These are the global coronavirus stories you need to know about this week.
Vietnam is reporting its first outbreak of COVID-19 in nearly 2 months. It’s been traced to a factory in the northern province of Hai Duong. The outbreak has spread to at least 10 cities and provinces, including the capital Hanoi. The UK variant was detected in 12 of 276 newly diagnosed patients.
Japan is set to extend its state of emergency for Tokyo and other regions until March 7, as hospitals continue to come under pressure despite a decline in new COVID-19 cases.
Singapore became the first Asian country to approve Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine after its Health Sciences Authority granted interim authorisation for over-18s.
The UK is past the latest peak, Chief Medical Adviser Professor Chris Whitty said on Wednesday. However, cases, hospitalisations, and deaths remain high. First-dose vaccinations passed 10 million on Tuesday, with 1 in 5 adults now vaccinated. However, the E484K virus mutation that’s seen in the South African and Brazilian variants, and linked to impacting vaccine efficacy, has now been detected in UK variants. Door-to-door testing is taking place in areas where the South African variant has been found in people with no travel history.
The University of Oxford released preprint data showing its vaccine produced with AstraZeneca has 76% efficacy against symptomatic infection for 3 months after a single dose. It also suggested the vaccine reduced transmission of infections, with a 67% reduction in positive swabs among those vaccinated. A UK Biobank study found that 99% of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 retained antibodies to the virus for 3 months after infection.
In Belgium, 3% of the population has received the first vaccine although many care workers in Wallonia and Brussels have been refusing vaccination. The health authorities decided that the AstraZeneca vaccine will not be given to people over 55-years of age at first.
Deaths in Spain reached 724 on Tuesday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of new infections seems to be declining slowly with the incidence at 14 days remaining high at 815 cases per 100,000 people. Spain will decide in the next few days whether to use or not the AstraZeneca vaccine in over-65s. The Spanish Government has also recognised COVID-19 as an occupational disease for health workers, providing greater job security. Spain is restricting air travel from Brazil and South Africa to help prevent the entry of the new variants into the country.
Portugal has the highest mortality rate in the European Union, with 247.55 deaths per million inhabitants. In January, the country had 5576 deaths (44.6% of the total since the beginning of the pandemic) and 306,838 infections (42.6% of the total). With the health system on the verge of collapse, the country is asking for international help. As of Wednesday, 350,945 doses of vaccines had been administered.
In Italy, the pandemic trend is slightly improving. The R number is now 0.84 but there’s still pressure on health services. AIFA, the Italian national drug regulator, approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for 18 to 55-year-olds but later extended it to older people. Italy is facing a political crisis and Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, was asked to form a caretaker government.
In France, cases are still high, including the UK variant. Since the start of the vaccination campaign 1,682,951 first doses have been given, and 140,140 second doses. On Tuesday, in a TV interview, President Emmanuel Macron promised offers of vaccination will be offered all adults who want it “by the end of the summer”. Vaccination of people in retirement and care homes should be completed in mid-February.
France is only offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to under-65s because of a lack of trial data in older adults. According to the Ministry of Health, 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are expected in France this month.
In Germany, national vaccination plans are being drawn up but there will be too few doses available in the first quarter of the year. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that everyone could be offered vaccination by the end of the summer.
In Brazil, the regulatory agency Anvisa is evaluating the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The country has experienced 13 days with a daily average of deaths above 1000, the longest period since last August. As of Wednesday, the country had administered 2,496,169 vaccine doses, equating to 1.18% of the population.
Mexico authorised emergency use of the Sputnik V vaccine and opened an online registry for over-60s in preparation for the vaccine roll out.
Peru granted conditional approval of the Pfizer vaccine and expects to receive the first doses of the Sinopharm vaccine by next week. Peru and Mexico have experienced the highest COVID-19 deaths in the region among health professionals.
Even as the new daily case numbers in the United States have started to decline, one expert said things are set to get much worse. Genomic tracking by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows hundreds of cases of the UK variant detected across the country, along with three cases of the South African variant, and one of the Brazilian variant. Meanwhile, frustration over the vaccine rollout continues, with reports of some physicians facing a backlash after they gave leftover vaccine doses to people nearby who were outside the prioritised groups. The federal government is now set to ship vaccines directly to neighbourhood pharmacies in an effort to speed uptake, but a third of healthcare workers, are unsure of whether they will have the vaccine.
See more global coronavirus updates in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Centre.
