Vaccine hopes rise as app plan falters
DOUBTS are growing over whether ambitious plans by European governments to use contact-tracing apps to fight the spread of coronavirus will be able to be implemented with any real effectiveness soon.
In contrast, there appears to be some movement forward in the sprint to find a vaccine against Covid-19, bolstered by a $1 billion investment from the US vaccine agency.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged on Wednesday to have a “test, track and trace” programme for Covid-19 in place in Britain by June 1.
But Security Minister James Brokenshire told the BBC yesterday that while he remains “confident” the tracing system will be in place by June 1, an app intended to help track the virus was not ready. He suggested “technical issues” were the reason for its failure to be introduced as planned by mid-may.
Experts say that being able to quickly identify people exposed to the virus can help stop the spread of the contagious respiratory illness, but efforts to put apps in place have come across technical problems and fears of privacy intrusions.
The French government has also been forced to delay deployment of its planned contact-tracing app. Initially expected last week as the country started lifting confinement measures, it will not be ready before next month due to technical issues and concerns over privacy.
Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said that the country’s contact-tracing app would begin tests “in the coming days”. But he made no mention of whether Italy had hired teams of contact-tracers to actually conduct interviews and get in touch with people who had been in contact with Covid-19 patients, as other European countries have done.
Spain’s economy minister Nadia Calvino said on Wednesday in parliament that Spain is making preparations to test a European Bluetooth-based app at the end of June in the Canary Islands. But the adoption of the app has taken a back seat to the hiring of old-school human tracers in Spain. The government has said that the technology will be adopted only if it adds value to the tracing efforts that are being deployed by the country’s 17 regional administrations.
Meanwhile, drug maker Astrazeneca said it has secured the first agreements for 400 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine that is now being tested at the University of Oxford, one of the most advanced projects in the search for a coronavirus vaccine.
The Anglo-swedish company reported it had received more than $1bn from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for the development, production and delivery of the vaccine, starting this autumn.
Astrazeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the company “will do everything in our power to make
this vaccine quickly and widely available”.
Around the world, the effort to get back to business is raising worries over risks of new infections.
In Italy, one of Europe’s worsthit countries, authorities warned that people are violating social distancing guidelines after a strict lockdown was lifted, threatening the country’s recovery.
“Now is not the time for parties, nightlife and getting together in crowds,” Mr Conte warned in parliament. “Be careful. Because exposing yourselves to contagion means exposing your loved ones to contagion.”
Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said he was asking local police to increase patrols of nightspots, be more severe in handing out fines and close any bars or restaurants in flagrant violation of the rules.
Cases in Milan, the seat of the hard-hit region of Lombardy, are rising as Italy continues to relax its long lockdown. Since Sunday, there have been 137 new cases in the city of 1.4m residents.
In China the country’s communist leadership was taking extensive precautions to prevent any infections as it opened its National People’s Congress and a parallel meeting of advisers. The meetings in Beijing were delayed for nearly two months due to the pandemic.
About five million people worldwide have been confirmed infected, and more than 328,000 deaths have been recorded.