Infections Drop In Israel After One Shot Of Two-Dose Vaccine

The New York Times: In Israel, Infections Drop Sharply After One Shot Of Vaccine 
Israel, which leads the world in vaccinating its population against the coronavirus, has produced some encouraging news: Early results show a significant drop in infection after just one shot of a two-dose vaccine, and better than expected results after both doses. Public health experts caution that the data, based on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, is preliminary and has not been subjected to clinical trials. Even so, Dr. Anat Ekka Zohar, vice president of Maccabi Health Services, one of the Israeli health maintenance organizations that released the data, called it “very encouraging.” (Kershner, 1/25)

AP: Australia OKs Pfizer Vaccine, To Begin In Feb.
Australia’s medical regulator has approved use of its first coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for inoculations to begin next month. The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Monday gave provisional approval for people aged 16 and over to use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Residents and workers at aged-care facilities, frontline healthcare workers and quarantine workers are among the groups being prioritized for the first doses. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the development. He said Australia was among the first countries to complete a comprehensive process to formally approve a vaccine rather than just grant an emergency approval. (1/25)

Bloomberg: Ardern Says New Zealand Won’t Open Border To The World This Year
New Zealand’s success in combating the virus has allowed it to lift restrictions and get its economy moving again much sooner than initially expected, but the closed border is decimating its tourism industry. While the government today announced it expects to give regulatory approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine next week, Ardern said mass immunization will not begin until midyear and she was taking a “conservative” approach to letting foreigners into the country again. “For travel to restart we need one of two things,” she said. “We either need the confidence that being vaccinated means you don’t pass Covid-19 on to others -- and we don’t know that yet -- or we need enough of our population to be vaccinated and protected that people can safely re-enter New Zealand. Both possibilities will take some time.” (Brockett, 1/26)

AP: Taiwan Quarantines 5,000 After Hospital Cluster
Health authorities in Taiwan are quarantining 5,000 people while looking for the source of two new coronavirus cases linked to a hospital. Officials said on Monday that they have not been able to identify how the husband and wife became infected after a brief hospital stay in the Taoyuan General Hospital, located in the city of Taoyuan just outside Taiwan’s capital city. The man had stayed at the hospital for three days for health problems unrelated to COVID-19, while his wife looked after him. (1/26)

In other global developments —

Stat: EU Ombudsman Probes Failure To Disclose Covid-19 Vaccine Contracts
In response to concerns that key terms of Covid-19 vaccine deals remain hidden, the European Union’s ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the refusal by the European Commission to fully disclose contracts with several drug makers. (Silverman, 1/25)

The Washington Post: Violence Erupts In Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Neighborhoods Over Coronavirus Restrictions
Long-building tensions over pandemic restrictions within Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods erupted in violence Sunday night as rock-throwing crowds pushed back police attempts to clear yeshiva classes and religious gatherings being held in violation of lockdown rules. (Hendrix and Rubin, 1/25)

The Washington Post: Riots Explode Across Netherlands Over Covid Restrictions, With Dutch Leader Calling Participants Criminals
Dutch rioters who attacked police and destroyed property over the weekend while protesting new coronavirus measures are “criminals,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday, as law enforcement officials warned that the violence could last for weeks. The unrest across the Netherlands, some of the worst in decades, had “nothing to do with protest,” Rutte, who resigned last week following a scandal, told reporters outside his office in The Hague, news agencies reported. (Cunningham, 1/25)

The Washington Post: Wealthy Couple Chartered A Plane To The Yukon, Took Vaccines Meant For Indigenous Elders, Authorities Said
Located deep in Canada’s Yukon, the remote community of Beaver Creek is home to only about 100 people, most of them members of the White River First Nation. So when an unfamiliar couple who claimed to work at a local motel showed up at a mobile clinic to receive coronavirus vaccines, it didn’t take long for locals to become suspicious. Authorities soon found that the pair were actually wealthy Vancouver residents who had chartered a private plane to the isolated outpost so that they could get shots intended to protect vulnerable Indigenous elders. (Noori Farzan, 1/26)