Coronavirus: New Zealand begins vaccination drive; outbreak hits Chinese community in Cambodia

New Zealand started its official roll-out of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday, in what the health director general said marked a “small but important step in a long journey” to fight the pandemic. A small group of medical professionals were injected on Friday in Auckland ahead of the wider roll-out which was officially starting with border staff and so-called Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) workers on Saturday, officials said. “Today, we kick off the largest immunisation programme in our history, by vaccinating the first of our border workforce, a critical step in protecting everyone in Aotearoa,” New Zealand health director general Ashley Bloomfield told reporters in Auckland, using the country’s indigenous Maori name. “We will be moving through these first few days and weeks in a measured way to make sure our systems and processes are solid,” he said. What if vaccines aren’t enough for herd immunity? New Zealand expects its nationwide roll-out covering the country’s population of 5 million will take a full year. In Australia, hotel quarantine and health care workers will also be the first cohort to be inoculated at 16 Pfizer vaccination hubs across the nation, alongside older Australians at aged care facilities. Both nations ended snap local lockdowns this week after a cluster emerged from a quarantine hotel in Melbourne and as New Zealand authorities investigate how a strain of a highly transmissible UK variant was found in three members of an Auckland family. Outbreak hits Chinese community in Cambodia An outbreak of coronavirus has hit the Chinese expat community in Cambodia, the country’s Premier Hun Sen said on Saturday, a setback in the Southeast Asian nation’s otherwise successful containment efforts. The kingdom has so far fared well in tackling the virus and life in the capital Phnom Penh has largely returned to normal. But a group of Chinese nationals who underwent testing to obtain medical certificates for overseas travel recorded positive results on Saturday, sparking fears of a wider outbreak in the community. “We have discovered a big community infection with 32 cases … this is a bad situation for us,” Hun Sen said during a speech broadcast on state-run TV. “Those found positive today are all Chinese.” The increasing presence of Chinese businesses across the kingdom has heightened anti-Chinese sentiment among some Cambodians, and Hun Sen urged people not to discriminate against Chinese nationals because of the latest outbreak. He implored residents to wear masks and practise social distancing. The infections were sourced to a nightclub, now closed, and authorities are contact-tracing to track down any other cases, the prime minister said. Much of Phnom Penh will remain open – including schools. But a small island connected to the city known as Koh Pich – or “Diamond Island” – is now under partial lockdown, with police blocking all road access on Saturday morning. The last local infection in Cambodia was in November. So far, the country has detected more than 500 cases but has not recorded any deaths. Hives case reported following vaccination in Japan The Japanese government on Saturday said it had received a report of a potential side effect from coronavirus vaccination, hives, in the wake of the immunisation roll-out in the country earlier this week. The case occurred at a hospital in central Japan’s Toyama prefecture on Friday, the prime minister’s office said on Twitter. Japan launched its vaccination effort on Wednesday, initially for 40,000 medical workers at 100 hospitals across the country. There have been no reports of serious side effects of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. If a person dies due to side effects following a coronavirus vaccination, the government will pay 44.2 million yen (US$419,000) in compensation to the bereaved family, according to the health ministry. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca plans to produce Covid-19 vaccines in Japan and will begin local distribution as soon as it receives government approval, national broadcaster NHK reported, citing an interview with an official at the drug maker’s Japan unit. The Japanese government signed a contract with the company to procure enough vaccines for 60 million people, NHK said. AstraZeneca applied to the health ministry for vaccine approval earlier this month, the Nikkei reported. The company’s Japan unit plans to produce vaccines for more than 40 million people through its partner JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. in Hyogo prefecture, NHK reported. Where did the Philippines’ pandemic response go wrong? Deaths in Philippines jump The Philippines’ health ministry on Saturday reported 239 new coronavirus deaths, the second-highest daily increase in casualties since the pandemic started, and 2,240 infections. The previous daily high death toll was 259 deaths reported on September 14. In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases have increased to 559,288 while Covid-19 deaths have reached 12,068. President Rodrigo Duterte is to decide next week whether to further loosen coronavirus curbs in the capital, Manila, to allow more economic activity. Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP, Kyodo