Live coronavirus news: WHO says ‘don’t panic’, everyone will receive Covid vaccine; new US CDC director sworn in | World News

Live coronavirus news: WHO says ‘don’t panic’, everyone will receive Covid vaccine; new US CDC director sworn in | World News

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01:47

Melissa Davey

A decision on whether to approve the Pfizer vaccine for use against Covid in Australia is imminent, with recommendations from the independent Vaccine Advisory Committee now in the hands of the drug regulator.

Committee chairman Prof Allen Cheng said he had completed the review of vaccine data for the Therapeutic Products Administration (TGA) after holding a vaccine meeting on Friday.

“We just gave the TGA advice, it really depends on them now,” he said. “But I’m sure it will be soon.”

Guardian Australia spoke with Cheng about what the committee does, how it evaluated the Pfizer vaccine and other candidate vaccines and what the committee has learned so far from countries that are already launching vaccines:











01:19

China reports 144 new cases

Mainland China continues to register more than 100 cases, with 144 new infections confirmed on January 20, up from the previous day’s 103 cases, the country’s national health authority said on Thursday.

The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 126 of the new cases were local infections. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose from 58 cases a day earlier to 113.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on the continent

China now stands at 88,701, while the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,635.











01:10

Ben Doherty

At the Pacific, Papua New Guinea is battling continuous outbreaks of Covid-19 in its archipelago.

The country currently registered 843 cases, with eight new overnight cases in West New Britain and the capital Port Moresby. The actual rate of infection is much higher, with limited testing outside the capital.




People play volleyball amid the pandemic in Fiji.

People play volleyball amid the pandemic in Fiji. Photography: Xinhua / REX / Shutterstock

At the same time, Fiji, which kept the number of Covid-19 infections low during the pandemic – only 55 confirmed cases – is battling typhoid outbreaks following the category 5 cyclone Yasa that devastated the north of the country last month.

The country now has 13 cases of typhoid fever, and the health ministry’s efforts to combat leptospirosis, typhoid, dengue and diarrhea are being hampered by damage to water supplies and sewage systems.











00:45

Treating critically ill Covid-19 patients with the arthritis medication tocilizumab has no clinical benefit, according to the results of a trial stopped early due to an increase in deaths among those who receive it, reports AFP:


The trial, published on Thursday in the medical journal BMJ, appears to contradict previous studies in which tocilizumab looked promising in reducing length of hospital stay for some patients.

The drug, a common treatment for arthritis, blocks a specific part of the body’s immune system that can take excessive action in severe and critical cases of Covid-19.

It was hoped that the treatment could help contain some of the most extreme inflammatory reactions that can lead to death.

Researchers in Brazil conducted a randomized clinical trial among 129 patients with confirmed Covid-19 in nine hospitals.











00:24

Joe Biden signs executive orders on pandemic

Joe Biden ushered in his presidency by signing a series of executive orders on a range of issues, including Covid-19, environment, immigration and ethics.

Some of the executive actions undid significant actions by the Donald Trump administration, including lifting the travel ban in Muslim-majority countries and ending the national emergency declaration used to justify financing the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

He also signed an order allowing the United States to re-join the Paris climate agreement and end the Trump administration’s efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census data used to determine how many seats in Congress each state gets.

The president also acted quickly to address Covid-19, signing orders to impose masks and social detachment on federal buildings and land and to create a position as Covid-19 response coordinator:











00:14

Covid cases may have stopped falling, shows great English research

Ian Sample

Coronavirus cases may no longer be dropping in England, according to a large survey that raises concerns about whether blocking measures may contain the new variant, as the UK reported a record daily number of deaths.

Boris Johnson described the 1,820 deaths reported on Wednesday as “terrible”, as he warned: “There will be more to come.”

Scientists at Imperial College London analyzed smear tests on more than 142,000 people across England between 6 and 15 January, suggesting that new infections may have recently fallen, but are now stable, and perhaps even growing slightly, with only southwest England showing clear evidence of a refusal:











23:56

New US CDC director sworn in

In the US, a new CDC director is coming in for a gigantic task: reaffirming the agency while the pandemic is in its deadliest phase and the country’s largest vaccination campaign is destroyed by confusion and delays, reports the AP.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 51, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was inducted on Wednesday as head of the CDC.

While the agency has retained some of its top scientific talents, public health experts say, it has a long list of needs, including new protection from political influences, a comprehensive review of its mistakes during the pandemic and more money to reinforce basic functions like disease tracking and genetic analysis.

Walensky said that one of his top priorities will be to improve CDC’s communications with the public to rebuild trust. Within the agency, it wants to boost morale, largely restoring the primacy of science and setting politics aside.

The speed with which she is taking on the job is unusual. In the past, the position was generally vacant until a new secretary of health and human services was confirmed and officially appointed a director of the CDC. But this time, Biden’s transition team named Walensky in advance, so she could take over the reins of the agency even before her boss took office.

Walensky, an HIV researcher, did not work at the CDC or a state or local health department. But she emerged as a prominent voice in the pandemic, at times criticizing certain aspects of the state and the national response. His targets included the unequal transmission prevention measures that were in place last summer and the endorsement by a prominent Trump adviser of a “herd immunity” approach that would allow the virus to run freely.











23:54

Don’t panic, you’ll get the vaccine, says WHO

No one should panic about having access to a Covid-19 vaccine because everyone who wants it will receive it, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

AFP: WHO Deputy Director-General Mariangela Simão said the UN health agency is working to ensure access to coronavirus vaccines worldwide.

“Nobody needs to panic, because you are going to get a vaccine,” said Simão, the GD assistant for access to medicines, vaccines and drugs.

“We have been working hard to ensure that all countries, all populations have the opportunity to access these vaccines,” she said at a live event on WHO social media.

Simão said that about 50 countries have started vaccination campaigns, more than 40 of them high-income states.

The Covax facility co-led by WHO, a global effort to acquire and distribute vaccines, closed deals with five manufacturers for two billion doses of vaccines.

The goal is to guarantee vaccines for 20% of the population of each participating country by the end of the year, with funding covered for the 92 middle-low and medium-low income economies involved.

“We hope that the first doses reach the countries at the end of February,” said Simão.











23:51

resume

Hello, welcome to live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

I will be bringing you the latest news from around the world in the near future.

As always, you can find me on Twitter on here.

No one should panic about having access to a Covid-19 vaccine because everyone who wants it will receive it, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

WHO assistant director-general Mariangela Simão said the UN health agency is working to ensure access to coronavirus vaccines worldwide.

“Nobody needs to panic, because you are going to get a vaccine,” said Simão, the GD assistant for access to medicines, vaccines and drugs.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 51, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was inducted on Wednesday as the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It takes over at a time when the death toll in the country has already exceeded 400,000 and continues to accelerate.

Here are the other important developments in the pandemic:

  • Joe Biden marks the beginning of the presidency with executive orders to fight Covid-19. The president signed orders to impose masks and social detachment on federal buildings and land and to create a position as Covid-19’s response coordinator.
  • The UK reports an additional 1,820 deaths from Covid, the highest number recorded in a day. The number of new cases also increased sharply to 38,905, after a drop earlier in the week that inspired optimism that the blocking restrictions were working.
  • France can follow Germany by making clinical masks mandatory. Medical-grade facial masks, instead of tissue coverings, may become mandatory in several European countries to help stem the rapid spread of highly contagious variants of Covid first identified in the UK and South Africa.
  • Dubai cancels non-essential surgeries with the increase in Covid-19 cases. Dubai ordered hospitals to cancel non-essential surgeries next month, after an increase in coronavirus cases in the Middle East tourism and business center.
  • Indian hesitation hinders Covid’s largest vaccination campaign in the world. India’s Covid-19 vaccine campaign was hampered by up to 22% participation in some states, as fears about vaccine safety and the spread of incorrect information fueled widespread hesitation.
  • Spain has a record number of new Covid infections. Spain recorded 41,576 new cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 2,412,318. He also recorded 464 deaths.
  • Italy is considering legal action on delayed delivery of Pfizer vaccine. Italy is preparing to take legal action against Pfizer for delays in the delivery of pre-ordered Covid-19 vaccines. Italy received 48,000 vaccines this week, out of a total of 397,000 allocated, and also had 165,000 fewer last week.
  • The record 343,000 people in the UK receive the first dose of the Covid vaccine in one day. The NHS is stepping up its effort from 11 to vaccinate 15 million people by mid-February, although with 25 days to go, it will require around 400,000 immunizations a day to stay on track.
  • Syrian White Helmets have awarded £ 920,000 to make PPE. Syria’s White Helmets, which rescue victims from the rubble of air strikes, 13 added the manufacture of personal protective equipment to their efforts to save lives in areas of the country outside the control of Bashar al-Assad.

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