February 24 coronavirus news

Ghana has become the first country to receive Covid-19 vaccines through the World Health Organization's COVAX program on Wednesday, a joint statement issued by UNICEF Ghana and WHO Ghana said.

The shipment, consisting of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, arrived at 7 a.m. local time Wednesday on an Emirates flight at Kotoka International Airport, in Ghana's capital Accra.

The minister for health-designate, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, led a government delegation to receive the consignment. The purpose of the COVAX scheme is to buy coronavirus vaccines in bulk and send them to poorer nations that can't compete with wealthy countries in securing contracts with the major drug companies.

The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India, in the Indian city of Pune, and are part of the first wave of Covid-19 vaccines headed to low and middle-income countries, the joint statement added.

"Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "With the first shipment of doses, we can make good on the promise of the COVAX Facility to ensure people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines."

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The Philippines has offered to allow thousands of health care workers to take jobs in the UK and Germany if the countries agree to donate Covid-19 vaccine doses in return, an official has said.

Alice Visperas, director of the labor ministry's international affairs bureau, said the Philippines was open to lifting a cap on health care professionals working overseas if Britain and Germany sent vaccines in the other direction, Reuters reported.

But the offer was rebuffed by the UK, which said it would continue to use shots on its own citizens until a surplus is available.

The Philippines limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year. "We are considering the request to lift the deployment cap, subject to agreement," Visperas told Reuters.

In response, a spokesperson for the UK's Department of Health told the agency it has "no plans for the UK to agree a vaccine deal with the Philippines linked to further recruitment of nurses."

Britain has purchased many more vaccine doses than it has people, and has said it will distribute surplus doses to poorer countries.

Coronavirus cases in the UK are declining after a winter wave of infections, but hospital admissions remain high. Britain has meanwhile overseen a successful vaccine rollout so far, inoculating more than 17 million citizens with at least one dose.

Cases are also slowing in Germany, but other parts of central Europe are seeing infections tick upwards and German authorities have imposed new border checks on nearby countries.

Read more on this story here.

Chinese company CanSino Biologics said on Wednesday it has filed an application with China’s drug regulator for conditional approval of its Covid-19 vaccine. If approved, the company would become the nation’s third vaccine maker to provide shots for conditional public use in China.

CanSinoBio said that Phase 3 clinical trial results show that its coronavirus vaccine has an overall efficacy rate of 65.28% at preventing all symptomatic cases and 90.07% at preventing all severe cases 28 days after a single dose. More than 40,000 volunteers in five countries participated in the trial, the statement added.

Sinopharm, the first Covid-19 vaccine developer whose doses were approved for conditional public use in China, has an overall efficacy rate of 79.34%. Sinovac followed, with an overall efficacy rate varying from 50.4% in trials in Brazil to 91.25% in trials in Turkey.

Greece is calling for the European Union to adopt Covid-19 vaccine "passports" in order to open up tourism and allow for summer vacations.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the Minister of Tourism, Harry Theocharis, stressed that the introduction of the vaccination certificate should be a matter of immediate priority for the European Union.

Theocharis said the EU needs to speed up decision making on protocols for the safe movement of European citizens from country to country.

“The European Union must adopt the vaccination certificate without delay. People need to know as soon as possible if they will be able to go on a summer vacation this year,” he urged.

Regarding the British government's ban on non-essential international travel, Theocharis said: "I do not understand such warnings, given the progress that is being made in the UK with the vaccination rollout. I cannot understand why we are now taking steps backwards, even though we now have more and more effective tools in our 'arsenal' compared to last year -- and I mean vaccines and 'rapid tests'."

Currently, a digital certificate is issued to those Greek citizens who are vaccinated, but is not mandatory to travel to Greece. "Our goal is simply to relieve those who have acquired immunity from being re-tested for Covid-19 upon entering Greece," he said.

Global coronavirus cases fell by 11% in the week leading up to February 21, marking the sixth consecutive week of declining cases, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

WHO reported 2.4 million new cases and 66,000 new deaths that week, a 20% drop in deaths from the week before.

That brings the total to 110.7 million cases and more than 2.4 million deaths since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to WHO figures. The United States is currently reporting the highest number of new cases, followed by Brazil, France, Russia and India.

WHO noted that while many countries are reporting a decline in overall coronavirus cases, reports of Covid-19 variants are increasing.

WHO said the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK has now been found in 101 countries, while the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa has now been found in 51 countries. The less prevalent B.1.1.28.1 variant — first identified in Brazil and Japan — has now been found in 29 countries.

A new, more contagious variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK is likely to fuel a surge of cases in the spring, several experts predicted Tuesday.

The variant, called B.1.1.7, was suspected of causing renewed spread in Britain. It's been seen across much of the US -- with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating the variant makes up for more than 1,880 cases in 45 states.

The variant could "result in more of a wave" around April or May, said Trevor Bedford with the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

So how can the US prevent the suspected spring surge? Some experts said Tuesday the best way to get ahead of the surge is through vaccinations. 

Bedford, who has been closely following the rise of new coronavirus variants, predicted that vaccination and mitigation efforts, such as mask use and continued social distancing, will help prevent the virus from spreading further.

It's possible, however, that a new surge could begin in the fall, according to Bedford.

The race to vaccinate: More than 44.5 million people have received at least one dose of their two-dose vaccines, according to data Tuesday from the CDC. About 19.8 million have been fully vaccinated with both doses, the CDC said -- about 6% of the US population.

One dose of vaccine *might* be enough for some, NIH director says: It's possible a single dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine might be enough for those who have already been infected with coronavirus -- but it will take more research to show that, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

Read more about the situation in the US:

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