Coronavirus digest: Australia approves BioNTech-Pfizer for children
Australia’s drug regulator has approved the use of BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children aged between 12 and 15 years old, Health Minister Greg Hunt told local media on Friday.
The Therapeutic Good Administration, the medicines regulator, had thoroughly studied evidence before approving the vaccine for use, Hunt said. Authorities would soon announce priority groups among those eligible.
BioNTech-Pfizer had been approved for those above 16 until now.
Though Australia has handled the pandemic much better than other developed economies, its federal government has come under increasing criticism for failing to ramp up the vaccination program.
So far, just under 15% of its adult population has been fully vaccinated. More than half of its population also remain under strict lockdown measures due to a rise in cases in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
However, there may be better news on the horizon. On Friday, Victoria reported a slight easing of cases, with 14 new cases, compared to 26 a day earlier.
Australia has registered a little over 32,400 COVID cases and 915 deaths so far.
Here are the major developments on coronavirus from around the world:
Asia-Pacific
New Zealand has closed its border to Australia, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced. The two shared a travel bubble since April that allowed people to travel to either countries without the need to quarantine.
Taiwan will lower its COVID-19 alert level from next week though some restrictions will remain, the government announced. Rapidly falling domestic infection numbers allow authorities to relax strict curbs imposed after a spike in cases mid-May.
In South Korea, tough social distancing measures have been extended by two weeks in the greater Seoul area, where 70% of the recent cases have been detected, a public health official announced. This means that a ban on gathering of more than three people in and around the Korean capital continues until at least August 8.
The Philippines will ban the entry of travelers from Malaysia and Thailand for a week beginning July 25, a public official said. The country had previously banned travelers from eight countries including Indonesia and India.
Europe
A longer gap between two doses of BioNTech-Pfizer’s COVID vaccines leads to greater overall antibody levels than a shorter gap, a study led by researchers at the University of Oxford found. Even though there is a drop in antibodies after the first dose, fully vaccinated individuals are effectively protected from the severity of COVID.
The number of confirmed cases in Germany rose by 2,089 and deaths by 34 over the past 24 hours. The total number of cases now stands at 3,752,592 and deaths at 91,492.
Thousands attend a music festival in eastern UK, in one of the biggest gatherings since most restrictions were lifted. The four-day Latitude festival is expected to attract around 40,000 people even though cases broadly rise in the country.
Spain will donate 7.5 million vaccines to other countries, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said. The vaccines will be distributed through the COVAX program, mainly to Latin America.
Americas
Chicago Public Schools system announced students, teachers and staff will be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms beginning August. Visitors to school buildings will also have to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status.
Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada, some of the states with the highest numbers of new infections, are also seeing a rise in the number of people getting vaccinated, White House officials said. Relatedly, Republican leaders have doubled down on efforts to win over skeptics.
Brazil registered 49,757 new cases of coronavirus and 1,412 COVID deaths in the last 24 hours, its Health Ministry announced on Thursday.
rm/sri (Reuters, AP)
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