The Philippines is expecting to receive its first batch of China’s Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine next month — but one leading Filipino senator is questioning the government’s preference for the candidate as new data indicates a lower efficacy rate than western competitors. Earlier this week, developer Sinovac Biotech reported an efficacy rate of only 50.38% […] Continue reading ->
Deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to all European Union (EU) states will be reduced for an undisclosed period starting from next week, Norway’s National Institute of Public Health has said. The sudden change to delivery schedules, Pfizer announced on Friday, is due to a reorganization of the company’s production capacity. It did not say how […] Continue reading ->
IBADAN, NIGERIA – So far the continent has been obliged to look on as developed countries vaccinate millions of their citizens against SARS-CoV-2, but now African countries may also soon gain access to COVID-19 vaccines. In a striking show of political unity, the African Union (AU) has secured provisional commitments to procure some 270 million […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK/ GENEVA. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and two leading international health and humanitarian civil society organizations announced on Tuesday the establishment of a global Ebola vaccine stockpile to ensure rapid response to future outbreaks. Establishment of the stockpile was led by the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision, which also includes the […] Continue reading ->
The “almost vertical” spike in SARS-CoV-2 infections seen in many countries over the last few weeks is largely due to increased social contact and not virus mutations, WHO has said. Speaking at a media briefing on Monday, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 Technical Lead, stated that sharp increases in transmission had occurred in a […] Continue reading ->
The United Kingdom has approved the mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna, securing an additional 10 million doses to its initial 7 million: but supplies aren’t expected until spring. Despite procuring 17 million doses of the vaccine, a rollout isn’t anticipated for some time, with Moderna vaguely stating that “deliveries of the COVID-19 Vaccine … from […] Continue reading ->
After brief holiday respites, countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa have reverted to major lockdowns as a strategy to stave off new, and even more infectious, SARS-CoV2 virus variants that have been identified in the United Kingdom and in South Africa – which threaten to overwhelm health systems even as countries also […] Continue reading ->
Delhi – India’s chief drug regulator approved two COVID-19 vaccines for “restricted emergency use” in the country on Sunday, opening the doors for a mass vaccination campaign against COVID to begin in one of the world’s largest countries, and a lower middle-income country at that. However, some watchdog groups said that the review process leading […] Continue reading ->
Ibadan, Nigeria. Several Nigerian states were unable to carry out preventative yellow fever campaigns late last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving thousands of people at risk of developing the disease as the country now faces a new winter yellow fever outbreak, Health Policy Watch learned. In early November, Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control […] Continue reading ->
As European COVID-19 vaccine campaigns got underway with celebratory first jabs into the arms of citizens in half a dozen countries, some seasoned observers were still wondering if the pace of vaccine roll-outs will move fast enough to outpace the continuing high levels of infection and fatality – now being fuelled by a new mutant […] Continue reading ->