Covax: vaccine distribution begins in …

WHO Vaccines Section Chief Kate O’Brienannounced that at the end of January the first doses of coronavirus vaccines envisaged in the private and public alliance will begin to be distributed Covax, created to supply countries that do not have the economic capacity to purchase vaccines from pharmaceutical companies or producing states. At the same time, the WHO demanded that European governments They redouble their efforts to stop the increase in second wave covid-19 infections.

The Covax alliance is organizing the global distribution of vaccines in an attempt to guarantee a “fairer” global distribution, which has resulted in the signing of agreements with laboratories for 2 billion doses.

This figure should reach, according to Covax objectives, to apply doses to 20% of the population in each country participating in the agreement at the end of this year and that 92 percent of the poorest countries have their purchasing expenses covered.

The Covax was created in parallel with the unsuccessful attempt to promote a suspension of intellectual property rules for vaccines, which would have allowed the free production of active ingredients without the need to negotiate and purchase doses from laboratories. The request was presented by India and South Africa, with the support of 99 countries, to the World Trade Organization (WTO), but it failed under pressure from the economic powers.

On the other hand, O’Brien recalled that the new variations of the virus that have appeared in the United Kingdom and South Africa do not initially affect the effectiveness of the vaccines.

The second wave requires more efforts in Europe

While vaccination campaigns are just beginning in the few countries that have had the economic capacity to obtain doses of approved vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Europe to redouble its efforts to contain a strong surge in the coronavirus attributed to the new mutation.

WHO director for Europe, Hans Kluge, argued that Europe must “do more” in the face of an “alarming situation”. “Basic measures must be stepped up to reduce transmission, lighten our Covid-19 services and save lives,” said Kluge, who found it necessary to add detection and tracking systems after detecting the variant. Britain in 22 countries in the region, accounting for more than 27.6 million cases and 603,000 deaths.

In this context and with new measures adopted by various governments, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the vaccine from the American laboratory Moderna, a week after authorizing that of Pfizer / BioNTech.

In Spain, where on Thursday the two million infections accumulated since the start of the pandemic were exceeded and deaths due to the disease totaled 51,675, the health situation generates “a lot of concern”, said the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, and warned that “they are coming complicated weeks.”

On the other hand, Italy has started a partial relaxation of health measures with the return to classes of students up to 13 years old and the reopening of bars and restaurants, after the limitations imposed for the Christmas and New Year holidays, although that this will remain in effect. until January 15 a night curfew and the ban on unjustified movements in the country.

In Portugal, the government decided to tighten traffic restrictions and extend the curfew to almost the entire country from this weekend, after registering a record 10,000 new cases in 24 hours.

The outlook in the UK is alarming, keeping England in quarantine and stepping up the vaccination campaign, and where health officials reported 52,618 new cases, 3,600 new hospitalizations and 1,162 deaths on Thursday.

“The public health system is about to be overwhelmed, there has been no other time during this pandemic that it has been more concerned than today”, warned Mayor Sadig Khan, imploring “to stay at home,” according to the news agency. Europa Press.

South Africa, the country with the most infections in Africa and suffering from a new local variant, will receive its first vaccines from the Serum Institute of India between this month and next, and hopes to vaccinate two-thirds of its population before the end of the year, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize reported after authorities last night, a record of daily infections with 21,832.

In Asia, Japan announced that from tomorrow and for a month a state of emergency will reign in the capital, Tokyo, and three adjacent regions, after reporting a new maximum of cases with 6,100 yesterday, so restaurants and bars will limit their attention.

Today, worldwide, 87.5 million Covid-19 infections and around 1.89 million deaths have been reported, after adding 780,613 and 14,597 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the database. data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).