Vials of BioNTech/Pfizer's vaccine are lined up at Allergopharma's production facilities in Reinbek near Hamburg, Germany, on April 30, 2021 for the official start of production of the vaccine. (CHRISTIAN CHARISIUS / DPA VIA AP)
ALGIERS / HARARE / LONDON / KAMPALA / RABAT / HAVANA / QUITO / SANTIAGO / BUENOS AIRES / BRASILIA / OTTAWA / ADDIS ABABA – People who haven’t fought off COVID-19 before are still vulnerable to infection from variants after getting the first dose of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s vaccine, underscoring the need for fast and full inoculation regimens, according to a UK study published Friday.
Among those who previously had mild or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, the protection was “significantly enhanced” after a single dose against the variants first seen in the UK and South Africa, researchers said in the study, published Friday in the journal Science.
The researchers scrutinized the immune responses – including antibodies and both T- and B-cells that can fight off viruses – in UK health workers after they received their first doses. Some of them had fought off COVID-19 as far back as early last year.
“Prior infection acts as a prime, which when you boost it with your single-dose vaccine is so effective,” Rosemary Boyton, a professor of immunology and respiratory medicine at Imperial College London and lead author on the study, said in a media call.
The study appears to contrast with other research that has suggested the first dose of Pfizer’s shot provides a strong level of protection against COVID-19, including some variants. That’s in part because it examined the level of people’s immune responses, rather than real-world infection levels.
Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that his government is open to stricter penalties for travellers who violate the mandatory quarantine rules.
However, Trudeau said his government will not introduce stricter quarantine measures for people crossing the US-Canada land border as demanded by Ontario, Canada's most populous province.
"We are always looking at doing more enforcement, at stepping up on the penalties on that, and we'll continue to work with the provinces on that," Trudeau said at a press conference in Ottawa on Friday. "We know that importation through the borders is extremely low in terms of cases in the country.
Meanwhile, Canada's remote oil sands region in northern Alberta has become a COVID-19 hotspot, disrupting essential annual maintenance work at its massive oil sands plants.
The oil-rich province of Alberta is battling the highest rate of COVID-19 in Canada as the country grapples with a third wave of the pandemic, and on Thursday hit a record for new daily infections, topping 2,000 a day for the first time. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, home to the oil sands, has the highest rate of active cases per capita in the province.
Maintenance work is critical for production from Canada's oil sands, which hold the world's third-largest crude reserves and produce 3.1 million barrels per day, accounting for roughly three-quarters of the country's total output.
In total, there are 822 active cases at oil sands sites, according to Alberta Health. One worker has died.
Ukraine
Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Saturday eased tough restrictions imposed last month to prevent the rapid spread of the new coronavirus.
Starting from Saturday, the capital will allow the operation of transport, cafes and restaurants, although passenger and customer numbers will be restricted. Wearing masks is still mandatory in transport and public places.
Shopping malls and sports clubs will be able to reopen on Saturday, while schools and kindergartens will open from May 5, local authorities said.
Last month, Kyiv recorded some of highest numbers of new infections among Ukrainian regions, but new cases dropped significantly last week.
Ukraine has registered more than 2 million infections and 44,436 deaths since the pandemic started last year.
WHO
The World Health Organization has listed Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, the agency said on Friday, the fifth to be given the status meant to expedite countries’ own approval of shots.
"The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency," the WHO said in a statement.
WHO Assistant Director-General Mariangela Simao said on Friday it was important to have more vaccines available because of supply problems for other shots, including from India, a main source of vaccines for the global COVAX vaccine sharing programme. India has restricted exports because of a crisis of infections.
Moderna announced this week an expansion plan for its production network to boost its capacity to up to 3 billion doses in 2022.
Pfizer and its German partner BionTech's shot, also an mRNA vaccine like Moderna's, was the first vaccine to get a WHO emergency use listing in the final hours of 2020.
United States
President Joe Biden banned most travel to the US from India beginning Tuesday as the country struggles to combat the worst surge of coronavirus cases in the world.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the ban, which won’t apply to US citizens or permanent residents.
“The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in the India,” Psaki said in a statement.
India recorded 387,000 new infections on Thursday, a record high, and nearly 3,500 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Gayle Smith, the State Department’s coordinator for global COVID-19 response and health security, told reporters in a conference call Friday that the surge in India is “very, very serious.”
The US is sending aid to India to fight its surge, and the travel restriction underscores the risk that new mutations of the virus pose even to countries with high vaccination levels. The travel restrictions also don’t apply to aid workers.
Meanwhile, the country has fully vaccinated 101,407,318 people for COVID-19 as of Friday morning, accounting for 30.5 percent of the population, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
The country has administered 240,159,677 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 308,774,155 doses.
Russia
Russia’s death toll from COVID-19 grew to 23,715 in March, up 86 percent compared with early official reports, as the government says it’s handling the pandemic as well or better than most countries.
The data released by the Federal Statistics Service after working hours on Friday includes people who were infected with the virus where it was not regarded as the cause of death. Fatalities in Russia linked to the epidemic rose to more than 85,000 in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Russia reported 9,270 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including 3,208 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 4,814,558.
The government coronavirus task force said 392 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 110,520.
Algeria
Algeria on Friday reported 242 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 122,108.
The death toll from the virus rose to 3,253 after nine new fatalities were added, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.
The Algerian government announced on Thursday a series of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, which include extending partial lockdown measures from midnight to 4:00 am local time in 19 provinces for a period of 21 days, starting from May 1.
Zimbabwe
The number of people that have been vaccinated against COVID-19 has surpassed 400,000 in Zimbabwe, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the state-run Herald newspapers reported Friday.
According to the latest COVID-19 update, 400,771 people have received their first jab as of Thursday, while 76,826 people got their second shot.
The country is targeting to achieve 60 percent herd immunity to COVID-19 by vaccinating 10 million out of the country's population of 16 million people by year-end.
As of Thursday, the country had recorded 38,235 COVID-19 cases, 35,235 recoveries and 1,567 deaths.
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Britain
Another 2,381 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,416,623, according to official figures released Friday.
The country also reported another 15 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,517. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
Meanwhile, England's coronavirus reproduction number, also known as the R number, has risen slightly to between 0.8 and 1.1, up from between 0.8 and one last week, according to the British government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
This means that on average, every 10 people infected will infect between eight and 11 other people. When the figure is above one, an outbreak can grow exponentially.
SAGE scientists said the current figure does not suggest that the epidemic is increasing, but the possibility remains that it cannot be ruled out.
About 66,200 people in Britain tested positive for coronavirus in the week to April 24, down from 105,000 people the previous week, Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Friday.
The data suggested only 0.1 percent of Britain's population — or one in 975 people, tested positive during the week.
But experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, Britain is "still not out of the woods" amid concerns over new variants, particularly those first emerged in South Africa, Brazil and India, and the third wave of pandemic on the European continent.
Uganda
Uganda on Friday banned all flights originating from India until further notice due to the surging number of COVID-19 cases in the Asian country, a top government official said here.
Ruth Aceng, minister of health told reporters that all passengers and passenger flights originating from India, as of May 1, midnight are suspended until further notice.
The minister said all travelers arriving from India before the suspension date regardless of the route of travel will be expected to be in possession of a negative PCR COVID-19 test certificate, which is digitally verifiable and conducted within 120 hours from the time of sample removal.
She said travelers from category two countries which are United States of America, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania will be subjected to a PCR COVID-19 test at the points of entry.
Morocco
Morocco's total COVID-19 tally rose to 511,249 on Friday as 363 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, the death toll rose to 9,023 with three new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 329 people are in intensive care units.
Meanwhile, 5,054,642 people have received so far the first vaccine shot against COVID-19 in the country, and 4,260,412 people the second dose.
Cuba
Cuba closed April as the worst month of the COVID-19 pandemic on the island, with 1,046 new infections and 12 deaths in the past day, for a total of 106,707 cases and 644 deaths, the Public Health Ministry said Friday.
There were 30,431 confirmed cases registered in April, 4,655 more than March, as well as 219 deaths reported, more than double the 101 from a month earlier, according to ministry statistics.
These results are not what we would have liked, the ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran said during his daily report.
Havana, the epicenter of the pandemic, reported 675 infections in the last day, with an incidence rate of 440.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the country.
In the capital, the ministry is preparing for a mass vaccination campaign in May with two Cuban vaccine candidates, Soberana-02 and Abdala.
Ecuador
Ecuador's Ministry of Public Health reported on Friday 1,173 new COVID-19 infections and 72 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the national counts to 381,862 and 13,480 respectively.
Pichincha province reported 595 cases in the one day, with 525 corresponding to the capital Quito, the most populated city and epicenter of the pandemic in the South American country.
The South American country is facing a rise in infections, with overcrowded hospitals and long waiting lists for intensive care unit beds.
As of Wednesday, the country has inoculated 861,393 people, with 633,421 having received their first dose and 227,972 their second, according to official data.
Chile
Chile again registered more than 7,000 new COVID-19 infections in one day, despite a weekly drop, with 7,199 cases, for a total of 1,198,245, the Health Ministry said on Friday, adding that there were also 106 more deaths, to total 26,353.
The South American country had not reported more than 7,000 daily infections since April 23, when 7,525 were registered, the ministry said in a statement.
On Thursday, the Chilean government lifted lockdowns in 10 communes in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, where shopping centers and restaurants will reopen and quarantine will only be in effect on the weekend.
Meanwhile, the director of Chile’s health regulator said he sees no evidence of safety issues with Sputnik V, the COVID-19 vaccine developed in Russia, despite its rejection by the Brazilian health regulator this week over a lack of information about its safety.
Heriberto Garcia, the director of Chile's Public Health Institute (ISP), said Chile was seeking clarity from the vaccine's developers about the potential presence of an adenovirus that could reproduce, possibly creating a negative reaction in recipients. This was the basis for Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa, rejecting the vaccine on Monday.
He said that even if Sputnik V's developers supplied information suggesting the presence of "replication-competent adenoviruses" (RCA), the ISP would not necessarily reject it.
Argentina
Mandatory social distancing measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease will be extended until May 21, Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez announced on Friday.
He called on the country's provinces to tighten restrictions and on the public to make a greater effort to stay home to cut the rate of transmission and alleviate pressure on public hospitals.
In the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), which comprises the federal capital and 40 contiguous municipalities, "the healthcare system is highly under pressure and the proportion of cases per the population is very high," said Fernandez, adding the region "will restrict circulation and other activities until May 21."
Argentina accumulated almost 3 million confirmed cases and 63,508 deaths from the disease as of Thursday.
Brazil
All Brazilians can be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the year, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Friday.
"We have enough doses for the second half (of the year) and it is possible to guarantee that by the end of 2021 our entire population will be vaccinated," Queiroga said during a press conference held jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Brazil expects to have 500 million vaccine doses available by the year end, said Queiroga. Nevertheless, he again called on countries with surplus doses to donate them to Brazil.
However, the South American giant needs to speed up its immunization campaign due to the worsening outbreak, he said.
So far, 57.9 million doses have been distributed throughout Brazil, of which 42.1 million doses have been applied.
Brazil has registered over 14.59 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 400,000 deaths from the disease.
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Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 1,024 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 257,442 as of Friday evening, the country's Ministry of Health said.
The ministry said 30 new deaths from the coronavirus were reported across the country during the same period, bringing the national death toll to 3,688.
Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, has so far reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the East Africa region.
Latest figures from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Ethiopia's COVID-19 cases accounted for about 5 percent of the African continent's total confirmed cases.
Mexico
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday the United States would probably send his country 5 million more doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, as the company admitted production in Latin American had suffered multiple setbacks.
Struggling with behind-schedule local AstraZeneca production and shortfalls in deliveries from foreign vaccine suppliers, Mexico has asked the United States for more shots after initially receiving some 2.7 million AstraZeneca doses from the US.
"It's probable that they'll help us with a loan, while the AstraZeneca plant in Mexico gets up and running," Lopez Obrador said at a regular news conference.
The US State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
In a statement shared with Reuters on Friday, AstraZeneca said it regretted the delays, which it attributed to lower-than-expected yields from initial vaccine batches, shortages of critical supplies and longer periods for regulatory approval.
