- The German vaccination commission said it could not recommend the use of the AstraZeneca / Oxford coronavirus vaccine for people over 65 years of age.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) said a third of the African continent will be vaccinated by the end of 2021.
- The U.S. economy shrank 3.5 percent last year, the strongest to fall since 1946, according to official data.
- About 101 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 2.17 million have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 55.7 million patients have recovered.
This is Usaid Siddiqui in Toronto. Here are the latest updates from Thursday, January 28:
The virus cost global tourism $ 1.3 trillion by 2020: the UN
The coronavirus crisis meant a $ 1.3 trillion loss of revenue for the global tourism sector in 2020, as the number of people traveling collapsed, the UN said, calling it “the worst year in the history of tourism ”.
Revenues lost last year accounted for “more than 11 times the loss recorded during the global economic crisis of 2009,” the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization said in a statement, warning that between 100 and 120 million of direct occupations in tourism were in jeopardy.
The WHO team will visit hospitals, laboratories and markets in Wuhan
Scientists led by the World Health Organization (WHO) plan to visit hospitals, laboratories and markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the WHO said.
“Field visits will include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Huanan market, the Wuhan CDC laboratory,” the Geneva-based agency said in a tweet, adding that they would speak with some of the first COVID-patients. 19 of the outbreak that began in December 2019.
The team plans to visit hospitals, laboratories and markets. Field visits will include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Huanan Market and the Wuhan CDC Laboratory. They will talk to those who responded first and some of the first # COVID19 patients.https: //t.co/Owd6GEBoAj
– World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 28, 2021
Switzerland claims that deliveries of Modern COVID-19 vaccines will be delayed
Moderna has warned Switzerland that its deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines will be delayed, according to the Swiss health ministry, which caused deficits in February that the country expects the US company to offset in March.
Delays continue European supply problems with vaccine maker AstraZeneca, as well as with Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, as demand for COVID-19 shots is high, but supplies remain stagnant and production is limited.
New York recorded 50% deaths in nursing homes – AG
New York may have highlighted up to 50% of COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents, the state attorney general said in a report.
Attorney General Letitia James has been examining for months the discrepancies between the number of deaths reported by the state Department of Health and the number of deaths reported by the homes themselves.
A patient is loaded in the back of an ambulance by emergency medical workers who are outside the Cobble Hill Health Center in the New York City district of Brooklyn. [File: John Minchillo/AP]
The mayor of Tampa issues an outside mask order for the Super Bowl
Anyone visiting Tampa’s popular outdoor destinations for the Super Bowl will need to wear a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor on Wednesday signed an executive order that masks should be worn outside the center, in neighborhoods around Raymond James Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be held, and at other tourist spots.
20-25% of Russians have antibodies against the virus (TASS)
The head of Russia’s consumer safety watchdog said about 20-25 percent of Russians have COVID-19 antibodies, the TASS news agency reported.
Russia’s coronavirus working group has reported 19,138 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, including 2,897 in Moscow, a total of 3,793,810 since the pandemic began.
AstraZeneca, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, defends the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine
AstraZeneca and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the effectiveness of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine after German regulators said it should not be given to people over 65.
A spokesman for the UK-based company said the latest data from clinical trials for its vaccine, developed with Oxford University, “support efficacy in the age group over 65 years”.
The company is awaiting a decision from the EU drug regulator, the spokesman added.
Mutations in France are spreading rapidly: Minister of Health
French Health Minister Olivier Veran warned the public that coronavirus mutations are spreading rapidly on Thursday as the country weighs in to introduce more measures to contain the pandemic.
“What we want to avoid is an epidemic within the epidemic,” Veran told reporters, as France continued to report more than 20,000 new cases of the virus each day.
German jabs do not recommend AstraZeneca for the elderly
The German vaccination commission said it could not recommend the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for the elderly, the latest in a row on the punch that has put Britain and the EU on a path of collision.
The group of scientific experts, called STIKO, said the vaccine should only be used for “people aged 18 to 65 according to available data.”
“There is currently not enough data to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine for people 65 and older,” the group said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed in conjunction with Oxford University, has not yet received approval for general use in the European Union. [File: Monirul Alam/EPA]
Germany will ban certain travelers amid fears of virus variants
Germany is preparing entry bans for travelers from the UK, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to limit the spread of the most contagious variants of the coronavirus that is spreading in those countries, Interior Minister Horst said on Thursday Seehofer.
“To protect our population, there should be no entry from regions where these virus variants are rampant,” he said on the sidelines of a virtual meeting with his EU counterparts.
One-third of Africa will be vaccinated this year: the WHO
Africa can expect to see at least 30 percent of its population immunized against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, the WHO said Thursday, when vaccines begin to spread across the continent.
It is estimated that Africa will need 1.5 billion doses of vaccine to immunize 60% of its 1.3 billion people, the herd immunity threshold against COVID-19.
Funerals carrying personal protective equipment carry a coffin during the burial of a COVID-19 victim, amid a nationwide closure of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Olifantsvlei Cemetery in the south west of Johannesburg, South Africa [File: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
The US economy in 2020 has the worst year since 1946
The U.S. economy has shrunk by 3.5 percent as the COVID-19 pandemic closed large sectors of daily and business life, according to government data released.
It was the largest contraction in the world’s largest economy since 1946, the Commerce Department said.