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PARIS, France (AFP) — French Health Minister Olivier Veran on Tuesday defended the country’s staggered rollout of Covid-19 vaccines over the coming weeks, despite calls for making more adults eligible immediately as some doses go unused. Currently people aged 55 and older can get the jab, but several vaccination centres have reported a shortage of candidates and surplus vials in recent weeks. That has prompted some local officials to quietly offer vaccines to all adults […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The European Medicines Agency said Tuesday it has started a “rolling review” of China’s Sinovac coronavirus jab, a process that could lead to eventual approval for the European market. Made by Sinovac’s Beijing-based Life Sciences unit, the vaccine contains an inactivated coronavirus that cannot cause a disease, but helps a person to develop antibodies against the virus. The EMA’s human medicines committee’s “decision to start the rolling review is based […]
LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom (AFP) — Thousands danced without face coverings at a music festival in northern England as the UK government permitted the country’s first post-lockdown gig. A crowd of 5,000 people cheered, danced and sang along to performances from bands including English indie pop act Blossoms at the sold-out event on Sunday at Liverpool’s Sefton Park. The festival was part of a pilot project by the UK government called the Events Research Programme (ERP) […]
by Shaun TANDON LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday asked North Korea to embrace diplomacy as he briefed allies on a new US strategy that stresses low-key progress rather than Donald Trump’s pageantry. In London for the first in-person Group of Seven meetings in two years, Blinken consulted his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on President Joe Biden’s fresh approach which has already been denounced by Pyongyang. “I […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Covax global vaccine equity program has signed an advance purchase agreement with Moderna for 500 million doses of its Covid-19 jabs, the scheme’s co-leaders Gavi announced Monday. “We are very pleased to sign this new agreement with Moderna, giving Covax facility participants access to yet another highly efficacious vaccine,” Seth Berkley, chief executive of the Gavi vaccine alliance, said in a statement. © Agence France-Presse
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Union’s executive on Monday proposed that travellers who are fully vaccinated with EU-approved jabs be able once again to enter the bloc, if they come from countries keeping Covid-19 at bay. “The Commission proposes to allow entry to the EU for non-essential reasons not only for all persons coming from countries with a good epidemiological situation but also all people who have received the last recommended dose of an […]
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Crowds gathered in the capitals of Finland and Sweden on Saturday as hundreds marched in protest over their governments’ measures to limit the spread of Covid-19. A protest in Helsinki that drew around 300 participants resulted in about 50 arrests, Finnish police tweeted. Organisers of the event in the centre of the capital announced there would be only six participants, the current limit on public gatherings due to the pandemic. Those […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK said Sunday it was sending an extra 1,000 oxygen ventilators to Covid-struck India, as a group of doctors staged their own intervention by offering long-distance telemedicine from Britain. British authorities have already sent 495 oxygen concentrators and 200 ventilators to India as the country grapples with a devastating surge in coronavirus cases, and are shipping three larger production units, dubbed oxygen factories. The 1,000 additional ventilators will come […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — BioNTech said Thursday that it expected its Covid-19 vaccine, jointly developed with Pfizer, to be available to 12 to 15-year-olds in Europe from June. The German firm’s CEO Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly that it was “in the final stretches” of preparing its submission for European regulatory approval. The evaluation of the trial data “takes four to six weeks on average”, he added. Vaccinating children is seen as a crucial […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — US pharmaceutical firm Moderna said Thursday it expects to increase global production of its cutting-edge Covid vaccine to up to three billion doses in 2022. The company said in a statement that it would make new funding commitments to increase supply at its manufacturing facilities in Europe and the United States. The investments will double the manufacturing of drug substance at its Swiss partner Lonza and more than double output by […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain announced Wednesday it was sending three oxygen generation units to Covid-struck India following a first consignment of aid this week, but said it had no spare vaccines to offer. The three units, dubbed oxygen factories, are each the size of a shipping container and can produce 500 litres of oxygen per minute, the UK government said. “We stand with our Indian friends in their fight against Covid-19,” Foreign Secretary […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin on Wednesday voiced confidence that the vaccine that his company jointly developed with Pfizer works against the Indian variant of the coronavirus. “We are still testing the Indian variant, but the Indian variant has mutations that we have already tested for and which our vaccine works against, so I am confident,” said Sahin. © Agence France-Presse
