Health workers prepare to administer shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center at Madejski Stadium in Reading, England, April 13, 2021. (STEVE PARSONS / POOL VIA AP)
WASHINGTON / SANTIAGO / QUITO / MEXICO CITY / HAVANA / LONDON / TUNIS / VALLETTA / NEW YORK / KAMPALA / MOSCOW / MINSK / BOGOTA / GABORONE / RIO DE JANEIRO / ADDIS ABABA / PARIS – The European Commission said on Monday it had launched legal action against AstraZeneca for not respecting its contract for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines and for not having a "reliable" plan to ensure timely deliveries.
Under the contract, the company had committed to making its "best reasonable efforts" to deliver 180 million vaccine doses to the EU in the second quarter of this year, for a total of 300 million in the period from December to June.
AstraZeneca on Monday said that legal action by the European Union against the pharmaceutical company over the supply of its COVID-19 vaccine was without merit and pledged to defend itself strongly in court.
But the company said in a statement on March 12 it would aim to deliver only one-third of that. A week after that, the EU Commission sent a legal letter to the company in the first step of a formal procedure to resolve disputes.
WTO
The head of the World Trade Organization urged rich nations to export more Covid-19 vaccines, singling out the UK and the US as she reiterated the need to ensure poor countries aren’t left behind if the world wants to get through the pandemic.
“Vaccine nationalism and inequity doesn’t work,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at a virtual trade policy event Monday hosted by the European Commission.
“I would urge those countries that are not sharing, or exporting, to do so as quickly as possible,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “It would be great if we could get the United Kingdom and the US also to be able to export some of the vaccines made and I think they are gearing up to do so.”
Her call for fairness comes as inoculation campaigns have been progressing at starkly different rates between wealthy western countries, which have vaccinated significant parts of their population, and poorer nations in the developing world that struggle with vaccine supplies.
India, in particular, is in the grips of one of the world’s worst outbreaks since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
Moderna
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine will be reviewed on April 30 by technical experts for possible WHO emergency-use listing, a World Health Organization spokesman told Reuters.
"We are discussing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Friday…," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said in reply to a query. A decision on the US drugmaker's vaccine, now being evaluated under the abridged procedure on the basis of prior review by the European Medicines Agency, was expected in one to four days after that, Lindmeier said.
So far COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have received WHO approval, which is a signal to national regulatory authorities on a product's safety and efficacy.
The WHO committee of technical experts were on Monday reviewing the COVID-19 vaccine of Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm and is due to review the Sinovac product at its next meeting on May 3, according to the WHO.
Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, told an event last Friday that it was on track to make up to 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year and 1.4 billion next year.
"We're in the final stretch to get an agreement with COVAX," Bancel said, referring to the vaccine-sharing facility run by the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and WHO to bring doses to lower income countries.
ALSO READ: Moderna says Europe-bound vaccine deliveries on track
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca has yet to outline plans for how its vaccine will be adapted to virus variants as talks get underway for new supplies starting next year, according to French Industry Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.
“The contracts that are under discussion today are for 2022 and 2023 and are about how the vaccine would be adapted to variants and boosters,” she said Monday on France Info radio. “AstraZeneca hasn’t put forward its plans for variants and boosters. BioNTech and Moderna have presented plans and they are making progress.”
If AstraZeneca presents good plans for these or even a plan to vaccinate teens “we’ll look at it,” she said. The minister earlier this month raised doubts about new orders for the AstraZeneca vaccine when she said discussions hadn’t been initiated with the company or with Johnson & Johnson for fresh supplies whereas they were underway with BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna.
Sanofi
Sanofi will fill and pack millions of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines from September in an effort to help meet the demand for the US drugmaker's shots, the French company said on Monday.
Sanofi said it would help supply up to 200 million doses of Moderna's vaccine at its Ridgefield facility in New Jersey. Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed. The deal marks Sanofi's third such agreement this year.
In January, Sanofi pledged to help supply over 125 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech from this summer. A month later, it said it would fill and finish vials of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine at a rate of approximately 12 million doses per month.
France
France sent primary and nursery pupils back to school on Monday, the first phase of reopening after a three-week COVID-19 lockdown, even as daily new infections remained stubbornly high.
President Emmanuel Macron said a return to school would help fight social inequality, allowing parents who struggle to pay for childcare to get back to work, but trade unions warned that new infections would lead to a “torrent” of classroom closures.
In the upmarket Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, pupils wore face masks and rubbed disinfectant gel on their hands as they filed through the front door of the Achille Peretti primary school. A poster reminded the youngsters to stay a metre apart.
AstraZeneca has yet to outline plans for how its vaccine will be adapted to virus variants as talks get underway for new supplies starting next year, according to French Industry Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.
“The contracts that are under discussion today are for 2022 and 2023 and are about how the vaccine would be adapted to variants and boosters,” she said Monday on France Info radio. “AstraZeneca hasn’t put forward its plans for variants and boosters. BioNTech and Moderna have presented plans and they are making progress.”
If AstraZeneca presents good plans for these or even a plan to vaccinate teens “we’ll look at it,” she said. The minister earlier this month raised doubts about new orders for the AstraZeneca vaccine when she said discussions hadn’t been initiated with the company or with Johnson & Johnson for fresh supplies whereas they were underway with BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna.
France reported on Sunday a rise in the number of patients with COVID-19 in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) as President Emmanuel Macron's government seeks signs of an end to the nation's third wave of infections.
Health ministry data showed there had been a further 145 COVID-19 deaths in hospitals in the last 24 hours, while the number of patients with the virus in ICUs rose to 5,978 from 5,958 the previous day.
There were also 24,465 new COVID-19 cases.
A French minister said Astra has yet to outline vaccine adaptation for variants while Hungary plans to ease curbs when the first Innoculations reach 4 million.
Italy
Italy inched forward towards normality on Monday as coffee bars, restaurants, cinemas and theatres reopened in most regions as part of a phased springtime relaxation of COVID lockdowns.
"Finally!" said Lorenzo Campania, an elderly man from a small village near Rome, as he had breakfast seated at an outdoor table near the capital's central Piazza Venezia.
Fourteen of the country's 20 regions have been designated yellow zones, meaning there is a relatively low risk from COVID. Five are classified orange and one, Sardinia, red.
Hungary
Hungary plans to further ease restrictions when the number of first-dose vaccinations reaches 4 million, the government said on its website.
First inoculations stood at 3.6 million as of Monday, according to official data, out of the country’s total population of almost 10 million people. While Hungary has one of the highest death rates per capita, the government last weekend allowed cafes and bars to open terraces, with people swarming streets and parks to take advantage of sunny weather.
While pandemic experts have warned caution would be still necessary, reaching the 4-million mark with first vaccines will automatically trigger changes. That includes a later curfew – midnight instead of 11 pm – and the reopening of hotels, zoos, museums and theaters. It will remove the face mask requirement for those with proof of protection such as a vaccination card.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 147.2 million while the global death toll topped 3.1 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Canada
Canada's health department said on Sunday the 1.5 million doses of the Astrazeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine imported from Emergent BioSolutions' Baltimore facility were safe and met quality specifications.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had stopped AstraZeneca from using the facility earlier this month and halted production of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine at the plant as it began investigations into an error that led to millions of doses of J&J's vaccine being ruined last month. read more
However, Health Canada said it reviewed test results of all vaccine lots that came into the country and found them to be safe.
J&J doses produced at the Baltimore, Maryland, site have not entered the country, the regulator said, adding that vaccines from the company anticipated to be imported next week were not made at that facility.
Colombia
Colombia’s capital will close schools through May 9, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez said.
The weekend shutdown starting Friday will continue through 4 am on Monday with a night-time curfew starting at 8 pm and shops forced to close at 7 pm.
Colombia registered 17,190 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking its nationwide tally to 2,774,464, the ministry of health and social protection said Sunday.
The country also reported 465 more deaths, raising the national death toll to 71,351, said the ministry.
According to the ministry, a total of 4,400,615 doses of vaccine have been applied in the South American country, and 1,391,979 people have received a second jab.
Germany
Germany’s coronavirus infection rate rose at the weekend despite stricter restrictions as Finance Minister Olaf Scholz cautioned he did not expect moves to ease curbs before the end of May.
Germany is struggling to contain a third wave of infections, with efforts complicated by the more contagious B117 variant, which first emerged in the UK, and a relatively slow start to its national vaccination campaign.
"We need a timetable how to get back to normal life, but it must be a plan that won't have to be revoked after just a few days," Scholz told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
The federal government should be able to outline "clear and courageous opening steps" for the summer by the end of May, allowing restaurants to adjust reopening plans and citizens to plan holidays, he said.
Scholz said the steps would also clarify when visits to concerts, theatres and soccer stadiums would be possible.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged Germans to stick to tougher rules imposed in areas with high infection rates at the weekend, saying the additional measures were needed to break the third wave of infections. read more
Germany's seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people rose to 166 at the weekend, the Robert Koch Institute said on Sunday.
Chile
Chile's Ministry of Health reported 6,638 new cases of the COVID-19 on Sunday with 114 deaths.
According to the ministry, cases have risen to 1,169,536 and the death toll has risen to 25,856.
Chilean Minister of Health Enrique Paris said in a statement that new cases have decreased by 8 percent in the last 14 days, and in 9 regions, the number of patients has decreased over the last two weeks.
Despite this, Paris urged citizens to "continue to be rigorous in self-care … because there are regions where the evolution of new infections worries us."
Ecuador
The Ecuadoran Ministry of Health reported 608 new cases and 13 more deaths of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 373,362 and deaths to 13,098.
The provinces of Pichincha and Guayas continue to be the most affected, in particular the cities of Guayaquil and Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
On Saturday, authorities decreed a state of emergency and a quarantine for 16 of the 24 provinces of the country, making it the second quarantine since the pandemic began.
Authorities fear that the situation will worsen due to the circulation of new and more infectious variants of COVID-19.
There are eight confirmed cases of the Brazilian variant and authorities say that due to its high transmissibility, it will be impossible to contain its spread.
Mexico
Mexico has received the seventh shipment of the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Chinese company Sinovac, which will help accelerate the national inoculation plan, the Ministry of Health reported on Sunday.
The CoronaVac vaccines arrived Saturday night at Mexico City's international airport, the ministry explained in a statement.
Shipments of the vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company began arriving in Mexico in February after the Mexican health regulator, the Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks (Cofepris), authorized its emergency use.
The Mexican government has given doses of the CoronaVac vaccine mainly to older adults, in accordance with the phased vaccination campaign that began in December.
Cuba
Cuba once again reported more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19, with 1,185 infections registered as well as 10 deaths, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Sunday.
With these figures, the number of cases has risen to 101,503 and the death toll to 591.
"This shows the severity of transmission in our country," said the ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology, Francisco Duran.
Havana maintains the highest incidence rate in the country, with 408 cases per 100,000 inhabitants as the country continues to battle a new wave of infections.
Authorities have suspended in-person classes and closed down public places as well as put in place restrictions for international arrivals.
Britain
British lawmakers on Monday called on the government to publish all communications with pharmaceutical companies to understand if private lobbying influenced its opposition to a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines.
The United States and a handful of other big countries, including the United Kingdom, have blocked negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) involving a proposal spearheaded by India and South Africa that now has the support of 100 WTO members.
The proposal would temporarily waive the intellectual property (IP) rights of pharmaceutical companies to allow developing countries to produce vaccines.
The waiver is opposed by the US Chamber of Commerce and big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
A cross-party group of UK lawmakers has signed a statement calling for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ministers, and senior civil servants to publish all email, text, and WhatsApp messages exchanged with pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists.
Patient advocacy and vaccine equity organisations have also signed the statement, including Global Justice Now, Just Treatment, StopAIDS, Frontline AIDS, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK, Students for Global Health, and Nurses United UK.
"The UK's opposition to an intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 vaccines is utterly indefensible," said Heidi Chow, senior policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, which organised the joint statement.
Serbia
Seeking to speed up inoculations, Serbia no longer requires patients to register online before receiving Covid-19 shots. With a relative abundance of vaccines from four suppliers, the Balkan nation first lifted the registration requirement for AstraZeneca vaccines earlier this month, and then for the rest. The nation of about 7 million people has inoculated almost 2 million, including 1.3 million with both doses.
Tunisia
Tunisian Health Ministry on Sunday reported 1,770 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 300,342.
The death toll from the virus rose by 73 to 10,304 in Tunisia, the ministry said in a statement.
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the North African country reached 2,710, including 515 in intensive care units, while the total number of recoveries reached 249,146, it said.
ALSO READ: Brazil cuts number of vaccines expected to be delivered by 30%
Malta
Malta will reopen non-essential shops and businesses on Monday, Prime Minister Robert Abela said Sunday.
The number of people who will be able to be out in public in groups will rise from two to four, Abela told a press conference.
"With decisions we took, we managed to keep the number of people positive for COVID-19 under control," he said, adding that "the road towards normality will continue gradually."
The country will have vaccinated half of its adult population by Sunday evening, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne told the same press conference.
The single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine will start being administered in Malta in the coming days, he said.
A pilot walks past the windows at the newly renovated Delta terminal D at LaGuardia Airport in New York March 6, 2021. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)
United States
On Sunday, a top European Union official said that Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should be able to travel to Europe by summer, easing existing travel restrictions.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told The New York Times that the union’s 27 members would accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved” by the European Medicines Agency. The agency has approved the three vaccines used in the United States.
“The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” von der Leyen said. “This will enable free movement and travel to the European Union.”
She did not say when travel could resume. The EU largely shut down nonessential travel more than a year ago.
European Union countries agreed this month to launch COVID-19 travel passes that would permit people who have been vaccinated against the disease, recovered from an infection or have tested negative to travel more easily.
Uganda
Uganda has rolled out a major COVID-19 vaccination targeting 1.4 million refugees to contain the spread of the virus in the country's crowded refugee resettlements, a UN refugee agency spokesperson said Sunday.
Wendy Daphne Kasujja, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Uganda, said in a statement sent to Xinhua that at least 1 million refugees will be inoculated against COVID-19 in the ongoing phase one vaccination exercise.
"UNHCR is grateful to Uganda for the inclusion of refugees in the COVID-19 country response and vaccination plan," said Kasujja.
Uganda hosts more than 1.4 million refugees, mainly from neighboring South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi.
At least 398 refugees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, with 384 recoveries and 7 deaths in the settlements since the outbreak was reported in March last year, according to UNHCR figures.
As of Sunday, a total of 274,217 people had received their first jab of AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the ministry of health statistics.
Russia
Russia confirmed 8,803 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 4,771,372, the official monitoring and response center said Monday.
The national death toll rose by 356 to 108,588 in the past day, while the number of recoveries grew by 6,631 to 4,394,639.
Russia confirmed 8,780 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday.
Belarus
Belarus reported 896 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking its total to 353,846, according to the country's health ministry.
There have been 649 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 344,206, the ministry added.
So far, 2,502 people have died of the disease in the country, including nine over the past day, it said.
As of Monday, 5,788,360 tests for the virus have been conducted across the country, including 9,959 over the past 24 hours, according to official figures.
Belarus reported 1,276 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
ALSO READ: US, Canada boats at Niagara Falls show contrast in virus approach
Switzerland
Switzerland has added India to its list of high-risk countries from which travellers must enter quarantine following the surge of cases in the subcontinent and the discovery here of a first case of new variant of COVID-19 first identified in India.
Arrivals from India must immediately go into quarantine, under the government restrictions which go into effect at 1600 GMT on Monday, the Federal Office of Public Health said on its website.
The first case of the Indian variant of COVID-19 has been confirmed in the country, the Federal Office for Public Health (BAG) said, as other countries introduce travel bans to contain its spread.
The case involved a passenger who arrived in Switzerland via a transit airport and not directly from India, which has been hit hard by a massive wave of infections in recent days, the BAG said on Twitter.
The test took place at the end of March, BAG told Reuters on Sunday, adding the person entered Switzerland via a European country.
BAG said consultations were now underway on whether to add India to its list of high-risk countries, from where people must immediately go into quarantine upon arrival in Switzerland.
"The reason for this is the rapid spread of the variant in the country," a spokesman said, referring to India, adding there was currently no accurate information on how infectious or how much more dangerous the new variant was.
Botswana
The Botswana government received a batch of COVID-19 vaccine provided by China's Sinovac on Sunday.
Kabo Morwaeng, minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, expressed his profound gratitude to China for continued support to Botswana, adding that Botswana will work hard to ensure that the sound relations with China last many more decades for the benefit of the people.
The donation will be followed by another batch of vaccines purchased by the Botswana government from China, which will arrive in the country soon.
Botswana has to date registered 43,394 positive COVID-19 cases with 691 deaths.
Brazil
Brazil's COVID-19 death toll on Sunday reached 390,797 after registering another 1,305 fatalities, the country's ministry of health reported.
According to the ministry, another 32,572 cases were registered, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 14,340,787.
The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, has been the most affected, with 2,834,321 cases and 92,693 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 724,596 cases and 42,914 deaths.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 1,324 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide COVID-19 total to 252,279 as of Sunday evening, the country's Ministry of Health said.
Meanwhile, 20 new COVID-19 related deaths were reported across the country, bringing the national total to 3,551, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Ethiopia currently has 55,979 active COVID-19 cases, of which 1,010 are under severe health conditions.
The latest figures from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Ethiopia's COVID-19 cases accounted for about 6 percent of the African continent's total confirmed cases.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, is one of the countries the hardest hit by COVID-19 in Africa next to South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia.
South Africa
South African researchers will on Wednesday resume a study further evaluating the efficacy of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine in the field, after it was temporarily suspended along with use of the shot in the United States.
US regulators recommended pausing the use of the single-shot earlier this month due to extremely rare cases of blood clots but on Friday said the United States could restart vaccinations. Europe's drug regulator has backed its overall benefits against any risk.
The Sisonke study is being carried out by the National Department of Health, South African Medical Research Council and Johnson & Johnson among others.
"It is much better to have the vaccine than to avoid taking it for fear of getting a blood clot," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement released by the health ministry.
South African authorities would ensure "there is intensified pre-vaccination assessment and post-vaccination monitoring" when the Sisonke study resumes, the health ministry said.
