Covid-19

CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL UPDATE

Moderna booster backed by US panel; South Africa registers 947 new cases

Moderna booster backed by US panel; South Africa registers 947 new cases
Health workers escort a Covid-19 patient to the hospital complex in the Kommunarka settlement in Moscow, Russia, on 14 October 2021. (Photo: EPA-EFE / MAXIM SHIPENKOV)

South Africa registered 947 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the cumulative total to 2,914,827. A further 40 Covid-19-related deaths were reported, taking total official deaths to 88,506. A total of 19,899,964 people have been vaccinated.

Booster shots of Moderna’s vaccine should be given to older people and those at high risk of the disease, a US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said.  

Another FDA panel will take up Merck’s emergency-use authorisation request for its Covid-19 pill on November 30, taking the data into a public forum to discuss any safety concerns.

President Joe Biden called on more businesses to require employee vaccinations, which have mostly survived a first wave of legal challenges. 

United Airlines Holdings is planning its largest expansion into Europe, anticipating that next summer will deliver record traffic. 

Key developments 

  • Virus Tracker: Cases top 239.4 million; deaths exceed 4.8 million
  • Vaccine Tracker: More than 6.6 billion shots given
  • Long Covid doubles burden of mystery illness few doctors treat
  • Supremacy of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine underlined by new data
  • Ivermectin is unproven for Covid, but drugmakers are cashing in
  • Manhattan rents rise for the first time since Covid’s early days

FDA panel backs Moderna boosters 

Booster shots of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine should be given to older people and those at high risk of the disease, advisers to US regulators said. 

The additional doses should be offered to people aged 65 and older along with those between 18 and 64 years old who are at high risk for medical or occupational reasons, the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said on Thursday in a unanimous, 19-0 vote. The shots should be given six months after the initial inoculation, the panel said. 

The vote follows a similar recommendation from the panel on a booster from Pfizer and BioNTech.

US ups vaccine donation to Africa 

President Joe Biden will announce the donation of an additional 17 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to the African Union after the US faced criticism that it hasn’t been more generous.

Biden was expected to make the announcement at a meeting on Thursday with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the White House, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity ahead of the event. Delivery of the single-dose J&J shot is expected in the coming weeks.

Verizon mandates shots for non-union workers 

Non-union Verizon employees in the US must be fully vaccinated by December 8, Verizon says in a statement posted on its website.

Employees must provide proof they are fully vaccinated “regardless of where they work or how often they come into a Verizon work location”. The company said the requirement doesn’t apply to union-represented workers as it’s still in talks with the unions.

Vaccine capacity isn’t main bottleneck, says IMF 

The world has enough production capacity to deliver both initial Covid-19 vaccinations and booster shots, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said. An IMF analysis concludes that the biggest obstacle is vaccine delivery, Georgieva said during a virtual panel discussion.

What’s needed are transparent contracts and delivery schedules as well as health systems that can deliver inoculations quickly, Georgieva said. The IMF sees a roughly $20-billion aid gap for the “last mile” of vaccine distribution, she said.  

Biden calls on businesses to ‘step up’  

President Joe Biden said the number of unvaccinated Americans remains too high and called on more businesses to impose vaccination mandates. 

“Every day, we see more businesses implementing vaccination requirements and the mounting data shows that they work,” Biden said on Thursday at the White House. “I’m calling on more businesses to step up.” 

Merck pill to be reviewed next month 

The US Food and Drug Administration will send Merck’s Covid-19 pill to an advisory committee for review at a meeting on November 30.

The FDA announcement is expected imminently, and means the agency opted not to skip the advisory committee step, which it occasionally does when it’s racing to get a drug to market quickly. Safety concerns have been raised by some experts, and the committee will weigh in before the FDA makes a decision, the person said. 

New York City teachers’ challenge questioned by judge 

A federal appeals court expressed scepticism of a bid by four New York City public school employees to halt the city’s Covid vaccination mandate, as a three-judge panel questioned a lawyer for the workers.

Circuit Judge Susan Carney baulked at the attorney’s argument that teachers are a constitutionally protected class and that the vaccine requirement infringes on a fundamental right. 

“I’m having difficulty seeing why this is an irrational policy decision of the city,” she said of the mandate in a hearing on Thursday in Manhattan.

Shot mandates endure court challenges 

US workplace vaccination mandates have largely survived a first wave of legal challenges even as the number of lawsuits over them has soared with their expanded use.

Workers and advocacy groups have filed at least 39 federal cases this year, contesting vaccination requirements imposed by employers or governments, with 85% of them arriving after August 1, according to a Bloomberg Law review. Courts have denied requests for temporary orders against mandates in 12 of the suits, while seven have ended with dismissals.

“What we’ve seen so far in the courts really demonstrates how durable and well judicially supported vaccine mandates are,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

Sputnik Light vaccine works better with mRNA dose 

The single-shot Sputnik Light vaccine provides stronger immune response when given along with shots from Moderna and AstraZeneca than a second dose of those inoculations, according to Argentine Health Ministry data released by Sputnik partner the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). 

The trial involving 1,000 people also showed positive results for Sputnik when used with the Cansino and Sinopharm vaccines, RDIF said. On Wednesday, RDIF reported Sputnik Light showed 70% effectiveness against the Delta variant, according to a preprint study that hasn’t yet been subjected to peer review.

New York City Delta wave waning  

New York City has six million New Yorkers who have got at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a Thursday briefing. Over 84% of adults have at least the first shot, with 75% of teenagers, De Blasio said. There’s only about a million adults left in the city to be vaccinated, he said.

Meanwhile, cases, hospitalisations and deaths are dropping from the Delta variant-fuelled summer peak. The seven-day average of total hospitalisations fell to 30 on Sunday, down from 119 in August, according to city data. The average weekly hospitalisation rate for unvaccinated people is 22 per 100,000 residents, compared to two per 100,000 residents among vaccinated people, according to city data collected since vaccines were introduced in New York in January.

US weighs Moderna, J&J booster shots 

A group of top vaccine experts is meeting on Thursday and Friday to consider whether people who got the Covid-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson should receive booster shots. Thursday’s focus is the Moderna shot.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will make recommendations to the US Food and Drug Administration, which will ultimately decide whether to allow the boosters, and for whom. While the FDA isn’t bound by the experts’ advice, the agency usually follows it. 

United bets big on European vacations 

United Airlines Holdings is planning its largest expansion into Europe, anticipating a surge of pent-up demand following two years of weak bookings because of the pandemic. Among the new routes, United is adding five destinations starting in May and June that are not currently served by North American carriers: Amman, Jordan; Bergen, Norway; Azores, Portugal; Palma de Mallorca, Spain; and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Italy prepares for new rules 

Italy’s public and private sector workers will be required to show proof of either vaccination or a negative test not older than 48 hours upon entering their workplace as of Friday. The country has one of the world’s highest inoculation rates, with around 80% of the population fully vaccinated. 

Still, the decision by Prime Minister Mario Draghi has stoked tensions and protests that turned violent in Rome last weekend. Further demonstrations are expected in the coming days, with particular strain likely to be seen at ports, where there’s a higher than average rate of unvaccinated workers. 

In Trieste harbour – Europe’s seventh-biggest port, where about 40% of workers aren’t vaccinated – some unions are threatening to block the facilities until the government revokes the measure.

Romania runs out of ICU beds 

Romania, the European Union country with the second-lowest vaccination rate, ran out of intensive-care beds, according to the government. More than 3,000 Covid deaths in the past two weeks have pushed the toll to more than 40,000.  

More than 16,000 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, close to a daily record. Hospitals are overwhelmed with severely ill patients and authorities are considering transferring some abroad. 

UK insolvencies set to surge 

UK insolvencies are expected to rise by as much as 15% next year, compared with about 5% for Europe, according to QBE Insurance Group analysts. The end of government wage support starting from this month, combined with inflationary pressures and supply woes, is likely to lead to “mass UK business insolvency in the new year”.

Russia has new daily record 

Russia reported new daily records, with 31,299 infections in the past day and 986 deaths. The Federal Statistics Service said deaths since summer have been running at their highest level for the pandemic. With only about a third of Russians vaccinated, many regions are returning to social restrictions to try to curb the spread of the virus.

African infections undetected 

Six out of seven Covid-19 infections go undetected in Africa, showing that the impact of the disease on the world’s least vaccinated continent is probably underestimated, according to the World Health Organization. Africa has seen 8.4 million cases to date, or 3.5% of the global total, even though the continent accounts for about a sixth of the world’s population.  

Ireland reopening in doubt 

After topping Bloomberg’s Covid resilience rankings last month, concerns over escalating cases are putting Ireland’s next phase of reopening in question.

While almost 89% of people over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, hospitalisations are now at the highest since March. Prime Minister Micheal Martin said he couldn’t currently “guarantee” that the final unwinding of restrictions scheduled for October 22 would go ahead as planned, though no “decisions have been made”. DM 

With assistance from Morwenna Coniam, Antony Sguazzin, Tony Halpin, Alessandro Speciale, Shelly Banjo, Yuliya Fedorinova, Milda Seputyte and Ana Monteiro.

Gallery

"Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]"

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