WHO Adds Moderna Vaccine To Its Global Covid Vaccination Effort
The emergency use authorization means Moderna's vaccine can be part of the COVAX initiative. Separately, Pfizer has revealed it's sending 4.5 million doses of its vaccine to South Africa, and China may produce Russia's Sputnik V version.
Axios:
WHO Lists Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use
The World Health Organization late Friday listed Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. With the listing, WHO authorizes that the mRNA vaccine can be part of the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative, which looks to ensure that every country in the world has access to inocculations. (Gonzalez, 5/1)
Axios:
Pfizer To Send 4.5 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses To South Africa
Pfizer has committed to sending 4.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa by June, with some 300,000 set to arrive Sunday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced. South Africa is battling the worst coronavirus outbreak on the continent and has struggled with a low vaccine supply, per Bloomberg. The country is also grappling with a dangerous variant of the virus. (Saric, 5/3)
AP:
Russia, Facing Lags, Turns To China To Produce Sputnik Shots
Russia is turning to multiple Chinese firms to manufacture the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in an effort to speed up production as demand soars for its shot. Russia has announced three deals totaling 260 million doses with Chinese vaccine companies in recent weeks. It’s a decision that could mean quicker access to a shot for countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa that have ordered Russia’s vaccine, as the U.S. and the European Union focus mainly on domestic vaccination needs. (Wu and Litvinova, 5/3)
Axios:
Argentina Tops 3 Million COVID Cases, Hospitals Full
Argentina surpassed 3 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic's start Sunday amid reports of hospitals operating at capacity. Argentina's government last week imposed new restrictions following new national records for cases and deaths in April. Argentine health workers told Reuters hospitals are "full" and the "stalled" vaccine rollout needed to be stepped up to curb the spread. "The health system does not support one more patient," one health worker said. (Falconer, 5/3)
Reuters:
Indonesia Says Finds Two Cases Of Indian COVID-19 Variant In Jakarta
Indonesia has recorded its first cases of a highly infectious COVID-19 variant first detected in India, the health minister said on Monday, as authorities implored people not to travel to their hometowns for the end of the Muslim fasting month. Indonesia, which has been trying to contain one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, stopped issuing visas last month for foreigners who had been in India in the previous 14 days. (5/3)
Reuters:
English Music-Lovers Party Like It's 2019 At COVID Pilot Festival
Live music returned to the birthplace of The Beatles after a long coronavirus-enforced silence on Sunday when the English city of Liverpool hosted a one-off music festival to test whether such events spread the virus. Around 5,000 people ditched face coverings and social distancing rules in the name of science and music. They attended the outdoor event having tested negative for COVID-19, and promised to get themselves tested again five days after the festival. (Rantala, 5/2)
Reuters:
Thousands Of Revelers Attend Wuhan Music Festival
Thousands of people attended the first day of the Wuhan Strawberry Music Festival on Saturday. In warm conditions on the first day of a five-day May Day national holiday revelers in the central Chinese city danced, bounced and screamed with delight as some of their favorite acts took the stage. (Pollard, 5/2)
AP:
Tokyo Games Need 500 Nurses; Nurses Say Needs Are Elsewhere
Some nurses in Japan are incensed at a request from Tokyo Olympic organizers to have 500 of them dispatched to help out with the games. They say they’re already near the breaking point dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Olympic officials have said they will need 10,000 medical workers to staff the games, and the request for more nurses comes amid a new spike in the virus with Tokyo and Osaka under a state of emergency. “Beyond feeling anger, I was stunned at the insensitivity,” Mikito Ikeda, a nurse in Nagoya in central Japan, told the Associated Press. “It shows how human life is being taken lightly.” (Kageyama and Wade, 5/3)
In other global developments —
Stat:
WHO's Tedros To Seek Reelection, Setting Up Referendum On Leadership
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, plans to run for a second five-year term as the head of the agency, according to a person familiar with his thinking, setting up a referendum on the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic under his leadership. It is unclear at this point whether others will emerge to challenge the 56-year-old from Ethiopia, who made history in 2017 when he became the first African elected to the global health agency’s top job. WHO director-generals may only serve two five-year terms, and must be elected each time. (Branswell, 5/3)
NPR:
'Silent Epidemic' Of Drowning Addressed By New U.N. Resolution
An underrecognized public health issue kills more than 235,600 people every year worldwide. It's not a disease. It's not a health condition. It's drowning. Even as severe new outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic take hold in places like India and parts of the Middle East, this week the U.N. passed a resolution that commits member state governments to making greater efforts to combat death by drowning — one of the top ten causes of death for children between the ages of 5 and 14. (Vaughn, 4/30)
