The EU’s drug watchdog has authorised emergency use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, nearly two weeks after approving Pfizer and BioNTech’s shot for the virus.
On Tuesday, Israel became the first country outside North America to grant authorisation to Moderna’s vaccine. The US and Canada have already started distributing the two-dose vaccine.
Here are some more details on Moderna’s vaccine:
The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, is based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which relies on synthetic genes that can be generated and manufactured in weeks, and produced at scale more rapidly than conventional vaccines.
Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine for Covid-19 was the first authorisation of any treatment developed using this technology. Other firms using mRNA technology for developing Covid-19 vaccines include Germany’s Curevac and US biotech firm Arcturus Therapeutics.
Moderna’s vaccine can be stored for up to six months at -20C, though it is expected to be stable for 30 days at normal fridge temperature of 2-8C (36-46F). Those are less onerous requirements than Pfizer’s, which must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures of -70C, but can last in normal refrigeration for up to five days, or 15 in a thermal shipping box.
The vaccine was shown to be nearly 95% effective, with no serious safety concerns in a late-stage study.
Moderna was among the first to conduct Covid-19 vaccine human trials, starting in March. Its late-stage 30,000 participant testing began on 27 July in the US. It finished enrolling participants in October.
The company slowed enrolment in September to increase the diversity of the trial population. It ultimately enrolled 3,000 Black American participants and more than 6,000 Hispanic participants.
The vaccine candidate is being tested at 100 clinical research sites in the US. Moderna’s US trial was the first under the government’s Operation Warp Speed programme.
In Greece, churches have opened their doors – in defiance of nationwide lockdown measures – to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany.
The decision to mark the baptism of Christ, a major holiday in the Orthodox calendar, has put the powerful institution on a collision course with the centre right government following a dramatic increase in confirmed coronavirus cases.
Police patrols could be seen imploring mask-wearing worshippers to maintain social distancing rules as services got under way. Local media reported chaotic scenes in Thessaloniki, the country’s northern metropolis, with faithful refusing to adhere to the public health measures as they attended the blessing of the waters.
Police officers arrest a woman for trying to throw a cross into the sea in Thessaloniki. Photograph: Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP/Getty Images
On Tuesday, Greece’s public health organisation, EODY, said infections had more than doubled after 928 people were diagnosed with the virus, up from 427 on Monday. Fatalities rose by 40 bringing the death toll to 5,051 since the onset of the pandemic in March.
After easing restrictions over the Christmas period the government on Saturday unexpectedly ordered a week-long nationwide lockdown, enforcing the closure of places of worship to facilitate the planned reopening of schools next week.
Previously it had said churches could conduct liturgies on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Epiphany, which officially marks the ending of the festive season.
Infuriated it had not been consulted earlier, the Holy Synod, the Church’s governing body, announced it would not accept the restrictions with bishops telling congregations to attend services.
European Medicines Agency approves Moderna coronavirus vaccine
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine has become the second to receive approval from Europe’s medicines regulator, as authorities accelerate the roll-out of jabs aimed at curbing the pandemic amid worries about more infectious variants.
Following the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the final step is approval by the European commission which is expected to quickly follow.
Japan's daily coronavirus cases hit record as state of emergency looms
Japan’s Covid-19 cases reached a new daily record on Wednesday, as the government faced mounting pressure from health experts to impose a strict state of emergency for the Tokyo greater metropolitan area.
Rising infections have driven Tokyo and surrounding areas to the highest level of a four-stage alert, prompting regional governors to call for a declaration of emergency that prime minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to announce on Thursday.
The health ministry held a meeting of infectious disease experts on Wednesday, the second in as many days. They have called for stricter and longer countermeasures, while Suga has sought a more limited response to avoid damaging the economy.
“Even if we take strong measures immediately, it will be difficult to bring the Tokyo metropolitan area down to stage 3 by the end of January,” said Takaji Wakita, chief of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
New infections nationwide reached at least 6,001, a new daily record according to a tally by national broadcaster NHK. Tokyo reported 1,591 cases, also an all-time high.
Without new measures, daily infections in Tokyo could nearly triple to 3,500 per day by February and hit 7,000 by March, according to simulations by Kyoto University scientist Hiroshi Nishiura.
An emergency declaration would need to last at least two months to bring infections to manageable levels, he said.
A senior ruling party lawmaker said on Tuesday it should be imposed for one month, and extended if necessary. The government is anxious about the economic impact as it prepares to host the Olympics this summer.
The government’s top spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, said a decision would likely come on Thursday on whether and for how long to impose the second state of emergency since the start of the pandemic.
Economists warned of a big hit to gross domestic product (GDP) if restrictions are prolonged or expanded, but said that could be unavoidable.
Nationwide, Covid-19 infections reached what was then a daily record of 4,915 on Tuesday, while deaths were also an all-time high of 76.
Tokyo and the three surrounding prefectures have asked residents to refrain from non-essential, non-urgent outings after 8pm from Friday until at least the end of the month, and said restaurants and bars must close by that time.
But measures are likely to be far less sweeping than they were during last year’s six-week state of emergency, during which schools and non-essential businesses shut down.
Russia has inoculated 1 million people against Covid-19 with its Sputnik V vaccine, according to a statement on the Sputnik V Twitter account.
Russia, which has the world’s fourth highest number of Covid-19 cases, started large-scale vaccinations last month.
No new adverse reactions have been reported, RIA news agency quoted Alexander Gintsburg, the director of the Gamaleya Institute, which developed the vaccine, as saying.
Hungary should extend a partial lockdown due to end on Monday because of a rise in coronavirus infections in neighbouring countries, the surgeon general, Cecília Müller, said.
The measures imposed by prime minister Viktor Orbán’s government in November include a 7pm curfew, a ban on all gatherings and the closure of hotels and restaurants.
“The government has the authority to make a decision (about the protective measures),” Müller told an online briefing, adding that Hungary had not yet detected a new variant of coronavirus found in the UK.
“However, the pandemic is ongoing, and case numbers have risen sharply in neighbouring countries, which means that upholding the (existing) measures is justified.”
Hungary had received three shipments of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine so far, enough to inoculate 79,000 people, Müller said, adding further doses would arrive on a weekly basis.
As of Wednesday, Hungary had reported 331,768 Covid-19 cases with 10,198 deaths and 179,541 recoveries. More than 5,000 people are in hospital.
With the future leadership of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union to be decided next week and a general election looming in the autumn, Germany’s debate over the slow rollout of the vaccination drive is becoming increasingly politicised.
Influential tabloid Bild, which has in the past done little to hide its enthusiasm for the conservative hardliner Friedrich Merz, has pinned the blame for what it calls the “vaccine debacle” on centrist Merkel’s push for a joint European procurement process.
“Angela Merkel should explain herself”, said a Bild editorial. “She owes this especially to all the old people who now fear for their lives because they cannot be vaccinated”.
Though the start of the immunisation push in Germany has been slow, the country has given a first dose of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to 316,962 people, more than any other country in the EU.
The CDU’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic party, has meanwhile also turned its guns on health minister Jens Spahn, with finance minister Olaf Scholz sending the conservative politician a catalogue of 24 questions over the handling of the procurement process.
“Mrs Merkel and Mr Spahn have sworn an official oath to shield the German people from harm”, said SPD delegate Florian Post. “But both made a decision to thrust the task of procuring vaccines to the dilettantes around EU commission president von der Leyen”.
The attack line comes as a surprise from the German centre-left, which campaigned in national elections in 2017 with the slogan: “Why Europe? Because we are stronger together than alone”.
Critics of France’s slow Covid-19 vaccination programme – by 5pm Tuesday evening 7,000 people had received the vaccine – have turned their sights on the health minister, Olivier Véran.
Véran, a doctor/neuroloigist, is under intense political pressure over France’s response to the coronavirus crisis not just from opposition members of parliament, but from his own centrist LREM party.
This pressure was increased after president Emmanuel Macron criticised the slowness of the vaccine rollout.
Véran has promised the inoculation programme will be speeded up and simplified and said 500-600 vaccination centres will be opened across France by the end of the month.
At the moment, those receiving the vaccine attend a medical appointment, are given information about the vaccine and time to consider their options, then asked for written consent. This is taking time among the first patients, most of whom are in elderly care or nursing homes.
France also has a high number of vaccine sceptics: polls suggest more than half the population is unwilling to be inoculated. However, Véran has insisted France will catch up with its neighbours in the coming days.
The French PM’s office has said between 25-30% of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses “might be lost” because of logistical problems.
This figure represents 50-60m doses of the 200m ordered by France. Officials say the figures are a “margin of security that we’re taking to evaluate the number of people who would be vaccinated by the number of doses (of vaccine) we have,” a spokesperson for the PM said.
These losses are likely to be caused by a loss of cooling – the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be stored at -70 C (-96F) – as the vaccine is transported to where it is to be used, broken phials or those that are partially used.
“The vaccine is made in multidoses but cannot be kept once it is open. It could happen that certain doses are not used,” the official added.
The University of California’s San Diego campus has launched a newly installed vending machines stocked with do-it-yourself Covid-19 tests for students.
The 11 dispensers at UC San Diego since 2 January – with nine more to be added over the next week or two – are the first of their kind to be introduced on a college or university campus in the US, according to school officials.
Adapted from conventional vending machines, the systems aim to make it easier and less costly to regularly screen the school’s student body.
All 10,000 students living on campus, accounting for about a quarter of the school’s total enrolment, are required to be tested at least once a week, up from once every two weeks last quarter, university officials said.
The test kits are free and can be obtained from the machines with the swipe of a university ID card. Students then swab their own nostrils and deposit the sample for collection and analysis by one of two on-campus laboratories.
Self-testing Covid-19 vending machines on campus at UC San Diego as students return to classes. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters
Results are usually returned within 12 to 24 hours, UC San Diego chancellor Pradeep Khosla told Reuters.
“They’re an amazing innovation – simple, effective and impactful,” he said of the machines, which have dispensed thousands of tests a day since they began operation.
Students may otherwise avail themselves of testing provided at any of a half-dozen walk-up or drive-through sites on campus.
For anyone testing positive, the university has set up a 600-bed housing unit where infected students who are asymptomatic or suffering mild illness can recover in isolation until they are not contagious.
But the quarantine housing has so far been sparsely used. Fewer than 600 UC San Diego students have contracted Covid over the past 10 months, a university spokeswoman said.
UC San Diego also has the most advanced wastewater Covid testing program of any US college, with sewage samples collected from campus housing sites scanned every 24 hours. The wastewater surveillance enables health officials to indirectly screen all students daily and detect potential outbreaks before they occur.
Despite its ambitious testing, the campus offers fewer than 10% of its winter undergraduate courses in person, using outdoor classrooms under special Covid safety restrictions in effect for educational programs within San Diego County. All other undergraduate courses are conducted remotely.
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