- The German vaccine commission said it could not recommend using the AstraZeneca / Oxford coronavirus vaccine for people over 65 years of age.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) said that a third of the African continent will be vaccinated by the end of 2021.
- The US economy shrank 3.5 percent last year, the biggest drop since 1946, according to official data.
- Nearly 101 million people worldwide were diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 2.17 million died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 55.7 million patients have recovered.
This is Usaid Siddiqui, from Toronto. Here are the latest updates for Thursday, January 28:
WHO team to visit hospitals, laboratories and market in Wuhan
Scientists led by the World Health Organization (WHO) plan to visit hospitals, laboratories and markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the WHO said.
“The field visits will include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Huanan market, the Wuhan CDC laboratory,” the Geneva-based agency said in a tweet, adding that it would speak to some of the first COVID-19 patients in the outbreak that began in December 2019.
The team plans to visit hospitals, laboratories and markets. Field visits will include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Huanan market, the Wuhan CDC laboratory. They will speak to the first respondents and some of the first #COVID-19 patients.https: //t.co/Owd6GEBoAj
– World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 28, 2021
Switzerland says delivery of the modern vaccine COVID-19 will be delayed
Moderna warned Switzerland that deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine would be delayed, the Swiss health ministry said, leading to February deficits that the country expects the American company to make up for in March.
The delays follow European supply problems with vaccine maker AstraZeneca, as well as Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, as demand for COVID-19 injections is very high, but supplies remain scarce and production limited.
Deaths in New York nursing homes underestimated by 50 percent – AG
New York may have underestimated COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents by up to 50 percent, the state attorney general said in a report.
Attorney General Letitia James has, for months, examined discrepancies between the number of deaths reported by the state Department of Health and the number of deaths reported by the homes themselves.
A patient is placed in the back of an ambulance by emergency medical workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York [File: John Minchillo/AP]
Tampa Mayor issues outdoor mask order for Super Bowl
Anyone visiting Tampa’s popular outdoor destinations for the Super Bowl should wear a mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor signed an executive order on Wednesday saying the masks should be worn outside downtown, in the neighborhoods around Raymond James Stadium – where the Super Bowl will be held – and in other sights.
About 20-25 percent of Russians have antibodies to viruses – TASS
The head of Russia’s consumer safety watchdog said that about 20-25 percent of Russians have COVID-19 antibodies, the TASS news agency reported.
Russia’s coronavirus task force has reported 19,138 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, including 2,897 in Moscow, bringing the total national count to 3,793,810 since the pandemic began.
AstraZeneca, UK PM defend the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine
AstraZeneca and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the effectiveness of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine after regulators in Germany said it should not be given to people over 65.
A spokesman for the UK-based company said the latest clinical trial data for its vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, “supports effectiveness in the 65-year-old age group.”
The company is awaiting a decision from the EU drug regulator, the spokesman added.
Mutations in France spreading rapidly: Minister of Health
French Health Minister Olivier Veran warned the public that coronavirus mutations were spreading rapidly on Thursday, while the country is considering introducing new measures to contain the pandemic.
“What we want to avoid is an epidemic within the epidemic,” Veran told the press, as France continued to report more than 20,000 new cases of the virus each day.
The German jab board does not recommend AstraZeneca for older people
The German vaccine commission said it could not recommend the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for older people, the last consecutive upheaval that put Britain and the EU on a collision course.
The panel of scientific experts, called STIKO, said that the vaccine should only be used by “people aged between 18 and 65, based on available data”.
“Currently, there is insufficient data to assess the vaccine’s effectiveness for people aged 65 and over,” the panel said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in conjunction with the University of Oxford, has not yet been approved for general use in the European Union [File: Monirul Alam/EPA]
Germany to ban certain travelers amid fears of virus variants
Germany is preparing entry bans for travelers from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to limit the spread of the most contagious variants of the coronavirus that plague these countries, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Thursday.
“To protect our population, there should be no entry from regions where these variants of the virus are rampant,” he said on the sidelines of a virtual meeting with his EU colleagues.
One third of Africa will be vaccinated this year: WHO
Africa can expect to see at least 30 percent of its population immunized against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, the WHO said on Thursday, when vaccines begin to reach the continent.
It is estimated that Africa will need 1.5 billion doses of vaccine to immunize 60 percent of its 1.3 billion inhabitants, the limit for collective immunity against COVID-19.
Funeral workers wearing personal protective equipment carry a coffin during the burial of a COVID-19 victim, amid a national coronavirus disease (COVID-19) blockade, at Olifantsvlei Cemetery, southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa [File: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
The US economy in 2020 has the worst year since 1946
The US economy shrank 3.5 percent when the COVID-19 pandemic closed large sectors of business and daily life, according to released government data.
It was the biggest contraction of the largest economy in the world since 1946, said the Commerce Department.