The Manila Times

WHO gives green light to Sinopharm vaccine

AFP WITH REPORTS FROM CATHERINE S. VALENTE AND RED MENDOZA

NEW Covid-19 deaths surged past 4,000 for the first time in India on Saturday as it struggled with one of the world’s worst outbreaks, but the global immunization effort was boosted with the World Health Organization (WHO) approval for Chinese firm Sinopharm’s vaccine — the first fully non-Western shot to get the green light from the WHO.

The WHO has already given emergency use authorization to vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, a status that paves the way for countries to quickly approve and import shots.

Sinopharm is already in use in 42 territories around the world, including Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Serbia.

The approval came as the WHO reiterated its warning about worsening outbreaks in many countries, with more cases reported in the past two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic.

And while many Western countries have started easing restrictions thanks to rapid vaccinations, the WHO warned that more countries could suffer the kind of deadly outbreaks currently raging in India, Brazil and Nepal.

India now accounts for nearly half of the world’s new known cases according to an Agence France-Presse database, and it reported a national record 4,187 new deaths Saturday.

The Indian government has struggled to contain the outbreak, which has overwhelmed its healthcare system and sparked anger and frustration among the public.

India reported more than 400,000 new infections on Saturday, but many experts suspect the official death and case numbers are a gross underestimate.

The surge has spilled into next-door Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

PH vaccination drive gets boost

The Philippines on Saturday received 2,030,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Covax Facility, bringing the country’s total supply to 7,571,000 doses.

The vaccines arrived via Singapore Airlines commercial flight SQ 0910 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 12:49 p.m.

The first two batches of AstraZeneca vaccines from the Covax Facility arrived in the country on March 4 and March 7, respectively.

Other vaccine brands the Philippines had in stock were Sinovac (5 million doses) and Gamaleya (15,000 doses).

As of May 4, over 2 million doses have already been administered to priority groups — 1.7 million doses as first dose and 320,586 as second dose.

The government was aiming to inoculate 70 percent of the country’s 110 million population to achieve herd immunity, but vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said lack of supply prompts adjustment to a “more realistic target.”

Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said those who have received the first dose of AstraZeneca shot should receive their second dose.

The Department of Health said the vaccination of priority group A4, consisting of frontline economic workers, will begin next month.

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2021-05-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://manilatimes.pressreader.com/article/281552293733919

The Manila Times