Global vaccine campaign gains momentum

The global Covid-19 vaccination drive gained pace yesterday as Brazil gave its first injections and France and Britain joined a growing list of nations starting mass vaccinations for all elderly citizens.

The French drive aims to cover all people over 75. Health Minister Olivier Veran said more than one million vaccinations are being targeted by January and between 2.4 and 4 million by February.

France had earlier offered vaccinations to residents of retirement homes and health workers on the frontline.

Britain yesterday extended its own vaccination campaign to people over the age of 70, after first attending to over-80s, and frontline health workers and care givers.

Since the innoculation campaign began on December 8, more than 3.8 million people have received a first dose of vaccine in the UK.

The UK closed all travel corridors until at least 15 February. Travellers arriving in the UK, whether by boat, train or plane, also have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test to be allowed entry.

Growing concerns over different strains of the virus have prompted governments to tighten curbs and stem a global death toll that has already crossed two million since the pandemic first emerged in China just over a year ago.

Russia also started mass immunisations yesterday using its homegrown Sputnik V vaccine while Britain imposed a 10-day isolation and negative Covid tests on all travellers.

Arrivals will have to provide a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of travel or be banned from entering the UK.

New strains believed to be more contagious have emerged in Britain, South Africa and Brazil and have set off alarm bells.

Brazil's health regulator gave emergency approval Sunday for two coronavirus vaccines, kicking off a mass inoculation campaign amid a devastating second epidemic wave killing over 1,000 people in the vast South American nation daily.

Across the European Union there have been concerns that delays in the delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could further slow a campaign which critics have condemned as less agile than in the United States or Britain, a recently-departed EU member.

US drugmaker Pfizer said it was working to "significantly" scale up production at its major plant in Belgium in the second quarter.

After a short delay, deliveries should be back to the original schedule to the EU from January 25.

Australia's international borders are unlikely to open to travellers this year despite the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, a top health official said yesterday.

Health department secretary Brendan Murphy, a key adviser in Australia's virus response, said free-flowing travel to and from the country was not expected to resume in 2021, reports AFP.

Slovakia yesterday began a new round of nationwide Covid-19 screening -- a process aimed at easing curfew restrictions for people who test negative.

Tests will also serve as a basis for new localised restrictions in the country's 73 districts.

Malawi is set to roll out a first set of anti-coronavirus restrictions this week, the president said, after overruling a court ban on lockdown measures to tackle a surge in cases.

Unlike the rest of the continent, daily life had been unfolding normally in the southern African country since its High Court barred the government from confining citizens to limit the spread of Covid-19.

DOUBT ON 2020 OLYMPICS

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday pledged to tackle surging coronavirus cases and restore normal life "as soon as possible" as polls showed plunging support for his government.

The latest wave in Japan and abroad has also cast doubt on whether the pandemic-postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics can go ahead, but Suga repeated he was still committed to holding the Games as "proof of mankind's victory over the virus".

In the world's worst-hit country, President-elect Joe Biden's goal of seeing 100 million vaccine doses injected within his first 100 days in office is meanwhile "absolutely" achievable, top US scientist Anthony Fauci said, days before he becomes the new president's chief advisor on Covid-19.

"The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear, there's no doubt about it," Fauci told NBC's "Meet the Press".

Biden has unveiled a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to revive the economy of the US, where the new coronavirus has claimed over 397,000 lives.