The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Africa needs an additional 225 million COVID doses of vaccine to reach 10 percent immunity target by September. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday.
Novavax expects result of its COVID vaccine trial next week
Novavax, a biotechnology company, says results from the phase three study of its COVID-19 vaccine in the United States is expected next week.
Sbtanley Erck, chief executive officer (CEO) Novavax, said this on Thursday at the company’s headquarters in Gaithersburg.
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“We’re just finishing up a Phase 3 trial in the US where we enrolled a group of 30,000 people — 20,000 of those people got vaccinated, 10,000 had placebo— and I’m happy to say that the data are coming very soon. In fact, we hope to announce those data next week,” Erck said.
US to donate 500 million vaccines to other nations.
President Joe Biden says his administration will buy and donate 500 million Pfizer vaccines doses to other nations.
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Biden disclosed this on Thursday after a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“America knows first-hand the tragedy of this pandemic. We’ve had more people die in the United States than anywhere in the world, nearly 600,000 of our fellow Americans,” he said.
“We know the tragedy. We also know the path to recovery.”
Two hundred doses of the vaccine are expected to be delivered in 2021 while the other 300 million will be delivered in the first half of 2022.
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Africa needs additional 225 million vaccine doses to reach 10 percent immunity target
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, says the continent needs an extra 225 million doses to vaccinate a tenth of its population by September 2021.
“With vaccine stocks and shipments drying up, the continent’s vaccination coverage for the first dose remains stuck at 2% and at about 1% in sub-Saharan Africa,” Moeti said.
“Vaccines have been proven to prevent cases and deaths, so countries that can, must urgently share COVID-19 vaccines. It’s do or die on dose sharing for Africa.”
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Moeti commended President Biden plans to donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID vaccine, adding that it is an important step for Africa.
FDA extends storage time for Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an extension to the shelf life of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
This means that the storage time for the vaccine is now extended from three months to four months.
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“The decision is based on data from ongoing stability assessment studies, which have demonstrated that the vaccine is stable at 4.5 months when refrigerated at temperatures of 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit,” the company said in a statement.
Japan approves nationwide bookings for mass vaccination in Tokyo, Osaka
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Japan says elderly people nationwide can now book COVID-19 vaccination at state-run mass vaccination centres in Tokyo and Osaka.
The move to expand the target areas from seven prefectures in the Tokyo and Kansai areas is expected to speed up the country’s vaccination drive.
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