Coronavirus Live News: Taiwan Launches National Vaccine; China Reports Zero New Cases For First Time Since July | World news

A third dose of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine significantly improved protection against infection and serious illness in people aged 60 and over in Israel compared to those who received two injections, results released by the ministry showed on Sunday. of Health.

The data was presented at a meeting of a ministerial group of immunization experts on Thursday and uploaded to its website on Sunday, although full details of the study have not been released.

The results were comparable to separate statistics reported last week by Israeli health care provider Maccabi, one of several organizations administering booster shots in an attempt to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.

The Chinese health authority reported on Monday that there have been no new cases of Covid locally transmitted for the first time since July, offering more signs that the current epidemic that began at the end of last month could soon fade away.

Reuters: The latest outbreak was mainly caused by infections first detected among a few airport workers in the eastern city of Nanjing on July 20. Since then, more than 1,200 people in China have been confirmed to be infected.

The outbreak has prompted local authorities across the country to impose strict anti-epidemic measures, including mass testing of millions of people to identify and isolate carriers, as well as treat those infected.

No one has died in the current outbreak, which has largely focused on the cities of Nanjing and Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, near the financial center of Shanghai. Across China, new local cases fell to single digits last week, after peaking in early August.

But over the weekend, Shanghai quarantined hundreds of people after infections were found among freight workers at one of its two airports, raising concerns about a new outbreak in the city.

Shanghai has not reported any new local infections since then.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen received her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine developed on the island on Monday, launching its deployment to the public.

The vaccine, manufactured by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp., was urgently approved by regulators in July using a shortcut that met with stiff opposition from parts of Taiwan’s medical and scientific community, AP reports.

Taiwanese regulators have bypassed the large-scale, longer-term studies that are typically used to approve vaccines. Instead, they compared the level of antibodies Medigen’s vaccine was able to generate with that of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which has been approved by many governments and has undergone the full three stages of clinical trials.

The two-dose Medigen protein subunit vaccine uses a piece of the coronavirus to train the body to trigger an immune response.

Tsai received his first dose of the vaccine Monday morning at a gymnasium at National Taiwan University in Taipei.

As of Friday, 40% of Taiwan’s 23 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. The island’s vaccination policy is to prioritize the first vaccines, with only the most-at-risk groups initially receiving the two full doses, such as medical workers.

This is a big jump from May, when less than 5% of the population received a vaccine.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen received her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine developed on the island on Monday, launching its deployment to the public.

The vaccine was urgently approved by regulators in July using a shortcut that met with stiff opposition from the medical and scientific community in Taiwan, reports AP.

Meanwhile, the Chinese health authority reported on Monday that there have been no new cases of Covid-19 transmitted locally for the first time since July, offering more signs than the current epidemic which began in the end of last month could fade.

Here are other key recent developments:

• People in UK will be able to receive Covid-19 antibody tests for the first time next week as part of a new government program. Up to 8,000 adults will be able to participate in the program.
• Iran has reported an unprecedented daily number of coronavirus deaths, with 684 other deaths recorded. Sunday’s figure exceeds the 655 deaths recorded in 24 hours on August 16.
• Russia reported 20,564 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the national total to 6,747,087. Of this total, 1,661 were recorded in Moscow and 1,481 in St. Petersburg.
• Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam prepares to enter containment as cases in the most populous city in the country of Southeast Asia. Residents will be subject to stay-at-home orders from Monday, with the army and police deployed.
• Israel launched antibody testing program for kids aged three and over, as it seeks to monitor much of the protection against the virus that unvaccinated children have developed.
• Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia’s strict lockdown strategy will remain in place until at least 70% of the country is fully immunized, as the country has a record number of cases.
• Vaccinated Filipino workers will be allowed to enter Hong Kong from August 30, Manila’s Minister of Labor said.
• Japan’s top coronavirus adviser urged government to bring in medics who have not treated Covid patients to help fight the rapidly rising wave of infections.