Vaccine drive gathers steam

Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine producer, yesterday said it has made 40 million doses of AstraZeneca's potential Covid-19 vaccine, and would soon begin making Novavax's rival shot, as a drive for vaccine around the globe gathered steam raising hope amid a raging pandemic. 

While there are no Covid-19 vaccines approved yet and trials are still under way to prove they are safe and effective, leading drugmakers have been funded to begin production early to expedite deliveries.

The virus has claimed at least 1,285,160 lives worldwide since it first emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally yesterday at 1100 GMT based on official sources. More than 52,151,589 cases have been registered across the globe.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 241,808 deaths, followed by Brazil with 163,373, India with 128,121, Mexico with 96,430 and the United Kingdom with 50,365 deaths.

AstraZeneca said last week that it was holding back deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate while it awaits the data from late-stage clinical trials, which got delayed due to a summer dip in UK coronavirus infections.

Serum declined to comment on whether the 40 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were meant for global supply or only for India.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, co-developed by Oxford University, is the most advanced in human testing in India, Serum said, adding that the company and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will pursue "early availability" of the shot in India.

Meanwhile, the European Union expressed hope that it could start vaccinating people against the novel coronavirus within months, as Italy recorded more than one million cases and Britain said its death toll has surpassed the 50,000 mark.

The head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Andrea Ammon, told AFP that a vaccination programme could be kicked off "optimistically (in the) first quarter next year, but I can't be more precise," as trials in both the US and Russia suggested that vaccines currently in the final stages of testing were so far proving very effective.

A vaccine is seen as the best chance to break the cycle of deadly virus surges and severe restrictions across much of the world since Covid-19 first emerged in China late last year and ballooned into a pandemic.

So the announcement by US pharma giant Pfizer on Monday that a vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNTech is 90 percent effective has sparked a wave of optimism across the globe that the pandemic might soon be brought under control.

And the news Wednesday that Russia's own Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective fuelled another rally on the world's stock markets.

Nevertheless, the small glimmer of hope is not yet enough to eclipse the grim statistics still being recorded all across the globe.

In Italy, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases passed the symbolic one million mark, while almost 43,000 people have died, official data showed.

In Britain, the death toll topped 50,000 after another 595 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours, government data showed on Wednesday.

"Every death is a tragedy... we're not out of the woods yet," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

And in Spain, the death toll surged over 40,000 with infections passing the 1.4 million mark as the rate of new cases continued to grow, health ministry data showed.

Amid all these doom and gloom updates, Germany yesterday said it was seeing tentative signs that the outbreak there might be easing.

"The curve is flattening," said Lothar Wieler, who heads the country's disease control agency RKI.

Germany reported 21,866 new cases of Covid-19 over the last 24 hours, according to RKI data. The key reproduction figure has fallen below 1 to 0.89, meaning that 100 people are passing on the virus to 89 others -- a sign that transmission is slowing.

According to the World Health Organization, some 42 "candidate vaccines" are currently undergoing clinical trial, up from 11 in mid-June.

But even when a vaccine is finally launched, it will not necessarily mark the end of the pandemic, many observers warn.

The United States continued to notch up grim records on Wednesday as it battles through the coronavirus pandemic, with a worsening outbreak in the northeast of the country adding pressure on top of an already reeling Midwest.

Reported new COVID-19 infections of 142,279 were at an all-time daily high for a second day in a row and above 100,000 for an eighth consecutive day, according to a Reuters tally.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus also surged, to at least 64,939 by late Wednesday, the highest ever during the pandemic. The death toll rose by 1,464.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was the latest state official to impose a new round of social distancing restrictions on Wednesday, in an attempt to protect a state that was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak in its early stages.

The virus is also reaching the farthest corners of the earth, with the tiny Pacific Ocean state of Vanuatu reporting its first case, ending its status as one of the few remaining virus-free countries.