Category: World

PTI

Geneva: The World Health Organization says it has cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, meaning poorer countries may soon get access to the shot already available in Europe and North America.

Every country that has a drug regulatory agency will have to issue its own approval for any COVID-19 vaccine, but countries with weak systems usually rely on WHO to vet the shots.

The global body said late Thursday that the decision to issue its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine “opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine.”

The UN health agency said its review found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has already received clearance in the United States, Britain, the European Union and a dozen other countries, “met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set out by WHO.”

The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at ultra-frozen temperatures, a big hurdle for developing countries where the required freezers and reliable electricity supply may not be available.

“This requirement makes the vaccine more challenging to deploy in settings where ultra-cold chain equipment may not be available or reliably accessible,” WHO said, adding that it was “working to support countries in assessing their delivery plans and preparing for use where possible”. (AP)

PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan has decided to pre-book 1.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, the health ministry said here on Thursday, as the number of coronavirus cases reached 479,715 after 2,475 new infections were detected in the country.

China on Thursday granted conditional approval to the country’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm. The approval came a day after Sinopharm said its vaccine showed 79.34 per cent efficacy and a 99.52 per cent antibody-positive conversion rate in the interim results of Phase III clinical trials.

The decision to procure the vaccine was made in the meeting of a special cabinet committee on Wednesday after Sinopharm said that its vaccine was 79.34 per cent effective, the Ministry of National Health Services said.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has not yet approved the emergency use of the drug which once approved would be given free to all frontline health workers in the first quarter of 2021.

The committee was informed that Pakistan was in contact with other drug manufacturers for future bookings.

The committee said that the private sector would also be encouraged to approach Drap for emergency use of any available and safe COVID-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, another 58 people died in Pakistan due to coronavirus, taking the COVID-19 toll to 10,105, while 2,206 people were in critical conditions.

The number of recuperated people reached 435,073 after 4,960 people recovered in the last 24 hours.

It was the second consecutive day that over 4,000 patients tested negative.

The authorities have carried out 39,659 tests in the last one day, registering a positivity rate of 6.24 per cent.

LONDON: UK on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca as it battles a major winter surge driven by a new, highly contagious variant of the virus.
AstraZeneca said the authorisation was for a two dose regime, and that the vaccine had been approved for use for emergency supply. UK has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine.
“The government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for use,” the health ministry said.
The pandemic has already killed 1.7 million people around the world, sown chaos through the global economy and upended normal life for billions since it began in Wuhan, China, a year ago.
UK and South Africa in particular are grappling with new variants of the coronavirus, which the government and scientists say are more contagious; many countries have responded by banning passenger flights and blocking trade.
AstraZeneca and other developers have said they are studying the impact of the new variant but expect that their shots will be effective against it.
Regulatory endorsement is a welcome boost for AstraZeneca and the Oxford team, which have been accused of a lack of clarity about the results from late-stage trials.
Pooled results from those trials show it had overall efficacy was 70.4%. Efficacy was 62% for trial participants given two full doses, but 90% for a smaller sub-group given a half, then a full dose.
Researchers said that the finding of 90% efficacy for the low-dose/high-dose regime needed more investigation. AstraZeneca did not specify which dose regime had been approved.
“Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine,” AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said.
“It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit.”

The announcement came after the Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan met with the Minister of Education Dr. Hamad Bin Mohammed Al Shaikh on Thursday to discuss relevant and strategic objectives that the two ministries could coordinate on.

“Music, theater, and the arts in our education. What is coming next is more beautiful,” the culture minister tweeted with the announcement.

In addition to incorporating the new subjects into school curriculums, the Ministry of Culture now also has the authority to grant permits and licenses for cultural and artistic activities to public and private schools, institutions, and universities.

The announcement comes in light of recent changes in Saudi Arabia that are transforming the Kingdom into a hub for concerts, art shows, and cultural and entertainment eve vts in the region.

Most recently, WWE’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia, which featured the first-ever women’s match to be held in the Kingdom and the first singles event win by Saudi Arabian wrestler Mansoor al-Shehail.

Other events held in Saudi Arabia include the Joy Entertainment Awards, which were attended by Jackie Chan and Jason Momoa, and a sold-out music show by international K-pop boyband sensation BTS.

With inputs from Al Arabiya

Twitter reacts to Security’s actions

The first day of the 1st Test between New Zealand and Pakistan at the Bay Oval had plenty of moments for viewers to enjoy and savour. However, one that took all the attention away was by a streaker who ran on the pitch during the live game.

The person came running to the pitch naked with his hands on his private parts when New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson was about to take guard to face the next ball. Everyone had to stop midway and wait for the security to take him away.

But, the way the security personnel handled the matter, it became a reason for everyone’s outrage.

One of the security persons, grabbed the person after chasing him for a few seconds and pushed him down to the ground.

The manhandling by the security left Twitter users asking the security person to be escorted than the streaker himself. While many users thought that the five-ten minutes wasted by the streaker’s intervention was the reason that Williamson couldn’t complete his another Test century as he remained unbeaten on 94 when the Stumps happened. Some of the users had fun seeing the tackle by the security as they were not able to catch him in the first attempt.

With inputs from DNA India

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that there is no possibility of a diplomatic dialogue with India in the prevailing situation, according to a media report on Thursday.
New Delhi has already been maintaining its stand that “talks and terror” cannot go together as it continues to ask Islamabad to take demonstrable steps against terror groups responsible for launching various attacks on India.
“There is no possibility of a backdoor or diplomatic dialogue with India in the prevailing situation…The circumstances are not suitable for any dialogue at the moment,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
Qureshi made the comments while talking to reporters in his hometown Multan on Wednesday, the paper said.
Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after an attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by militant groups based in the neighbouring country. Subsequent attacks, including one on Indian Army camp in Uri, further deteriorated the relationship.
The relationship further dipped after Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed.
Withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers and bifurcating the state into two union territories in August last year also evoked a strong reaction from Pakistan, which has been unsuccessfully trying to rally international support against India on the Kashmir issue.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda. PTI

Washington: US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has begun shipping the first batches of its long-awaited and newly-authorised coronavirus vaccine out of a Michigan warehouse, setting in motion the biggest vaccination drive in American history at a time when the pandemic has killed nearly 300,000 people in the country.

The first trucks carrying the COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the US pulled out of a Pfitzer manufacturing plant in Michigan on Sunday, en route to 636 predetermined locations, amid a botched government response that has made the US the worst-hit country in the world.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorisation to the vaccine on Friday, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted on Saturday to recommend it for people age 16 and older in the US.

The vaccine arrives at a critical moment for the US. Hospitalisations due to COVID-19 hit record highs for the seventh day in a row on Saturday.
With the winter holidays still ahead, experts warn that the pandemic could continue to get worse before the larger public receives the vaccination.

Under Operation Warp Speed, a total of 636 hospitals and clinics across the states will receive the vaccine this upcoming week.
According to CNN, freight trucks carrying about 184,275 vials of vaccine departed the plant, and the combined 189 boxes of vaccine vials are expected to arrive in all 50 states on Monday.
Another 3,900 vials are expected to ship later Sunday to United States territories, and 400 boxes packed with about 390,000 vials will ship Monday to arrive on Tuesday.

There are five doses of vaccine per vial, according to Pfizer, the news channel reported on Sunday.

Operation Warp Speed chief advisor Dr Moncef Slaoui told Fox News in an interview that they plan to have about 14 million doses of vaccine available and distributed in the US by the end of this year.

Those would be both Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine.

“And the next month, we will have about 50 million to 80 million doses distributed in January, and another same number in February.

So, all in all, we hope to have immunized 100 million people, which would be the long-term care facility people, the elderly people with comorbidities, the first-line workers, the health care workers,” he said.

Slaoui said that they need to have immunised about 75 or 80 per cent of the US population before herd immunity can really be established.

“We hope to reach that point between the month of May and the month of June,” he said.
Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic that has killed 1.6 million and infected 71 million people worldwide.

The vaccine is offering hope in the fight against the pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans and infected 16 million people across the country.

Pfizer is expected to deliver an estimated 2.9 million doses this week via UPS and FedEx, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said Saturday.

The vaccines leaving Portage — a city just south of Kalamazoo — have US marshal protection to ensure they arrive safely at the hospital systems selected to receive the doses, some as early as Monday, NBC News reported.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company was leveraging manufacturing plants in Michigan, Missouri and Massachusetts to produce and distribute the vaccines quickly.

“I couldn’t be prouder of my fellow Pfizer colleagues and partners at BioNTech,” Bourla said in a video statement. “Their historic science-driven effort has delivered a vaccine with the potential to help bring an end to the most devastating pandemic in a century,” Bourla said.

The official Instagram page of PM Imran Khan shared throwback shots of Aamir Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is looking back at Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s visit to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital from 16 years ago.

The official Instagram page of the premier shared throwback shots of the Indian megastar from over a decade ago when he visited the cancer hospital in Lahore.

“16 years ago . Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital visit by Amir Khan,” read the caption of the post.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIsEYbHHXVn/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_mid=90D9C029-06B0-4E4D-9453-C3A729928E25

He had visited Lahore to help raise funds for the hospital back in 2004 after being extended an invite by Imran Khan, who is the chairman of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre.

The Dangal actor has been quite a big fan of PM Imran as he had previously also lauded his efforts for the betterment of the country back in 2012.

He had also claimed that he would visit Pakistan if Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf wins the election.

The actor, however, couldn’t make it when Imran Khan finally made it to the office in 2018.

With inputs from Geo News

(Except for the headlines, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that it approved a Chinese coronavirus vaccine that is being tested in the country after preliminary data showed that it was 86 percent effective.

The U.A.E.’s Ministry of Health and Prevention said it reviewed an interim analysis by Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned vaccine maker, of data from late-stage clinical trials that showed its vaccine was 86 percent effective in preventing infection from Covid-19.

Sinopharm’s analysis showed the vaccine was 100 percent effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of the disease and that there were no serious safety concerns, the government said. It did not say if it conducted an independent analysis of the raw data.

“The announcement is a significant vote of confidence by the U.A.E.’s health authorities in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine,” the ministry said in a statement on its website. A spokeswoman for Sinopharm hung up the phone when contacted for comment.

The data from the U.A.E. may not be a final indicator of the vaccine’s overall efficacy. Sinopharm has been running trials in 10 countries, data from which has not yet been released. By comparison, Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have showed efficacy rates of more than 90 percent. Still, the Sinopharm data from the U.A.E. represents a political and scientific win for China, which has three other vaccine candidates in late-stage trials.

It is unclear whether the U.A.E. would start a mass vaccination program — the government had already approved the vaccine for emergency use in September for frontline workers at risk of contracting Covid-19. Separately, Morocco said it is preparing to vaccinate 80 percent of its adults, relying initially on a Sinopharm vaccine, the Associated Press reported.

Because the coronavirus has largely been stamped out in China, Chinese vaccine makers had to launch Phase 3 trials in places with active outbreaks to fully conclude whether their vaccines are effective. Sinopharm, which has two vaccines in late-stage testing, is also conducting trials in Bahrain, Jordan, Peru and Argentina and elsewhere, involving more than 60,000 volunteers.

PTI

Taipei: Provincial governments across China are placing orders for experimental, domestically made coronavirus vaccines, though health officials have yet to say how well they work or how they may reach the country’s 1.4 billion people.

Developers are speeding up final testing, the Chinese foreign minister said Thursday during a UN meeting, as Britain issued approval for emergency use of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine candidate and providers scrambled to set up distribution.

China’s fledgling pharmaceutical industry has at least five vaccines from four producers being tested in more than a dozen countries including Russia, Egypt and Mexico.

Health experts say even if they are successful, the certification process for the United States, Europe, Japan and other developed countries might be too complex for them to be used there.

However, China said it will ensure the products are affordable for developing countries.

One developer, China National Pharmaceutical Group, known as Sinopharm, said in November it applied for final market approval for use of its vaccine in China.

Others have been approved for emergency use on health workers and other people deemed at high risk of infection.

“We must be prepared for large-scale production,” said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who has overseen much of the country’s response, during a visit Wednesday to developers, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Sun visited one of Sinopharm’s Beijing subsidiary companies; another producer, Sinovac, and a research lab under the National Medical Products Administration, a regulatory agency that approves medical products for public use.

The government has yet to say how many people it plans to vaccinate.
Sun said plans call for vaccinating border personnel and other high-risk populations this month.

The companies are using more traditional techniques than Western developers.

They say unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, which must be kept frozen at temperatures as low as minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), theirs can be stored at 2 to 8 C (36 to 46F).

The Chinese producers have yet to say how they might be distributed.

More than 1 million people in China have received experimental vaccines under emergency use approval. Health experts question why China is using them on such a vast scale now that the outbreak is largely under control within its borders.

Health officials previously said China will be able to manufacture 610 million doses by the end of this year and ramp up to 1 billion doses next year.

The government of Jiangsu province, where the major city of Nanjing is located, issued a procurement notice for vaccines from Sinovac and Sinopharm on Wednesday for emergency use vaccinations.

Authorities in Sichuan province in the west, which has about 85 million people, announced Monday they were already buying vaccines.

An official newspaper in Anhui province, southeast of Beijing, said a local residential committee issued a notice asking whether residents want a vaccine.

The Sichuan and Anhui announcements said the vaccine, given in two shots, would cost a total of 400 yuan (USD 60).

Vaccines from Sinovac and Sinopharm were approved for emergency use in July.

In October, Zhejiang province south of Shanghai offered the public vaccination under emergency use authorization.

It said people considered high-risk would get priority.

In November, the Communist Party secretary for Sinopharm said almost 1 million people had received its vaccine.

In September, Sinovac’s CEO said about 3,000 of its employees had taken their vaccine.
He said the company provided tens of thousands of doses to the Beijing city government.

Developers have yet to disclose how effective their vaccines are and possible side effects.
Sinopharm has clinical trials under way in 10 countries including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Peru and Argentina with nearly 60,000 volunteers.

It has built two facilities in China capable of producing 200 million doses per year.

Sinovac has trials in Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia. Its most recent publicized data, a study in the science journal the Lancet, showed its candidate produced lower levels of antibodies in people than those who had recovered from COVID-19.

The company projects it will be able to produce a few hundred million doses of the vaccine by February or March of next year.

Another producer, CanSino, is testing in Russia, Pakistan and Mexico and pursuing partnerships in Latin American countries.

Its vaccine, which has been used on an emergency basis with the Chinese military, uses a harmless adenovirus to carry genes into human cells to generate an immune response.

A fourth company, Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., is conducting final stage trials across China. (AP)