GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) &#8211; The trend of COVID-19 cases in Africa is very concerning, a senior World Health Organization official said on Friday.



Absolute numbers do not make Africa look in bad shape, said Mike Ryan, the WHO&#8217;s top emergency expert, adding that in the last week it had recorded just over 5% of global cases and 2.2% of deaths.



But given the level of underdiagnosis, he told a news conference: &#8220;It&#8217;s a trajectory that is very, very concerning.&#8221; 



(Reporting by Mike Shields and John Miller; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Africa COVID trajectory is ‘very concerning’, WHO official says

NAIROBI, June 17 (Reuters) &#8211; COVID-19 cases rose by over 20% week-on-week in nearly two dozen African countries and progress on vaccinating Africans is proceeding slowly, with just 0.79% of people on the continent fully vaccinated, senior health officials said on Thursday.



&#8220;Africa is in the midst of a full blown third wave…We’ve seen in India and elsewhere how quickly COVID-19 can rebound and overwhelm health systems,&#8221; Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, told a news conference.



New cases are up nearly 30% in the past week and deaths are up by 15%, she said, with five countries &#8212; South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda and Namibia &#8212; accounting for 76% of the new cases.



The continent of 1.3 billion people has not yet been battered with an emergency during the pandemic on the scale of that recently facing India, but officials including Moeti continue to warn that such a catastrophe could hit.



African nations lack sufficient numbers of hospital beds and oxygen supplies, and would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases surged in a similar way, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned in April.



Africa has reported over 5 million COVID-19 cases, representing 2.9% of total cases globally, according to the Africa CDC.



The Africa CDC&#8217;s chief John Nkengasong told reporters in a separate news conference on Thursday that amid quickly rising cases in many countries, progress on vaccination campaigns is generally slow.



Four African countries have not begun vaccination campaigns, but the WHO said on Thursday that Tanzania plans to request to join the COVAX global vaccine-sharing facility. This was the latest sign of the country&#8217;s change of tack following the death of its COVID-19 sceptic president in March.



The aim of COVAX is to help poorer countries vaccinate their people.



Both Moeti and Nkengasong stressed that African nations carrying out vaccinations at a relatively good pace were running out of their stocks.



Five African countries &#8212; Sao Tome and Principe, Morocco, Kenya, Cote d&#8217;Ivoire, Ghana, and Libya &#8212; have used 90% or more of their vaccine stocks, according to the WHO.



Nkengasong welcomed the Group of Seven&#8217;s pledge of 1 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but said news should be put in the right context. &#8220;The one billion doses are not here now. We are hoping they will be here soon.&#8221; 



(Reporting by Omar Mohammed and Maggie Fick; Writing by Maggie Fick Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Dr. Moeti…

COVID-19 cases surge in Africa, less than 0.8% of fully vaccinated, say officials

GENEVA, June 14 (Reuters) &#8211; The head of the World Trade Organization said on Monday that trade barriers related to medical supplies used against COVID-19 had risen and urged member states to drop them, as it intensified efforts to reach a deal on vaccine-sharing.



&#8220;The trend is going in the wrong direction,&#8221; WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told a virtual U.N. forum, referring to barriers on goods trade related to the pandemic.



&#8220;We need to bring those restrictions down so we can move…medical goods and supplies and vaccines (faster).&#8221;



She said the number of trade restrictions was 109 at the start of the pandemic early last year, and had later fallen to 51 but had since risen again to 53.



At the same event, she called on WTO members to reach a deal by July on improving access to COVID-19 vaccines after months of talks on waiving drug firms&#8217; intellectual property rights. Most developing countries support the waiver but several wealthy countries remain strongly opposed, saying it will deter research that allowed COVID-19 vaccines to be produced so quickly.



&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be tough because there are still differences but we hope we can get to a pragmatic approach,&#8221; Okonjo-Iweala said. &#8220;I&#8217;m in a hurry and I want us to get some agreement by July because lives are important.&#8221;



The former Nigerian finance minister also commented on a WTO ministerial conference next month that will aim to strike a deal on cutting fisheries subsidies, saying she still saw &#8220;serious differences&#8221; between countries. 



(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Mark Heinrich)

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WTO head says pandemic-related trade barriers are rising

The head of the World Trade Organization said there was a pathway for a global deal to get more COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries, despite a split over whether drugs firms should be stripped of their intellectual property rights.



WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, speaking to reporters before joining discussions among leaders of the Group of Seven nations, said she was hopeful there would be more clarity on the way ahead for the IP waiver issue by July.



&#8220;It may be difficult because some of the positions, maybe, are a little bit far apart, but there is a pathway,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I would very much like to see some form of progress by July.&#8221;



WTO members agreed on Wednesday to start formal talks on a plan to boost COVID-19 vaccine supply to developing countries but the battle lines are drawn for tough negotiations.



South Africa and India, backed by many emerging nations, want a temporary waiver of IP rights on vaccines and other treatments to allow local manufacturers to produce shots.



U.S. President Joe Biden has said he backs a temporary waiver. But other developed nations, many home to large pharmaceutical companies, say such a move would not boost production and could undermine research and development.



Okonjo-Iweala said the debate had moved ahead with the agreement to start the negotiations.



&#8220;We hope that this will happen in a way that can accelerate agreement into something pragmatic, that will work for developing countries and at the same time protect research and innovation,&#8221; she said.



As well as reaching a deal on IP, countries had to scale back restrictions on exports of materials used in production and back a $50 billion plan to accelerate local vaccine rollouts, the WTO leader added.



WTO members are due to discuss next week the format of negotiations with a view to producing a report by July 21-22.



The G7 leaders, holding a summit in southwest England, agreed on Friday to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries, something the United Nations and campaign groups said fell short of what is needed.



Separately, Okonjo-Iweala said she was hoping for a &#8220;significant advance&#8221; in talks on fishery subsidies by July &#8220;even if we don&#8217;t get to a conclusion which is quite possible&#8221;.



She is due to host a meeting of WTO member countries on July 15 to try to cut fisheries subsidies after 20 years of talks.



(Reporting by William Schomberg Editing by Frances Kerry)

WTO boss sees way for deal to speed COVID vaccines for poor nations

Hospitals in Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s capital Kinshasa are &#8220;overwhelmed&#8221; by a rise in COVID-19 infections, President Felix Tshisekedi said on Saturday, as the country was hit by a third wave of the disease.



Like many African countries, Congo has officially registered relatively few cases. But the virus has killed a number of prominent politicians, and low vaccination rates have left the country vulnerable to more contagious variants.



Health officials recorded 254 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, one of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began. In all, Congo has registered 35,000 cases and 830 deaths.



&#8220;I am going to take drastic measures to deal with this upsurge of the disease. We&#8217;re talking about the Indian variant in particular,&#8221; Tshisekedi told reporters, referring to the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India and is highly infectious.



He did not specify what measures he planned to take.



Congo delayed its vaccination campaign by more than a month because of concerns about very rare side effects from the AstraZeneca shot. Since the campaign finally started on April 19, fewer than 30,000 doses have been administered.



&#8220;You know very well that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been and continues to be problematic, both in terms of side effects but also in terms of trust with the population,&#8221; Tshisekedi said.



International drug regulators have said the benefits of using vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson &amp; Johnson outweigh risks as they investigate reports of extremely rare, but potentially fatal blood clots.



Experts say that in Congo, scarce testing means cases and deaths are likely to be heavily understated by official numbers. They also say hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with a fresh wave of the virus.



&#8220;There is a big problem with (the supply of) oxygen in Kinshasa,&#8221; said Pascal Lutumba from the tropical medicine department at the University of Kinshasa.



&#8220;In Kinshasa, they don’t care about COVID-19, they don’t believe in it, that’s the big issue,&#8221; he said, referring to the city&#8217;s population.



 (Reporting by Stanis Bujakera and Hereward Holland; Writing by Hereward Holland Editing by Frances Kerry)

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Congo president says Kinshasa hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ by coronavirus

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/50637498101_b7d25a9099_b-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-406724" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/50637498101_b7d25a9099_b-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/50637498101_b7d25a9099_b-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/50637498101_b7d25a9099_b-120x80.jpg 120w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/50637498101_b7d25a9099_b-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/50637498101_b7d25a9099_b.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>World Health Organization Photo via flickr</figcaption></figure>



Group of Seven countries will provide 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses over the next year and work with the private sector, the G20 and other countries to increase the contribution over months to come, according to an almost finalised draft of the communique.



&#8220;The commitments since we last met in February 2021 including here in Carbis Bay provide for 1 billion doses over the next year,&#8221; said the communique, seen by Reuters.



&#8220;We will work together with the private sector, the G20 and other countries to increase this contribution over the months to come,&#8221; the communique said.



Two sources said the draft had been largely finalised by diplomats who worked late into Saturday night to agree most of the text, though they said parts of the draft could change over coming hours.



There were few disagreements over the communique, which is going through final drafting, though Japan pushed for a tougher line on China, a diplomatic source said.



The G7 said in the draft that the vaccine donations built on exports from domestic production with at least 700 million doses exported or to be exported this year, of which at least 50% have gone to non G7 countries.



The group added that it had &#8220;a commitment to continue exporting in significant proportions; and the promotion of voluntary licensing and not-for-profit global production, which has so far accounted for 95% of the COVAX supply,&#8221; the communique said.



The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower-income countries by the end of 2021.



&#8220;We reaffirm our support for all pillars of the ACT-A across treatments, tests and strengthening public health systems as well as vaccines,&#8221; the communique said.



The ACT-Accelerator partnership was designed to accelerate the design, production and distribution of vaccines.



&#8220;We support discussions regarding the extension of the ACT-A mandate into 2022, noting the planned comprehensive review to optimise its effectiveness and accountability.&#8221; 



(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton)

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G7 agrees 1 billion COVID vaccine donation – communique

HARARE, June 10 (Reuters) &#8211; About 90% of African countries will miss a September target to vaccinate at least 10% of their populations against COVID-19 as a third wave of the pandemic looms on the continent, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Thursday.



Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said the continent required an extra 225 million doses to be able to vaccinate a tenth of its people by September this year.



Africa has hit 5 million COVID-19 cases, with the southern Africa region the worst affected, accounting for 37% of total cases, according to a Reuters tally. South Africa is the worst affected African country, with about 34% of the total cases and about 43% of all deaths.



&#8220;With vaccine stocks and shipments drying up, the continent&#8217;s vaccination coverage for the first dose remains stuck at 2% and at about 1% in sub-saharan Africa,&#8221; Moeti told a weekly news briefing.



&#8220;Vaccines have been proven to prevent cases and deaths, so countries that can, must urgently share COVID-19 vaccines. It&#8217;s do or die on dose sharing for Africa.&#8221;



Moeti said U.S. President Joe Biden plans to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to more than 90 countries was an important step forward in making vaccines available on the continent.



Africa Centres for Disease Control director John Nkengasong said in a separate news conference that 14 African countries were &#8220;aggressively&#8221; heading towards a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.



&#8220;You can clearly see that the variant that was identified in India is getting a hold on the continent. We continue to analyses the situation and see whether there is correlation between the variant and the third wave,&#8221; said Nkengasong. 



(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

WHO says 9 in 10 African countries to miss COVID-19 vaccination goal

England, June 10 (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. President Joe Biden plans to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to more than 90 countries, while calling on the world&#8217;s democracies to do their part to help end the deadly pandemic, the White House said.



The announcement of the vaccine donation &#8211; the largest ever by a single country &#8211; comes before Biden meets leaders of the other Group of Seven advanced economies in England.



&#8220;The goal of today&#8217;s donation is to save lives and end the pandemic and will provide the foundation for additional actions to be announced in the coming days,&#8221; the White House said.



U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech will provide 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million doses in the first half of 2022, which the United States will then distribute to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union.



The shots, which will be produced at Pfizer&#8217;s U.S. sites, will be provided at a not-for-profit price.



&#8220;Our partnership with the U.S. government will help bring hundreds of millions of doses of our vaccine to the poorest countries around the world as quickly as possible,&#8221; said Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla.



&#8220;SUPERCHARGE THE GLOBAL FIGHT&#8221;



The new donations come on top of some 80 million doses Washington has already pledged to donate by the end of June, and $2 billion in funding earmarked for the COVAX program led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the White House said.



GAVI and the WHO welcomed the initiative but anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam called for more to be done to increase the global production of vaccines.



&#8220;Surely, these 500 million vaccine doses are welcome as they will help more than 250 million people, but that’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the need across the world,&#8221; said Niko Lusiani, Oxfam America’s vaccine lead.



&#8220;…we need a transformation toward more distributed vaccine manufacturing so that qualified producers worldwide can produce billions more low-cost doses on their own terms, without intellectual property constraints,&#8221; he added in a statement.



Biden has backed calls for a waiver of some vaccine intellectual property rights but there is no international accord on how to proceed.



The donation is meant to &#8220;supercharge the global fight against the pandemic,&#8221; the White House said. They will be part of the total U.S. commitment of $4 billion to COVAX announced earlier this year, a White House official said.



The pandemic has killed about 3.9 million people around the world, with infections reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.



Washington is also taking steps to support local production of COVID-19 vaccines in other countries, including through its Quad initiative with Japan, India and Australia.



&#8220;President Biden has been clear that borders cannot keep this pandemic at bay and has vowed that our nation will be the arsenal of vaccines,&#8221; the White House said.



Biden&#8217;s announcement comes amid mounting pressure for the United States, which has now given at least one shot to around 64% of its adult population, to boost donations of COVID-19 shots to other countries that are desperately seeking doses. 



(Reporting by Steve Holland in St. Ives, England, Andrea Shalal in Washington and Caroline Copley in Berlin; Editing by Leslie Adler, David Evans and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

In this photo illustration, a man holds a syringe with a

Biden to donate 500 million Pfizer doses, urge others to join in

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved $650 million in aid to Senegal to support the West African country&#8217;s COVID-19 recovery, it said in a statement late on Monday.



The announcement follows an earlier payment of $442 million to Senegal in April 2020, also to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the IMF said.



The pandemic has hit the Senegalese economy hard and caused growth to contract to an estimated 1.5% in 2020 from 5.3% in 2019, the IMF said. The Fund expects a modest recovery in 2021 with growth reaching 3.7% and forecast to reach 5.5% in 2022.



The $650 million will be paid over 18 months, with an immediate disbursement of $187 million, the IMF said.



&#8220;The 18-month arrangements &#8230; will provide a policy anchor for the next phase of the authorities&#8217; COVID-19 response and support a strong and job-rich recovery,&#8221; it said.



The West African country said last week that it plans to raise $500 million from the debt market to create jobs for young people as part of a response to riots in March. It also issued 775 million euros in Eurobonds.



Senegal, one of Africa&#8217;s most stable democracies, was rocked by its worst unrest in a decade in March after the arrest of a popular opposition politician triggered an explosion of pent-up anger over economic hardship.



Senegal has brought COVID-19 cases under control in the last few months, ramping up its vaccination drive, but there is a risk of a third wave, the IMF said. The health ministry has recorded 41,725 cases and 1,150 deaths from coronavirus to date. 



(Reporting by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Bate Felix and Jane Merriman)

COVID PIC

IMF approves $650 mln in aid for Senegal’s COVID-19 recovery

GENEVA, June 7 (Reuters) &#8211; World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday he hopes African COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing sites will be identified and some even close to producing by the end of 2021, in the race to deliver more shots to the continent.



While Tedros did not provide specifics on which country, Reuters has reported that Senegal could begin producing COVID-19 vaccines next year under an agreement with Belgian biotech group Univercells aimed at boosting Africa&#8217;s drug-manufacturing ambitions.



Tedros also called on companies including Pfizer and Moderna whose vaccines rely on so-called mRNA technology to share their knowledge with the WHO&#8217;s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, which aims to help speed up transfer of vital pandemic-fighting technologies. 



(Reporting by John Miller, Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge)

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WHO’s Tedros hopes African COVID vaccine sites to near production by end-2021

GENEVA, June 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Wealthy countries need to give more COVID-19 vaccines and follow the United States in making doses available immediately to cover a 200 million dose gap caused by Indian supply disruptions and manufacturing delays, a WHO senior adviser said on Friday.



The World Health Organization is urging wealthy countries to donate their surplus doses to poorer countries instead of giving them to less vulnerable groups, such as children, and they have so far donated 150 million doses via the COVAX sharing scheme.



However, Bruce Aylward said on Friday that only a small portion of those doses will be available in the short-term in June, July and August when they can make a difference in slowing the pace of infections in the global pandemic.



&#8220;We are going to need twice that much and it&#8217;s got to be brought forward,&#8221; he said, referring to the size of wealthy country donations so far as G7 health ministers meet in Oxford. &#8220;We are setting up for failure if we don&#8217;t get early doses.&#8221;



He praised a U.S. plan announced on Thursday to quickly share 25 million doses and encouraged other wealthy countries to follow suit.



Aylward estimated that Indian vaccine export disruptions and delays in getting other vaccines online meant that the COVAX sharing scheme had a gap of around 200 million doses.



India&#8217;s Serum Institute has diverted AstraZeneca supplies to the domestic market amid a devastating second wave in India and is expected to lift those restrictions in the fourth quarter when other products earmarked for COVAX are also due online.





&#8220;All of that is going to arrive at the same time,&#8221; said Aylward. 



(Reporting by Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay, Editing by Ros Russell)

WHO warns of ‘failure’ unless wealthy countries advance their vaccine donations

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/covax-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-405717" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/covax-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/covax-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/covax-120x80.jpg 120w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/covax-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/covax.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption> <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Funicefethiopia%2F51042011111&amp;psig=AOvVaw0xfocr1MK1c8wgy4xXKZr-&amp;ust=1622792007552000&amp;source=images&amp;cd=vfe&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiK4cC6-frwAhUMchQKHUSVC3kQjhx6BAgAEA4"><a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Funicefethiopia%2F51042011111&amp;psig=AOvVaw0xfocr1MK1c8wgy4xXKZr-&amp;ust=1622792007552000&amp;source=images&amp;cd=vfe&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiK4cC6-frwAhUMchQKHUSVC3kQjhx6BAgAEA4">National COVID 19 Vaccine Introduction Launching Pro</a>gram</a> Photo via flickr</figcaption></figure>



Countries and private donors pledged nearly $2.4 billion on Wednesday to the COVAX vaccine-sharing plan, expanding efforts to make COVID-19 shots more available to people in poorer nations.



The announcements, ranging from $2,500 from island nation Mauritius to millions of dollars and doses from wealthier countries, came during a video summit hosted by Japan and the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, which leads the COVAX facility alongside the World Health Organization.



The funds will allow COVAX to secure 1.8 billion fully subsidised doses for delivery to lower-income countries in 2021 and early 2022, enough to protect 30% of adults in those nations, GAVI said in a statement.



&#8220;We have taken a big step towards &#8216;one world protected&#8217;,&#8221; said Jose Manuel Barroso, GAVI chairman. The fresh funds brought total COVAX financing to $9.6 billion, he added.



Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose government pledged an additional $800 million, called the result &#8220;an extremely significant and meaningful step&#8221; toward equitable vaccine access.



Japan will also donate about 30 million doses of vaccines produced within the country through COVAX, he said.



The COVAX mechanism has distributed 77 million doses to 127 countries since February but has been stymied by India restricting exports of vaccines amid a major outbreak there.



Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who pledged 15 million doses and 50 million euros ($61 million), said: &#8220;Only by leading by example we will be effective in preaching solidarity.&#8221;



Australia said it was giving a further A$50 million ($39 million) to COVAX while Canada, Sweden, France and Switzerland were among other countries to announce new donations.



Philanthropist Bill Gates said: &#8220;High-income countries have reserved more vaccines than they need. So without compromising their own domestic vaccination efforts, these countries can be part of the effort to accelerate global vaccine access by sharing the excess doses.



&#8220;I encourage these nations to be bold and commit as soon as possible to sharing over 1 billion doses in 2021 mostly through GAVI&#8217;s COVAX advance market commitment,&#8221; Gates said.



The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation later announced a $50 million commitment to COVAX.



U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris referenced the United States&#8217; $2 billion contribution this year and $2 billion earmarked for next year, but made no fresh announcements.



WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated concerns that Western nations have vaccinated high percentages of their people, while health workers in places like Africa remain unprotected.



&#8220;Of the 1.8 billion vaccines administered globally just 0.4% have been administered in low-income countries,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is ethically, epidemiologically and economically unacceptable.&#8221; ($1 = 0.8205 euros) ($1 = 1.2898 Australian dollars) 



(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and John Miller in Zurich; Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by Mark Heinrich, David Holmes and Edwina Gibbs)

vaccine

Summit secures additional $2.4 bln for COVID shots for poor countries

GENEVA, May 31 (Reuters) &#8211; The World Health Organization, battling to coordinate the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, agreed on Monday to study recommendations for ambitious reforms made by independent experts to strengthen the agency, with member states firmly in the driver&#8217;s seat.



Health ministers from its 194 members will also meet from Nov. 29 to decide whether to launch negotiations on an international treaty aimed at boosting defences against any future pandemic.



&#8220;We really do welcome the recommendations within the resolutions and also the decision to take this forward to an international agreement or framework convention on preparedness and response for pandemics,&#8221; WHO&#8217;s emergencies director Mike Ryan told its annual ministerial assembly. 



(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Emma Farge)

WHO agrees to study major reforms, meet again on pandemic treaty

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1229877299-1-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-401221" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1229877299-1-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1229877299-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1229877299-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1229877299-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>NETHERLANDS &#8211; 2020/11/29: In this photo illustration, a man holds a syringe with a fake Covid-19 vaccine with the AstraZeneca logo in the background. (Photo Illustration by Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



Africa needs at least 20 million doses of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AZN-GB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AstraZeneca’s</a>&nbsp;Covid-19 vaccine within the next six weeks to get the second round of shots to people who’ve already received the first, the World Health Organization said Thursday.



Data shows that one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 70% effective for at least 12 weeks, but the second dose provides 81% protection against&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/coronavirus/">Covid</a>&nbsp;for an extended time, according to the WHO. Antibodies have been observed in the body up to six months after one dose.



For the continent to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by September, another 200 million doses of any cleared Covid-19 vaccine is urgently needed, the WHO said.



As of Thursday, 28 million Covid-19 doses from different drugmakers have been administered in Africa, which has almost 1.4 billion people, representing less than two doses per 100 people on the continent. By comparison, more than 165 million people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine dose, equivalent to almost half of the country’s population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



“Africa needs vaccines now. Any pause in our vaccination campaigns will lead to lost lives and lost hope,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. “We urgently appeal to countries that have vaccinated their high-risk groups to speed up the dose-sharing to fully protect the most vulnerable people.”



France pledged to share half a million doses with six African countries in the next few weeks, and has already sent 31,000 doses to Mauritania. Another 74,400 doses are set to be shipped out soon, the WHO said.



The European Union said it will send 100 million doses to low-income countries by the end of 2021 and the United States has pledged 80 million doses. Other countries around the world have also expressed interest in sharing doses. Countries in Africa that are not using all of their doses are also sharing them with other countries on the continent, according to the WHO.



Redistributing vaccine doses, while helpful, is expensive. The WHO says that Africa must boost its manufacturing capacity for vaccines.



“Intellectual Property waivers are a crucial first step but must come alongside the sharing of expertise and critical technologies,” the WHO wrote in a press release.



In Africa, 54 countries are included in a more than 100-country effort by the WHO to present a draft resolution to the World Health Assembly. The resolution is meant to “strengthen local production, promote technology transfers and innovation, and consider the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and intellectual property rights through the lens of boosting local production,” according to the WHO.



About 40 African countries have also joined a WHO training to build manufacturing capacity and WHO says it is also working with the African Union on a plan to support feasibility studies and technology transfers upon request.



“It’s too soon to tell if Africa is on the cusp of a third wave.&nbsp;However, we know that cases are rising, and the clock is ticking,” Moeti said.

Africa needs at least 20 million Covid vaccine doses in the next six weeks, WHO says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="546" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9298226621_40ff3aa271_k-820x546.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-404328" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9298226621_40ff3aa271_k-820x546.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9298226621_40ff3aa271_k-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9298226621_40ff3aa271_k-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9298226621_40ff3aa271_k-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9298226621_40ff3aa271_k.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



BRUSSELS, May 19 (Reuters) &#8211; The European Union put forward a plan on Wednesday it believes will help boost production and availability of COVID-19 vaccines more effectively than a proposed waiver of patent rights now backed by the United States.



Under pressure from developing countries to agree to waiving intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines and treatments, the EU plan will focus on export restrictions, pledges from vaccine developers and use of existing World Trade Organization rules.



&#8220;Universal and fair access to vaccines and treatments must be the global community&#8217;s number one priority,&#8221; EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told the European Parliament.



In a debate on global vaccine access, Dombrovskis told lawmakers the European Union was ready to engage in examining the extent to which temporarily waiving the WTO&#8217;s TRIPS agreement contributed to expanding vaccine availability.



India and South Africa have urged fellow WTO members since October to lift IP rights to vaccines as a way of ensuring the world is supplied. Debate around the issue erupted anew last week when U.S. President Joe Biden supported the idea.



However, the European Commission vice-president said the single most effective way to achieve universal access was to ramp up production, share vaccines more widely and faster and make them affordable.



Dombrovskis said the EU plan had three elements. Export restrictions should be kept to a minimum, highlighting that the EU had exported half of vaccines produced in EU countries. French President Emmanuel Macron urged Washington on Saturday to drop restrictions on exports of vaccines and vaccine components.



Vaccine producers and developers should make concrete pledges to increase supply to vulnerable developing countries at production cost, Dombrovskis said.



Finally, Dombrovskis highlighted existing WTO rules allowing countries to grant &#8220;compulsory licences&#8221; to manufacturers ready to produce at cost price without the consent of the patent-holder, which could receive a payment, but not make a profit.



(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Nick Macfie)

EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis Photo: via Flickr

Under pressure EU presents WTO plan to boost vaccine output

May 17 (Reuters) &#8211; Some Indian states said they would extend lockdowns, at a time when daily deaths in the country continue to be high, while Singapore has warned that the new coronavirus variants — such as the one first detected in India — were affecting more children.



DEATHS AND INFECTIONS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.</li></ul>



EUROPE



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>England&#8217;s ministers will make a decision on June 14 about whether or not to proceed with the final phase of lockdown easing.</li><li>Spanish police said they cleared 9,000 revellers from Barcelona&#8217;s city centre streets and the nearby beach on Sunday to prevent dangerous overcrowding on the first full weekend after restrictions were lifted.</li></ul>



AMERICAS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Trinidad and Tobago will impose a state of emergency from midnight to contain an increase of cases and related deaths.</li><li>Brazil recorded 40,941 additional cases in the past 24 hours, along with 1,036 deaths from COVID-19.</li></ul>



ASIA-PACIFIC



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Singapore plans to shut most schools from this week and draws up plans to vaccinate youngsters.</li><li>A top Indian virologist has resigned from a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government to detect variants of the coronavirus, he told Reuters, weeks after questioning the authorities&#8217; handling of the pandemic.</li><li>Indonesia has suspended distribution of a batch of AstraZeneca&#8217;s vaccine to run tests for sterility and toxicity following the death of a 22-year-old man a day after immunisation</li><li>A surge of infections in Taiwan has left it scrambling to get vaccines as its stock of 300,000 doses starts running out with only about 1% of its 23 million people vaccinated.</li></ul>



MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Turkey will start easing its strict lockdown on Monday by allowing movement during the day while keeping overnight and weekend curfews in place.</li><li>Saudi Arabia said foreign visitors arriving by air from most countries will no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated.</li><li>South Africa will launch phase two of its vaccine rollout on Monday with the aim of inoculating five million citizens aged over 60 by the end of June.</li></ul>



MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>An experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline showed a robust immune response in early-stage clinical trial results, enabling them to move to a late-stage study.</li></ul>



ECONOMIC IMPACT



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Asian share markets turned mixed as Chinese retail sales missed expectations and Singapore moved to close schools, while more evidence of global inflation pressures helped gold to a three-month peak.</li><li>Thailand&#8217;s economy improved in the first quarter, but a third wave has clouded the outlook for the tourism-dependent country.</li><li>Nearly half of smaller British manufacturers expect to recover to their pre-pandemic health in the coming months, with investment and hiring plans on the rise, a survey showed.</li><li>Japan&#8217;s wholesale prices rose in April at their fastest annual pace in six and a half years, data showed.</li></ul>



(Compiled by Devika Syamnath; editing by Uttaresh.V)

corona-5174671_1920

Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

South Africa will launch phase two of its vaccine rollout on Monday with the aim of inoculating five million citizens aged over 60 by the end of June, its health minister said.



&#8220;This is provided that the supply of vaccines flows as anticipated. By the end of June we expect to have received 4.5 million doses of Pfizer and 2 million doses from Johnson &amp; Johnson,&#8221; the minister, Zweli Mkhize, said during a webinar on Sunday.



Mkhize said that more than 325,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would arrive at midnight on Sunday, bringing the total of Pfizer doses up to 975,780.



So far South Africa has ordered enough COVID-19 vaccines for 46 million of its 60 million population.



The health minister said the country was still awaiting the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine to be released by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after its administration was paused and then restarted two weeks later due to concerns over blood clots.



South Africa is Africa&#8217;s worst-hit country in terms of infections and fatalities, with over 55,000 deaths and more than 1.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.



Fears of a third wave of the coronavirus have surfaced in recent weeks following the detection of two new variants in the country originating from India and the United Kingdom, as well as the slow rollout of vaccines.



The health minister said just under 480,000 health care workers had been vaccinated in the first phase, out of a target of 1.2 million.



 (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana, Editing by William Maclean and Susan Fenton)

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Africa COVID trajectory is ‘very concerning’, WHO official says

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WTO head says pandemic-related trade barriers are rising

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