Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Britain’s non-recognition of Africa-administered vaccines regrettable – AU

Britain’s non-recognition of Africa-administered vaccines regrettable – AU

AYENAT MERSIE and GEORGE OBULUTSA THE African Union's (AU) top health official called Britain's lack of recognition for coronavirus vaccines administered in Africa regrettable, saying it sends a confusing public health message. England announced last week that it would expand the list of countries from which it recognises vaccines, adding 17 others beyond the initial list of the United States and Europe. None of those countries are in Africa. The British government sets coronavirus policy for England, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in charge of their own rules. "We regret that the UK would take this position. We…
Read More
SA plans to vaccinate 200,000 people daily

SA plans to vaccinate 200,000 people daily

SOUTH Africa plans to administer coronavirus vaccines to up to 200,000 people a day beginning around May, the Sunday Times newspaper has reported, citing Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. According to the report, more than 2,000 vaccination sites will be set up. The plan is based on the expected arrival of the first batch of 2.8 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses at the end of April, the newspaper said. The Health Ministry did not respond to telephone calls and text messages from Reuters seeking comment. South Africa has been the hardest hit nation on the continent by COVID-19. It has…
Read More
How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine compare to other coronavirus vaccines? 4 questions answered

How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine compare to other coronavirus vaccines? 4 questions answered

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine in adults. Maureen Ferran, a virologist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, explains how this third authorized vaccine works and explores the differences between it and the Moderna and Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines that are already in use. MAUREEN FERRAN, Associate Professor of Biology, Rochester Institute of Technology 1. How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine work? The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is what’s called a viral vector vaccine. To create this vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson team took a harmless adenovirus – the viral…
Read More
Tunisia, Palestinians among 1st COVAX recipients

Tunisia, Palestinians among 1st COVAX recipients

AIDAN LEWIS THE Palestinian territories and Tunisia will benefit from a first wave of coronavirus vaccines from the COVAX scheme, but poorer states in the Middle East face a big gap in early vaccine provision, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Monday. The Palestinian territories are expected to receive 37,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech starting in mid-February through COVAX, while Tunisia is due to receive 93,600 doses, said Rick Brennan, emergency director for the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended per person. The WHO set up COVAX…
Read More
India, ‘pharmacy of the world’, starts COVID vaccine shipments to neighbours

India, ‘pharmacy of the world’, starts COVID vaccine shipments to neighbours

INDIA has started delivering coronavirus vaccines to its neighbours, the foreign ministry said, flagging off a drive to garner goodwill in an often fractious region with the first shipment sent to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Bangladesh and Nepal said they expected deliveries on Thursday. The only neighbour absent from India's list apart from China, is regional rival Pakistan, which had not requested assistance, according to an Indian government official. Many low and middle-income countries are relying on India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, for supplies to start COVID-19 immunisation programmes and bring an end to their outbreaks. "The…
Read More
Senegal seeking vaccines beyond WHO-backed COVAX scheme

Senegal seeking vaccines beyond WHO-backed COVAX scheme

SENEGAL is trying to acquire coronavirus vaccines to complement those it will get through the World Health Organization-backed global COVAX scheme, Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr has told reporters. Senegalese President Macky Sall this week announced a state of emergency to deal with a surge in infections. Senegalese President Macky Sall Unlike Europe, the United States and China, where large-scale vaccination campaigns are underway, most African countries have so far been unable to secure vaccine supply deals with drug companies. That has left some of the world's poorest countries relying on the COVAX alliance, which says it has reached agreements…
Read More
India’s drugs experts approve AstraZeneca, local COVID vaccines

India’s drugs experts approve AstraZeneca, local COVID vaccines

KRISHNA N DAS EXPERTS at India's drugs regulator have recommended for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other backed by a state-run institute, the government has announced. A government minister said earlier the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine had been given the green light on Friday, paving the way for a huge immunisation campaign in the world's second most populous country. The government said the final decision on the two vaccines would be made by the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation's (CDSCO) chief, who has called a news conference on Sunday. The process for the…
Read More
Egypt receives first batch of Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines

Egypt receives first batch of Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines

EGYPT has received its first shipment of vaccines developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and will get more deliveries soon, health officials have disclosed. The shipment arrived at Cairo airport from the United Arab Emirates, which has been carrying out phase III clinical trials of the vaccine. The UAE health ministry said this week that the Sinopharm vaccine had 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of the late-stage clinical trials. The vaccine has already been used on about 1 million people in China in an emergency programme. In Egypt the vaccine, taken in two doses 21 days apart, will…
Read More
U.N. chief: time for national plans to help fund global COVID-19 vaccine effort

U.N. chief: time for national plans to help fund global COVID-19 vaccine effort

MICHELLE NICHOLS and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY UNITED Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says it is time for countries to start using money from their national COVID-19 recovery and response plans to help fund the World Health Organization's global vaccine plan. The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator programme and its COVAX facility has so far received $3 billion but needs another $35 billion. It aims to deliver two billion doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of next year, 245 million treatments and 500 million tests. "The ACT-Accelerator provides the only safe and certain way to re-open the global economy as quickly…
Read More
WHO says $700 million raised so far for COVID-19 vaccines initiative for poor

WHO says $700 million raised so far for COVID-19 vaccines initiative for poor

INTERNATIONAL donors have raised $700 million - less than half the target - to purchase future coronavirus vaccines for poor countries in a global initiative to ensure eventual vaccines do not go only to rich countries, a World Health Organization official has said. The COVAX Advanced Market Commitment has an initial target of $2 billion to buy the vaccines. "Up to today, what has been mobilised so far is $700 million ... So there is a great deal of work to be done to diversify the possible sources of funding," Matshidiso Moeti, Africa regional director for the WHO, told an…
Read More