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Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks on the crisis with pharmaceutical executives, German regional leaders and European Commission officials on Monday in an attempt to speed up the stuttering vaccination effort on the continent.
AstraZeneca Plc will deliver 9 million additional doses of vaccines to the European Union in the first quarter, while the bloc tries to obtain its inoculation unit on track. Bayer AG agreed to produce the experimental CureVac NV coronavirus vaccine to help accelerate the launch of a promising injection that is in advanced clinical trials.
Valneva SE, a French vaccine developer, said the UK government exercised the option to order 40 million extra doses of his experimental coronavirus injection for the next year.
Infections continued to show a decelerating trend in many regions of the globe, including the United States, although concerns about new variants remain. Italy will ease restrictions on most of the country starting on Monday.
Main developments:
- Global Tracker: Cases approach 103 million; deaths exceed 2.2 million
- Vaccine Tracker: Over 98.3 million injections given worldwide
- Governments exploit Covid data for other uses, risking reactions
- Pfizer or Sputnik? Race to inject requests requires choice
- In the face of a vaccine emergency, the EU made a enemy of all
- Merkel’s handprints are all over Germany vaccine failures
- Good vaccines, but here’s why Covid will never leave: QuickTake
Sign up for a daily update on the virus from the Bloomberg prognostic team On here. Click on CVID in the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.
Merkel calls for talks on vaccine crisis (4:45 pm HK)
Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold crisis negotiations in an attempt to speed up Europe’s vaccination effort. This afternoon’s video call in Berlin comes after Ursula von der Leyen, the committee’s chairman, announced that AstraZeneca will deliver 9 million additional doses of vaccines to the European Union in the first quarter.
Germany’s contagion rate rose on Monday to 90.9 infections per 100,000 people in the past seven days, from 90.2 on Sunday. The government said the level needs to be below 50 to ease restrictions.
Bayer to help CureVac produce its Covid vaccine (4:20 pm HK)
Bayer AG agreed to produce the experimental CureVac NV coronavirus vaccine to help accelerate the launch of a promising injection that is in advanced clinical trials.
The move extends Bayer’s current CureVac pact and simply helps with regulatory releases and global distribution. This follows the commitments of other European pharmaceutical giants Sanofi and Novartis AG to put their manufacturing capabilities on the rise of Pfizer Inc. and the Covid-19 injection of BioNTech SE.
Exercise option in the UK for 40 million Valneva doses (4:10 pm HK)
Valneva SE, a French vaccine developer, said the UK government exercised the option to order 40 million extra doses of his experimental coronavirus injection for the next year.
The compromise raises the size of the UK order to 100 million doses, said Valneva. Britain could still buy 90 million more doses for delivery between 2023 and 2025, bringing the contract value up to 1.4 billion euros ($ 1.7 billion) if all options are exercised.
Singapore seeks law to allow data tracking for criminal investigations (14h51 HK)
Singapore presented a bill on Monday in parliament to formalize the use of contact tracking data in criminal investigations for serious crimes, after it was revealed that such information was used for that purpose in a murder case.
The law will specify that public sector agencies may use personal contact tracking data recorded in digital contact tracking systems for contact tracking purposes only, except when police and law enforcement officers are required to use the data for investigations and prosecutions. criminal offenses for serious violations, according to the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office in a statement on Monday. Such crimes include murder, terrorism, kidnapping and serious sexual crimes.
Tokyo reports the lowest number of new cases since December (14h29 HK)
Tokyo has reported 393 new infections, while the slowdown in the Japanese capital continues. Although Mondays typically bring lower counts, the number is the lowest reported for a Monday since December 21 and represents a significant drop from the peak of 1,219 cases on January 11 on Monday. The seven-day moving average for new cases dropped to about 850 from 1,812 three weeks ago.
Despite the improvement in the situation, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga appears determined to extend a state of emergency this week for major metropolitan areas.
Astra increases dose distribution amid chaotic EU deployment (1:11 pm HK)
AstraZeneca Plc will deliver an additional 9 million vaccine doses to the European Union in the first quarter of this year, while the bloc tries to launch its chaotic inoculation campaign.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Twitter on Sunday that the drugmaker would start deliveries a week ahead of schedule and expand its manufacturing.
Chinese police seize more than 3,000 doses of fake vaccines (12:30 HK)
Chinese police have arrested more than 80 suspects involved in making and selling fake Covid vaccines in a special campaign against vaccine-related crimes, Xinhua reported. The suspects have been using saline to make fake coronavirus vaccines and selling them to the public since September, the report said. The case was exposed by the police in provinces and cities like Jiangsu, Beijing and Shandong.
Biden invites Republican Party senators to meet for stimulus offer (10:18 HK)
President Joe Biden invited a group of 10 Republican senators to meet with him in the coming days to discuss his alternative plan for Covid-19 economic stimulus, the White House said Sunday night.
Republican lawmakers offered a $ 600 billion proposal Sunday morning in a letter to Biden, responding to the $ 1.9 trillion plan he outlined more than two weeks ago that Republicans rejected.
South Korea sees the smallest increase in cases in 10 weeks (9:01 HK)
South Korea has reported 305 new cases in the past 24 hours, the lowest number in 10 weeks. Still, South Korea said on Sunday that it would extend the restrictions on social distance for another two weeks as new infections resurfaced last week and reversed the downward trend.
UK hits vaccine milestone (08:19 HK)
The UK is set to confirm that residents in all eligible nursing homes in England have been offered Covid-19 vaccine, even when a dispute over Europe’s exports raises concerns about supplies.
Jabs were offered to eligible residents of more than 10,000 homes, where possible, official figures are expected to be released on Monday. The announcement was made after guarantees yesterday from the secretary of International Trade, Liz Truss, that the supply of vaccines to the country is guaranteed and that the country will meet its distribution schedule.
UK captain Tom hospitalized with Covid-19 (15:15 in NY)
Photographer: Chris Jackson / Getty Images
Captain Sir Tom Moore, the 100-year-old veteran who raised nearly 40 million pounds ($ 55 million) for the UK health service since the start of the pandemic, was Admittaken to hospital after positive test for Covid-19. Hannah Ingram Moore said her father was diagnosed last week and was hospitalized for “additional help” in breathing, the AP reported.
Biden Health Adviser warns of virus variants (1:46 pm, NY)
A top health advisor to President Joe Biden warned on Sunday that a new variant of coronavirus circulating in the UK is likely to become the dominant tension in the USA and may lead to future restrictions on face-to-face meetings.
Photographer: Glen Stubbe / Star Tribune / Getty Images
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the nation’s healthcare system must prepare for a sudden increase in serious cases, such as the one recently experienced in England.
NYC Vaccine Data Show Race Disparity (12:34 pm NY)
New York City split its Covid-19 vaccination data by ethnicity for the first time, with the mayor highlighting a “Deep problem” with racial inequality.
White residents represent almost half of the people who received at least one dose, although they consist of only one third of the population. Latinos, 29% of the city, represent only 15% of those vaccinated. The lowest proportion was among blacks – although they represent almost a quarter of the city’s population, they represented only 11% of those vaccinated.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said black New Yorkers are more hesitant to get vaccines, partly out of suspicion.
Vaccine disparity
White New York residents receive a disproportionate number of Covid-19 vaccines
Vaccination data from the New York City Department of Health; 2019 U.S. Census population data
Italy to ease restrictions (11:26 am, NY)
Italy registered 11,252 new cases and 237 deaths on Sunday, as it prepares to ease restrictions for most of the country as of Monday. The positivity rate remained around 5.2%. Italy’s cases have remained stable in recent weeks, and so far the country has avoided the sharp increases suffered by some neighboring countries.
Both the Milan and Rome regions will fall into the so-called “yellow zone” from Monday, the lowest level of restrictions that allows bars and restaurants to remain open during the day.
– With the help of Jeff Sutherland