The national Swedish flag waves on top of a commuter ferrie on Feb 4, 2022, during the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP)
STOCKHOLM / NEW YORK / ADDIS ABABA – Sweden will give a fourth shot of COVID-19 vaccine to people aged 65 and above to boost their defences against the disease, the health agency said on Monday.
"For people aged 65 and over, it is now four months since the previous vaccine dose, and the protective effect of the vaccine diminishes over time," the Health Agency said in a statement.
Sweden had previously offered a fourth jab to people aged 80 or older.
Sweden abolished almost all restrictions in early March. It is hard to gauge the level of spread in Sweden as large-scale testing has ceased, but the number of patients requiring intensive care is the lowest in 18 months.
Africa
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 11,343,461 as of Sunday evening, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) said the death toll across the continent stands at 251,297 and some 10,697,502 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said Africa CDC.
South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa with 3,722,065 cases, followed by Morocco with 1,163,012 cases as of Sunday evening.
In terms of the caseloads, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while the central Africa is the least affected region, according to the Africa CDC.
Kenya
Business activities across various sectors in Kenya are gradually returning to pre-COVID-19 levels following the lifting of most restrictions, the Central Bank of Kenya said in a survey of chief executives released on Saturday.
Most of the businesses, said the apex bank, have experienced growth in quarter one of 2022 as compared to the previous quarter as demand rises.
"There has been increased demand due to seasonal factors, especially for professional services, and diaspora activities supporting the real estate sector," said the bank.
The chief executives, according to the regulator, remain optimistic that the growth would be sustained in the subsequent quarters due to the easing of the COVID-19 containment measures, continued government spending on infrastructure, anticipated favorable weather conditions and continued recovery from the effects of the pandemic.
A photograph shows the Swiss pharma giant Roche headquarters in Basel on Sept 28, 2021. (SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)
Roche
Roche said on Monday the US Food and Drug administration granted priority review to its Actemra/RoActemra for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalised adults.
"If approved, Actemra/RoActemra would be the first US FDA-approved immunomodulator for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients," Roche said in a statement, adding that more than 1 million people hospitalised with COVID-19 had been treated with Actemra/RoActemra worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic.
UK
A renewed surge of COVID-19 in Britain has forced airlines including easyJet to cancel hundreds of flights in recent days as staff sickness levels soar.
England dropped all its coronavirus restrictions earlier this year, including a legal requirement to self-isolate when testing positive and the need to wear masks in public places.
Cases started to surge in Britain near the beginning of last month and by the end of the March 26 week, one in 13 people were believed to be positive with the virus, the highest figure since the pandemic began.
While hospitalisation levels are well below previous peaks in 2020 and 2021, companies are reporting disruption to services, including at airports.
EasyJet cancelled more than 200 flights at the weekend and said around 60 would be cancelled on Monday. British Airways also made a small number of cancellations on Sunday and said the issue was affecting airlines and airports in general.
EasyJet said it had appointed standby crews to soften the impact, and said when cancelling routes it would consolidate flights where it had multiple options.
In this Oct 5, 2021 file photo a healthcare worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, US. (LYNNE SLADKY / AP)
Racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths are likely to worsen if the US Congress does not approve billions in new pandemic funding soon, major US news portal Politico has reported.
Due to a lack of support from Congress, the White House has no choice but to scale back or suspend programs that provide free testing, treatments and vaccinations, which will disproportionately affect the tens of millions of uninsured Americans, a majority of whom are people of color, said the report based on its interviews with public health experts, lawmakers and health officials.
In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government decided to make COVID-19 interventions available to everyone free of charge, which temporarily helped level the playing field in a nation where access to health care is usually tied to employment and income and often correlated with race.
However, the current congressional stalemate threatens to upend the fragile progress, according to the report.
"I'm concerned that we'll go back to the status quo, which we know carries with it great disparities and suffering," Democratic Representative Raul Ruiz from California, a leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and an emergency physician, was quoted as saying. "And the hardest-to-reach communities will be the first to suffer and the most to suffer from the lack of funds."
The Biden administration cautioned lawmakers in a meeting last week that without immediate new funding approved by Congress, the federal government will stop reimbursing doctors for testing, vaccinating and treating the uninsured.
