France, Greece Mandate Covid Vaccines For Health Care Workers

The Washington Post: France And Greece Announce Mandatory Vaccinations For Health Workers Amid Delta Variant Surge
France and Greece have both announced plans to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for health-care workers as the more virulent delta variant gains ground across Europe, threatening nations that had gotten a grasp of the virus through vaccination. French President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address Monday that France was “facing a strong resumption of the epidemic” and that a slowing vaccination campaign could lead to rising hospitalizations later this summer. (Cunningham, 7/13)

Reuters: Rush For COVID Vaccines As French Government Tightens Screws
Hundreds of thousands of people in France rushed to set up appointments to get vaccinated against the coronavirus after the president warned that the unvaccinated would face restrictions aimed at curbing the quick spread of the Delta variant. Unveiling sweeping measures to combat a surge in infections, Emmanuel Macron said on Monday night that vaccination would not be compulsory for the general public for now but stressed that restrictions would focus on those who are not vaccinated. (7/13)

CNBC: Europe Struggles To Break Free Of Covid Restrictions As Delta Variant Surges
Europe is struggling to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases caused by the delta variant, but while several countries reimpose measures to control the spread, the U.K. is taking the plunge and lifting restrictions. From residual vaccine skepticism in some countries, to surges in infections linked to nightlife resuming, Europe is having to contend with competing needs: the reopening of crucial economic sectors this summer, while at the same time, curbing surging cases. (Ellyatt, 7/13)

AP: Immunized But Banned: EU Says Not All COVID Vaccines Equal
After Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor and his wife received two doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in Nigeria, they assumed they would be free to travel this summer to a European destination of their choice. They were wrong. The couple — and millions of other people who have been vaccinated through a U.N.-backed effort — could find themselves barred from entering many European and other countries because those nations don’t recognize the Indian-made version of the vaccine for travel. Although AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Europe has been authorized by the continent’s drug regulatory agency, the same shot manufactured in India hasn’t been given the green light. (Cheng, 7/13)

AP: Germany To Base COVID Restrictions On More Than Case Numbers
With COVID-19 cases again on the rise, German officials said on Monday said that authorities need a “broader focus” beyond the country’s infection rate to fully gauge the impact the pandemic is having on the health system and the kind of measures that should be taken. For much of the past year the incidence rate — how many COVID-19 cases are confirmed per 100,000 people each week — has been key to the government’s decisions over what restrictive measures to impose. The relevance of that figure is increasingly being called into question by those who argue that a sharp rise in new cases — already seen in other European countries such as Britain and the Netherlands — doesn’t necessarily mean many more seriously ill patients. (Jordans, 7/13)

CNN: Sinovac, Sinopharm: COVAX Signs Deal For 550 Million Chinese Covid-19 Vaccines, Even As Efficacy Questions Grow 
COVAX has signed agreements with two Chinese pharmaceutical companies to buy more than half a billion of their Covid-19 vaccines by the first half of next year, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) announced Monday. Under the agreements, Chinese vaccine makers Sinopharm and Sinovac will begin to make 110 million doses immediately available, according to a news release from Gavi, a public-private global health partnership that is co-leading COVAX, a worldwide initiative aimed at distributing vaccines to countries regardless of wealth. (Hollingsworth, 7/13)

Reuters: EXCLUSIVE European Efforts To Assess Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine Stymied By Data Gaps
The developers of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have repeatedly failed to provide data that regulators deem to be standard requirements of the drug approval process, according to five people with knowledge of European efforts to assess the drug, providing new insight into the country’s struggle to win foreign acceptance of its product. Reuters reported last month that the European Medicines Agency (EMA)’s review of the drug’s safety and efficacy was delayed because a June 10 deadline to submit data on the vaccine's clinical trials was missed, according to one of those people, who is close to the agency, and another person familiar with the matter. The EMA is the European Union’s medicines watchdog. (Rose, Ivanova and Parodi, 7/13)

Reuters: Delta Variant Cases In Turkey Nearly Triple In A Week - Minister
The number of Delta variant COVID-19 cases in Turkey has risen to some 750 from 284 seven days ago and overall cases climbed 20% at the weekend compared to a week earlier, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Turkey eased most coronavirus-related restrictions on July 1 after daily cases tumbled from a peak above 60,000 in April to around 5,000, but Koca said new figures pointed to a rise. "These increases have emerged more in places where the level of inoculations is low," Koca told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday, noting rising cases in provinces of southeast Turkey. (7/13)

Reuters: Living With COVID-19: Israel Changes Strategy As Delta Variant Hits
After a rapid vaccination drive that had driven down coronavirus infections and deaths, Israelis had stopped wearing face masks and abandoned all social-distancing rules. Then came the more infectious Delta variant, and a surge in cases that has forced Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to reimpose some COVID-19 restrictions and rethink strategy. Under what he calls a policy of "soft suppression", the government wants Israelis to learn to live with the virus - involving the fewest possible restrictions and avoiding a fourth national lockdown that could do further harm to the economy. (Lubell, 7/13)

Bloomberg: Shipping Chaos Here To Stay With Most Seafarers Unvaccinated 
Global vaccinations of seafarers are going too slowly to prevent outbreaks on ships from causing more trade disruptions, endangering maritime workers and potentially slowing economies trying to pull out of pandemic slowdowns. Infections on vessels could further harm already strained global supply chains, just as the U.S. and Europe recover and companies start stocking up for Christmas. The shipping industry is sounding the alarm as infections increase and some ports continue to restrict access to seafarers from developing countries that supply the majority of maritime workers but can’t vaccinate them. (Ha, Koh, and Jiao, 7/12)

NPR: A Woman Died Of COVID After Contracting 2 Variants At The Same Time : Coronavirus Updates 
The patient came to the hospital because she was repeatedly falling down. She was breathing fine, and her blood oxygen levels were good. But tests showed that the 90-year-old Belgian woman had COVID-19 — and not just one strain, but two variants of the virus. She died at the hospital in just five days after her respiratory system rapidly deteriorated. "To our knowledge, this is one of the first reports of a double infection" with two coronavirus variants of concern, the researchers said. The woman had both the alpha and beta variants of the coronavirus (which were detected first in the U.K. and South Africa, respectively), according to a paper that was presented over the weekend at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. (Chappell, 7/12)

The Boston Globe: CholeraMap: Using NASA Satellite Data To Help Warn People When Their Water Is Unsafe 
Cholera, an infectious bacterial disease often contracted through contaminated water, is a major threat to public health, particularly in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The bacteria can kill within hours if it’s left untreated, and causes severe vomiting and diarrhea. Dr. Ali Shafqat Akanda, an engineer whose expertise is in the intersections of water security, climate change, and global health, recently helped a team of researchers at various universities in the U.S. to develop CholeraMap. The app creates early-warning risk maps based on environmental conditions obtained from NASA satellite observations. The risks are then communicated to users. (Gagosz, 7/12)