Two cities isolated in China to eliminate the outbreak of "Corona"

"Global Health": Poor countries will start receiving vaccines within weeks

Health workers in India prepare boxes of Corona vaccines.

Reuters

The World Health Organization announced, the day before yesterday, that the poorest countries will start receiving the first vaccinations against the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), between the end of this January and mid-February, while two cities in China are isolated to eliminate an outbreak of the emerging corona virus.

Large-scale vaccination campaigns began in a number of rich countries, including the United States, Canada, European Union countries and the United Kingdom.

WHO's Vaccination Officer, Kate O'Brien, said that the "Kovacs" program has concluded agreements to buy two billion vaccines, with the first doses starting to arrive, in the coming weeks.

The international "Kovacs" program, launched by the World Health Organization with support from the "Alliance for Vaccines", aims to help ensure equitable access to vaccines against "Covid-19".

Kovacs seeks to provide adequate doses to immunize 20% of the population in all participating countries by the end of the year.

In response to a question about when low-income African countries are expected to start benefiting from these vaccines, O'Brien said, during a debate organized by the World Health Organization on the Internet, that the Kovacs program is able to provide "more than two billion doses of vaccines."

She added, "We will start providing these vaccines, probably at the end of January or certainly in early or mid-February."

"There is already a large stockpile of potential vaccines," O'Brien said, which the World Health Organization is studying with the aim of obtaining possible approval for them in the coming months, noting that 15 manufacturers have already contacted the organization in order to offer to produce large quantities of doses. So far, the current vaccines will not be effective in facing the mutated viruses that were detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, stressing that these vaccines can be adapted to the mutated viruses if necessary.

This comes at a time when the Chinese authorities have isolated two cities south of Beijing and cut off the land roads leading to them, preventing millions of citizens from leaving them, at a time when it seeks to stop the largest outbreak of the "Covid-19" pandemic, in six months.

The authorities say that they have so far managed to control the epidemic on a large scale, since it was first detected in Wuhan at the end of 2019. And it succeeded quickly in eliminating limited foci by conducting mass checks and imposing local closures and movement restrictions.

However, the Hebei region authorities recorded 127 new cases of "Covid-19", in addition to 183 cases that did not show symptoms, last week.

Most of the injuries were recorded in the city of Shijiazhuang, which has several million people in Hebei, whose total population of surrounding areas reaches 11 million.

There were also nine confirmed cases in Xingtai.

And banned all cars and citizens from leaving the two cities, except in the case of extreme necessity, according to Hebei authorities yesterday.

The officials pledged to conduct "strict control of the movement of people and cars" with placing all residential areas under "closed management," a phrase intended to be closed.

People in Hebei were also banned from entering Beijing or leaving the region, unless absolutely necessary.

"The outbreaks are imported from abroad, but state, regional and municipal experts are conducting an in-depth investigation to find out the origin," the head of the Hebei Epidemic Control Center, Lee Ki, said in a press conference yesterday.

Chinese officials often try to link the new local infection hotspots with strains of the virus that spread abroad, considering that they entered China from returning travelers and contaminated imported food packaging.

Concern is mounting about the travel plans of hundreds of millions of people for the Lunar Year, as celebrations are feared due to the virus.

Officials began referring to a non-noisy holiday that lasts from February 11 to 17, without the possibility of holding banquets, parties and public celebrations. Kang Sen, of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Authority, said that "collective celebrations, gatherings and exhibitions are prohibited," adding that "even funerals must be done." To be brief, stressing the need to obtain prior approval for all public activities.

It appears that his statements, reported by state media, are directed at villages in areas around the capital, not the city itself.

The measures were tightened in the two cities in Hebei yesterday.

Long-distance passenger service was suspended in the two cities, and highways were closed.

The anti-virus teams spread on the highways leading to the city, on which checkpoints were set up, as the photos published the day before yesterday showed.

Yesterday, Hebei province reported 33 new confirmed cases of "Covid-19", in addition to 51 cases, the day before yesterday, which brings the daily toll nationwide to the highest number in five months.

Study: The Pfizer - Biontech vaccine is effective against mutated strains of Corona

A recent study showed that the vaccine developed by the German company "Biontech" and "Pfizer" of America, is effective against the two mutated strains, which are more transmissible to the Coronavirus, which appeared in Britain and South Africa.

According to preliminary results of the research conducted by the company "Pfizer" and the University of Texas College of Medicine, it is likely that the vaccine will have an effectiveness of 95%, against these variants.

The researchers conducted laboratory tests on blood samples from 20 patients, who had received the "Pfizer - Biontech" vaccine, and found that the samples contain levels equivalent to the antibodies that work against these strains.

The results confirm the immunologists' assumption that although the virus mutates through mutations, current vaccines should still be effective against it.

The results were published the day before yesterday, but have not yet been published in a scientific journal, and have not been reviewed by independent experts.

Yesterday, the Biontech laboratory announced that a preliminary study showed that the Pfizer - Biontech vaccine had effectiveness against a fundamental mutation of the two Corona strains, which were detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, which experts said is more contagious than the basic virus.

Capitals ■ agencies

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China says it is

able to control the epidemic on a large scale, since monitoring the

first time in Wuhan the

end of

2019.

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