The United States will have enough anti-Covid-19 vaccines for all adults in the country by “the end of May”, promised President Joe Biden, while Brazil has recorded a record number of deaths and is seeing its contaminations soar, in particular following the Carnival celebrations.
“We set out to have enough vaccines available for all adults in America by the end of May,” said Biden, who three weeks ago referred to a deadline for late July.
He hailed “significant progress,” but that doesn’t mean all American adults will be vaccinated by that date.
“We need people who inject into people’s arms, into millions of American arms,” he added.
The good news coincided with Republican Gov. of Texas Greg Abbott’s announcement to end mandatory face masks and reopen businesses on March 10. “Now is the time to open up Texas 100%,” he said during a visit to a restaurant.
The United States, the country most bereaved by the pandemic with more than 516,000 dead, has already administered 78 million doses to 15% of its population.
Mr Biden made the announcement during a brief address in which he confirmed an agreement between pharmaceutical giants Merck and Johnson & Johnson to increase production of the latter’s vaccine.
“This is the kind of business-to-business collaboration we saw in WWII,” he said, adding that Johnson & Johson’s vaccine production centers would now operate “24/7. out of seven “.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was granted emergency use approval in the country last weekend, for adults aged 18 and over. It has two significant logistical advantages: it can only be administered in a single dose and can be stored at refrigerator temperatures.
– Rebound in Brazil –
Such a wind of optimism is not appropriate in Brazil, where the epidemic has killed a record 1,641 in the last 24 hours, and where contaminations are experiencing a new phase of acceleration.
Over the past seven days, the average daily fatality has risen to 1,262. Until February, this average had never exceeded the bar of 1,100 daily deaths.
According to experts, the current rebound in the epidemic is linked to the festivities of the end of 2020 and the Carnival celebrations, even though many states had banned gatherings.
At the same time, the vaccination campaign launched in mid-January had to be interrupted in several regions for lack of doses.
“If we do not collaborate with the authorities and the authorities do not collaborate with us, we will not be able to control the disease,” said pulmonologist and scientist Margareth Dalcolmo, of the Fiocruz Foundation, linked to the Ministry of Health.
Also in Brazil, 80-year-old Brazilian and world football legend Pelé was vaccinated. “Today has been an unforgettable day. I was vaccinated!” He wrote on Instagram.
– “A great day” –
The African continent is also continuing its vaccination efforts, funded by the Covax system created by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the benefit of the poorest countries.
Nigeria, Kenya, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in turn received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa on Tuesday
Ghana was, on February 24, the first country to receive vaccines financed by the Covax device, followed by Côte d’Ivoire two days later. About 30,000 free doses of vaccines funded by Covax were also expected Tuesday evening in The Gambia.
“It’s a great day for Nigeria,” said the director of the national agency in charge of immunization programs, Dr Faisal Shuaib, on Tuesday. “There will remain enormous work to protect the population from Covid-19,” he added.
Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia and Bangladesh will each receive more than 10 million doses of free Covid vaccine by June, according to the latest updated figures from the Covax system, released on Tuesday.
– Errors and tragedies –
The European Medicines Agency has also announced that it will meet on March 11 to determine whether it authorizes the deployment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine within the European Union.
In Portugal, the sanitary confinement imposed since mid-January must remain in force or else relapse, Prime Minister Antonio Costa warned on Tuesday.
“The idea that tragedies do not repeat themselves is wrong. Tragedies repeat themselves when human beings reproduce the mistakes that caused these tragedies,” he said.
France, for its part, has extended eligibility for vaccination to 2.5 million additional people but had to recognize that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not successful: only 25% of the doses received have been used, according to the Ministry of Health .
In Australia, the government announced the extension by at least three months of the closure of its international borders, already in force for a year.
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