Booster shots ‘not a luxury’
A third-dose booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccination is a way to keep the most vulnerable safe and "not a luxury", the World Health Organization said yesterday.
The WHO said earlier this month data did not indicate a need for booster shots, while topping up already fully vaccinated people would further widen a vaccine-availability gap between rich and lower-income countries.
"A third dose of vaccine is not a luxury booster (that is) taken away from someone who is still waiting for a first jab. It's basically a way to keep the most vulnerable safe," Hans Kluge, head of WHO Europe, told a press briefing.
"We have to be a little bit careful with the booster shot, because there is not yet enough evidence," he said.
"But more and more studies show that a third dose keeps vulnerable people safe, and this is done by more and more countries in our region," he said.
Kluge urged European countries with excess vaccines to share them with other countries, particularly those in Eastern Europe and Africa.
An increase in Covid-19 transmission rates across Europe over the last two weeks, combined with low levels of vaccination in some countries, was "deeply worrying", he said.
The World Health Organization warned yesterday that another 236,000 people could die from Covid in Europe by December 1.
The warning comes as the world passed the grim milestone of 4.5 million deaths from Covid since the start of the pandemic, according to an AFP tally yesterday.
Infections rates are ticking up globally again, as the highly transmissible Delta variant takes hold -- especially among the unvaccinated -- preying on populations where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.
VACCINE SUPPLY JUMPS
India's rising output of Covid-19 vaccines and the inoculation of more than half its adult population with at least one dose are raising hopes the country will return as an exporter within months, ramping up from early next year.
After donating or selling 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries, India barred exports in the middle of April to focus on domestic immunisation as infections exploded, upsetting the inoculation plans of many African and South Asian countries.
India's daily vaccinations surpassed 10 million doses on Friday, with national vaccine production more than doubling since April and set to rise again in the coming weeks. New production lines have been set up, a vaccine developed by Cadila Healthcare won recent approval, and commercial production of Russia's Sputnik V is starting in India.
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, is now producing about 150 million doses a month of its version of the AstraZeneca shot, more than twice its April output of about 65 million, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
"No fixed timeline on exports but the company hopes to restart in a few months," said the source, who declined to be named without approval to talk on the matter.
SII, which has previously indicated exports could resume by year-end, did not respond to a request for comment.
DEATH LINKED TO PFIZER JAB
New Zealand reported its first recorded death linked to US drugmaker Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine, the health ministry said yesterday, after a woman suffered a rare side-effect leading to inflammation of the heart muscle.
The report comes as the country battles an outbreak of the Delta variant after nearly six months of being virus free. It followed a review by an independent panel monitoring the safety of the vaccines, reports Reuters.
Moderna Inc's Covid-19 vaccine contamination woes in Japan have widened with another million doses being temporarily suspended, after foreign substances were found in more batches and two people died following shots from affected lots.
The suspension of Moderna supplies, affecting more than 2.6 million does in total, comes as Japan battles its worst wave of Covid-19 yet, driven by the contagious Delta variant, with new daily infections exceeding 25,000 this month for the first time amid a slow vaccine rollout.
Intensive care cases in Australia's New South Wales will hit a peak in October as Covid-19 infections accumulate, said the premier of the country's most populous state, which reported record daily new infections yesterday.
New South Wales, the epicentre of Australia's current outbreak, declared a record 1,290 new cases as the nation struggles to contain the highly contagious Delta variant.
In Europe, Greek police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a group of people who threw flares and other objects during a protest in central Athens on Sunday against mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations.
More than 7,000 people, some holding crosses, rallied outside the Greek parliament to protest against the inoculations. Similar protests in Athens last month also saw violence.
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