Saudi Arabia agrees to register the "Pfizer - Biontech" vaccine

Guterres calls for support to Africa in facing the challenges of the Corona crisis

Saudi Arabia will be able, after the approval decision, to import and use the vaccine.

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The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has appealed to the international community to support Africa, including a coordinated and bold international approach that reduces the debt burden on its countries, including canceling debts, and increasing financial support for them to provide the necessary cash liquidity to finance the recovery from the emerging corona virus pandemic At a time when Saudi Arabia agreed to register the "Pfizer - Biontech" vaccine as the first vaccine for "Corona", "Human Rights Watch" said that the Lebanese health sector is collapsing in light of the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Guterres’s comments came at the end of his participation in the fourth annual conference between the United Nations and the African Union, the day before yesterday, whose deliberations focused on discussing ways to confront the repercussions of the "Covid-19" pandemic, and the challenges facing peace and security.

He renewed the commitment to strengthening cooperation between the two sides in the interest of the African people, pointing to the repercussions of the "Covid-19" crisis on the countries of the continent, in light of the registration of more than two million and 200 thousand cases of infection and the death of about 53 thousand people as a result of infection in Africa.

He expressed his hope that the vaccines recently reached, along with other public health measures, will help overcome the pandemic.

He called for making the vaccine available for the general international good of everyone everywhere, especially in Africa, noting that most African countries lack the necessary funding to adequately respond to the crisis, partly due to the decline in demand for commodity exports and their low prices.

Guterres affirmed the United Nations ’strong support for the African Union’s initiative on“ Silencing the Guns ”, and said that his call for a global ceasefire, which he launched since the start of the pandemic, is fully consistent with the African initiative.

He pointed out that the United Nations is working closely with the African Union, especially in the Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, recalling the recent progress made in Libya.

He pledged to continue his commitment to do everything possible in order to obtain the approval of the United Nations Security Council to grant peace and counter-terrorism missions led by the African Union, mandates in accordance with Chapter Seven related to threats to peace, its violations and acts of aggression.

On the other hand, the Arab Human Rights Committee appreciated the efforts taken by the Arab countries, the League of Arab States and the United Nations, to prevent and combat the spread of the Coronavirus, and stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation among them, in implementation of the principle of solidarity and international cooperation, which is the urgent need for it at this time more than any time ago.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia announced that it had agreed to register the "Pfizer-Biontec" vaccine for the emerging corona virus, to be the first vaccine registered in the Kingdom.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority said, in a statement via its Twitter account, yesterday that the Kingdom will be able, after this approval, to import and use the vaccine.

The decision to register the vaccine and make it available was based on data provided by Pfizer last November, according to the statement.

Upon completion of the requirements, a process of reviewing and evaluating the registration files began from several aspects, including the evaluation of the vaccine efficacy and safety data illustrated by clinical trials and studies.

The authority said, in its statement, that the quality of the Pfizer vaccine has been verified, the manufacturing stages have been verified, and the manufacturer’s commitment to applying GMP principles, according to international standards in the pharmaceutical industry.

Regarding when the vaccine will arrive and start using it, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority stated that, based on the approval issued yesterday, the concerned health authorities will start import procedures according to the standards and requirements for that.

The authority will analyze samples from each incoming shipment of the vaccine before using it, to ensure its quality, and the Ministry of Health will announce the date of the vaccine’s arrival and the start of its use after completing the import requirements, according to the statement.

This comes at a time when Human Rights Watch said yesterday, that the Lebanese government is ignoring health sector workers in the front lines, who face the Corona virus in hospitals, in light of the high cases of HIV infection.

"Health workers are the backbone with the high cases of Coronavirus infection throughout Lebanon, but the state has shown a flagrant disregard for their health and safety," said the organization's Lebanese researcher, Aya Majzoub.

She added, "If the Lebanese government does not put in place coordinated and effective policies to confront the economic crisis, the hospitals may soon not be able to provide the necessary care."

The Lebanese health sector was severely affected by the Corona pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis, which is the worst since the civil war from 1975 to 1990.

The report indicated that the state owes large sums of money to hospitals, as the value of the Lebanese currency has declined by about 80% of its value this year, and inflation has exceeded 100%.

The total cases of Coronavirus in Lebanon amount to 140,409 cases, and the deaths from the virus are 1,156 cases.

A cyber attack targeting data from the companies "Pfizer" and "Biontech"

Data from the pharmaceutical companies "Pfizer" and "Biontech" were targeted as part of a cyber attack on the European Medical Agency in Amsterdam, according to what the two companies announced in a joint statement early yesterday morning, after they were informed of the matter by the agency.

According to the statement, some documents related to the regulatory launch of the vaccine candidate for "Covid 19" were illegally accessed by "Pfizer" and "Biontech" (BNT162B2) stored on the European Medical Agency server.

The two companies confirmed that their systems had not been attacked, and indicated that to the best of their knowledge, no data had been accessed on the subjects related to the tests.

The agency informed the two companies that the attack did not affect the approval procedures for the vaccine.

Amsterdam - D.A.

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Guterres stressed the

strong support of the

United Nations for the

initiative of the

African Union related to «silence guns».

Guterres expressed his hope that vaccines will help overcome the pandemic.

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