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MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia has agreed a deal for more than 60 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to be produced in China from May, the jab’s developer said on Monday. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has financed the development of the vaccine, said it and Shenzhen Yuanxing Gene-tech Co. “have agreed to cooperate on production of over 60 million doses” of Sputnik in China. The RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — An international expert mission to Wuhan has concluded it was very likely that Covid-19 first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak. The intermediate host hypothesis was deemed “likely to very likely”, while the theory that the virus escaped from a lab was seen as “extremely unlikely”, according to the long-awaited report, which AFP obtained a copy […]
PARIS, France (AFP) Paris hospitals are fast approaching saturation point because of snowballing Covid admissions and may be forced to turn patients away, top officials warned Sunday. “There’s a feeling of anger at finding oneself in a situation that will force you to do disaster medicine,” said senior Paris hospitals official Remi Salomon. “In 10 days, 15 days or three weeks we may be overwhelmed,” he told the all-news channel BFMTV, pleading for a new […]
by Nina LARSON Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (WHO) The World Health Organization called Friday for the donation of 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses so every country can start immunising within the first 100 days of 2021, as cases rise worldwide. The UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a rush to secure vaccines had delayed deliveries that Covax, the scheme for getting jabs to poorer nations, had been counting on. “Bilateral deals, […]
by Marc BURLEIGH / Dave CLARK Agence France Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Union warned Thursday that it will ban drugs firms from exporting coronavirus vaccines to the UK and other countries until they make good on their promised deliveries to the bloc. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s stark warning — which could hit UK-based AstraZeneca first — came after a video summit of all 27 EU leaders and stoked fears […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Pfizer said Thursday it had begun clinical trials for its Covid vaccine in children under the age of eleven, an early sign of the next stage of the global immunization campaign. “Together with our partner BioNTech, we have dosed the first healthy children in a global Phase 1/2/3 continuous study to further evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” the company said in a statement […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca on Wednesday revised down by three percentage points the effectiveness of its Covid vaccine after American authorities raised concerns that results reported from its US trial were outdated. The company now says its vaccine is 76 rather than 79 percent effective at preventing any kind of symptomatic Covid. It remains 100 percent effective against severe Covid, it added. The move came after an independent panel of experts […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — 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, research showed Thursday. 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 […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France’s culture minister Roselyne Bachelot has been hospitalized after testing positive for Covid-19 over the weekend, a source close to the minister told AFP on Wednesday. The worsening symptoms for Bachelot, 74, comes after the announcement Monday that her cabinet colleague Elisabeth Borne, the 59-year-old labour minister, had also been hospitalized with the coronavirus. “Her condition is stable and is not worrying,” the source said, adding that Bachelot’s doctor ordered “increased […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong health authorities have ejected a private clinic from the city’s coronavirus vaccination programme after it reportedly recommended the German-made Pfizer/BioNTech shot to patients over the one from China’s Sinovac. The move illustrates the Hong Kong government’s sensitivity to any criticism of the Sinovac vaccine, which has a comparatively lower efficacy rate and was fast-tracked by regulators despite a lack of published data. The city’s health department said […]
by Jordi MIRO Agence France Presse BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s daily Covid-19 death toll soared past 3,000 for the first time Tuesday as the hard-hit country struggled to contain a surge of cases that has pushed many hospitals to breaking point. The health ministry registered a record 3,251 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing Brazil’s overall death toll to nearly 299,000 — second only to the United States. The latest bleak milestone […]
by Dave CLARK Agence France Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Commission will tighten its export guidelines on Wednesday to prevent what it sees as an unfair one-way flow of vaccines, according to a draft seen by AFP. Brussels has been infuriated that Britain has laid claim to vaccines produced at a plant in the Netherlands by AstraZeneca, while the UK-based firm falls short on deliveries promised to the EU. While negotiations with […]
