Coronavirus Vaccine

India is the fastest country in the world to administer 100 million doses of the vaccine, but is reporting more than 130,000 cases per day – while authorities have allowed hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees to attend the Kumbh Mela festival.

Primary efficacy rate was 50.7 per cent, results of final-stage trials in Brazil show.

Quarantine requirement to be dropped for mainland visitors to Hong Kong from mid-May, subject to screening conditions; city confirms 13 new cases.

The South African variant was found to make up about 1 per cent of all the Covid-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest health care provider, Clalit.

Top public health experts such as Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kong’s faculty of medicine, believe the government also needs to come up with more incentives to overcome residents’ ‘vaccine hesitancy’.

The global vaccine-sharing initiative Covax has in the past week shipped more than 25,000 doses to poorer countries only twice on any given day.

According to researchers at University College London, almost three-quarters of the population now have antibodies against the virus, either through vaccination or past infection.

Safety concerns about rare blood clots and controversy over slow deliveries threaten to derail the roll-out of the vaccine in many countries.

Made in China drugs could soon be available using the radical genetic technology pioneered by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

Expats and others planning to travel are among the relative few to be vaccinated, as most choose to ‘wait and see’.

Tourism lawmaker says a separate proposal to expand a quarantine-free Covid-19 scheme to mainland residents will offer little respite for the sector.

Brazil this week became just the third country, after the US and Peru, to report a 24-hour tally of Covid-19 deaths that exceeded 4,000.

As the country grapples with rising infections, results from its vaccinated population echo Brazil’s trial of the Chinese jab.

Chinese shots have reached over 60 countries so far, but they are still under review for WHO authorisation and concerns remain over efficacy and data transparency.

Health authorities confirm 14 new Covid-19 cases, all but two of which are imported. As many as 50 people were ordered to leave residential building after pipes at infected woman’s flat suspected of transmitting the virus to families below.

Malaysia will soon produce Sinovac’s shot while Sinopharm’s will be made in the UAE. While scepticism towards Chinese jabs persists, observers say it shows Beijing’s appetite for vaccine diplomacy amid scrutiny of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the EU, India tightening exports.

All businesses need to start putting together a communications strategy to provide guidance and support on vaccines, says Vicki Fan.

Civil Service Bureau apologises after error involving 47-year-old woman and two family members who visited the wrong site and got the BioNTech shot instead of Sinovac.

Pandemic adviser, top pharmacist both encourage city officials to acquire US-produced vaccine said to be 72 per cent effective after just one shot and able to protect against new South African coronavirus variant.

Information about social-distancing rules, travel bubbles and quarantine.

Some countries have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine for younger populations after it was earlier banned outright in several places over blood clot scares.

National Health Commission does not specify which of China’s vaccines they will be given but if they don’t join in, there may be a cost in future.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu says Beijing is ‘flexing its muscles’ with its vaccine diplomacy, in particular in South and Central America, where Taiwan has five allies.

With coronavirus infections rising to a three-month high, South Korea has hinted it may consider curbing exports of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine doses.

Experts suggest the government dump its orders for 7.5 million AstraZeneca shots and replace them with second-generation vaccines offering better protection against mutated strains.