COVID-19: EU agency wants focus on first shots, not boosters

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Thursday that all the vaccines approved for use in the EU have been proven to be "highly effective" in limiting the severity and spread of COVID-19 and that governments should focus on continuing their first-round vaccine programs, rather than prioritizing possible booster shots.

"The priority now should be to vaccinate all those eligible individuals who have not yet completed their recommended vaccination course,'' the organization said. 

The European Commission announced on Thursday that on average 70% of adults in the 27-nation bloc are fully vaccinated. However, there is still concern that some nations are moving much slower than others, notably Bulgaria and Romania.

DW has more on the latest pandemic developments from around the world.

Africa

The African Union has confirmed that doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine made in South Africa will stay in Africa. Previously, South African drug manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare had been shipping millions of doses to Europe.

The arrangement had come under heavy criticism, particularly from South African leaders, as only 3% of the 1.3 billion people on the continent are fully vaccinated.

Strive Masiyiwa, the African Union's COVID-19 envoy, said that while the issue "is vaccine supply," not hesitancy.

Asia

India on Thursday saw its biggest single-day spike in coronavirus cases in two months. The country has reported 47,092 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, the government said in a statement.

In Japan, Fumio Kishida, who is challenging Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as the governing party chief, has called for an economic stimulus package worth "tens of trillions of yen" to cushion the blow to the Japanese economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

Kishida, a former foreign minister, also said the country must maintain ultra-low interest rates to aid the pandemic-hit economy.

Meanwhile, Taiwan has received its first lot of BioNTech-Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. The 930,000 doses are the first of the 15 million vaccines acquired by Foxconn, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Buddhist charity Tzu Chi foundation, in negotiations with a China-based distributor after months of contention.

While the United States and Japan donated several million doses to Taiwan in June, the island has struggled to vaccinate its 23.5 million people. Taiwan's complicated political status has been a major obstacle in the vaccine rollout.

Europe

Germany on Thursday registered 13,715 new cases of coronavirus, according to data published by the Robert Koch Institute. The total number of COVID-19 infections now stands at 3,970,102. The country reported 33 new deaths, taking the total to 92,256.

The government of Norway has announced it will begin a vaccine drive for 12-15 year olds as concerns mount over the transmision of the coronavirus between young people returning to school. At the same time, amid concerns about the spread of the delta variant, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Thursday that the country was again postponing a full reopening that had been originally planned for July.

Oceania

New Zealand on Thursday recorded a drop in new COVID-19 infections, which the authorities said showed that a strict nationwide lockdown is working to curb the spread of the virulent delta variant of the coronavirus.

New Zealand saw 49 new cases on Thursday, all limited to the hotspot of Auckland.

"The latest lower number is encouraging and does show that our alert level 4 lockdown is working, even against delta," Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told reporters.

 

Doctors in Australia have warned that the country's hospitals are not ready to cope with the government's plans to ease restrictions.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said on Thursday that the health system was facing the risk of  being locked into a "permanent cycle of crisis."

The organization called for a new model to check if the level of staffing in the hospitals can withstand a spike in cases, which is expected when the lockdown eases.

"If you have opened up and you haven't looked at the safety nets or the life rafts that we've got, we might end up actually trying to push more people on the life rafts and capsizing them," AMA Vice President Chris Moy told ABC.

dvv, es/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)