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by Nina Larson and Robin Millard, with AFP bureaus Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Two Chinese coronavirus jabs are safe and effective, WHO experts said Wednesday after reviewing partial data, providing a potential boost to countries from Australia to Europe struggling to roll out vaccines fast enough. Fewer than 600 million jabs have been given out across the world, three months after vaccination programmes began in earnest in Western countries and leaders […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s health ministry announced Tuesday that it was extending the roll-out of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to the over-65s, after recent scientific reassurances about its safety. The vaccine, restricted until now to the 55-to-65 age group, will now be made available to over-65s in priority groups such as health workers, police officers or teachers. “In respect of the AstraZeneca vaccine, given the new scientific evidence … the age limit is raised,” […]
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 […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil set a new daily Covid-19 death toll record of 3,650 on Friday, the health ministry said, as the pandemic spins out of control in Latin America’s largest economy. Since February, Brazil has seen record after record in fatalities and new cases of infection as the country second hardest hit anywhere in the world, after the United States, with more than 307,000 dead from the pandemic. It broke through the […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — California will make all adults eligible for Covid-19 vaccines from April 15, Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday, as supply restrictions ease in the most populous US state. The announcement means California — home to some 40 million residents — will offer access to all over-16s some two weeks ahead of President Joe Biden’s May 1 deadline. “With vaccine supply increasing and by expanding eligibility to more Californians, the light […]
by Issam Ahmed and Lucie Aubourg Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Drugmaker Moderna says it has started Covid-19 vaccine trials for thousands of children aged under 12, a first step towards a new phase of the immunization campaign experts say might be necessary to stamp out the pandemic. While children are generally spared the worst of the disease, under-18s account for roughly a fifth of the US population of 330 million, […]
by Jerome Cartillier and Shaun Tandon WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden on Thursday promised 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine would be administered in his first 100 days in office, doubling his initial goal, as he said at his first news conference that he intended to seek another term. Biden also said the United States would likely miss a May 1 deadline set by former president Donald Trump to pull all […]
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 […]
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 […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s drug authority has approved for clinical trials an inhaled Covid-19 vaccine co-developed by domestic firm CanSino Biologics, the company said in a filing on Tuesday. The move comes after the National Medical Products Administration gave another CanSino vaccine conditional approval last month, allowing it for public use. China currently has five coronavirus vaccines that have been given conditional market approval or allowed for emergency use, but none of these […]
