People are waiting in vehicles on Feb. 4 in a Covid-19 mass vaccination center at Dodger Stadium parking lot in Los Angeles, California.
Photographer: Bing Guan / Bloomberg
Photographer: Bing Guan / Bloomberg
China has Sinovac Life Sciences’ conditionally approved Covid-19 vaccine, according to a statement posted on the National Medical Products Administration’s website on Saturday. Sinovac says the protective efficacy of the vaccine, CoronaVac, meets the regulatory standards of both the World Health Organization and China.
AstraZeneca Plc’s coronavirus vaccine is finally arrives in European Union countries as the bloc seeks to accelerate its vaccination campaign and place a crisis-stricken period behind it. The shot is effective against the new strain that originated in the UK, according to a study by the co-developer of the shot, Oxford University.
President Vladimir Putin’s announcement in August that Russia had cleared the world’s first vaccine for Covid-19 for use before it even completed security tests has caused worldwide skepticism. Now he could pick up diplomatic dividends as Russia is likely to be its biggest scientific breakthrough since the Soviet era.
Important developments:
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UK Eyes Road Map to Exit Virus Lock (17:30 HK)
Britain’s hospitality sector may reopen in April if pubs and restaurants agree not to sell alcohol, reports Telegraph. Government ministers are discussing plans to lift restrictions in three phases, including visiting outside from March when schools want to return. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce detailed plans for Britain’s exit from the bloc on 22 February.
Macau shots arrive (13:30 HK)
The first 100,000 doses of Covid-19 Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Macau on Saturday, Macau Business reported. The vaccination will begin on the forefront workers around Chinese New Year, and the city expects its second vaccine from BioNTech in the second half of this month, the report said.
Supreme Court Makes Some California Churches Hold Indoor Services (12:00 HK)
A divided U.S. Supreme Court has ordered California to resume indoor worship services at a group of suing churches, which has lowered restrictions needed by officials to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Friday night’s orders stopped abolishing the Covid restrictions altogether, saying the state could impose a 25% ceiling cap on church services. The judges also continue to ban California from banning the singing and singing of indoor services.
US wage increase unlikely in relief bill (10:59 am HK)
US President Joe Biden said he did not think his proposed increase in the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour would survive negotiations to pass his broader coronavirus relief bill – comments that could condemn the prospect of the measure in the final legislative package.
Biden said the increase “apparently” will not take place after the Senate on Friday approved a budget amendment proposed by Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, who was opposed to raising wages “during a global pandemic” ‘not.
South Korea eases rules (10:40 am HK)
South Korea is to relax the rules on social distance, including longer opening hours for some retail businesses.
Restaurants, coffee shops and gyms outside the capital Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province will now be allowed to remain open until 22:00, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Saturday. Karaoke bars, theaters for standing concerts and door-to-door sales are also allowed.
Daily business in Korea has declined to about 300 in the past week, from more than 1,000 at the end of December.
Israel vaccine campaign worked within weeks (09:20 HK)
Israel, with most civilians vaccinated against Covid-19, found it took three weeks before the Pfizer Inc. BioNTech SE shot began to curb new cases and hospitalizations.
Researchers on Wednesday reported preliminary observations from a national vaccination program that began on December 20th.
LA Schools Chief Resists Reopening (17:25 NY)
Los Angeles Unified School District has pushed back on pressure to reopen, citing case numbers that remain too high. Although San Francisco has successfully lowered virus levels, LA has addressed the pandemic by allowing businesses to reopen and close test venues, Superintendent Austin Beutner said.
“Los Angeles is a national example of how government dysfunction has put the virus out of control,” Beutner said.
Many NYC vaccines go to white residents outside the city (15:38 NY)
More than a quarter of those who get the Covid-19 vaccine in New York City are non-residents, and they tend to be younger and are more likely to be white than those who live in the city.
About 59% of the recipients outside the city are white, according to data released by the city’s health department on Friday. By comparison, 48% of New Yorkers who received vaccines are white, the data show. About half of the vaccinated non-residents are younger than 65, compared to 44% of New Yorkers. New York City has proposed health workers, the elderly and emergency workers for immunization.
California’s Positive Test Drops (14:25 NY)
California’s positive 14-day test rate dropped to 6.6% from 12.7% a month ago and the lowest since November 30. The state applied a total of 43.4 million coronavirus tests.
According to the Department of Health, there were 14,021 new Covid-19 cases in California, less than the 14-day average of 17,600. website. The number of deaths at 558 was still higher than the average of 518. The total number of Covid-19 cases is more than 3.3 million, with 43,024 deaths.
Spain restricts use of Astra vaccine (14:20 New York)
Spain restricts the use of the AstraZeneca Plc Covid-19 vaccine to people aged 55 and under, based on ‘scientific evidence’, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Spain is the newest country in the European Union to set an upper age limit for the recommended use of the shot. Countries, including Germany, France and Italy, have also set limits.
Hospitals in Paris warn of impending new wave (14:00 New York)
The Covid measures in France are failing to control the virus, and the country is facing a new wave of infections at a time when pandemics are already at a high level, said Bruno Riou, director of medical crisis at AP-HP, operator in Paris, said in a press release. briefing on Friday.
“It is clear that we are going to live in very difficult times in the coming weeks,” Riou said.
Health authorities reported 22,139 new infections on Friday, while the seven-day average changed slightly by 20,466 cases. Deaths increased by 651 to 78,603, with the numbers containing data from nursing homes.
Greece pulls sidewalks tight (13:21 NY)
The Greek government the restrictions on movement by citizens intensified as the number of new cases and people admitted to hospital increased in recent days.
An existing national night clock now starts at 18:00 on weekends instead of 21:00 in so-called red areas that are considered a higher risk, including the two largest cities Athens and Thessaloniki and their larger regions.
Astra vaccine effective against variants, study programs (13:13 NY)
The vaccine from AstraZeneca Plc is about the same according to a study by the co-developer of the shot, Oxford University, effective against the new virus strain that emerged in the UK compared to the initial version.
According to the study, the protection against symptomatic infection is comparable to the new variants as well as the earlier strain, which analyzed swabs taken from volunteers from October to mid-January. The findings are revealed in a version of the study that was not evaluated by the peer.
German Lockdown likely to expand (12:39 NY)
Germany will probably people familiar with the talks say the closure will be extended for another two weeks when Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of the state government meet next week.
According to the people, Chancellor’s officials in Berlin concluded that it was too early to lift the restrictions, although new infections were declining, which asked not to be identified because the discussions were not public.
WHO appeals to countries to share vaccines (12:31 NY)
Countries should share their vaccine doses as soon as they have vaccinated their health workers and the elderly, the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said during an information session. He also called on companies to work together to give a boost to manufacturing and to share complete dossiers with the WHO for emergency use lists.
More than three-quarters of the vaccinations administered are in just ten countries, accounting for nearly 60% of global GDP, he said. About 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, need to administer another dose.
Dutch limit vaccine for people under 65 (10:50 NY)
The AstraZeneca vaccine will initially be used for people aged 60 to 64 as well as long-term care workers, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said in a letter to parliament. The Health Council announced on Thursday that the vaccine should not be used for people over 65.
– Assisted by Angus Whitley