Coronavirus vaccine news highlights: France's regulators approve Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine

As the French government seeks to ramp up its lagging Covid-19 vaccination campaign, it faces a tricky challenge: convincing all doctors to back the jabs, even though some share the same hesitations as the general population.

. France's national health authority said Friday that it had approved the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Moderna for people 18 and older, clearing the way for a second option in the country's inoculation campaign.

The move follows EU approval for the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday. ( AFP )

. Aviation regulator DGCA on Friday issued guidelines to all aircraft operators who plan to transport Covid-19 vaccines packed in dry ice to various parts of the country.

Dry ice transforms into carbon dioxide gas at temperatures higher than -78 degrees Celsius under normal atmospheric pressure and therefore it is classified as "dangerous goods" by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), it said. ( PTI )

. Europe's medicines regulator gave the go ahead on Friday for an extra sixth dose to be extracted from the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine vials, lifting the number of available shots at a time when supplies are short.

EU countries started inoculating people with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine two weeks ago after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended the shot's conditional approval under an authorisation which allows five doses to be extracted from each vial. ( Reuters )

. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will announce new measures next week to curb a surge in coronavirus cases, a senior minister said on Friday, as the country reported its highest daily number of deaths linked to the epidemic.

The Southeast Asian nation has seen a spike in infections since September, with the number of daily reported cases climbing to record highs on two days this week.

Friday's death toll of 16 took total Covid-19 fatalities to 537. The health ministry also reported 2,643 new infections, raising the total number of cases to 131,108.

. Maharashtra Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde has said that the central government takes care of all state governments, adding that they should bear the expenses for Covid-19 vaccine, calling it a "suitable expectation of people". ( ANI )

. Georgian Ambassador Archil Dzuliashvili on Friday sought India's cooperation in providing Covid-19 vaccine to his country.

He discussed the issue during his meeting with Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhavan here, an official statement said.

"The Ambassador of Georgia to India Archil Dzuliashvili today sought the cooperation of India in providing the coronavirus vaccine to his country," the statement issued by the Raj Bhavan said. ( PTI )

. Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Friday said the state is expected to receive 13,90,000 vials of vaccine against Covid-19 in a day or two, and it is likely to be administered starting from January 11.

"The big good news for Karnataka is that I have received information from the Union Health Ministry that tomorrow or the day after probably we will be receiving 13,90,000 vials of vaccine for the state. It's a big happy news for all of us," he said.

Speaking to reporters after visiting a private hospital here, where vaccination dry run is being conducted, Sudhakar said, the vaccination will be first administered to healthcare workers.

. Bharat Biotech has submitted an application with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)asking permission to conductPhase-1 trials of a nasal vaccine against Covid-19. Government officials have told ANI that the matter is yet to be taken up.

. Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday said soon it would be a reality to vaccinate the entire population in the country against Covid-19 after prioritising risk groups.

The Centre has started a new Covid platform to track particulars of potential vaccine beneficiaries and also issue electronic certificates to them, he told reporters after reviewing the dry run of administering Covid-19 vaccine at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here as part of a state-wide programme. ( PTI )

. BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has asked the MVA government in Maharashtra to seek the assistance of the Centre to provide free Covid-19 vaccine in the state to the poor and the middle-class.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here on Thursday night, the former Chief Minister said the Shiv Sena-led government regularly complains about not getting enough funds from the Union government.

. Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, predicted Thursday that the daily death toll from the coronavirus would continue to rise for weeks to come and counselled patience with the vaccination program gearing up across the nation.

US health officials reported nearly 4,000 virus-related deaths Wednesday, a record, and the total for the pandemic surpassed 360,000. In an interview with NPR, Fauci said the continued high toll would probably be a reflection of increased travel and gatherings over the holidays.

. The history of vaccine controversies in Japan may cast a long shadow over the coronavirus jab roll-out, experts warn, even as the country battles a severe third wave of infections.

While vaccine hesitancy, and outright opposition, has been growing in developed countries in recent years, public suspicion dates back much further in Japan.

Even as millions in the UK and US are being inoculated against Covid-19, Japan has yet to approve a single jab, and vaccinations will not start before late February at the earliest.

This week, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he would be among the first to be vaccinated, in an apparent attempt to bolster lukewarm confidence about the jab.

. Buoyed by theEmergency Use Authorisation approval from theDrug Controller General of India (DCGI)for its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin,Bharat Biotech has said Phase-1 clinical trials of its new intranasal antidote for the killer virus will begin during February-March this year.

Besides Covaxin, BharatBiotechhas been actively working on developing another vaccine, for which it tied up with Washington UniversitySchool of Medicine in St Louis for the novel "chimp-adenovirus" (Chimpanzee adenovirus), a single doseintranasalvaccine for Covid-19.

"BBV154 (intranasal Covid-19 vaccine), preclinical testing has been completed for toxicology, immunogenicity and challenge studies. These studies have been conducted in the USA and India. Phase I human clinical trials will commence during Feb-March 2021," an email reply from the city-based vaccine maker told PTI.

Phase I human clinical trials will be conducted in India, Bharat Biotech added.

. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong received his first shot of a Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, and urged others to take the jabs in a country that has largely brought the pandemic under control.

The 68-year-old shared a video of himself on his official Facebook page being injected in the arm at a local hospital.

Singapore has so far only approved Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine but has said it has secured enough doses for its 5.7 million population including from other vaccine-makers like Moderna and Sinovac.

"We got vaccinated early to show Singaporeans we are confident that the vaccine is safe and effective," Lee said in a post accompanying the video, adding that he had been vaccinated alongside the country's top health official, Kenneth Mak.

The rich island nation did some initial vaccinations of healthcare workers at the end of December. But Lee said broader vaccinations of staff at public healthcare institutions would start on Friday, followed by the elderly next month.

. Australia's third-largest city headed into lockdown and borders were set to tighten nationwide Friday, after a cleaner at a quarantine hotel contracted the UK coronavirus strain that appears to be more infectious.

More than two million residents in the Greater Brisbane area will have to stay at home for at least three days from Friday evening, authorities said.

"If we are going to stop the spread of this infectious strain, this UK strain, we must act immediately," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told media.

Large queues formed at shops around the city, prompting officials to urge people to stop panic-buying.

The incoming restrictions will still allow residents to leave home to buy essentials.

On Brisbane's central shopping strip, Queen Street Mall, people voiced broad support for the measures -- keen to avoid the soaring case numbers seen as the variant takes hold in Britain.

Andy McPhee, 51, a Brisbane resident who works for an international firm, said the lockdown paled in comparison to what his colleagues overseas were experiencing.

. Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Friday said the state is expected to receive 13,90,000 vials of vaccine against Covid-19 in a day or two.

"The big good news for Karnataka is that I have received information from the Union Health Ministry that tomorrow or the day after probably we will be receiving 13,90,000 vials of vaccine for the state. It's a big happy news for all of us," Sudhakar said.

Speaking to reporters after visiting a private hospital here, where vaccination dry run is being conducted, he said, the vaccination will be first administered to health care workers.

"We have registered 6.30 lakh healthcare professionals in Karnataka till date. Those who are left out, may be in some medical or dental colleges, we have requested them to register," he said adding that health workers will be followed by those with comorbidities, those above 60 years and those in other departments like Police and Revenue working against the pandemic.

Covid-19 vaccination dry run is on at a total of 263 different health facilities across Karnataka on Friday.

. A second dry run for the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in Delhi is being conducted across several districts of the national capital on Friday, officials said.

The districts include South Delhi, South East Delhi, North West Delhi and New Delhi, they added.

The first dry run for the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out was held in Delhi on January 2 at three sites -- the GTB Hospital, Shahdara, the Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj and the Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka.

City Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said the Covid-19 vaccine will be provided to the people of Delhi for free once it arrives and asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had made all preparations for the vaccination drive.

. Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine appeared to work against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the US drugmaker.

The not-yet peer-reviewed study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch indicated the vaccine was effective in neutralizing the virus with the so-called N501Y mutation of the spike protein.

. Ahead of the much-awaited launch of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, a nationwide dry run on 700-plus districts will be conducted on January 8, to ensure efficient planning and management for vaccine delivery.

Uttar Pradesh and Haryana would be two exceptions as the first one had conducted such an exercise on January 5 and the latter planned to do so on January 7, the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.

This would be the second large-scale dry run of the vaccination campaign in January, which comes close on the heels of a similar exercise at 286 districts in 125 districts on January 2.

. In short time, India has done well by developing vaccines... In the next few days, in the near future, we should be able to give these vaccines to our countrymen. It will be given to our healthcare professional followed by frontline workers: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan

. More than 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine since inoculations began in the country earlier this month, the British government said on Thursday.

. Karnataka has planned to conduct Covid-19 vaccination dry run at a total of 263 different health facilities across the state on January 8, Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Thursday.

. The Covid-19 vaccines are here and distribution has begun. But what if something goes wrong?

. The Union Finance Ministry has sanctioned Rs 480 crore to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to the first three crore individuals comprising healthcare workers and front line staff.

Coronavirus vaccine news highlights: France's regulators approve Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine

In vaccine-sceptic France, some medics also hesitate

France national health authority approves Moderna's Covid vaccine

DGCA issues guidelines to airlines for carrying Covid-19 vaccines packed in dry ice

EU paves way for more Pfizer vaccine shots after extra dose allowed

Malaysia PM to announce new Covid-19 measures as deaths hit daily record

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