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HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong on Tuesday scrapped a plan to make coronavirus vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers after the proposal sparked an outcry and a diplomatic tussle with the Philippines. Health officials planned to roll out mandatory inoculations for the 370,000 domestic workers in the city, mostly poorly paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia. Those wanting to apply for work visas — or renew their current ones — would need […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO chief took on so-called “vaccine diplomacy” on Monday, slamming countries for using Covid-19 jabs to gain competitive advantage rather than engaging in true cooperation to end the pandemic. “Vaccine diplomacy is not cooperation,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters from the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva. The UN health agency chief’s was responding to a question about allegations that countries such as Russia and China, which have donated large […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US biotech firm Novavax on Monday said it had positive results from preclinical studies of a shot combining its influenza and Covid vaccine candidates. The company said a study, which it has posted to a preprint server and will now undergo peer review, showed that the shot produced strong levels of antibodies against both diseases in ferrets and hamsters. “Despite low rates during the Covid-19 pandemic, influenza remains a significant […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years old. Acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock described the move as a “significant step in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.” “Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from Covid-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New Yorkers will receive free train rides if they get vaccinated against Covid-19 in subway stations, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday as part of a move to speed up immunizations. Big Apple residents will be able to get a shot of the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine in one of six stations that have been selected for a pilot program to run from Wednesday to Sunday. As a […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — A 23-year-old Italian woman was under observation in a hospital in Tuscany after receiving six doses of the Pfizer vaccine in error, news agency AGI reported Monday. The woman was in good condition after receiving fluids and paracetamol following the injection Sunday, AGI reported. Instead of injecting just one dose into the arm of the student, a nurse mistakenly injected the entire vial, the equivalent of six doses. Previous studies […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — An expert committee set up by Norway’s government to evaluate AstraZeneca’s and Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines said on Monday that both should be abandoned over risks of rare but serious side effects. In order to avoid a slowdown of the vaccine rollout the committee recommended that the two jabs should be made available for people on a voluntary basis. The committee’s head Lars Vorland said they did “not recommend […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Covid jab maker BioNTech said Monday it would build a southeast Asia headquarters and manufacturing site in Singapore to produce hundreds of millions of mRNA-based vaccines per year. Construction of the site will start this year, and it could become operational by 2023, the German company said in a statement. “With this planned mRNA production facility, we will increase our overall network capacity and expand our ability to manufacture and deliver […]
(Eagle News) – Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr said that some 1.3 million doses of Pfizer are expected to arrive within the month, with the initial 193,000 initial rollout expected to arrive this week, possibly today, May 10, or tomorrow, May 11. Galvez reported this to President Rodrigo Duterte last week. He said that the Pfizer doses were part of the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility. He said that the country is also […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO chief on Friday implored the G7 to prioritise equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines around the globe, branding the current imbalance morally inadmissible. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the uneven distribution of vaccines among rich and poor nations would not help to end the coronavirus pandemic. “For the G7 now, the most important and the immediate support we need is […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Friday approved the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use — the first Chinese jab to receive the WHO’s green light. The UN health agency signed off on the two-dose vaccine, which is already being deployed in dozens of countries around the world. The WHO has already given emergency use listing to the vaccines being made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, and the […]
by Aishwarya Kumar, with AFP Bureaus NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — New Covid-19 deaths surged past 4,000 for the first time in India on Saturday as it struggled with one of the world’s worst outbreaks, but the global immunization effort was boosted with WHO approval for Chinese firm Sinopharm’s vaccine. And while many Western countries have started easing restrictions thanks to rapid vaccinations, the head of the World Health Organization warned that more countries could […]
