Slovakia has transferred its first coronavirus patients abroad, to Poland, as the central European country’s hospitals come under growing pressure.
It has reported the world’s highest number of Covid-related deaths per capita over the past week as the government’s restrictions have failed so far to tame the spread of the coronavirus.
“First patients were transported to [Poland’s] Gorlice,” the health ministry state secretary Peter Stachura said on Facebook. He said that Poland and Germany had offered to take 10 patients each from Slovakia. Romania helped with transforming some beds in Slovak hospitals so that they could be used for Covid patients whose lungs could not cope.
Slovakia’s hospitals have been stretched by record numbers of coronavirus patients, about 4,000. The country of 5.5 million has reported 7,560 coronavirus deaths.
Ukraine has confirmed two cases of the British coronavirus variant, detected in the west of the country, the Ukrainian institute of epidemiology and infectious diseases said.
An institute official told Reuters two cases, a man and a woman, were registered in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The official said tests were taken on 18-19 February, despite Ukrainian health authorities saying earlier this week there was no such variant in the country.
Ukraine has faced a sharp jump in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, which the prime minister, Denys Shmygal, called a “third wave” of the pandemic. He said three regions had already imposed serious restrictions, which may be introduced elsewhere in coming days. Shmygal said the country could return to national lockdown if things became worse.
Sweden is latest country to recommend AstraZeneca/Oxford jab for elderly people
Sweden has also extended its recommendation for the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid vaccine to cover people aged over 65.
Along with a number of other European countries who are now changing their policy, Sweden had previously held off recommending the vaccine for elderly people, citing a lack of research on that group.
A health agency official, Sara Byfors, told a news conference.
There are new studies, from England and Scotland for instance, showing that AstraZeneca’s vaccine offers a very good protection in these age groups.
Sweden, which has avoided imposing lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 4,838 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, health agency statistics show. The country of 10 million people registered 13 new deaths, taking the total to 12,977.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is many times higher than those of its Nordic neighbours, but lower than those of most western European countries that opted for lockdowns.
Lebanon’s health ministry has rejected a court order for it to swiftly vaccinate an elderly man against Covid, accusing the judge of trying to score points in the media following a scandal over queue-jumping by politicians.
Reuters reports:
Wednesday’s court order followed a complaint by 80-year-old Joseph al-Hajj, who filed suit after about a dozen members of parliament – most younger than him – received their jabs last week, violating the country’s rollout plan.
Rejecting the ruling by the judge Carla Chawah, who said Hajj should be vaccinated within 48 hours, the health ministry said he would receive the vaccine “sooner or later”. “[Chawah’s ruling was] a decision formulated for the media,” the ministry added in a statement.
Soon after the vaccination of the lawmakers came to light, the World Bank threatened to suspend its funding of Lebanon’s immunisation programme. The ongoing row has fuelled widespread public anger over corruption and perceived state mismanagement amid a political and economic crisis.
In her ruling, Chawah said the ministry had violated “the principle of equality” before the law and Hajj’s right to life and health.
The confirmation of the announcement in Germany comes after Angela Merkel broke the news yesterday (see 11.51am), which itself follows similar reversals in the Belgian and French policies on the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine after they also said there was insufficient data about the effect of the vaccine on older age groups
In a separate development, the German biopharmaceutical group CureVac has said it has signed a deal with Novartis for the Swiss pharmaceutical giant to help in its production of the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing.
The Swiss giant will make up to 50m doses of Curevac’s mRNA vaccine by the end of 2021 and up to 200m doses in 2022, said the German company.
The EU’s medicines regulator said in February that it had started a “rolling review” of CureVac’s vaccine, in a first step towards possible authorisation for use in the bloc.
German authorities now recommend AstraZeneca/Oxford for over 65s
Germany’s vaccine commission has now recommended the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine for people over the age of 65.
“The vaccine commission now recommends the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65 as well. This is good news for older people who are waiting for a jab,” said the health minister, Jens Spahn.
Germany had previously said it lacked sufficient data to approve the vaccine for older people, but has changed its position following recent studies. “The new data also shows that the vaccine is even more effective when the first and second jabs are administered 12 weeks apart,” said Spahn.
American singer-songwriter David Crosby has sold the recorded music and publishing rights to his entire music catalogue – including the works of the Byrds, Crosby & Nash, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Crosby Stills Nash and Young – citing the pandemic.
“Given our current inability to work live, this deal is a blessing for me and my family and I do believe these are the best people to do it with,” he said in a press release. “I can’t work … and streaming stole my money,” he tweeted on 7 December.
Brazil’s second biggest city of Rio de Janeiro will be the latest to adopt new Covid restrictions from Friday, including a night curfew, in a bid to stall a second wave of the virus.
The city of 6.7 million people will impose a curfew from 11pm to 5am and order restaurants to close at 5pm. Certain businesses, such as clubs, will be shut altogether until 11 March, according to information published in the city’s official bulletin.
A record 1,910 deaths related to the virus were recorded yesterday in Brazil. In response, various states and cities have adopted new restrictions on commerce in recent days, including the federal district, home of the capital, Brasilia, and Sao Paulo state, Brazil’s most populous.
Reuters is citing anonymous EU sources saying the bloc is planning to extend its export authorisation scheme for Covid vaccines to the end of June.
The news agency reports:
The mechanism was set up at the end of January as a reaction to vaccine makers’ announcements of delays in the deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines to the EU. It is due to expire at the end of March, but the European Commission wants to extend it through June, two officials said.
“The commission will propose its extension into June. And that was greeted by the member states with approval, not necessarily enthusiasm, but there is a feeling that we still need that mechanism,” one senior EU diplomat said.
When the EU’s export control mechanism was introduced in late January it triggered an outcry from importing countries who feared their vaccine supplies might have been hampered. Under the scheme, companies must get an authorisation before exporting Covid-19 shots, and may have export requests denied if they do not respect their supply commitments with the EU.
However, the EU has authorised all requests for export since the scheme’s debut on 30 January to 26 February, which amounted to 150 requests for millions of shots to 29 countries, including Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Canada, a commission spokeswoman said. She added, however, that at least one request was withdrawn by an exporting company.
Germany is expected to authorise the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine for people over the age of 65, after Belgium yesterday authorised its rollout to seniors.
The countries had previously said there was insufficient data about the effect of the vaccine on older age groups. But the chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Belgian health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, said recent studies had now provided that data, leading to their respective policy changes.
“The [German] vaccine commission, whose recommendations we are happy to follow, will authorise AstraZeneca for older age groups,” Merkel told reporters yesterday.
Vandenbroucke said recent studies in Britain and Israel had shown the shot did give that age group protection against Covid-19.
Belgium, a country of 11.5 million, has reserved 7.7m doses of the AstraZeneca jab, the largest order it has made of any of the available Covid-19 vaccines.
France, which had also limited the AstraZeneca jab to younger age groups, said earlier this week that it, too, would allow the vaccine to be given to over-65s.
