AstraZeneca confirms strong vaccine protection after US rift
USA, March 25: AstraZeneca insisted Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is strongly effective even after counting additional illnesses in its disputed U.S. study, the latest in an extraordinary public rift with American officials.
A US authorisation for AZD7442 - based on two antibodies discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the United States - could be a major win for AstraZeneca, whose widely used Covid-19 vaccine has yet to be approved by US authorities.
KATHMANDU: As many as 138,385 people were vaccinated for COVID-19 disease in the past 24 hours as of Thursday afternoon.
According to the daily updates released by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), 15,060 people received the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine while 7,118 others received the second dose of the same vaccine. While 15,249 people were vaccinated with the first shot Chinese-made Verocell vaccine, as many as 98,306 second doses were administered on Thursday. Meanwhile, 2,652 people received the single-dose US-donated Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
With this, the total number of people who have been fully vaccinated has reached 5,860,929. Likewise, 6,293,089 people were administered with the first jab of different vaccines.
KATHMANDU: As many as 22,192 people were vaccinated for COVID-19 disease on Monday.
According to the updates released by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), 8,437 people were administered Covishiled and AstraZeneca vaccines, 13,231 Verocell vaccines and 524 Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
With Monday’s vaccination, 5,588,517 people have so far been fully vaccinated while 6,215,856 other people are yet to receive the first dose of the vaccine.
Nepal started the vaccination campaign in January-end after it received the Covishiled vaccine under donation from the southern neighbor, India.
Nepal has been administering India-made Covishiled, China-made Verocell, Japan-made AstraZeneca and US-made Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
KATHMANDU, Aug 15: Nepal had launched the vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on January 27, last year.
Since then, a total of 1,868,425 people have received the first shot of the Covishield vaccine (manufactured by Serum Institute of India), Japanese-made COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine and Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine. Similarly, 774,533 people have received the second jab of the same vaccine. The government has been administering the second jab of AstraZeneca vaccine to those who had received the first dose before April, earlier this year.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), 2,805,893 people have so far been inoculated with the first dose of Chinese-made Verocell vaccine while 1,255,411 have received both the doses.
Government data revealed that 1,273,634 shots of the US-manufactured Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine have been administered throughout the country. Nepal had received 1.6 million of single-shot J&J vaccines from the United States under grant assistance.
See the province-wise data:
Taipei [Taiwan], July 9 : Taiwan has received a shipment of 1.13 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by Japan on Thursday.
The vaccine doses were developed by the British-Swedish biotech company AstraZeneca and manufactured under license in Japan, Focus Taiwan reported. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, at a press briefing, thanked Japan for the donation and said inspection of the vaccine shipment will be expedited to allow for faster distribution.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tuesday that the vaccine donations were a gesture of gratitude for Taiwan's aid to Japan in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit his country in 2011.
Motegi said he hopes the vaccines will help curb the spread of the virus in Taiwan, where daily confirmed cases have gradually flattened but a high alert for COVID-19 remains in place due to sporadic cases of the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus.
On June 4, Japan had donated 1.24 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan.
The donations come as Japan and Taiwan are strengthening ties, while their relations with Beijing are deteriorating.
Meanwhile, China has accused Taiwan's governing party of preventing the mainland from sending vaccines to Taiwan and falsely claiming that China has hindered its procurement of vaccines.
China has also lambasted Japan for having donated COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, labelling such a move as a "political performance". Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin had responded sharply when Tokyo said it is considering sending vaccines to Taipei in late May.
"We are firmly against those who exploit the pandemic to put on political shows or even meddle in China's internal affairs," he had said. "I have noticed that Japan can barely ensure adequate supply of vaccines at home."
"I would like to stress that vaccine assistance should be restored to its original purpose, which is to save lives, and should not be reduced to a tool for selfish political gains," he had added.
Taiwan's inoculation program has been on the slow side with President Tsai Ing-Wen's government facing flak over the unavailability of the vaccines.
Taiwan still has not received the ten million AstraZeneca vaccines it ordered between September 2020 and February 2021. In January, Taiwan agreed to purchase five million doses of BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines directly from BioNTech. The deal has remained unfulfilled.
President Tsai Ing-Wen, who handily won re-election last year, accused China of interfering with Taiwan's vaccine procurement to purposely cause delays.
"We were almost finished with the contract with the German supplier, but owing to China's interference, it's been delayed so that until now we have no way to complete it," she told members of her Democratic Progressive Party.
Health Minister Chen Shih-Chung later said that BioNTech had asked Taiwan to change the word "country" in the press release announcing the deal. Taiwan agreed, but the deal still remains unfinished.
To date, 60 per cent of the vaccines in Taiwan are donations from the governments of Japan and the US.
NEW DELHI, April 26: The US and Britain rushed ventilators and vaccine materials to India Monday as the country battles a catastrophic, record-breaking coronavirus wave that has overwhelmed hospitals and set crematoriums working at full capacity.
A surge in recent days has seen patients' families taking to social media to beg for oxygen supplies and locations of available hospital beds, and has forced the capital New Delhi to extend a week-long lockdown.
The country of 1.3 billion has become the latest hotspot of a pandemic that has killed more than three million people, even as richer countries take steps towards normality with quickening innoculation programmes.
"He was gasping for air, we removed his face mask and he was crying and saying 'save me, please save me'," Mohan Sharma, 17, said of his father, who died outside a Delhi hospital.
"But I could do nothing. I just watched him die," Sharma told AFP. France, Germany and Canada have also pledged support to India, which has driven increases in global case numbers in recent days, recording 352,991 new infections and 2,812 deaths on Monday -- its highest tolls since the start of the pandemic.
Creaking health facilities in poorer countries were exposed Sunday when more than 80 people died as fire ripped through a Baghdad hospital for Covid-19 patients, sparking outrage and the suspension of top Iraqi officials.
- Vaccine surplus -
The first of nine airline container-loads of supplies from the UK, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, was set to arrive in India early Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, pledging the UK would do "all it can" to help.
The White House said it was making vaccine-production material, therapeutics, tests, ventilators and protective equipment immediately available to India.
But it did not mention whether it would send any of the 30 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses it currently holds in surplus, sparking accusations of hoarding.
India's Hindu-nationalist government is facing growing criticism for allowing mass gatherings across the country in recent weeks, with millions attending religious festivals and thronging political rallies.
The glitzy Indian Premier League is also under pressure, with a leading newspaper suspending coverage over the IPL's decision to keep playing cricket during the latest wave, and star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin withdrawing to support his family during the pandemic.
On Sunday, Twitter confirmed it withheld dozens of tweets -- including from opposition lawmakers -- critical of the government's handling crisis after a legal demand from New Delhi.
- Fiji funeral -
Japan's annual "Golden Week" holiday got underway with new restrictions in Tokyo and Osaka, where shopping malls and department stores were asked to close and residents urged avoid non-essential travel.
Bars and restaurants selling alcohol have also been asked to shut early during the week -- usually Japan's busiest travel period -- which comes just under three months before the pandemic-postponed Olympics are due to get under way.
Fiji's capital Suva entered a 14-day lockdown Monday after detecting the first community transmission cases in 12 months following a funeral.
The tourism-dependent islands have recorded fewer than 100 cases and just two deaths in a population of 930,000, and the moves comes as a huge blow for hopes of opening quarantine-free travel bubbles with Australia and New Zealand.
But Americans dreaming of Paris or Florence were given some hope when EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said US tourists vaccinated against Covid-19 would be able to visit the European Union in the coming months.
She gave no timetable, but told the New York Times that the new rules could be in place by this summer.
- 'In the flesh!' -
Motor racing fans also got a boost with the news a limited number of spectators could be allowed to attend the Monaco Grand Prix in May, Formula One chief executive officer Stefano Domenicali said Sunday.
And another limited glimpse of pre-pandemic life was on display in the US, at an Oscars ceremony reuniting some of Hollywood's A-listers -- unmasked and vaccinated -- for the first time in more than a year.
"We're here, isn't it crazy?" said best actor nominee and "Sound of Metal" star Riz Ahmed. "Human beings in the flesh!"
Fresh data on Thursday showed the AstraZeneca vaccine was 76% effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus infections in a new analysis of its US trial.
WASHINGTON, Mar 23: AstraZeneca reported Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection among adults of all ages in a long-anticipated U.S. study, a finding that could help rebuild public confidence in the shot around the world and move it a step closer to clearance in the U.S.
