The World Health Organization has called on rich countries not to undermine the system for distributing vaccines against the Corona virus, andThe United Nations called for fair access to vaccines. As the United States approaches half a million deaths, Britain and Germany have eased some measures.
Today, Monday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, accused “some rich countries of undermining the” Covax “system designed to ensure the fair distribution of vaccines, by insisting on communicating directly with manufacturers to obtain more doses.
Ghebreyesus also expressed disappointment with the US and European Union commitments to increase their contributions to Kovacs, and said that vaccines cannot be delivered without the cooperation of rich countries.
In particular, the Kovacs system includes a financing mechanism that guarantees that 92 low and medium-resource countries will receive vaccines, but the poor countries are not expected to receive the first shipments before the end of this month.
In the same context, The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, called for justice in providing vaccines, and denounced “nationalist” tendencies in vaccination operations, noting that 10 countries alone have received more than three quarters of the vaccine doses given so far.
In a speech during the opening of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council, Guterres expressed his regret that countries – he did not name them – used the epidemic as a pretext to suppress “dissenting voices” issued by journalists, lawyers, activists, and even workers in the health sector.
The Corona virus has killed two million and 46 thousand people in the world so far, and the United States is the most affected country, followed by Brazil, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom.
Schools and nurseries opened their doors in Germany (Anadolu Agency)Vaccination campaigns
In the United States, death records are close to the 500,000 mark, and Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert and advisor to US President Joe Biden, said on Sunday, “It is horrific … We have not known anything like this for more than 100 years, since the 1948 epidemic.”
Biden said during his visit to the vaccine factory Pfizer, “I think we will close to normal by the end of this year.”
On the other hand, the British government announced that it will begin to ease the closure measures it imposed to combat the pandemic as of March 8, after meeting the relevant criteria.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office made it clear that the measures would be gradually eased in England, and that returning students to school would be a priority.
Johnson is scheduled to hold a press conference presenting his plan to get the country out of the closures imposed by the authorities at the beginning of this year.
In Germany, schools and nurseries today reopened their doors after two months of closure, and lessons will resume under strict health conditions, as half of the classroom students rotate or attend in fixed numbers, with no possibility of meeting other students.
In turn, the French pharmaceutical group “Sanofi” announced that it will produce a vaccine that competes with the American vaccine “Johnson & Johnson” in the second half of the year, and is preparing to do so to compete with the vaccine “Pfizer-BioNTech”. .
Today, Sanofi launched a new clinical trial called “Phase II” of its upcoming vaccine, which it developed with the British company, “Gsk”, after its setback in the fall.
France will impose lockdown measures over the next two weekends in southeastern regions, with tightening controls at Italian airports and borders.
Italy fears the spread of mutated versions of the virus, especially with weekend gatherings encouraged by the sunny weather.
Today, Australia launched a campaign to vaccinate medical personnel, police personnel, employees in quarantine hotels and residents of homes for the elderly, in the context of anti-vaccine demonstrations in some major cities.
The Indian state of Maharashtra imposed new restrictions on the movement of residents and a night-time curfew in some cities, not including Mumbai, after about 7,000 new infections were recorded in the state yesterday.
The total confirmed infections in India have exceeded 11 million, of whom more than 156,000 died, but a government survey conducted this month showed that the actual number of infections may reach 300 million.
India intends to vaccinate 300 million people by July, and the Indian company Serum Institute of India has asked other countries to be patient, as it will give India priority in supplying AstraZeneca vaccine doses.
The Philippines agreed to urgently use the Chinese “Sinovac” vaccine, but it has not received doses yet, and the authorities stated that China will donate about 600 thousand doses to it within days.
A medical employee in Gaza receives the vaccine (Anadolu)Palestine
On the other hand, the Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Keela, announced today the registration of 1,334 new injuries and 10 deaths during the past 24 hours, while Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh hinted to tighten measures.
The Gaza Strip began a limited vaccination program today, after receiving doses of the “Sputnik-V” vaccine, donated by Russia and the UAE.
Gaza health officials praised the start of the vaccination campaign, but did not disclose when the largest shipments were expected.
Palestine is asking for about two million and 600 thousand doses, but it has not received more than 22 thousand.
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