A man wears a face mask as he walks in Piccadilly Circus, in London on Oct 19, 2021. (ALBERTO PEZZALI / AP)
NEW YORK / GABORONE / PARIS / LONDON / STOCKHOLM – Britain may be wasting nearly 3 billion pounds ($3.94 billion) on contracts for COVID-19 gear that have not given value for money, with millions spent each month storing unneeded and sometimes out-of-date kit, a watchdog said on Wednesday.
The report by the parliament-supervised National Audit Office will fuel opposition claims that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government was wasteful and nepotistic in its allocation of huge contracts during the two-year pandemic.
But the health ministry, which handles the personal protective equipment supplies, said it had been prudent to have too much rather than too little given the emergency.
According to the NAO, the ministry had identified 3.6 billion items unsuitable for front line use, the government spent over 700 million pounds on storage alone by November 2021, and 1.5 billion PPE items were estimated to be past expiry date.
"The (health) Department is continuing to manage 176 contracts where it believes it may not achieve full value for money, with an estimated 2.7 billion pounds at risk," said NAO chief Gareth Davies.
Botswana President, Mokgweetsi Masisi addresses delegates at the 50th anniversary of the UN Environment Program in Nairobi on March 3, 2022. (TONY KARUMBA / AFP)
Botswana
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi and Chief Executive Officer of NantWorks Patrick Soon-Shiong performed a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday to launch the construction of vaccine manufacturing plant in Botswana.
The NantBotswana Vaccine Manufacturing Plant will produce Pula Corbevax vaccine against COVID-19 developed in partnership with Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine, said Masisi during the ceremony.
The Corbevax vaccine, which was approved by Botswana on Monday, is a protein subunit and patent-free COVID-19 vaccine. And it is believed to be more accessible and can help low and middle-income countries to fight against the pandemic.
Medical staff members tend to a COVID-19 patient under respiratory assistance, in a room of the intensive care unit of the Andre – Gregoire hospital in Montreuil, east of Paris, on Dec 14, 2021.
(JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
France
France on Tuesday reported 217,480 new COVID-19 cases detected in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since the country lifted most COVID-19 restrictions on March 14.
According to the French Public Health Agency, 21,300 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, with 1,538 in intensive care.
As the French presidential elections are approaching, the government is likely to encourage elderly and vulnerable people to wear masks during the first round of voting on April 10, local media reported on Tuesday.
Complimentary masks will be available at all polling stations, allowing voters to choose whether or not to wear them.
Mexico
Mexico is experiencing a reprieve from the COVID-19 pandemic, after nine weeks of declining infections, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday.
Noting that dedicated COVID-19 medical units "are practically empty," he said that "we are experiencing a respite in the course of the epidemic, with nine consecutive weeks where the number of people contracting COVID-19 has decreased."
According to official data, current hospital occupancy is 97 percent lower than the peak of the pandemic during the second wave at the beginning of 2021.
Sweden
A new COVID-19 prophylactic from AstraZeneca has been authorized for use in Sweden, the country's Medical Products Agency confirmed to Xinhua on Tuesday.
Evusheld has been licensed recently for prescription to individuals who, due to underlying medical conditions, have not developed satisfying protection against COVID-19 despite being vaccinated.
The drug will be available to cancer patients treated with cytotoxic drugs, patients on dialysis, those taking immunosuppressive medication following an organ transplant, and those with diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
In this file photo taken on Jan 19, 2022, a little girl comforts her sister by placing her hand on her sister's neck as a nurse prepares to administer a pediatric dose of COVID-19 vaccine during an LA Care Health Plan immunization clinic at Los Angeles Mission College in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. (ROBYN BECK / AFP)
US
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 80 million on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
US COVID-19 case count rose to 80,000,546, with a total of 978,102 deaths, as of 12:20 pm local time, showed the data.
US COVID-19 case count rose to 80,000,546, with a total of 978,102 deaths, as of 12:20 pm local time, showed the data
California topped the state-level caseload list, with more than 9 million cases. Texas confirmed the second most cases of about 6.7 million, followed by Florida with more than 5.8 million cases and New York with more than 4.9 million cases.
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The United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, accounting for nearly 17 percent of the global caseload and nearly 16 percent of the global deaths.
US COVID-19 caseload reached 50 million on Dec 13, 2021, crossed 60 million on Jan 9, 2022, and exceeded 70 million on Jan 21.
Meanwhile, the US national public health agency said on Tuesday that BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron was estimated to account for more than half the coronavirus variants in the country.
