Month: December 2020

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a message of hope and healing for the new year to the hundreds of millions of people worldwide whose lives have been shattered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Guterres does not hide his sorrow at the difficulties engendered by this once-in-a-century pandemic. COVID-19, he says, has upended the lives of millions, plunging the world into suffering and grief. FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York, Nov. 20, 2020.He describes 2020 as a year of trials, tragedies and tears, a year that continues to create havoc and claim new victims as COVID-19 rages on. The pandemic, he says, has increased poverty, inequality and hunger to new heights.  
 
“But the new year lies ahead,” he says. “With it, we see rays of hope: People extending a helping hand to neighbors and strangers. Front-line workers giving their all. Scientists developing vaccines in record time. Countries making new commitments to prevent climate catastrophe.”   
 
Guterres says climate change and the pandemic are crises not easily overcome. He says it will take enormous work, commitment and above all a willingness of all people to work together for the same goal. 
 
“If we work together in unity and solidarity, these rays of hope can reach around the world. That is the lesson of this most difficult year. … Together, let us make peace among ourselves and with nature, tackle the climate crisis, stop the spread of COVID-19 and make 2021 a year of healing.”   
 
Guterres says 2021 can be a year of healing divisions that were made worse from the deadly infection and broken economies if people work together. He says the best New Year’s resolution for 2021 is to heal the planet. 
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Britain must vaccinate 2 million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has concluded. Britain has had more than 71,000 deaths from the coronavirus and has recorded more than 2.3 million cases of COVID-19 infections as of late Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. “The most stringent intervention scenario, with tier 4 [restrictions] England-wide and schools closed during January and 2 million individuals vaccinated per week, is the only scenario we considered which reduces peak ICU burden below the levels seen during the first wave,” the study said. “In the absence of substantial vaccine roll-out, cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those in 2020,” it said. FILE – Staff members deliver injections of the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to patients in their cars at a drive-in vaccination center in Hyde, Greater Manchester, northwest England, Dec. 17, 2020.An accelerated uptake of 2 million vaccinated per week “is predicted to have a much more substantial impact,” it added. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific advisers have said a variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible, was spreading rapidly in Britain, although it is not thought to be more deadly or to cause more serious illness. That prompted tight social mixing restriction measures for London and southeast England, while plans to ease curbs over Christmas across the nation were dramatically scaled back or scrapped altogether. Media reports over the weekend said that the United Kingdom will roll out the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine starting January 4, with its approval by the country’s medical regulator expected within days. Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. The British government said Thursday that 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began. 
 
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A huge U.S. study of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate got underway Monday as states continue to roll out supplies of the first shots to a nation eagerly awaiting relief from the catastrophic outbreak. Public health experts say more options, in addition to the two vaccines now being dispensed — one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the other by Moderna — are critical to amassing enough shots for the country and the world.  The candidate made by Novavax Inc. is the fifth to reach final-stage testing in the United States. Some 30,000 volunteers are needed to prove if the shot — a different kind than its Pfizer and Moderna competitors — really works and is safe. FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to receive his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md., Dec. 22, 2020.”If you want to have enough vaccine to vaccinate all the people in the U.S. who you’d like to vaccinate — up to 85% or more of the population — you’re going to need more than two companies,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press on Monday. The coronavirus is blamed for about 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 330,000 in the U.S. This has been the deadliest month of the outbreak in the U.S., with about 65,000 deaths in December so far, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The nation has repeatedly recorded more than 3,000 deaths per day over the past few weeks. And the U.S. could be facing a terrible winter: Despite warnings to stay home and avoid others at Christmastime, nearly 1.3 million people went through the nation’s airports on Sunday, the highest one-day total since the crisis took hold in the U.S. nine months ago. The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed expects to have shipped 20 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to states by the beginning of January, fewer than originally estimated, to the frustration of states and health officials trying to schedule the shots. There is no real-time tracking of how quickly people are getting the first of the two required doses. As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reports of more than 2.1 million vaccinations out of 11.4 million doses shipped — but the agency knows that count is outdated. It can take days for reports from vaccine providers to trickle in and be added to the site. “Just because a vaccine arrives doesn’t mean we can put an on-the-spot clinic up and running,” said Jenny Barta, a public health official in Carlton County, Minnesota. Registered nurse Cynthia Banada, left, administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Luz Collazo, 103, at Miami Jewish Health, a senior health care facility, in Miami, Dec. 28, 2020.But Tuesday, her agency aims to vaccinate 100 people in a drive-thru clinic for emergency medical workers that Barta hopes could become a model for larger attempts at mass vaccination. Nurses will wheel vaccine to cars lined up in a county-owned snowplow garage. Once the drivers get their shots, they will wait in parking spaces to be sure they do not have an allergic reaction before heading home. “Vaccinating one individual at a time is how we’re going to work our way out of this pandemic,” she said. Yet another worry hanging over the vaccine scramble: Will shots block a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in Britain and might spread more easily? Fauci said that data from Britain indicates the vaccines still will protect against the virus but that National Institutes of Health researchers will be “looking at it very intensively” to be sure. A look at the front-runners in the global vaccine race: Genetic code vaccines The U.S. based its emergency rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar one made by Moderna and the NIH on studies suggesting they are both roughly 95% effective. Europe over the weekend began its first vaccinations with the Pfizer shot, and on January 6 will decide whether to add Moderna’s. These shots are made with a brand-new technology that injects a piece of genetic code for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus. That messenger RNA, or mRNA, induces the body to produce some harmless spike protein, enough to prime the immune system to react if it later encounters the real virus.  Both vaccines must be kept frozen, the Pfizer shot at ultra-low temperatures that complicate its delivery to poor or rural areas. Additional companies are working toward their own mRNA candidates, including Germany’s CureVac, which has begun a large study in Europe. Protein vaccines The Novavax candidate is made differently, using what Fauci called a “more tried and true” technology that needs only ordinary refrigeration. The Maryland company grows harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in the laboratory and mixes in an immune-boosting chemical. Novavax has enrolled 15,000 people in a late-stage study in Britain and 4,000 in South Africa. The newest and largest study, funded by the U.S. government, will recruit volunteers at more than 115 sites in the U.S. and Mexico and target high-risk older adults, along with volunteers from Black and Hispanic communities, which have been hit hard by the virus.  “We’ve got to protect our community and our people,” said the Rev. Peter Johnson, 75, a prominent civil rights activist in Dallas who was among the first volunteers. Two-thirds of the participants will receive the vaccine and the rest dummy shots, a twist from earlier vaccine studies that gave half their volunteers a placebo. That should help researchers recruit people who wonder whether it’s better to take part in a study or wait their turn for an existing shot, said Dr. Gregory Glenn, research chief at Novavax.  For many people, that would be a long wait. The Pfizer and Moderna shots are slated first for health care workers and nursing home residents, followed by people 75 and older, and essential workers. “If you wanted to hedge your bets, for most people who aren’t in those very high-risk groups, the shortest route to getting the vaccine would be to sign up for a trial,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. Trojan horse vaccines The next big vaccine news may come from Johnson & Johnson, which is aiming for a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine.  Made in yet another way, it uses a harmless virus — a cold virus called an adenovirus — to carry the spike gene into the body. In mid-December, J&J finished enrolling about 45,000 volunteers in a final-stage study in the U.S. and a half-dozen other countries. Fauci expects early results sometime next month. In Britain, regulators also are considering clearing a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Tests of the shots in Britain, South Africa and Brazil suggested they are safe and partially protective — about 70%. But questions remain about how well the vaccine works in people older than 55 and how to interpret results from a small number of people given a different set of doses. A U.S. study of the AstraZeneca shots is still recruiting volunteers. Fauci said researchers hope it will provide a clearer answer. Companies in China and Russia also are producing adenovirus-based vaccines and began administering them before the results of final testing came in. Argentina is expected to soon use the Russian vaccine. Killed vaccines Spike-focused vaccines are not the only option. Making vaccines by growing a disease-causing virus and then killing it is a still older approach that gives the body a sneak peek at the germ itself rather than just that single spike protein.  China has three such inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in final testing in several countries and has allowed emergency use in some people ahead of results. An Indian company is testing its own inactivated candidate. 
 
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Aurora Leticia Cruz has tried to keep up with her blood pressure medication since fleeing Guatemala more than a year ago, but the limbo she finds herself in — stuck in a sprawling camp at the Texas border after traversing Mexico — has made that hard. When Cruz felt woozy on a recent day as her blood pressure skyrocketed, it could have ended in tragedy, leaving her 17-year-old granddaughter and two toddler great-grandchildren alone in the camp in Matamoros. But instead, a nurse practitioner from Oregon and a Cuban doctor, who like Cruz is awaiting U.S. asylum proceedings, were able to pull up her medical record and prescribe the correct dosage.  The health care workers who helped Cruz are with Global Response Management, a nonprofit that is attempting to go beyond crisis response and build a system to make it easier to track the health of migrants along their journey from Central America to the U.S. border. Cruz’s medical record was created in June by the group, which has been collecting patient information. FILE – Dairon Elisondo Rojas, a doctor from Cuba who is seeking asylum in the U.S., checks a woman at a clinic set up for asylum-seekers hoping to enter the U.S. and living and waiting in Matamoros, Mexico, Nov. 19, 2020.”I envision this as a relay race in which we are passing the medical baton to other providers as people work their way north,” said Blake Davis, a paramedic from Maine who volunteers for the organization. The efforts are part of a growing trend in humanitarian aid that has accelerated amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has highlighted the difficulties in getting basic health care to migrants. With public hospitals overwhelmed by virus cases, migrants with heart conditions or problematic pregnancies have nowhere to go. Others have been prescribed ineffective medications because a changing array of doctors are forced to treat them without any medical history. Led by U.S. military veterans, Global Response Management is staffed by volunteers primarily from the U.S. and paid asylum-seekers who were medical professionals in their homelands. The group has treated thousands of migrants over the past year at two clinics in Matamoros, including one inside the camp. Medics with the group have innovated to bring care to the austere environment, building on what they learned from the organization’s work with displaced people in countries such as Bangladesh and Iraq.  They have used telemedicine to consult specialists in the United States and connected a portable device to an iPhone to perform a sonogram. They have also worked with local leaders in the camp to control the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging mask wearing, increasing the number of hand-washing stations and setting up an isolation area. Only one person from the camp has been hospitalized with the virus, even as medical facilities in the area struggled to keep up with infected patients this summer. Treatment in transitBut the group’s goal is not just to care for migrants once they reach the border. It wants to offer health care along the routes migrants take.  “Humanitarian aid has to be thought of in a different light,” said executive director Helen Perry, an Army Reserve nurse.  FILE – Volunteer Mark McDonald enters data at a clinic set up for asylum-seekers waiting in Matamoros, Mexico, Nov. 19, 2020.It’s uncertain how long the camp will exist since U.S. President-elect Joe Biden pledged to undo the Trump administration policy known as Remain in Mexico, which has forced tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to wait across the border while their cases are considered by U.S. courts. Regardless, there will continue to be people fleeing violence and poverty in Central America, and aid agencies are trying to figure out how to protect them.  Davis, the paramedic from Maine, plans to set up a clinic next year in Tapachula, on Mexico’s southern border. He recently flew over the isolated terrain migrants traverse in Guatemala to view the challenge medical teams would face in treating people in transit. “There is nothing out there for them to get help,” Davis said. “We want to be able to fill that void.”  The group is working to connect migrants to health care and other resources by asking them what they need via WhatsApp. The idea is to make contact as early as possible with migrants, treat their health problems before they worsen, and create a system where their records can be accessed by doctors along the way.Challenges  It is a daunting task that will require finding the migrants, many of whom are trying to avoid detection, and winning their trust. The group’s members also must get government officials on board.  And they must tread carefully, so the health data cannot be used against the migrants. As they do in Matamoros, the group will label each record with a number, rather than a name. Other aid groups are also tackling the challenge. The International Rescue Committee next month is launching InfoDigna, an interactive map in Mexico that connects migrants to shelters, health care providers and other services wherever they are. It will offer live chats to answer migrants’ questions about everything from the latest COVID-19 restrictions to the status of immigration court operations. InfoDigna is part of the group’s global digital information service, which informs asylum-seekers from Italy to Colombia via smart phones. “It meets people where they’re at,” said Edith Tapia, who coordinates the effort in Mexico. The organizations are stepping into a gap that the World Health Organization has urged governments of host countries to fill, but few have. The issue of how to care for vulnerable people on the move is only likely to grow: A record 80 million people are fleeing poverty, conflict and environmental disasters, according to the WHO. FILE – Maria de Jesus Ruiz Carrasco, center, from Cuba and seeking asylum in the U.S., uses crutches as she arrives at a clinic in Matamoros, Mexico, to have her broken leg bandages changed.Maria de Jesus Ruiz Carrasco says she would have lost her foot if Global Response Management hadn’t stepped in.  The 31-year-old Cuban woman was rescued by Border Patrol agents who found her along the Rio Grande with a broken leg in October after she crossed from Matamoros.  She underwent two surgeries at a hospital in Brownsville, Texas. But two weeks later, Carrasco was sent back to Matamoros with an oozing wound and 14 pins in her leg. U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidelines recommend asylum-seekers with medical problems not be returned to Mexico.  The agency said that because of privacy laws it could not discuss Carrasco’s case, but generally if a patient is “cleared for travel” upon release from a medical facility, then the asylum-seeker may be returned to Mexico. Decisions are made case by case. A Mexican official at the border directed Carrasco, who was on crutches and in need of help, to the Global Response Management clinic, where she met Mileydis Tamayo, a nurse from Cuba who is also seeking asylum. Tamayo has been treating Carrasco’s wound for 10 weeks. “If this group wasn’t here,” Tamayo said later, “many people would be in very bad shape.” 
 
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In the not-so-distant future, America’s evening skies could be filled with the buzzing sounds of delivery drones.On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the use of delivery drones over populated areas at night. Many see the move as the next step to widespread adoption of drone deliveries.“The new rules make way for the further integration of drones into our airspace by addressing safety and security concerns,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement. “They get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages.”Delivery companies like UPS and Amazon have been investing in the technology for years. Both companies have seen surging profits during the coronavirus pandemic as more Americans turn to home delivery for many items, including groceries.Alphabet’s Wing is also investing in drone technology.The FAA said the new regulations provide “an essential building block toward safely allowing more complex” drone operations. According to the new FAA rules, drones of more than a certain weight must have remote identification capabilities and be equipped with anti-collision lights. The FAA also said the drones cannot have any exposed rotating parts that could potentially injure a person.In some cases, the drones can be operated above moving vehicles “depending on the level of risk.” The new rules will become effective 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register next month.Despite the new regulations, Bloomberg reports it will still be years before delivery drones are widely used. 
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Sunday that the country is “really at a critical time” in confronting the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of new cases is soaring even as the first 1.9 million Americans have been vaccinated.  Fauci, who was vaccinated last week, told CNN on Sunday that it is “very tough” for people to not socialize over the holidays even though health experts have strongly advised against it.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to receive his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md., Dec. 22, 2020.Authorities say 85 million Americans are traveling to visit relatives and friends, which they fear will lead to even more infections in the United States. For several weeks now, the U.S. has been recording 200,000 new cases a day.  Fauci said people are “crowded in airports, a mixing of households. As much as we advise against it, it happens.”  Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and named as the chief medical adviser to the incoming Biden administration, unequivocally urged Americans to get inoculated.  Fauci said he hopes that 75% to 80% of the 209 million adult Americans will be vaccinated in the coming months, a figure that might be sufficient for herd immunity to take hold in the country to end the pandemic.  FILE – Staff members receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, N.J., Dec. 17, 2020.He said that with inoculations over the next several months, the U.S. could “reach a critical number of vaccinated” people by the “middle to the end of summer” next August.  That would by then, he said, allow the country to “return to some form of normality.”  The U.S. has started inoculating primary health care workers and elderly residents of nursing homes, with front-line essential workers and those 75 and older set to be next in line for the shots in the next few weeks.  U.S. health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defined front-line essential workers as emergency responders, teachers and other education workers, including day care personnel, food and agriculture workers, correctional facility staff members, postal workers, public transit workers, and people who work in manufacturing and in grocery stores.  Fauci said U.S. health authorities are monitoring mutant strains that have shown up in Britain and South Africa. Officials in those two countries say that the vaccines developed by drug makers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will protect against the new strains, but Fauci said that U.S. researchers will be doing their own tests to make sure.  The U.S. has recorded more than 332,000 deaths from the coronavirus and nearly 19 million infections, with both figures more than in any other country, according to the Johns Hopkins University.  
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The World Health Organization is urging nations to prepare for inevitable future pandemics, as it marks the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“If we fail to prepare, we are preparing to fail. … Last year, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board published its first report, which concluded, the world remains dangerously unprepared for a global pandemic,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.In a video statement to launch the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, Tedros warns nations against lurching from one outbreak to another while doing nothing to prepare and prevent this from happening.  He calls this dangerously shortsighted.A year after being detected in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has spread widely. The impact on the world’s health and economic well-being has been devastating.Latest World Health Organization figures put the number of global infections at more than 80 million cases, including over 1.7 million deaths.Despite these grim statistics, the development of efficacious and safe vaccines is raising hopes the COVID-19 pandemic will be relegated to the history books in the coming months.  While Tedros shares these hopes, he advises people to temper their optimism.“History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic and epidemics are a fact of life …All countries must invest in preparedness capacities to prevent, detect and mitigate emergencies of all kinds—whether they be natural occurring epidemics or deliberate events,” he said.The WHO chief said the only way to defeat the current outbreak and prepare for the next is for all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity.  This, he adds, means involving and respecting the needs of all nations — rich and poor alike. 
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European Union gave approval on Dec. 21 for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, the latest regulatory go-ahead for the shot, while the United States authorised Moderna Inc’s vaccine on Dec. 19, the second for the country and the first for the company worldwide. The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide: Who is furthers along?  U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech are the COVID-19 vaccine trailblazers. On Nov. 18, they became the first in the world to release full late-stage trial data. Britain was the first to approve the shot for emergency use on Dec. 3, followed by Canada on Dec. 9 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Dec. 11. Several other countries including Saudi Arabia and Mexico have also approved it. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the shot on Dec. 21 and India is accelerating its review. The World Health Organization could decide whether to give its emergency use approval for the Pfizer candidate by the end of the year as part of its COVAX programme aimed at providing shots for poor — and middle-income countries. Who will approve Moderna next? Moderna became a close second to Pfizer in many countries after it released a full data analysis for a late-stage trial on Nov. 30 showing a 94.1% efficacy rate for its vaccine. Canada approved the shot on Dec. 23 and the EMA will do so on Jan. 6. Who else is in the running?  Britain’s AstraZeneca is seeking approval for its vaccine in Britain after announcing interim late-stage trial data on Nov. 23. It had an average efficacy rate of 70% and as much as 90% for a subgroup of trial participants who got a half dose first, followed by a full dose. However, it is not clear how the regulator will deal with the different dosages in the efficacy data in its assessment. While India is conducting an accelerated review, it has asked for more data. AstraZeneca is also in discussions with the EMA, which is conducting a rolling review of the vaccine. India is expected to make a decision on whether to approve for the two full-dose regimen of the shot, which was shown to tbe 62% effective in late-stage trials, soon. Its review does not include the more effective dosage, with 90% efficacy which was given to a small subgroup of volunteers in the trials. U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson plans to deliver trial data in January 2021, teeing it up for U.S. authorization in February if its shot is effective. It reduced the enrolment target for its clinical trial to 40,000 volunteers from 60,000 on Dec. 9, potentially speeding results which are tied to how quickly participants become infected. U.S. firm Novavax is running a late-stage trial in Britain with data due in the first quarter of 2021. It expects to start a large-scale trial in the United States this month. France’s Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline , however, announced a setback on Dec. 11 in their attempts to develop a vaccine. The drugmakers said it showed an insufficient immune response in older people in mid-stage trials and that they would start a new study in February. What happens in the trials?  The companies typically test their vaccines against a placebo – typically saline solution – in healthy volunteers to see if the rate of COVID-19 infection among those who got the vaccine is significantly lower than in those who received the dummy shot. How are volunteers infected? The trials rely on subjects becoming naturally infected with COVID-19, so how long it takes to generate results largely depends on how pervasive the virus is where trials are being conducted. Each drugmaker has targeted a specific number of infections to trigger a first analysis of their data. How well are the vaccines supposed to work? The World Health Organization ideally wants to see at least 70% efficacy. The FDA wants at least 50% – which means there must be at least twice as many infections among volunteers who received a placebo as among those in the vaccine group. The EMA has said it may accept a lower efficacy level. What about Russia and China? While Pfizer’s shot was the first to be rolled out following the publication of full Phase III trial data, Russia and China have been inoculating their citizens for months with several different vaccines still undergoing late-stage trials. Russia said on Nov. 24 its Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute, was 91.4% effective based on interim late-stage trial results. It started vaccinations in August and has inoculated more than 100,000 people so far. India plans to make 300 million of the shots next year and Argentina has given the greenlight for emergency use of the shot, with some 300,000 doses arriving in the country on Dec. 24. China launched an emergency use programme in July aimed at essential workers and others at high risk of infection. It has vaccinated about one million people as of mid-November using at least three shots – two developed by the state-backed China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and one by Sinovac Biotech. Trial data on a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech has varied: interim data from a late-stage trial in Turkey showed its CoronaVac shot is 91.25% effective, while researchers in Brazil say the shot was more than 50% effective. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said on Dec. 9 that one of the CNBG vaccines was 86% effective based on interim results from a late-stage trial in the Gulf Arab state.  
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Several European Union countries began vaccinating against COVID-19 Sunday.In Italy, a nurse, a university professor and a doctor were the first people to receive the initial vaccine dose at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital.In Spain, the vaccination began at Los Olmos nursing home in Guadalajara.In the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babis was among the first people inoculated, as vaccinations began nationwide.In Germany Saturday, 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla, who lives in a retirement home, received the first of her two shots.In Hungary, it was a doctor, Arienne Kertesz from South Pest.In Slovakia, an infectious disease specialist was the first in line.The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were limited to 10,000 doses in most EU countries. Each nation decides its own vaccination program, but all are vaccinating the most vulnerable first.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it “a touching moment of unity” in a video celebrating the beginning of the rollout of the vaccine to nearly 450 million people.The vaccination in EU countries began as a new coronavirus variant, more contagious and more dangerous, spread internationally, adding emphasis to the World Health Organization’s warning that the current pandemic will not be the last.The warning came in a video message on Sunday by WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.The world must learn from COVID-19 and address “the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the planet,” Tedros said in his remarks for the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“For too long the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect,” he said. “We throw money at one epidemic and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.”Tedros said every country needs to invest in what he called the supply of care: the ability to avoid, detect and mitigate all kinds of emergencies.The new virus strain is 50% to 74% more contagious than its predecessors, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, raising fears of more hospitalizations and deaths in 2021 than in 2020.Effective Monday, U.S. authorities said passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. 
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Italians began to receive COVID-19 vaccines Sunday after the first batch of nearly 10,000 doses arrived. Italians hope that the massive vaccination campaign will soon bring an end to lockdowns and return them to their normal lives.A 29-year-old nurse was the first to receive the vaccine at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases. Health workers at hospitals across the country were next.The government’s plan is for health staff and workers and elderly residents in nursing homes to be the first in line. Those over 80 will follow, then 60- to 70-year-olds, and those who suffer from chronic illnesses.Next will be the general population, starting with school staff, police forces and prison workers. With more than 50% of Italians now saying that they will get inoculated, and that number on the rise, the hope is that in nine months, Italy will reach herd immunity with 70% of the population vaccinated, a total of 42 million people.The country’s first allocated 9,750 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Salvo D’Acquisto military base late on Christmas night.  A van with the first batch of vaccines was escorted by police cars to the Spallanzani hospital in Rome.Italian soldiers loaded other boxes of the vaccine onto military cargo planes for distribution all over the country. Five planes took off from the military base of Pratica di Mare, near Rome.Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the COVID-19 emergency, said that with the arrival of the first batch of the vaccine, Sunday would be a symbolic and emotional day.Arcuri said the first doses arrived after a long night. He said Italians are seeing the first ray of light, but the road is still a long one before day arrives. It is important, he added, for this symbolic vaccination to begin and this campaign will continue over the next months to lead the country out of this emergency.Italy is planning to set up pavilions in its artistic squares to dispense vaccines. The primrose-shaped pavilions were designed by architect Stefano Boeri who said his team had picked the flower, which heralds the arrival of spring, as the symbol of the campaign, whose slogan is “Italy is reborn with a flower.”There will be around 300 distribution sites in Italy, rising to 1,500 once the vaccination campaign is at its peak.Boeri, famous for designing Milan’s Vertical Forest skyscraper, said the pavilions would be powered with solar energy and built with recyclable materials such as timber and fabric. He did not charge for his work.More than 71,000 people have died in Italy since the start of the outbreak in February.
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The pandemic caused by the coronavirus “will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video message Sunday.The world must learn from COVID-19 and address “the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the planet,” Tedros said in his remarks for the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“For too long the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect,” he said. “We throw money at one epidemic and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.”Tedros said every country needs to invest in what he called the supply of care: the ability to avoid, detect and mitigate all kinds of emergencies.The WHO chief’s warning came as the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus arrived in European Union countries, with the first shots going into arms Saturday.In Germany, 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla, who lives in a retirement home, received the first of her two shots. In Hungary, it was a doctor, Arienne Kertesz from South Pest. In Slovakia, an infectious disease specialist was the first in line.The first shipments were limited to 10,000 doses in most EU countries. Each decides its own vaccination program, but all are vaccinating the most vulnerable first.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it “a touching moment of unity” in a video celebrating the beginning of the rollout of the vaccine to nearly 450 million people.“Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year. The COVID-19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries. Vaccination will begin tomorrow across the EU,” she said.Other countries, including Russia, which said on Saturday that it had passed 3 million cases, the United Kingdom, the United States and Mexico started vaccinating people in early December. Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people older than 60, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.As those vaccinations were ramping up, several countries Saturday confirmed cases of the British variant of the coronavirus. Canada reported a couple from southern Ontario with no travel history, exposure or high-risk contact had tested positive for the variant. Italy, Sweden, Spain and Japan joined France, Germany, Lebanon and Denmark in reporting cases of the new strain of the coronavirus.The new strain is 50% to 74% more contagious than its predecessors, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, raising fears of more hospitalizations and deaths in 2021 than in 2020.Effective Monday, U.S. authorities said, passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure.
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People around the world turned to technology to help them get through the pandemic, but in some key ways tech fell short. Michelle Quinn reports.Videographer:  Deana Mitchell, Matt Dibble
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France on Saturday received its first batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which were delivered to the Paris hospital pharmacy network.Inoculations are planned to begin in two nursing homes Sunday, the same day the rest of Europe is set to begin vaccinations.France has reported more than 2.6 million COVID-19 infections and over 62,500 deaths. French health officials said they recorded the first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The first batch of Pfizer-BioΝTech vaccines also arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Saturday and is being stored at a military-run facility. The country, like the rest of Europe, will begin injections on Sunday in nine hospitals across the country.On Saturday, Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people over 60 years old, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.According to Russian official data, the country crossed the 3 million mark of infections on Saturday, with over 29,200 new cases and 560 death in the previous 24 hours.COVID-19 infections in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, recorded a new daily high on Saturday.Japan, like France and some other countries, has also reported cases of the new coronavirus variant. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.U.S. authorities announced Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the previous 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.
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French health officials say the country has recorded its first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The French health ministry said a Frenchman who had been living in England and returned to France tested positive for the new variant in the central French city of Tours. It said the man had no symptoms and was isolating in his home.Some other countries have also reported cases of the new variant, including Japan, which announced its first cases Friday. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.France banned all passengers and cargo from Britain for two days, leading to major traffic problems around the British port of Dover. British transport minister Grant Shapps said more than 4,500 trucks crossed the Channel on Friday after more troops were deployed to speed up coronavirus testing.Russia announced Friday that travelers from Britain must quarantine for two weeks after entering the country. Russia had previously suspended direct flights from Britain.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.A mother and child look at the line of trucks parked up on the M20, part of Operation Stack in Ashford, Kent, England, Dec. 25, 2020.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the past 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847and 700,097, respectively.
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