Canada begins vaccine roll-out

Canada yesterday began a roll-out of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, just days after becoming one of the first countries to approve the treatment.

The first shipment of the vaccine arrived in the country on Sunday night, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailing the "good news."

"But our fight against Covid-19 is not over. Now more than ever, let's keep up our vigilance," he said in a tweet.

Trudeau has previously said the country will receive 249,000 initial doses of the vaccine this month, the first 30,000 doses of which have arrived by yesterday.

Local media have reported it was rolled out in Quebec -- the country's hardest-hit province -- the same day, where it was distributed to elderly care homes.

Distribution will begin in neighboring Ontario today, the province said on its official website, as part of a pilot scheme to be given to more than 2,500 frontline workers in hospitals and care homes.

It is unclear when precisely other provinces are set to receive the vaccine, though officials have said the roll-out is expected to take place this week.

Speaking to national broadcaster CBC on Sunday, Dany Fortin -- who is in charge of the vaccine distribution -- said "the delivery schedule is unfolding exactly as planned."

"The provinces will be in a position to administer the vaccines in the coming days," he said.

Canada pre-ordered 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine when it was still in development, with an option for 56 million additional doses.

The coronavirus has killed at least 1,612,297 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP yesterday.

The US is the worst-affected country with 299,191 deaths, followed by Brazil with 181,402, India with 143,355, Mexico with 113,953 and Italy with 64,520.

The World Health Organization said yesterday one in four health centres worldwide lacks access to water, putting around 1.8 billion people at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus.

The lack of this basic amenity endangers patients and staff alike at such centres, the WHO said in a joint report with the UN children's agency Unicef. The study was based on data from 165 countries.

"Working in a healthcare facility without water, sanitation and hygiene is akin to sending nurses and doctors to work without personal protective equipment," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Pfizer's chief executive Albert Bourla said yesterday that the drugmaker has not yet signed an agreement with the US on providing 100 million more vaccine doses in 2021 as the country started its Covid-19 vaccination program.

Bourla told CNN in an interview that Pfizer is still negotiating with the US on whether it will be able to deliver the vaccine in the second or third quarter of the year.

US expects to have immunized 100 million people with the vaccine by the end of March, the chief adviser for the US Covid-19 vaccine program said on Sunday.

"We would have immunized 100 million people by the first quarter of 2021," US Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News.

The United Arab Emirates also launched vaccinations in the capital Abu Dhabi days after it approved a jab by Chinese drugs giant Sinopharm.

Residents in the capital can book an appointment through the Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) hotline.

Singapore yesterday became the first Asian country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine and said it expects to start receiving shots by the end of the year.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, said he would be among the early recipients in the city-state of 5.7 million people, which has one of the lowest fatality rates globally from the coronavirus.

South Korea ordered schools to close from today in the capital Seoul and surrounding areas as it battles its worst outbreak since the pandemic began, surpassing the previous peak in February.

Schools in the capital region would move classes online until the end of the month, in the latest ratcheting up of social distancing measures which so far have failed to reverse the spike in infections.

The school closure is a step towards the imposition of Phase 3 social distancing rules, a move that would essentially lock down Asia's fourth-largest economy.

In Malaysia, two ministers who should have been quarantining after being exposed to coronavirus voted in parliament in protective gear yesterday, triggering an opposition walkout.

The politicians came into contact with Covid-19 patients earlier this month, but officials allowed them to partake in a key budget vote -- provided they wore gowns, face masks, shields and gloves.