In March 24, 2021 photo, a health worker prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine at a coronavirus vaccination centre at at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid. (GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
ADDIS ABABA / SANTIAGO / HAVANA / HELSINKI / BERLIN / MEXICO CITY / KHARTOUM / LONDON / WASHINGTON – The European Union’s executive arm will present a proposal to the World Trade Organization calling on other countries to help boost vaccine production capacity in developing countries and export more shots while they explore a possible waiver on patents.
Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission, told the European Parliament on Tuesday that “universal and fair access to vaccines and treatments must be the global community’s number one priority.”
Specifically this would mean limiting the application of export restrictions in order to keep supply chains open, and applying no restrictions to exports toward developing countries included in the Covax aid program.
The commission’s proposals are a response to a U.S. call to waive patents on vaccines, which have been met with skepticism by several member states, including Germany. EU leaders have urged President Joe Biden to lift restrictions on exports of vaccines to address the needs of developing countries before embarking on complex talks about patent waivers.
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Africa
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 4,699,255 cases as of Tuesday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic stands at 126,681 while 4,254,810 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease.
Argentina
Argentina recorded 745 COVID-19 fatalities and 35,453 infections – both records – on Tuesday. Its death toll has reached 71,771 and total cases have topped 3.37 million. More than 2.9 million people have recovered from the disease.
Argentina will extend a nighttime curfew to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) beyond its original May 21 deadline, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said Tuesday.
Chile
Chile's Health Ministry reported on Tuesday 3,787 new COVID-19 infections and 31 more deaths in one day, for a cumulative total of 1,295,862 cases and 27,965 deaths.
In its daily report, the ministry noted that five of the country's 16 regions have seen a decline in infections in the last seven days.
Cuba
Cuba reported on Tuesday 1,244 new COVID-19 infections and 12 more deaths in one day, for a total of 126,755 cases and 826 deaths, the Ministry of Public Health said.
Of the total number of new cases, 1,205 were from community transmission, the ministry's director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran reported.
Havana registered 600 new cases in the last day, with an incidence rate of 445.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, continuing to be the epicenter of the pandemic on the island.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 454 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 267,100 as of Tuesday evening, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, 13 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported, bringing the death toll to 4,021, the ministry said.
Finland
Close to 80 percent of people in Finland believe that COVID-19 vaccines are both safe and effective, showed a survey conducted by Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA).
According to an EVA press release on Tuesday, 87 percent of respondents have either already received a vaccine or are intending to take it with certainty or are likely to take it.
Of the age groups, people over the age of 65 are the most positive about taking the vaccines, and 98 percent of them have either already received the vaccines or are at least likely to do so.
Willingness to vaccinate is also particularly strong among academically educated people, and 94 percent of them have taken or are at least likely to take the vaccines.
Germany
School closures – which in Germany have amounted to around 30 weeks since March last year compared to just 11 in France – have further widened the educational gap between migrant and native pupils in Germany, amongst the highest in the industrialised world.
Even before the pandemic the drop-out rate among migrants stood at 18.2 percent, almost three times the national average.
Closing that gap is crucial, otherwise it risks derailing Germany’s efforts to integrate more than two million people who applied for asylum in the past seven years, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, experts say.
German language skills and maintaining them – are critical.
More than 50 percent of pupils born in Germany to migrant parents don’t speak German at home, the highest rate in the 37-member OECD and compared with 35 percent in France. The figure rises to 85 percent among pupils not born in Germany.
Mauritius
Mauritius confirmed nine cases of the COVID-19 variant first detected in South Africa and two initially found in the UK, according to Health Minister Kailesh Jagutpal.
The Indian Ocean island nation, whose economy is reliant on tourism, said 122 of 135 local samples showed the B.1.1.318, “a variant of interest detected on majority of cases” during its second wave of infections, Jagutpal told lawmakers.
People wait after receiving doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at a vaccination center for people over 50 years old set up at the Vasconcelos Library, in Mexico City on May 11, 2021. (PEDRO PARDO / AFP)
Mexico
Mexico began inoculating teachers and education workers on Tuesday with China's CanSino vaccine.
With face-to-face classes expected to be resumed in mid-June, some 356,342 public- and private-school teachers are to be vaccinated on May 18-22 at eight vaccination centers in the capital of Mexico city, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said.
South Africa
South Africa vaccinated 39,371 people over two days as its broad rollout of COVID-19 vaccines began, the National Department of Health said.
The slow-pace of the vaccination program, which is initially using the two-dose Pfizer Inc vaccine, highlights the challenges the country is facing in reaching its aim of the inoculating the 40 million it needs to reach so-called herd immunity. The government has said the program will pick up pace.
While almost 480,000 South African health workers have been inoculated as part of trial with single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines the government has come under criticism for delays to the broad rollout.
Initially a failure to pre-order vaccines slowed the program, which was then set back by a study that showed that the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine was less effective against a coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.
In this Feb 10, 2021 photo, health workers register patients at a COVID-19 testing station in the Richmond suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. (WALDO SWIEGERS / BLOOMBERG)
Sudan
Sudan will restrict all travellers who have visited India within the prior two weeks, the country’s health emergency committee said in a statement.
India’s total COVID-19 caseload topped 25 million on Tuesday, and there are concerns about the spread of a new, highly infectious B.1.617 variant, first found there.
Sudan’s health emergency committee also warned that total COVID-19 cases in the African country could top the 100,000 mark by mid-June if restrictions were not imposed.
UK
Another 2,412 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,450,392, according to official figures released Tuesday.
The country also reported another seven coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,691. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
More than 36.8 million people in Britain have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
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US
The coronavirus vaccines authorized in the United States are effective at combating the strain that is currently ravaging India, US infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci told a White House briefing on Tuesday.
Initial studies indicated the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are "at least partially and probably quite protective" against serious illness, hospitalization and death, "indicating another very strong reason why we should be getting vaccinated," he said.
In one study, researchers looked at the efficacy of Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines against the variants first detected in India. The findings, which were reported in a pre-print paper on biorxiv.org and have yet to be peer-reviewed, showed both vaccines were still effective.
"There is a good reason to believe that vaccinated individuals will remain protected against the B.1.617 and B.1.618 variants," the researchers was quoted as saying.
