country in the Middle East.

President Hassan Rouhani told state television "alarm bells were ringing for a fourth coronavirus wave" as at least nine cities and towns in Iran's southwest were declared high-risk "red" zones after a rise in cases on Friday.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki urged Iranians to avoid gatherings in order "not to turn weddings into funerals" during one of the traditionally most popular wedding months in the country. 

Iran started a vaccination drive on Tuesday, two weeks after declaring there were no "red" cities left in the country.

Italy reports 311 deaths, 13,532 new cases

Italy has reported 311 coronavirus-related deaths against 316 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections dipped to 13,532 from 13,908 reported on Friday.

Some 290,534 tests for Covid-19 were carried out, compared with 305,619 the day before, the ministry said.

Turkey reports over 7,706 new coronavirus cases

Turkey has reported 7,706 additional coronavirus cases, including 671 symptomatic patients, according to the Health Ministry.

The country's case tally passed 2.57 million, while the nationwide death toll reached 27,377, with 93 fatalities over the past day.

Number of daily cases decline in UK

The number of new cases fell to 13,308 in UK, down from 15,144 the day before, while it also recorded 621 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, also a fall from Friday's figure of 758.

Britain reported that 14,556,827 people had received the first shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, putting the country on course to meet its target of reaching the most vulnerable and top priority groups by Monday.

Strain found in Polish mink can pass to humans

A strain of the coronavirus discovered in mink on a farm in northern Poland can be transmitted to humans and vice versa, the agriculture ministry said.

Covid-19 was found in mink in Kartuzy county late last month, in what agriculture officials said was the first such case in Poland, raising fears of costly culls in an industry that counts over 350 farms in the country. 

"Data obtained from the chief sanitary inspectorate and last year's experiences in Denmark and the Netherlands clearly indicate that also in Poland , this virus can spread from mink to humans and vice versa," the ministry said in a statement.

In August, the Netherlands decided to order the closure of more than 100 mink farms after several employees contracted Covid-19.

First vaccines to arrive in Lebanon

As Lebanon prepared to receive its first Covid-19 vaccines, the World Bank said it would closely monitor the inoculation campaign that it has helped finance to ensure the shots go to those most in need.

Lebanese hospitals, which have been hammered over the past year by an acute financial crisis and a massive explosion in the capital, have also faced some of the region's highest coronavirus infection rates.

.In its first operation funding the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines, the World Bank reallocated $34 million from an existing health project in Lebanon to help the country finance its vaccination drive. The bank said it had signed an agreement for the Red Cross to oversee monitoring.

Equatorial Guinea suspends transport links due to lack of virus kits

Equatorial Guinea will suspend air and boat links between its capital Malabo, located on an island, and its mainland due to a lack of Covid testing kits.

On Tuesday, the country imposed a curfew and made coronavirus negative tests obligatory for people wishing to travel between the mainland and the island where Malabo is located.

According to official statistics, there are about 50 new coronavirus cases per week on average. On Friday, the country began administering vaccinations after receiving a donation of 100,000 Chinese-made vaccines from Beijing.

Malaysia reports 3,499 new cases

Malaysia has reported 3,499 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of recorded infections to 261,805.

The health ministry also reported five new deaths, raising total fatalities from the pandemic to 958. 

Oxford University testing vaccine in children

The University of Oxford plans to test its Covid-19 vaccine in children for the first time, becoming the latest vaccine developer to assess whether its coronavirus shot is effective in young people.

The trial seeks to recruit 300 volunteers between the ages of 6 and 17, with up to 240 receiving the Covid-19 vaccine and the remainder a control meningitis vaccine.

Andrew Pollard, chief researcher on the Oxford vaccine trial, says that while most children don’t get severely ill from Covid-19, “it is important to establish the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and young people as some children may benefit from vaccination.’’

China refused to provide WHO team with raw data on early Covid cases

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to a World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, one of the team's investigators said, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

The team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary , said Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious diseases expert who is a member of the team.

Such raw data is known as "line listings", he said, and would typically be anonymised but contain details such as what questions were asked of individual patients, their responses and how their responses were analysed.

A summary of the team's findings could be released as early as next week, the WHO said.

The White House called on China to make available data from the earliest days of the outbreak, saying it has "deep concerns" about the way the findings of the WHO report were communicated.

Portugal extends suspension of Brazil, UK flights

Portugal has extended a suspension of flights to and from Brazil and the UK to March 1, with only humanitarian and repatriation flights allowed, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Passengers allowed to return to Portugal must present a negative Covid-19 test taken a maximum of 72 hours before departure, and quarantine for 14 days upon return, the statement said, measures that have already been in place.

The variant first detected in Britain was first seen in Portugal at the end of last year, as Brazilian variant appeared in the country for the first time on Wednesday.

Lahore tiger cubs could have died of Covid-19

Two 11-week-old white tiger cubs that died in a Pakistani zoo last month appear to have died of Covid-19, officials said.

The cubs died in the Lahore Zoo on January 30, four days after beginning treatment for what officials thought was feline panleukopenia virus, a disease that zoo officials said is common in Pakistan and targets cats' immune system.

But an autopsy found the cubs' lungs were badly damaged and they were suffering from severe infection, with pathologists concluding they died from Covid19 .

WHO says all hypotheses still open in probe into virus origins

All hypotheses are still open in the World Health Organization's search for the origins of Covid-19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says in a briefing

A WHO-led mission in China said this week that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which it considered highly unlikely. The United States has said it will review the mission's findings.

"Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have been discarded. Having spoken with some members of the team, I wish to confirm that all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and study," Tedros said. 

Russia reports 14,861 new cases

Russia has reported 14,861 new cases , including 1,963 in Moscow, taking the national infection tally to 4,057,698 since the pandemic began.

Authorities said 502 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 79,696.

Australian Open goes quiet as lockdown keeps crowds away

Crowds have been gone from the Australian Open because of a five-day hard lockdown imposed by the state government to contain an outbreak of Covid-19 cases.

The first five days of the tournament felt completely different — like a return to pre-pandemic Grand Slam tennis. Sizeable crowds were allowed for the first time in a year, and although attendance was well below previous years, it didn't seem to matter. The grounds felt alive.

The Australian Open was allowed to continue during the lockdown — but without fans.

Australia's Victoria starts snap virus lockdown

Australia's state of Victoria has entered a five-day lockdown as authorities raced to prevent a cluster outbreak sparked by the highly infections UK variant.

One new locally acquired case was confirmed in the past 24 hours, health authorities said, taking the number of cases tied to a quarantine hotel at Melbourne airport to 14 and total active cases in the state to 20.

International flights to Melbourne will be stopped through Wednesday, after five en-route, with about 100 passengers, land on Saturday.

Germany's virus cases rise by 8,354

The number of confirmed cases in Germany increased by 8,354 to 2,328,447. 

The reported death toll rose by 551 to 64,742, the data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

Poland teachers get AstraZeneca jab amid distrust

Many Europeans are desperate for a vaccine, but not necessarily any vaccine.

As Poland began vaccinating teachers under the age of 60 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, some had misgivings about being put in line for a vaccine they believe is less effective than the others.

The government announced earlier this month that the planned delivery of more than a million AstraZeneca doses in Poland meant that teachers under 60 could get their shots sooner since the vaccine would not be given to older adults.

Peru health minister resigns over ex-president's vaccine scandal

Peru's health minister has resigned amid a growing scandal over claims that former President Martin Vizcarra was vaccinated before the jab was available to the public.

Pilar Mazzetti, who had served as the country's minister of health since July last year, has presented her letter of resignation to President Francisco Sagasti, state television network TV Peru reported. The government is yet to formally confirm she is stepping down.

Her successor is due to be sworn in , local media said, and will be the South American nation's fifth health minister since the pandemic first emerged in the country 11 months ago.

Argentina surpasses 50,000 deaths 

Argentina has surpassed 50,000 deaths with over 2 million confirmed cases, according to the Ministry of Health. 

The country's death toll now stands at 50,029.

Argentina registered its first case on March 3, 2020, after a 43-year old man who arrived in the country following a two-week vacation in northern Italy.   

The capital of Buenos Aires and surrounding areas were hard-hit with Covid-19 initially, although the virus spread across the nation, impacting areas with fewer resources, ICU units and health professionals hardest.

Argentina experienced one of the longest coronavirus-lockdowns worldwide. 

On November 6, the government announced the end of the lockdown in Buenos Aires, despite restrictions in some provinces. 

China reports 8 new cases vs 12 a day earlier

China has reported eight new cases in the mainland for February 12, compared to 12 cases a day earlier, the health commission said.

All of the new cases were imported infections, the National Health Commission said in a statement. New asymptomatic infections, which China does not classify as confirmed Covid-19 cases, rose to 14 from eight a day earlier.

China saw a major resurgence of the disease in January, when a cluster emerged in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.

Mexico reports 1,323 new deaths

Mexico's Health Ministry has reported 1,323 new confirmed deaths from Covid-19, bringing its total to 172,557.

The government says the real number of infected people and the death toll in Mexico are both likely significantly higher than reported levels.

Brazil reports 51,546 new cases, 1,288 deaths

Brazil has recorded 51,546 additional confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, along with 1,288 more deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry said.

Brazil has registered more than 9.7 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 237,489, according to ministry data. 

Moderna wants to pack 50 percent more vaccine per vial

US biotech firm Moderna has said that it was seeking clearance with regulators around the world to put 50 percent more coronavirus vaccine into each of its vials as a way to quickly boost current supply levels.

The company issued a statement after The New York Times first reported the US Food and Drug Administration had already cleared it to increase levels by 40 percent.

"In order to better maximize resources as well as maximize opportunities to deliver more doses into each market faster, Moderna has proposed filling vials with up to 15 doses of vaccine versus the previous 10 doses," a spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

The spokesperson added the company was engaging in discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and authorities in other countries, and the increased level of doses wouldn't require different vials to those currently in use.

Citing sources close to the matter, the Times reported that the FDA had agreed to Moderna using 14 doses per vial, compared to the previous 10.

This would require retooling of production lines that would take less than ten weeks, or before the end of April, the newspaper said.

UK ministers in push to boost vaccine uptake

British ministers, health workers and volunteers will be part of a weekend drive to encourage those in the most vulnerable groups to receive a Covid-19 vaccination, as the government nears its first target of delivering shots to top priority groups.

Britain says it is on track to have offered an injection by Monday to everyone who is aged 70 and over, as well as those who are clinically vulnerable, frontline health and social care workers and older adults in care homes.

More than 14 million Britons have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine so far, and uptake stands at around 90 percent but the authorities hope to reach those who have yet to accept one.

Almost 30 government ministers will tour vaccination centres, from sports stadia to cathedrals, to spread the message of the importance of getting a shot.

There are concerns that some groups, such as certain ethnic minorities, are not taking up the vaccine offer to the same extent as the rest of the population.

The government said it will be using vaccination buses, WhatsApp groups and charities to reach vulnerable and under-served groups.

Shortages stymie Brazil vaccination drive

Hard-hit Brazil's drive to vaccinate its population has stumbled this week as a lack of doses forced authorities to slow or halt immunization in several key areas.

Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo state and the northeastern city of Salvador have all run into vaccine shortages, fueling frustration with the government, which already faced criticism for President Jair Bolsonaro's erratic handling of the pandemic.

Brazil got its immunization campaign off to a relatively late start – mid-January – and is now struggling to secure enough vaccine less than a month later.

Rio, Brazil's second most populous city and the one with the highest death toll from the virus – nearly 20,000 – said it had only enough vaccine to last until Saturday.

More than 236,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Brazil, the second-highest death toll worldwide after the United States.

The country has so far obtained around 12 million doses of the vaccines developed by Chinese firm Sinovac and British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca.

Both are two-dose vaccines. More than 4.5 million people in Brazil have received a first dose.

The government says it has deals for a total of 100 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine by the end of August and 210.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of the year, with the next deliveries expected in February and March, respectively.

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said on Thursday he was confident Brazil could vaccinate the entire population of 212 million people by the end of the year.

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