(Reuters) – The World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic programme plans to ship 100 million doses of Sinovac and Sinopharm COVID-19 shots by the end of next month, mostly to Africa and Asia, in its first delivery of Chinese vaccines, a WHO document showed.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* Britain’s Health Department said it has not made any decision on COVID-19 vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds after the Telegraph reported the National Health Service planned vaccinations from the first week children return to school in September.
* The British public’s view of the government’s management of the coronavirus crisis has turned negative for the first time since February and they are worried about the risk of a new wave of infections, according to a survey.
* Hundreds of Greek frontline health workers protested against a plan to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for the care sector as infection rates remained high.
* Students and teachers who have not been inoculated against COVID-19 or recovered from the disease will have to take weekly tests, as infections in the country rose to their highest since May.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Vilified by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party for its high COVID-19 cases, Kerala’s apparent poor record may actually hold crucial lessons for the country in containing the outbreak as authorities brace for a possible third wave of infections.
* Vietnam will deploy troops to industrial Binh Duong province, a major manufacturing hub in the Southeast Asian country, to help contain an expected 50,000 additional coronavirus infections there over the next two weeks, the government said.
* Thailand is in talks with European countries to purchase millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
AMERICAS
* Illinois will require all eligible students and school employees to be vaccinated and re-instituted an indoor mask mandate under an order announced by Governor J.B. Pritzker.
* Public support for stronger measures to require COVID vaccinations is strong, according to a new Reuters/IPSOS poll, but for Detroit automakers the debate over vaccination policy is far from over.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* A third wave of COVID-19 infections in Africa has stabilised and the continent’s slow vaccination drive has picked up pace, the WHO said.
* Qatar is offering COVID-19 vaccines to evacuees from Afghanistan who are temporarily staying in the Gulf Arab state, which has been facilitating global evacuation efforts since the Taliban seized Kabul.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would start a large study for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the next few weeks, after the drugmaker received authorization from Brazil’s regulatory agency.
* Pfizer Inc and BioNTech signed on Brazil’s Eurofarma Laboratorios as a manufacturer of their COVID-19 vaccine doses for Latin America.
* Pfizer said a booster dose of its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine spurs a more than threefold increase in antibodies against the coronavirus, as the company seeks U.S. regulatory approval for a third injection.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global equity markets slipped while U.S. Treasury yields rose to two-week highs on Thursday after two hawkish Federal Reserve officials called for the U.S. central bank to start ending its bond-buying program ahead of a key speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell. [MKTS/GLOB]
(Compiled by Aditya Soni and Krishna Chandra Eluri; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Arun Koyyur)
