Suspects found in Macron’s jab data leak

PARIS: French officials said on Wednesday they identified health workers suspected of leaking the vaccination status and personal details of President Emmanuel Macron. The workers will be now be referred to their oversight body for possible actions.

The details of his “health pass”, a QR code that acts as proof of vaccination, has been shared on social media recently. The health pass shared on social media also showed his full name and date of birth.

Russia, meanwhile, on Thursday reported 820 deaths in the last 24 hours, matching an alltime high that it last reached on August 26. The government coronavirus task force also said it recorded 21,438 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the national case tally to 7,354,995 since the pandemic began.

The EU’S drug watchdog expects to decide in October whether to approve booster doses of the Pfizer-biontech vaccine for people aged over 16, a senior official said on Thursday.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is also set to rule at the same time on further doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for immunocompromised people, its head of vaccine strategy Marco Cavaleri told journalists.

Bolsonaro is in isolation after United Nations trip Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, just back from the UN, isolated himself at home on Wednesday and cancelled a trip after his health minister tested positive for Covid. Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa recommended that the entire presidential delegation to the UNGA remain in isolation and undergo more tests. Bolsonaro, a vaccine sceptic, defied UN rules that asked all those in attendance to be inoculated against the virus.

Fake certificate issued in Nawaz Sharif’s name

Two officials of the health department in Pakistan’s Punjab province were suspended on Thursday for issuing a fake vaccine certificate in the name of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at a government hospital in Lahore. Sharif, who is currently based in London where he has been undergoing medical treatment since November 2019, was administered the first dose of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac on Wednesday as per National Command Operation Centre records, a Punjab government official told PTI.