A box of AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine vials is pictured at the Pontcae Medical Practice in Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales on Jan 4, 2021. (GEOFF CADDICK / AFP)
PARIS / NAIROBI / COPENHAGEN – The European Union said it concluded negotiations with Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE to deliver a massive supply of COVID-19 vaccines to the bloc, adding to a surge of doses that’s clearing the way for economies to reopen and travel to begin again.
The European Commission informed member states on Wednesday about the deal, which is expected to cover 1.8 billion additional doses through 2023, according to a diplomatic note seen by Bloomberg.
A separate memo showed that the EU expects to receive almost 29 million vaccines in the week ending May 3, which will represent a total of 188 million doses delivered to the bloc.
The bloc's lawyers on Wednesday also demanded AstraZeneca immediately deliver COVID-19 vaccines from its factories in Britain, in a move that risks reigniting a spat with London over scarce vaccine supplies.
The call came in the opening hearing of the European Commission's legal case in Brussels against the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker over supply delays.
The bloc accuses the company of failing to meet its contractual obligations, whereas AstraZeneca says it is complying with the agreement, which it considers not fully binding.
The bloc accuses the company of failing to meet its contractual obligations, whereas AstraZeneca says it is complying with the agreement, which it considers not fully binding
"We demand deliveries by the end of June and we also demand with immediate effect the use of all plants listed in the contract," EU lawyer Rafael Jafferali told the judge in a hearing room packed with journalists.
"The contract listed a series of plants that had to be used by AstraZeneca and that still today, in breach of the contract, AstraZeneca is not using," the lawyer said.
AstraZeneca lawyer Hakim Boularbah retorted: "There is no obligation to use the factories."
The contract lists four vaccine-making plants, with two of them Britain. Whereas AstraZeneca has delivered doses to the EU from sites in Belgium and the Netherlands, it has not shipped to EU countries any dose produced in UK plants run by Oxford Biomedica and Cobra Biologics.
The contract also says that a Catalent factory in the United States which manufactures AstraZeneca jabs "may serve as a back-up supply site".
Germany, France and other European Union governments called on the rest of the bloc to join them in curbing travel from India as the country struggles to cope with record levels of infections.
At a meeting of ambassadors on Wednesday, several officials expressed concern over the risk of possible coronavirus variants in India triggering a fourth wave in Europe and urged the EU to quickly adopt restrictions, according to a diplomatic note seen by Bloomberg.
During the same meeting, the European Commission said it would soon propose an emergency mechanism to allow the bloc to rapidly address the arrival of new strains.
The commission said it had asked the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to look at variants of concern and come up with criteria and mapping to allow for coordinated decisions about how to respond. Some member states welcomed the idea, the note says.
Pfizer / BioNTech
BioNTech expects results by September from trials testing the COVID-19 vaccine that it and Pfizer have developed in babies as young as six months old, German magazine Spiegel cited the company's CEO as saying.
"In July, the first results could be available for the five to 12 year olds, in September for the younger children," BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin told Spiegel.
He added it takes about four to six weeks to evaluate the data. "If all goes well, as soon as the data is evaluated, we will be able to submit the application for approval of the vaccine for all children in the respective age group in different countries," he said.
BioNTech and Pfizer asked US regulators this month to approve emergency use of their vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 15. Sahin was quoted by Spiegel as saying the company was "in the final stages before submission" to European regulators for children aged 12 and older.
Moderna
Moderna Inc said on Thursday it is boosting manufacturing capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to make up to 3 billion doses in 2022, more than twice its previous forecast.
It also said it is increasing its expectations for 2021 vaccine production to between 800 million and 1 billion shots, raising the bottom of its range from 700 million.
The final number of inoculations will depend on how many are lower-dose formulations for boosters and immunizations for children. Moderna shots currently deploy 100 micrograms of vaccine substance but some future shots may use only 50 micrograms.
"As we look forward to next year, we just see so much need for primary vaccine, we are hearing it all over the world, and also boosters," Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in an interview.
"So depending upon… how much the ordering that happens is third doses or pediatric doses at 50 micrograms, we could see up to 3 billion doses," he added. Moderna had previously said it expected to make 1.4 billion shots in 2022.
Moderna also said new data suggests its shots can be stored safely for up to three months at refrigerator temperatures, making it easier to get them to hard to reach areas that may not have access to freezers.
"That might be a breakthrough that really matters in 2022 in Africa and across lower and middle income countries," Hoge said.
But even as rich countries speed up their vaccine rollouts, other parts of the world are facing sharp upticks in cases and struggling to acquire needed shots.
Africa
The raging state of the COVID-19 pandemic is India is a wake-up call for Africa that its governments and citizens must not let their guards down, the African Union's disease control agency warned on Thursday.
African nations generally do not have sufficient numbers of health care workers, hospital beds, oxygen supplies, and the continent of 1.3 billion would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases surged in a similar way, said John Nkengasgong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sweden
Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 7,158 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, health agency statistics showed. The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 2 new deaths, taking the total to 14,002.
The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks. Sweden's death rate per capita is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours' but lower than in most European countries that opted for lockdowns.
Ireland
Ireland is set to ease restrictions further, allowing stores to run click-and-collect services and construction to fully restart from May. Pubs and restaurants are now scheduled to open in June. Prime Minister Micheal Martin will outline the changes in a national address later today.
Outdoors gathering with a maximum of 15 people will be allowed, and limits on household visits will be reduced in two weeks. Hairdressers are expected to reopen next month for the first time since December.
The Americas
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating, which is why equitable access to vaccines and effective preventive measures are crucial to helping turn the tide, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
"Our region is still under the grip of this pandemic … in several countries of South America the pandemic in the first four months of this year was worse than what we faced in 2020," PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said in a briefing.
"This shows that we will only overcome this pandemic with a combination of rapid and equitable vaccine access and effective preventive measures. This pandemic is not only not over, it is accelerating," she added.
Aerial view showing workers in protective gear as a preventive measure against the spread of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, burying coffins at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 17, 2021. (MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL / AFP)
Over the past week more than 1.4 million people became infected with COVID-19 in the region and over 36,000 died from complications related to the disease, meaning that one in four coronavirus deaths reported worldwide last week were in the Americas.
Etienne pointed to Canada's infection rates, which surpassed US figures for the first time since the start of the pandemic; surging cases across the Caribbean and Central America, underscoring the expectation of more hospitalizations in Costa Rica as the country reported a 50 percent jump in cases in the last week; and spiking infections across South America.
The PAHO director urged countries with extra vaccine doses to consider donating them to counties in need in the Americas, saying that considering the increased incidence of COVID-19 variants of concern, time was of the essence.
PAHO serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization.
Lonza
Contract drug manufacturer Lonza will double its production capacity in Switzerland for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, helping boost the US drugmaker's output to as many as 3 billion doses in 2022.
The deal announced on Thursday extends a 10-year pact and foresees three further production lines in Visp, Switzerland, beyond the three Lonza built since last year.
The expansion, which encompasses moves elsewhere in Europe and the United States to lift Moderna's ingredient production and bottling capacity, ups the pressure on Lonza to find qualified workers to run its growing network of facilities dedicated to the US company's complex mRNA vaccine.
Canada
Canada reported 5,071 new COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total number to 1,200,057, including 24,106 deaths and 101,586 variants, according to CTV. Canada's national-level data showed a seven-day average of 7,992 new cases daily on April 21-27, a 7.5 percent decrease compared to the previous seven days, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Wednesday.
Argentina
Argentina's Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported 23,718 new COVID-19 infections and 348 more deaths in the last day, with a total of 2,928,890 cases and 62,947 deaths.
The country's Minister of Security Sabina Frederic and Secretary of Justice and Security of Buenos Aires Marcelo D'Alessandro agreed on "greater control of terminal station entrances and different transfer centers" in the capital city in response to the new wave of infections.
Britain
Britain's medicine regulator on Thursday said there had been a further 41 reports of rare blood clots after doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, but that the benefits of the shot continued to outweigh the risks for the majority of people.
In a weekly update on side effects from COVID-19 vaccines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said there were a total of 209 clots with low platelet counts following vaccination with AstraZeneca's shot, compared to a total of 168 reported last week.
Italy
Italy extended by fifteen days the quarantine requirement for travelers coming from EU countries, the Health ministry says in a statement on Thursday.
Italy reported 344 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday against 373 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 13,385 from 10,404.
Italy has registered 120,256 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world.
The country has reported 3.99 million cases to date. Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 19,860 on Wednesday, down from 20,312 a day earlier.
There were 168 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 177 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients decreased to 2,711 from a previous 2,748.
Brazil
Brazil is struggling to find vaccines to tackle one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks as resurgent outbreaks and supply shortages among top providers slow the pace of deliveries.
Foreign Minister Carlos Franca told lawmakers Wednesday he’s seeking vaccines from a variety of partners, including 30 million doses from China’s Sinopharm, plus 8 million doses of the India-produced AstraZeneca shot as well as any US surplus. The problem, he added, is the pandemic’s upsurge in India and tight supplies globally have left Brazil scrambling for doses.
Brazil is on the verge of registering 400,000 coronavirus deaths this week, after the Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 3,163 new COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 398,185.
Brazil is quickly catching up with the world's worst death toll in the United States, which has seen more than 570,000 casualties in total but less than a thousand deaths per day in recent weeks.
ALSO READ: Brazil cuts number of vaccines expected to be delivered by 30%
Brazil's COVID-19 crisis has spiraled out of control in recent months, with patchy restrictions on circulation and a highly contagious new virus variant driving infections.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has drawn harsh criticism for playing down the dangers of the virus, shunning masks and pushing unproven remedies.
Younger Brazilians are increasingly being affected by COVID-19, with those in their 20s showing the greatest increase in deaths so far this year, according to a report published by government biomedical institute Fiocruz last week.
Brazil’s Health Ministry also reported on Wednesday 79,726 new confirmed coronavirus cases, which now total 14,521,289.
Denmark
Denmark will tighten travel restrictions for those from India from Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
The ministry updated its travel guide on India and raised the risk assessment from "orange" to "red," the highest level, and advised against all travels to India, including business trip.
The decision was made to "limit the risk of importing the virus variant B.1.617 to Denmark," said the ministry in a press release.
Foreigners from India will only be allowed entry into Denmark for a recognizable purpose, according to the new travel restrictions.
Danish citizens and people who already reside in Denmark can continue to enter Denmark from India.
Denmark now joins several European countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain that have already applied travel restrictions on India.
Spain
Spain's PharmaMar said on Thursday it received Spanish regulatory approval to carry out a late-stage trial of its Aplidin drug on patients hospitalised with moderate COVID-19 infection. PharmaMar now has the authorisation to conduct randomised controlled tests on Spanish patients to test the efficacy of its drug, usually used as a cancer treatment, in a so-called Phase III trial for use in COVID-19 cases, it said in a statement.
The company hopes to enrol a pool of 600 patients across 12 countries including France, Portugal and Sweden, as well as other countries outside Europe, the company said.
Germany
The new peak was reached yesterday and 25.9 percent of Germans have now received one dose, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn said. About 7.5 percent of Germans have received two doses, he said.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 24,736 to 3,357,268, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday. The reported death toll rose by 264 to 82,544, the tally showed.
Germany's seven-day average of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people fell on Thursday for the third day in a row to 155 – its lowest level in two weeks, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.
France
The French government will begin relaxing its COVID-19 curfew from May 19, a source familiar with the plan said on Thursday ahead of an expected announcement by President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron told local newspapers in an interview that the nightly curfew would be moved back from 1900 to 2100 CET from May 19 and to 2300 from June 9.
The curfew will cease on June 30, said the source, who is from one of the regional papers.
Macron's interview is due to be published on Thursday evening.French President Emmanuel Macron will unveil a "progressive and phased" plan to relax the country's coronavirus rules on Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex said here on Wednesday.
Macron is due to announce the "prospect of a gradual return to a more normal life" as "the epidemic situation continues to improve at a steady pace," Castex told journalists.
ALSO READ: France starts vaccine-passport trials in bid to reopen travel
In France, the average weekly number of daily cases has fallen from 38,000 to 26,200, and the virus reproduction rate (R0) stands at 0.89, he said.
"That means the circulation of the virus remains at a high level, but we are on a real downward trend even though it is slower than in November (during the second confinement phase) and its impact on the hospitalization rate, notably on the number of people in intensive care, is limited," the prime minister said.
On Tuesday, the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in France was slightly above 5.53 million, with 103,603 deaths.
Kenya
Kenya on Wednesday suspended all passenger flights from India for the next two weeks due to the increasing surge of COVID-19 infections in the Asian country.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the decision to suspend the flights was reached by the national emergency response committee which held a crisis meeting on the COVID-19 situation on Tuesday.
Kagwe said the flight suspension will take effect from Saturday midnight, adding that cargo flights will however remain in service subject to observation of transport protocols.
"All passengers arriving from India within these 72 hours shall be subjected to rapid antigen testing upon arrival at our ports of entry and shall be required to strictly observe a 14-day quarantine period that will be closely monitored by our health officials," he told a news conference in Nairobi.
Kagwe said the move follows the huge surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths in India and expressed solidarity with the Indian government in dealing with the situation.
Mexico
Mexico's health ministry on Wednesday reported 3,818 new coronavirus cases and 371 deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,336,944 and fatalities to 215,918.
Separate government data published in March suggested the actual death toll is at least 60% above the confirmed figure.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Wednesday played down delays in shipments of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine during a trip to Moscow where he worked out a deal to produce the shot domestically to speed up its rollout.
Mexico has relied heavily on foreign vaccines, including Sputnik, to supplement its slow vaccination campaign, but delays have hampered efforts to cover its population of 126 million.
"Virtually all companies have had delays," Ebrard said in audio comments shared by his ministry. "There's not a single one that has 100 percent met its delivery schedules for different reasons."
Russia has shipped just over a million Sputnik V doses to Mexico to date, far fewer than the number originally slated. Mexico said in February it planned to receive 7.4 million doses of Sputnik V by April and 16.6 million more shots in May.
Mexico has signed an agreement to acquire 24 million doses.
Ebrard said Mexico was one of the countries that had thus far received the most Sputnik vaccines.
Earlier, he announced that Mexico’s state-run vaccine manufacturer Birmex would handle the final packaging and filling of the vaccine.
Bottling the Russian shot in Mexico could start as early as May, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets the vaccine abroad, said on Twitter.
About a million people in Mexico had been vaccinated with Sputnik V thus far, Ebrard said.
"The results are very positive, which speaks of the quality of science and technological development in (Russia)," he said.
Ebrard said the vaccine's active ingredient would be sent to Mexico from Russia, though that could change in due course.
Hungary
Hungary's government has authorised its foreign minister to make bilateral agreements about recognising COVID-19 vaccine certificates, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas said on Thursday. Hungary also plans to draw down the full amount allotted to it under the European Union's recovery fund, but would use loans sparingly on a project-only basis, Gulyas told an online briefing.
Hungary plans to further ease virus curbs this weekend after 4 million citizens will have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said.
Hungary expects to reach 4 million COVID-19 inoculations on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday, adding that this meant a further round of easing measures announced earlier could be implemented.
The measures include pushing back an 11 pm curfew to midnight, allowing indoor dining in restaurants and the reopening of zoos, museums, cinemas and libraries, Gergely Gulyas told an online briefing.
Russia
Russia reported 9,284 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 3,215 in Moscow, pushing the infection tally to 4,796,557.
The coronavirus taskforce said that 364 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the last 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 109,731. The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and reported a toll of more than 225,000 from April 2020 to February.
Georgia
Georgia on Thursday reported 1,433 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total to 308,834, according to the country's center for disease control.
Data from the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health showed that 1,160 more patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 289,976.
Meanwhile, 18 people died over the past day, raising the death toll to 4,095.
The center said 29,024 tests have been conducted in the past 24 hours around the country.
Namibia
More than 20,315 people in Namibia have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 around the country following the rollout of the nationwide vaccination program, the Health Minister said Thursday.
"This is indeed an encouraging positive public response. We call upon more Namibians to go and get vaccinated," said the Minister of Health Kalumbi Shangula.
Shangula said the vaccination program is being rolled out under the auspices of the existing Expanded Program on Immunization, through which the ministry has implemented vaccination campaigns in the past.
