This May 8, 2014 photo shows British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's manufacturing site in Macclesfield, northwest England. (ANDREW YATES / AFP)
PARIS / GENEVA / VIENNA / WASHINGTON – Britain's medicines regulator has approved AstraZeneca's antibody-based COVID-19 treatment for adults with poor immune response, marking a major step in the fight against the pandemic as infections surge globally amid spread of the Omicron variant.
The decision to grant approval for the treatment was endorsed by the government's independent scientific advisory body after reviewing the evidence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said on Thursday
The decision to grant approval for the treatment was endorsed by the government's independent scientific advisory body after reviewing the evidence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said on Thursday.
Figures showing a global rise in COVID-19 cases could herald a much bigger problem, the World Health Organization said this week, warning nations to remain vigilant as some countries also report a drop in testing rates.
Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca's antibody cocktail, branded Evusheld, was found to cut the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77 percent in trials, with protection lasting for at least six months after a single dose, the MHRA said.
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It has already been authorized in the United States to prevent COVID-19 infections in individuals with weak immune systems or a history of severe side effects from coronavirus vaccines.
Britain has given it a similar approval and the MHRA said that the treatment, given as an intra-muscular injection, should not be administered to people infected with the COVID-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus or who have had recent exposure to someone with the virus.
However, the regulator has cautioned that there was insufficient data to evaluate fully Evusheld's effectiveness against the Omicron variant or how long it would work against the variant, adding that it is liaising with AstraZeneca on that.
AstraZeneca in December said that a lab study had found that the antibody cocktail retained neutralizing activity against Omicron, reporting the first such data for the treatment.
In this file photo taken on Jan 14, 2022, an indigenous girl receives the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, at the Clinicas hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP)
Americas
COVID-19 infections and deaths are declining in most of the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday, with the exception of the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands where cases increased by 56.6 percent in the past week.
In Central America, COVID-19 deaths decreased 28 percent, it said.
The regional health agency warned, however, transmission is not yet under control and cases are rising again in other parts of the world, such as the Western Pacific and Africa, while 21 countries and territories in the Americas have yet to vaccinate half of their population.
People crowd a Christmas market in Vienna, Austria on Nov 21, 2021. The Austrian government announced a nationwide lockdown that will start Monday and comes as average daily deaths have tripled in recent weeks and hospitals in heavily hit states have warned that intensive care units are reaching capacity. (VADIM GHIRDA / AP)
Austria
Austria on Wednesday reported 58,583 new COVID-19 infections in the previous 24 hours, a new daily record, according to data from the country's Interior Ministry.
It was the first time that daily COVID-19 cases in the Alpine country, with a population of around 9 million, have topped 50,000 since the beginning of the pandemic.
A total of 3,033 people in Austria are now hospitalized with coronavirus, and 221 of them are in intensive care units.
However, health authorities said there is currently no overload on the health system.
The country has seen surging cases since it dropped most of its COVID-19 restrictions earlier this month.
Austrian broadcaster ORF on Wednesday quoted health experts as saying that daily infection numbers and the number of hospitalized patients in Austria will continue to increase significantly till the end of March.
A woman receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at a vaccination centre in Santiago, on Dec 23, 2021. (JAVIER TORRES / AFP)
Chile
Chile is averaging under 15,000 daily COVID-19 cases, according to the weekly moving average, to continue its downward trend, after registering 12,566 new infections in the last 24 hours, for a total of 3,336,614 cases, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
There were also 23 deaths related to the virus in the same day, bringing the death toll to 44,062.
Meanwhile, the 24-hour COVID-19 positivity rate was 10.98 percent nationally and 8.45 percent in the Santiago Metropolitan Region in the past day.
Chile closed 2021 with 2,000 infections per day, according to the weekly moving average, but the Omicron variant sent infections soaring to peaks of over 38,000 in a single day in February.
However, experts agree that the South American country has overcome the wave and that infections will continue to decline in the coming weeks.
A woman waits to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site, in Fontainebleau, south of Paris on Dec 6, 2021. (THIBAULT CAMUS / AP)
France
France on Wednesday reported more than 108,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to data from the National Health Agency.
On Monday, the government lifted COVID-19 restrictive measures such as the vaccine pass and the mask mandate in indoor areas
It was the second consecutive day that daily cases in the country have topped 100,000 after 116,618 cases were recorded the day before.
According to the health agency, both numbers of hospitalizations and intensive care patients are on the decline, stabilizing at 20,757 and 1,728 respectively.
On Monday, the government lifted COVID-19 restrictive measures such as the vaccine pass and the mask mandate in indoor areas.
Some 54 million people in France have received at least one vaccine dose, while almost 40 million have got their booster shots, according to the latest figures from the Health Ministry.
France has also started to administer a fourth vaccine dose to people over the age of 80 who have received their booster shot.
Of the country's 4.1 million people over the age of 80, 3.1 million have already had the booster shot, according to media reports.
An inspector appointed by the exhibitors, wearing a sign on her back reading "COVID-Check", walks through Christmas market on Roncalliplatz near the cathedral in Cologne, Germany on Nov 22, 2021. (OLIVER BERG / DPA VIA AP)
Germany
Germany plans to spend up to 2.861 billion euros ($3.14 billion) to ensure that COVID-19 vaccine makers have enough production capacity available to supply the country with shots in future outbreaks through 2029, the economy ministry said.
Germany's cabinet approved plans on Wednesday to sign contracts with BioNTech, CureVac/GSK, Wacker/CordenPharma, Celonic and IDT, the ministry said in a statement.
The contracts will maintain the ratcheted-up production capacities created during the coronavirus pandemic by paying an annual standby fee, ensuring enough vaccine can be produced quickly for the population.
"We have learned from the coronavirus pandemic and initial vaccine shortage: With these contracts, we are securing vaccine production and supply for years to come and are taking precautions for the citizens of Germany," said Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
The contracts give the government access rights to the companies' production capacities if the coronavirus pandemic persists or a new pandemic breaks out, and contain arrangements stipulating vaccine supply and production for the government.
The next step is to sign pandemic readiness agreements with the five companies, according to the economy ministry.
Meanwhile, the German government on Wednesday adopted several measures including tax relief and financial support for citizens to cushion the impact of rising energy prices and the COVID-19 crisis.
The comprehensive set of relief measures amounted to more than 15 billion euros ($16.5 billion), according to the German government. In order to support people with low income, this year's basic tax-free allowance is to be raised by 363 euros to 10,347 euros.
Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends a press conference on the annual global WTO trade forecast at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 31, 2021. (SALVATORE DI NOLFI / POOL / KEYSTONE / AFP)
WTO
The World Trade Organization praised a provisional deal to waive patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines after more than a year of deadlock, though drugmakers said the move risked undermining the industry's ability to respond to future health crises.
The United States, the European Union, India and South Africa agreed on Tuesday on key elements for a waiver.
"This is a major step forward," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said after Wednesday's agreement was announced. "But we are not there yet. We have more work to do to ensure that we have the support of the entire WTO membership."It now needs the backing of the 164 members of the WTO, which takes decisions based on consensus, so rejection by just one country could still block an accord.
If approved, the agreement would mean countries could permit domestic manufacturers to produce vaccines without patent-holder consent for three or five years. But only developing countries accounting for less than 10 percent of global exports of COVID-19 shots in 2021 could do this.
US
A new study of COVID-19 rates among inmates and staff at 101 US federal prisons compared with surrounding counties has suggested three-times-higher infection rates in prisons.
German and US researchers conducted the study, using data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center from May 18, 2020, to Jan 31, 2021, according to a report of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
The study, published in BMC Public Health, also assessed the effects of release of prisoners on COVID-19 rates among inmates, staff, and the community.
"These studies can help inform infectious disease response policies in prisons that help to potentially mitigate rates of infection in incarcerated populations, staff, and the community at large," the researchers wrote.
The researchers noted that prisons have been the sites of some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks, with one in four inmates testing positive, at rates that were three to six times higher than the US public.
