Day: May 30, 2021

South Korean officials announced Sunday that a million doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines would arrive in the country this week from the United States, doubling its earlier pledge.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said the shipment includes vaccines for 550,000 South Korean soldiers, as promised by U.S. President Joe Biden at his summit with President Moon Jae-in.

Authorities in India also said Sunday the country will have almost 120 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for domestic use next month, a significant increase from the 79.4 million available for the month of May.

India has inoculated with two shots only about 3% of its 1.35 billion people.

Meanwhile, Indian health officials reported Sunday the lowest daily rise of infections in 46 days.

In Malaysia, government announced it is planning to open more so-called mega vaccination centers, as the country marked a new daily record of COVID-19 infections.

Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told reporters in a virtual press conference Sunday that the government will set up five other centers around the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and possibly two in the northern state of Penang and in the southern state of Johor.

In Malaysia, a country of 32 million people, almost 6% of the population have been vaccinated, according to the data published by the governmental Special Committee for Ensuring Access to COVID-19 Vaccine Supply on its website.

In Brazil, tens of thousands of people took again to the streets in the capital, Brasilia, and other major cities to protest President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some protesters in Rio de Janeiro marched through the streets, chanting “Bolsonaro genocide” or “Go away Bolsovirus.”

According to the Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll after the U.S., with over 461,000 and 594,300 respectively.

In Europe, France reported that Saturday the number of people in intensive care suffering from COVID-19 fell by 76 to 3,028 and the overall number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 decreased by 425 to 16,847.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, widening the pool of those eligible to be inoculated, following similar approvals in the United States and Canada.

Germany and Italy have already said they are preparing to extend their vaccination campaign to youths ages 12 to 15.

Britain has approved a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. It is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine approved in the country, after inoculations made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna.?

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA – The World Health Organization is asking for 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for African countries to administer second doses to those who have received their first shot.

After three weeks of declining rates of COVID-19 infections in Africa, the World Health Organization is reporting an increase in cases. It says its latest figures of more than 4.7 million cases, including 128,000 deaths indicate a 17% rise over the previous week.

WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says she is concerned, but that it is too soon to tell whether Africa is on the cusp of a third wave.

“While it is too soon to say if Africa is seeing a resurgence, however, we are seeing increases in a number of countries, we are monitoring the situation very closely. And we see that we are balancing on a knife’s edge,” she said. “So this makes the rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines all the more important.”

Moeti says South Africa accounts for nearly one-third of the 65,000 new cases reported by WHO. She says she fears new variants of the virus circulating in South Africa may be spreading into neighboring countries. She notes Namibia and Zambia are among 11 African countries experiencing more cases.

So far, 28 million COVID-19 doses of different vaccines have been administered in Africa, a continent of 1.4 billion people. Moeti says Africa needs at least 20 million second doses of the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine by mid-July to give everyone who has received the first dose full immunity.

“Africa needs vaccines now. Any pause in our vaccination campaigns will lead to lost lives and lost hope,” she said. “Another 200 million doses are needed so that the continent can vaccinate 10% of its population by September this year.”

Moeti appeals to countries that have vaccinated their high-risk groups to share their excess doses with Africa. She notes France is the first country to donate tens of thousands of doses to Africa from its domestic supply.

WHO says the European Union has pledged more than 100 million doses for low-income countries and the United States has promised to share 80 million doses with lower-income countries. Other wealthy countries have said they will follow suit.

Source: Voice of America