EU to fast-track jabs against variants; third wave imminent

BERLIN: The European Union has agreed to fasttrack approvals of vaccines updated to target coronavirus variants, the bloc’s health commissioner said on Sunday, following criticism of the EU’S sluggish vaccine drive.

“We looked at the process together with the European Medicines Agency (EMA),” Stella Kyriakides told German daily Augsburger Allgemeine in an interview.

“And we have now decided that a vaccine, which has been improved by a manufacturer based on its previous vaccine to combat new mutations, no longer has to go through the entire approvals process.

“So it will be faster to have suitable vaccines available without cuting corners on safety,” she said.

The EU’S vaccine rollout has been snagged by delays and controversies, leaving it lagging behind countries like the United States, Britain and Israel where a larger share of the population has been injected so far.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last week admited that mistakes had been made in procuring vaccines on behalf of all 27-member states.

She told the European Parliament that the bloc had been late to authorise jabs, and had underestimated the difficulties of vaccine mass production. In the UAE, the Ministry of Health and Prevention ( MOHAP), announced that it conducted 207,432 additional COVID-19 tests over the past 24 hours, using state-of-the-art medical testing equipment.

In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry stressed its aim to continue expanding the scope of testing nationwide to facilitate the early detection of coronavirus cases and carry out the necessary treatment. As part of its intensified testing campaign, the ministry announced 3,167 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the UAE to 348,772.

According to the Ministry, the infected individuals are from various nationalities, are in a stable condition, and receiving the necessary care.

MOHAP also announced 13 deaths due to COVID-19 complications, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 1,014.

The Ministry expressed its sincere condolences to the family of the deceased and wished COVID-19 patients a speedy and full recovery. It called on all members of the society to cooperate with health authorities, adhere to the instructions and physical distance to ensure the health and safety of all.

MOHAP also noted that an additional 5,059 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 331,839.

The ministry has administered 49,967 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the past 24 hours.

The total number of doses given so far stands at 5,055,231 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 51.11 doses per 100 people.

In Lebanon, the health authorities launched COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday with jabs for healthcare workers and the elderly, in a bid to rein in the pandemic amid a deepening economic crisis.

The country has been under lockdown since mid-january, ater an unprecedented spike in cases blamed on holiday gatherings forced overwhelmed hospitals to turn away patients.

Medical workers and those aged over 75 were the first to receive Pfizer/biontech shots at three major Beirut hospitals, a day ater a shipment of 28,500 doses arrived at the capital’s airport.

The World Bank has allocated $34 million to inoculate an initial two million of Lebanon’s six million inhabitants.

The pandemic has compounded the woes of a country batling a dire economic crisis and still reeling from a massive port explosion last summer that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital Beirut.

In the UK, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed a “significant milestone” on Sunday as data showed 15 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccinations had been delivered, fuelling calls for the government to start relaxing stringent lockdown measures. The vaccine programme is seen as one of few successes in the government’s handling of a pandemic that has let the country with a higher death toll and worse economic damage than its peers. With a population of around 67 million, the United Kingdom’s vaccination progress is among the fastest in the world.

The British government set a Feb. 15 target date to reach 15 million people in priority categories: care home residents and staff, frontline health and care workers, all those aged 70 or over and the clinically extremely vulnerable.

Health experts in Canada have warned of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic ater variants of the virus were reported across nine provinces.

As of February 13, Canada reported 429 cases of the UK B.1.1.7 variant, 28 cases of the South African B.1.351 variant, and one of the P.1 Brazilian strain, reports Xinhua news agency.

“Although it is normal for variants to emerge as viruses continuously evolve, some variants are considered ‘variants of concern’ because they spread more easily, some may cause more severe illness, or current vaccines may be less effective against them,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said in a statement on Saturday.