Day: August 13, 2021

An advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously Friday in favor of recommending a third coronavirus vaccine dose to 2.7 million people with weakened immune systems.

The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized a third shot of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for extremely immunocompromised individuals, who represent less than 3% of the overall population.

The FDA’s acting commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement late Thursday, “The FDA is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk for severe disease.”

“Other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected,” Woodcock said, “and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time.”

The CDC recommended that vulnerable Americans, including cancer patients, HIV patients and others with immunodeficiencies, get the booster shot after multiple studies showed that it could better protect their immune systems from the virus.

According to the CDC, 40% to 44% of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 after being vaccinated are immunocompromised.

Russia

Elsewhere in the world, Russia reported Friday a daily record of 815 COVID-19 deaths, the highest toll of the pandemic.

Health officials blamed the increase on the more contagious delta variant.

Officials also reported 22,277 new coronavirus cases Friday, down from a peak in July.

Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said daily hospitalizations in the city had fallen by half since late June. Moscow reported 2,529 new infections on Friday.

Canada

The Canadian government announced Friday that it would require vaccinations for all passengers traveling between provinces by plane, train or cruise ship.

Officials said the government would also require all federal public servants to be vaccinated.

Canada said Wednesday that it was developing a digital COVID-19 vaccine passport for its citizens to use for international travel.

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the federal government in Ottawa is working with provinces and territories, which are responsible for vaccinating residents, on a common approach in creating the passport, which should be available in the next few months.

Mendicino said the vaccine passport is “a key step forward in ensuring Canadians will have the documents they need once it is safe to travel again.”

Germany

Officials in northern Germany are afraid that a nurse injected more than 8,000 people with a saline solution instead of a COVID-19 vaccination and are urging the patients to get another COVID-19 shot.

Many of the patients are in the high-risk over-70 age group. Originally, the nurse in Friesland was thought to have injected only six people with the saline solution, as part of a cover-up for dropping a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine vial. The number of affected people increased drastically as police continued to investigate the case, and now 8,557 people have been asked to return to vaccination centers for another shot.

Police say the nurse shared skeptical opinions about vaccines on social media.

US schools

On Friday, the Chicago school system, the third-largest in the U.S., become the latest to require all its teachers and other employees to be fully vaccinated.

The school system said all workers must submit proof that they are vaccinated by Oct. 15 unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

The move follows California’s decision earlier this week to require teachers and support staff to either be inoculated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said the new order applies to both public and private schools across the nation’s most populous state, and it includes teachers’ aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and volunteers.

Source: Voice of America

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA – Somalia has received more than than 300,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The doses, donated by the U.S. through the international COVAX facility, will be the first single-dose vaccines to be distributed in Somalia.

Somali health authorities received 302,400 doses Thursday of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility.

Dr. Ahmed Hussein Moalim, Somalia’s deputy minister for Health, expressed gratitude to the U.S. government for the donation.

He says the vaccines they received from U.S. will help curb the spread of the virus in the country and boost efforts by health authorities to control the pandemic.

According to President Joe Biden, Washington has shipped more than 110 million doses of vaccines to 65 nations so far.

U.S. officials in Mogadishu said the primary goal of the donations is to save lives.

“This is something we are doing with a singular aim of saving lives because we do believe firmly that the vaccines are the best path forward in ending this pandemic and saving lives globally,” said the official.

Anita Kiki Gbeho, the U.N. special representative in Somalia, said the vaccines help protect Somalis against COVID-19 and are an important step towards a return to normalcy.

“This is part of a global effort an effort to support countries to be able to vaccinate their people,” said Gbeho. “We know it is a long road on the continent and a long road in Somalia to make sure particularly the frontline workers and the most vulnerable are vaccinated.”

Somalia has registered more than 16,000 coronavirus cases and 864 fatalities since the first case was recorded in the country in March 2020.

There has been a surge in recent weeks, and in the past 48 hours, 92 people tested positive across the country.

Source: Voice of America