The delay in the Tokyo Olympics will take place without foreign spectators, the organizing committee said, risking millions of dollars in lost ticket revenue. The UK has vaccinated half of all adults, according to a tweet from the country’s health secretary.
AstraZeneca Plc said it will supply 230 million vaccines through Covax in the coming months. Pfizer Inc. warned the European Union that any threat to ban vaccine exports could risk abandoning production if the UK retaliated by retaining key ingredients for its Covid-19 shot.
Meanwhile, Paris entered a third blockade, Poland closed shopping malls and Germany approached a threshold that could lead to further restrictions. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive and isolated himself, the country’s health minister said.
Main developments:
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AstraZeneca reveals supply plans (7:52 am NY)
The UK-based drug maker will supply 230 million doses of its vaccine to 142 countries in the coming months, said President Leif Johannson in Beijing. The announcement came amid setbacks in Europe after Germany and other nations stopped administering the vaccine amid concerns it was related to blood clots. The drama is over, however, with countries reinstating the doses after the regulator expressed the benefits.
UK Track Vaccination Unit (7:18 am NY)
More than half of UK adults have now received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, putting the nation on track to deliver a first dose of vaccine by the end of July. In comparison, less than one in 10 adults in the European Union have been inoculated.
However, the progress of the UK is threatened, as resilient variants of the virus could undermine the effectiveness of the sting and so-called vaccine nationalism could stifle the UK’s steady supply.
Tokyo Olympics avoid foreign spectators (7:08 am NY)
The largest international sporting event in the world will take place without foreign spectators and tickets purchased by them will be refunded. A decision on limiting national fans will be made in April, said Toshiro Muto, CEO of Tokyo 2020.
Before postponing the games last year, some 600,000 foreign visitors were expected to attend, in addition to more than 11,000 athletes.
Pfizer warns of interruption (17:52 HK)
The drug maker spoke with the EU as tensions over the supply of vaccines between the UK and the bloc grow. The manufacture of lipids (fatty material used to supply the genetic material to the heart of the Pfizer vaccine and German partner BioNTech SE) takes place in a secret location in the UK and is sent to the EU where the shootings end.
“We have made it clear to all stakeholders that the free movement of goods and supplies across borders is absolutely critical for Pfizer and for the patients we care for,” a Pfizer spokesman said in an email statement. The Telegraph first reported on the talks on Friday.
Pakistani Prime Minister tests positive (17:46 HK)
Imran Khan is the latest head of government to contract the virus after UK Boris Johnson, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and former US President Donald Trump. Khan isolates himself at home, Health Minister Faisal Sultan said in a tweet.
European cases accelerate (17:30 HK)
Poland recorded 26,405 new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours, the second largest daily increase this year, causing the nation to close shopping malls. In Sweden, even if AstraZeneca vaccines are resumed, it is unlikely that all adults will be fully vaccinated with two doses before June 30, according to vaccine coordinator Richard Bergstrom in an interview with Svenska Dagbladet . There were two health workers in Denmark admitwith two symptoms of blood clots in the two weeks following the shooting of AstraZeneca and one has died, the newspaper Ekstra Bladet reported. In the Czech Republic, there were signs of a pandemic decline with the lowest working day figure in more than a month for new infections.
Senegal emergency elevators (5:25 pm HK)
Senegal lifted the state of emergency, ending a night curfew in the Dakar and Thies regions in an attempt to bolster an economy heavily affected by movement restrictions during a first wave of the virus. The decision comes when Senegal reached the threshold of 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
German rate close to the restriction threshold (16:46 HK)
Germany’s seven-day incidence rate rose to 99.9 per 100,000 on Saturday, the highest in nearly two months, according to the country’s RKI health institute, and close to the threshold at which Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional officials agreed to reimpose restrictions.
On Monday, Merkel and state leaders will discuss whether restrictions should be extended until April or even tightened, rather than eased, as the government suggested earlier this month. that the country is facing a resurgence of the virus that affects all of Europe. Merkel said on Friday that Germany will do it accelerate its vaccination action against Covid-19 in April, after regulators made clear the shooting of AstraZeneca.
Daily cases of the Philippines: arrive at the registry (16:14 HK)
The Philippines, home of the second worst outbreak in Southeast Asia, reported 7,999 record coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the total to more than 656,000. The government has asked state offices not to engage in critical services reduce operations from March 22 to April 4.
Previously, he ordered restaurants in areas like Manila to operate at full capacity until April 4. It also limited religious conferences and meetings and closed museums and other tourist attractions.
Daily cases of Hungary, record of death successes (16:12 HK)
Hungary recorded a record 227 daily deaths from Covid-19 as the country struggles to reduce infections despite having the second highest vaccination rate in the European Union. New cases grew by 11,132 unprecedented.
On Friday, the government announced the extension of a closure (which would have expired on Monday and forced the closure of most stores) for at least another week.
Sri Lanka approves Sinopharm vaccine (3:21 pm HK)
Sri Lanka approved the The Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, Xinhua reported, citing a government minister. It is the third vaccine to get approval in the country, after the shootings against AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.
Australia and New Zealand discuss the corridor (8:05 am HK)
Australia and New Zealand could afford it two-way travel between them without the need for quarantine in a few weeks, according to the Australian Financial Review, which cites Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan.
Chicago hospital reported giving vaccines off-site (7:57 am HK)
Loretto Hospital, a safety net institution in West Austin, Chicago, faces heat as supposed administer off-site vaccines, including the Trump Tower, according to local news reports.
The hospital board, which includes elected officials, says the events “arose from a sincere desire to vaccinate as many eligible children as possible, especially people of color.” But he added that the actions “fall outside the scope of Loretto Hospital’s main mission” and that two executives have been implicated, according to a statement Friday.
The city “will not tolerate providers who blatantly disregard the Chicago Department of Public Health’s distribution guidelines,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday in a statement.
Paris is closed (7:24 am HK)
A third blockade that affected several French regions, including the Paris area, went into effect Friday at midnight. Only essential companies and schools will remain open, with restrictions that will have to remain in place for four weeks. Like the rest of the country, the French capital has had a nightly curfew since mid-January with cafes, restaurants, bars and theaters closed. However, the infection rate has risen and hospitals are under increasing stress.
More openings throughout the United States (6:40 am HK)
At least three more states said they would open vaccination requirements to people 16 years or older before President Joe Biden’s May 1 deadline. More than a dozen other states have said they would start getting vaccinated all adults by then.
North Dakota said it would extend eligibility on March 29. Maine and Vermont said they will do so before April 19th.
An outbreak was reported to hit Mar-a-Lago (6:11 am HK)
Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach club of former President Donald Trump, is partially closed due to a Covid-19 outbreak, the Associated Press reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, including a club member who was notified by telephone.
Some workers were quarantined and a section had been closed for a short period, according to a person who he refused to be appointed in the AP report.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to an independent request for confirmation of the report, nor did Mar-a-Lago managing director Bernd Lembcke. A woman who answered the phone at the club refused to comment and did not give her name.
The dean of the Baylor School of Medicine, Peter Hotez, explains the dangers associated with what he calls the “abysmal” manipulation of European nations by AstraZeneca Plc vaccine. He also discusses virus variants and the challenge of inoculating the developing world during an interview with Bloomberg Surveillance.
– With the assistance of Ian Fisher, Stephen Treloar, Ian Wishart, Suzi Ring, Marthe Fourcade, Lars Erik Taraldsen, Anton Wilen, Jeanette Rodrigues, Alex Vasquez, Rachel Gamarski, Jonathan Levin, Gaspard Sebag, Shruti Singh, Siegfrid Alegado, Zoltan Simon, Mariajose Vera, Ania Nussbaum, Wojciech Moskwa, Love Liman, Katarina Hoije and Krystof Chamonikolas
(An earlier version of this story was corrected by Brazilian virus records.)