Egyik 19

21 4 22 00:41 .

 Vírusfertőzés és védőoltás adatok

United States: Herd immunity shouldn't be the focus - the future of COVID-19 ultimately will be up to the willingness to embrace the vaccines;

Three new seasonal routes to Europe in destinations now open to Americans ready to fly internationally;

It will deliver less Covid-19 vaccine than planned to the U.K., Canada this quarter, Moderna Inc. said;

Researchers still don’t know how long protection against the virus lasts once someone has been fully vaccinated;

At the rate of about 3 million vaccinations per day, over 70 percent of eligible Americans will be at least partially vaccinated by June 10.

South America: Many people traveling thousands of miles to get the COVID-19 vaccine because supplies are limited in their own countries

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Czechia
April 18, 2021   The Czech Republic ordered 18 Russian diplomats to leave the country, accusing them of being spies after Czech intelligence linked Russian military agents to a massive ammunition depot explosion in October 16, 2014. The blast in Vrbetice, in the eastern Zlin region, set off 50 metric tons of stored ammunition. Two people died. Two months later, another blast of 13 tons of ammunition occurred at the same site. The Czech news magazine Respekt reported that the ammunition and weaponry that was destroyed was intended for Ukraine, which in 2014 was battling Russia-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine. A Bulgarian arms trader named Gebrev was reportedly the organizer of the arms deal with Ukraine. Respekt said investigators last year received new information regarding the explosion, and the government's intelligence committee had discussed the case just two weeks ago. Hamacek, the interior minister who is also acting foreign minister, said that the case would be discussed by European Union foreign ministers on April 19. In his announcement, PM Andrej Babis blamed the blasts on the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU, and specifically on a secretive unit known as Unit 29155. That unit has been linked to a series of attempted assassination plots and other sabotage across Europe, it has also been linked to an attack against Gebrev in 2015. Gebrev, who survived, was targeted with a substance similar to Novichok. In January 2019, Bulgarian officials charged three Russians, including a top GRU officer, in absentia in connection with that case. As part of the government announcement on April 17, Czech police announced they were seeking two suspected Russian agents carrying various passports, including Russian documents, in the names of Petrov and Boshirov. The names match those of the two men that Britain has blamed for the Skripal poisonings. The open-source investigation organization Bellingcat identified the suspects as Mishkin and Chepiga and said they both worked for Unit 29155. Vystrcil, the president of the Czech Senate, a political opponent and longtime critic of Babis, suggested that the explosion could be considered an act of "state terrorism." The U.S. Embassy in Prague tweeted following Babis's announcement that “the United States stands with its steadfast ally, the Czech Republic. We appreciate their significant action to impose costs on Russia for its  dangerous actions on Czech soil.” (Source: RadioFreeEurope)

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 Vírusfertőzés és védőoltás adatok

 Magyarország: A járvány újabb tetőzése érzékelhető;

Egy nap alatt elhunyt 311 fertőzött beteg. Az oltások ütemét a rendelkezésre álló oltóanyagok határozzák meg.

France: HAS, the top health advisory body actually want to be cautious

Poland: strengthening on its eastern border

European Union: EU medicines regulator launched a review of Johnson & Johnson vaccine authorised in March

Russia: a planned "combat readiness" inspection of its army

Ukraine: Tempting fate over Ukraine today in the face of shifting geopolitical winds

United Kingdom: Under-30s be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine - recommended;

One in three COVID-19 survivors received a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis within six months of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

China: “It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunization process” - top disease control official Gao

India: Rise in cases has forced India to focus on satisfying its domestic demand, and delay deliveries to COVAX and elsewhere;

The Serum Institute of India - the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer which is producing AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot in the country - has said its production capacity is “very stressed”;

Covishield’s efficacy is reported only 55.1 percent when the two doses are administered less than six weeks apart.

Iran: Incident at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility

Canada: A nasal spray kills the bug in the upper airways, lab tests in the US and United Kingdom showed

Mexico: 15,200 sex workers on Mexico City’s streets in August, about twice the number before the pandemic

The United States today recommended a “pause” in use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine;

Biotech company Moderna announced its Covid vaccine is 90 percent effective against all forms of the disease and 95 percent effective against severe disease; 

DARPA developed a microchip to detect asymptomatic COVID and created a filter which can remove COVID virus from the blood;

The UK B117 variant is now dominant.; the more infectious Brazilian variant - known as P1 - accounts for about one percent of cases and the South African variant 424 confirmed cases;

Lost on the frontline: 3607 US healthcare worker deaths. The comprehensive count, investigative reports into this tragedy;

Army researchers hope the vaccine started clinical testing will combat variants of SARS-COV-2 and could help fight other coronaviruses.

Brazil: daily death records since late February

Chile: speedy vaccination programme have instilled false sense of security that led the country to ease restrictions too soon without people appreciating the ongoing risks

WHO: call on all national competent authorities to suspend the trade in live caught wild animals of mammalian species for food or breeding and close sections of food markets selling live
caught wild animals

Globalization: the trajectory of the pandemic growing exponentially - Covid-19 cases climbed by 9% across the globe last week;

How worried should we be about blood clots linked to J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines?

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 Vírusfertőzés és védőoltás adatok

Magyarország: a brit vírusmutáns továbbra is nagyon gyorsan terjed. Április 7.-én életbe lép a védelmi intézkedések első feloldásáról szóló rendelkezés;
Kovidők - útmutató a koronavírusos betegek otthoni ápolásához;
Hungary: in 26 March over 21,6 percent of Hungary's adult population received at least the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Czechia: the country with the highest COVID death rate on Earth. People expect the government to solve their problems rather that taking personal responsibility

France: medical workers have urged the French government in recent weeks to impose stronger national restrictions. Rising number of patients in intensive care

Italy: COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for all health workers. Tightened restrictions on businesses and movements to contain the virus

Románia: Citu Florin miniszterelnök június elsején lazítana  járványügyi korlátozásokon

Slovenia: increased coronavirus transmission rates - 11-day lockdown from 1 April

Russia: Ceasefire is at risk of expiring tomorrow.
The world’s first Covid-19 vaccine for animals has been registered

United Kingdom: Nearly a third of people who have been in hospital suffering from Covid-19 are readmitted for further treatment within four months of being discharged.
The UK will focus on inoculating its entire adult population before sharing Covid-19 vaccine doses with other countries

Europe: French President Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russial President Putin discussed

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 Vírusfertőzés és védőoltás adatok

Central Europe has been one of the world’s worst-hit regions

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 Vírusfertőzés és védőoltás adatok

India: temporary restrictions on exporting COVID-19 vaccines to meet domestic demand because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases

Israel: foreigners still need an exemption to enter Israel - keeping out thousands of pilgrims. High infection rates, low vaccination rates in the occupied territories

Japan: to be able to source the number of vaccine doses wanted before hosting the Olympics in four months

Taiwan: recent Chinese warplane exercises around the island

United States: 100 million people aged 16 and above have gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine;
Covid-19 vaccine 100% effective in a study of adolescents ages 12 to 15 - already authorized for use in people 16 and older

Latin America, the Caribbean and the P1 variant

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Vírusfertőzés és védőoltás adatok

Globalization:

How are different countries using the AstraZeneca vaccine?    

 What Covid vaccines cost?

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2021. III. 28.

E vírus-fertőzés áldozatainak száma ('Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases')

/Forrás: - térképes megjelenítéssel is -:

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE)

at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)/:

https://tinyurl.com/uwns6z5

Bizonyítottan fertőzöttek száma
('Global cases')
127 014 568

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 30 255 303
Brazília 12 490 326
India 11 971 624
Franciaország * 4 606 185
Oroszország 4 469 327
Egyesült Királyság ** 4 347 010

...
Magyarország *** 633 861

-----------------------------------------

Elhunytak száma
('Global Deaths')
2 780 749

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 549 288
Brazília 310 550
Mexikó 201 429
India 161 552
Egyesült Királyság 126 832
Olaszország **** 107 933

...
Magyarország 19 972

-----------------------------------------

'Gyógyultak' száma
('Global Recovered ')
71 958 415

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok (vonatkozó összesített adatot nem közöl)
India 11 323 762
Brazília 10 948 382
Oroszország 4 092 015
Törökország 2 957 093
Olaszország 2 850 889

...
Magyarország 395 790

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A fenti adatok a honlap ekkori frissítésekor voltak érvényesek:
'Last updated: 3/28/2021 10:26 p. m."

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*** Magyarország
2021. 03. 27. Müller országos tiszti főorvos elmondta: nemzetközi tapasztalatok és tudományos ajánlások alapján Magyarországon is megfogalmaztak egy iránymutatást a várandós nők számára. „A szóba jöhető két mRNS-alapú oltás első dózisát a terhesség 12. hete után, a második dózist a szülést követően veheti fel a kismama” – részletezte. Jelezte: tudományos tapasztalatok alapján elmondható, hogy eddig nem bizonyosodott be semmilyen magzatkárosító hatás, illetve fejlődési rendelleneség a beadott oltások után. (Forrás: Híradó)

2021. 03. 26. Ragaszkodom ahhoz, hogy mielőtt a regisztrált 65 éven felüliek nincsenek beoltva, addig semmilyen újranyitásról nem lehet beszélni. Ha megkapták, és elmúlt a közvetlen életveszély, akkor lehet. Jelenleg 71 százalékot már beoltottunk a regisztrált 65 éven felüliek közül. ​Pfizerrel és Modernával szabad oltani a kismamákat, kérem őket, hogy regisztráljanak - mondta a miniszterelnök a Kossuth Rádió reggeli műsorában. Be kell oltanunk a pedagógusokat és az iskolai dolgozókat is mielőtt az iskolákat meg tudnánk nyitni. 102 ezer regisztrált iskolai dolgozó van, közülük 20 ezret már beoltottak, mert sor került rájuk. A többieket is be kell oltani, mielőtt megnyitják az intézményeket – magyarázta. (Forrás: Híradó)

2021. 03. 25. Az elhunytak több mint 80 százaléka idős. Ha az időseket beoltják, remélhetőleg csökken majd az elhunytak száma. 650 ezer nyugdíjas nem regisztrált az oltásra. Aki oltást kíván kapni – beleértve a legfiatalabbakat is - remélhetőleg május végéig megkaphatja legalább az elsőt. A CoviShield- és a CanSino oltóanyagokra még nem kötött szerződést a kormány. A Johnson & Johnson oltóanyagából Magyarország 4,36 millió dózist rendelt. Gulyás miniszter rámutatott: ha egy háziorvos már minden olyan 65 év felettit beoltott a körzetében, aki kérte a védőoltást, akár egy fiatalabb krónikus beteggel folytathatja, de ha ők is megkapták az oltást az általa ellátott körzetében, bárki mást beolthat. (Forrás: Híradó)

2021. márc. 25. A hagyományos és az új (pl. a COVID-19 elleni) védőoltások működése. /rajzfilmes megelevenítés/(Forrás: YouTube / SemmelweisEgyetem): https://tinyurl.com/5f6yr8sn
37 522 megtekintés

2021. 03. 24. Holnaptól új kormányrendelet lép hatályba, melynek értelmében a járóbeteg-ellátókat is be lehet vonni a koronavírus elleni intézményes védekezésbe az abban jelenleg is részt vevő megyei kórházak, egyetemi kórházak, valamint a fővárosi centrumkórházak mellett. Az oltás jó ütemben, tervezetten halad, a lakosság 16,8 százaléka kapta meg legalább az első védőoltást, szemben a 9,4 százalékos EU-s átlaggal. Eddig 1 696 110 embert oltottak be Magyarországon, 494 520-an már a második adagot is megkapták. Az oltás kizárólag kijelölt oltópontokon, orvosi rendelőkben zajlik. A kórházi oltópontokon Pfizerrel, a háziorvosoknál Sinopharmmal, AstraZenecával, és Modernával folytatódik az oltás. Veszélyeztetettségük miatt továbbra is a regisztrált idősek oltása van elől a sorban. Az eddig regisztrált 65 év felettiek 65 százaléka már megkapta az oltást, a többiek is hamarosan sorra kerülnek. Elhunyt 249 'többségében idős, krónikus beteg'. Újabb 7 587 magyar állampolgárnál mutatták ki a koronavírus-fertőzést, az aktív fertőzöttek száma 192 951-re emelkedett. A fertőzöttek átlagéletkora 'továbbra is' 55 év hazánkban. 11 805 koronavírusos beteget ápolnak kórházban, közülük 1 423-an vannak lélegeztetőgépen. A favipiravír nevű készítményből, ami gátolja a koronavírus szaporodását eddig már 37 ezer dobozt rendeltek a háziorvosok. Múlt éjszaka újabb 180 ezer adag, második oltáshoz szükséges Szputnyik V-vakcina érkezett Budapestre. A Janssen oltóanyag április második felében érkezhet meg hazánkba. Az operatív törzs úgy döntött, hogy megkezdi az infrastruktúrát üzemeltető fontos üzemek, cégek dolgozóinak oltását. Elkezdték a BKV dolgozóinak oltását, ma a Paksi Atomerőmű munkatársaink oltása is elkezdődik, a következő napokban a MÁV és a GYSEV munkatársainak oltásával folytatják. (Forrás: Híradó)

2021. március 23. A korai előrejelző rendszer SARS-CoV2 koronavírus-vizsgálatának eredménye a március 14-21.-i hétre vonatkozóan: a szennyvízben mért koronavírus örökítőanyag koncentráció országos szinten jellemző növekedése megállt, a legtöbb vizsgált település eredménye stagnál. A koncentráció 11 minta esetében az emelkedett kategóriában van, hét településen csökkent. /térképpel/ (Forrás: NemzetiNépegészségügyiKözpont): https://tinyurl.com/av4p52es

2021. 03. 22. Magyarországon tavaly 9 884 elhunytat soroltak hivatalosan a vírus áldozatai közé, míg a többlethalálozás ennél kevesebb, 8 331 fő volt – mondta Vukovich, a Központi Statisztikai Hivatal (KSH) elnöke. A 2015–2019. közötti időszak átlagos halálozási adatához képest ez 6,3 százalékos emelkedést jelent. Az EU-s tagállamok között nem egységes, mikor sorolnak egy elhunytat a koronavírus áldozatai közé. Németországban a halálesetek 7,5 százalékkal növekedtek 2020-ban, de a jelentett koronavírus-fertőzés miatti halálozás ennek alig a felét fedi le. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

2021. 03. 22.  A kínai CanSino Biologics bejelentette, hogy a koronavírus elleni oltóanyaga Magyarországon vészhelyzeti használati engedélyt kapott az Országos Gyógyszerészeti és Élelmezés-egészségügyi Intézettől – számolt be a Reuters hírügynökség ma. Az Országos Gyógyszerészeti és Élelmezés-egészségügyi Intézet honlapján egyelőre nincs erre vonatkozó információ. A CanSino oltóanyagát már korábban vizsgálta a gyógyszerhatóság, de akkor a szakértők szerint még nem volt elérhető elegendő információ róla. A CanSino oltóanyaga virális vektoralapú. A második fázisú klinikai tesztek alapján 60 év fölöttieknek is biztonsággal beadható. Március elején engedélyezték Kínában. Akkor a kínai pártlap azt írta róla, hogy vizsgálatok alapján 65,7 százalékos hatásosságú, és 90,9 eséllyel előzi meg a komolyabb megbetegedést. (Forrás: Híradó)

2021. 03. 22.  A nyugati oltóanyagok vásárlására Magyarország nem tud szerződést kötni, mert a többi uniós állammal ezt a jogot átengedték az Európai Uniónak. Magyarország csak a keleti gyártókkal tárgyal és köt szerződéseket oltóanyag-szállítmányokról - mondta Müller, országos tiszti főorvos. Tegnap este újabb 250 ezer adag Szputnyik V oltóanyag érkezett hazánkba. 'Az elmúlt napokban' az OGYI két újabb oltóanyag behozatalát, illetve forgalmazását engedélyezte Magyarországon, a CanSino és CoviShield nevű vektor oltóanyagokét. Müller  arra kérte a háziorvosokat, hogy amikor enyhe vagy középsúlyos koronavírus betegekkel találkoznak, írják fel számukra a Favipiravir nevű gyógykészítményt, és ellenőrizzék a betegek kezelését, hogy megelőzzék a betegek állapotának súlyosbodását. Több kismama jelenleg súlyos állapotban van a vírusfertőzés miatt, ők kórházi ellátásra szorulnak – válaszolta újságírói kérdésre. Magyarország fel van készülve a koronavírus betegek ellátásra, van elég szabad kórházi ágy, elég szabad lélegeztetőgép, és minden más orvosszakmai készítmény – jelentette ki. Azonban az egészségügyi dolgozók emberfeletti munkát végeznek, ezért egyre fáradtabbak.  (Forrás: Híradó / M1)

2021. 03. 21.  Krivácsy, a Semmelweis Egyetem I. Számú Gyermekgyógyászati Klinikája Sürgősségi Betegellátó Osztályának vezetője elmondta: a klinika március 18-án jelentette be posztcovid ambulancia nyitását gyerekeknek. Azokat a koronavírus-fertőzésen átesett gyerekeket várják, akiknek a betegség után egy hónappal is tüneteik vannak. Ismertette: a Covid-19 hosszútávú tünetek közé tartozik a gyengeség, az iskolai teljesítménycsökkenés, a fejfájás, a hasi, a keringést és a légzést érintő panasz. Előfordulhat, hogy más probléma áll a tünetek hátterében. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

Ausztria
2021. 03. 28  Holnap, hétfőtől hat napig 24 órás kijárási korlátozás lép életbe, vesztegzár alá kerül több tartomány és az osztrák főváros is. Bécsben, Burgenland és Alsó-Ausztria tartományban az emberek csak munkába, élelmiszerboltba és patikába menet hagyhatják el otthonaikat. Az iskolákban és munkahelyeken heti egyszeri vírustesztet írtak elő, Napi több mint háromezer fertőzöttet regisztrálnak Ausztriában: az aktív fertőzöttek száma a legújabb fertőzéshullám kitörése óta több mint a kétszeresére nőtt. A kórházak koronavírusos betegekkel vannak tele, a helyzet országszerte egyre romlik. A kormány azt fontolja, hogy az egész országra kiterjesztik a keleti tartományokra kihirdetett óvintézkedéseket. (Forrás: M1 / Híradó)

* France
28/03/2021 Around 20 million people, including those in the greater Paris region, are classed as living in high-infection zones. They are not allowed to travel further than 10 kilometres from their home unless they have an essential reason. Checks at train stations, airports and toll-paying motorways began today to enforce the travel restrictions. Only shops selling food, and book and music stores are open and classrooms in high schools are only running at half the capacity. Daily cases in France have nearly doubled since the start of the month and there have been more than 200,000 new cases every week. The World Health Organization in 26 March appealed to richer nations to donate vaccines to help poorer ones start inoculations. The deployment of vaccines has been glaringly unequal, with the United States accounting for more than a quarter of the global total and poorer nations lagging far behind wealthier ones. While rich EU countries are still struggling to get their inoculations into overdrive, France made clear it sees vaccine policies feeding not just European, but global competition for influence. "We are looking at a new type of world war," President Macron said after an EU summit. "We are looking in particular at Russian and Chinese attacks and attempts to gain influence through the vaccine." But Berlin said it would be happy to use Sputnik V if it gets approval from EU regulators. Germany also classified the whole of France as a high-risk zone, which means travellers need to show a negative Covid test and quarantine upon arrival. (Source: RFI)

21 Mar 2021  Nothing says “lockdown” as loudly as hundreds of miles of traffic jams on all roads out of Paris and trains to the Mediterranean and Brittany full to bursting. And that was just what happened in 19 March after French prime minister Jean Castex announced that the capital and 15 other departments – out of a total of 94 – would face new restrictions. By evening, traffic congestion more than 250 miles long affected roads leading from the capital. By yesteray morning, the city centre looked deserted. Covid-19’s third wave was now making itself felt. About 21 million people – roughly a third of the French population – living in Paris and surrounding areas, as well as several departments in the north and south, are now affected. The measures are aimed at halting the “third wave” of Covid cases. Two-thirds of these are now the highly contagious “English variant”, that has seen admissions to hospital intensive care units soar. Worryingly, health chiefs report that many of the new patients are younger than in past Covid waves. The measures have been imposed at the end of a perplexing week. In 15  March, Macron announced France would temporarily halt AstraZeneca vaccinations as a “precautionary measure” following fears of possible side-effects. The pause lasted four days. In 18 March, PM Castex was back on television reassuring the sceptical French that the vaccine was safe, before rolling up his sleeve for a jab in 19 March. Such dithering is bad, especially in France where anti-vax feeling is rife. Medical authorities argue that France is on track to hit its target of 10 million vaccinations by mid-April and is not – as has been claimed –  “sitting on” vaccine supplies. (Source: TheGuardian)

**** Italy
March 24, 2021 Italian authorities have discovered 29 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that had been stocked at a manufacturing site in the country. The doses likely come from AstraZeneca's Halix plant in the Netherlands, which hasn't yet been approved for EU production. Those doses were originally destined to the U.K., but exports stopped after the bloc introduced a mechanism to restrict exports on vaccines. AstraZeneca hadn't alerted EU authorities to the doses, which were being stored in a fill-finish site run by Catalent in the town of Agnani. AstraZeneca comes under harsh criticism from the European Commission over shortfalls of vaccine deliveries, having widely missed its original delivery targets set in the EU's advance purchase agreement. Its most recent promise is to deliver in the first quarter of the year 30 million doses - nearly equal to the amount found at the Catalent site. The find coincides with the European Commission's move to introduce new rules that could slash EU vaccine exports for six weeks. The rules target places like the U.K. and U.S. - countries that are either receiving EU-made doses but not shipping back their own shots, or that have vaccinated more of their population than the EU. (Source: Politico)

Németország Germany
2021. 03. 28  Erősödik az új típusú koronavírus (SARS-CoV-2) által okozott betegségtől védő vakcináknak ellenálló vírusváltozatok megjelenésének veszélye, ha a napi új fertőződések számának gyors emelkedése mellett halad előre az oltási kampány – mondta a német kancelláriaminiszter. Németország a járvány legveszélyesebb szakaszában van, és a következő hetekben dől el, hogy sikerül-e belátható időn belül megszerezni az ellenőrzést a vírus terjedése felett – mondta Braun asszony, végzettségét tekintve orvos. Már januári nyilatkozataiban hangsúlyozta, hogy Németországban is a fokozottan fertőzőképes brit, B.1.1.7-es jelzésű mutáció lesz a meghatározó. Most kifejtette, hogy a napokban elindult újabb járványhullám pusztítóbb lehet az első kettőnél. Ezért a zárlat további enyhítése helyett vészfékrendszert kell alkalmazni, vissza kell állítani a március elején felfüggesztett korlátozásokat, be kell vezetni újabb szigorításokat azokban a tartományokban, járásokban vagy városokban, amelyekben tartósan – egymás után három nap – száz fölött van a megelőző hét napon regisztrált új fertőződések százezer lakosra vetített száma. Elmondta, hogy két hónapig kell még fokozott óvatossággal viselkedni, addigra lesz elég oltóanyag ahhoz, hogy Németország az egészségügyi ellátórendszer túlterhelése nélkül jusson ki a járványból. Az oltási kampány első eredményei májusban jelentkezhetnek majd, járványlassító hatása pünkösdkor lesz érezhető, de csak akkor, ha sikerül megakadályozni, hogy a járványhelyzet  teljesen kicsússzon az ellenőrzés alól. Javítana a helyzeten az esti és éjszakai kijárási tilalom, mert a magán-összejöveteleken a legnagyobb a fertőzési arány. Korlátozások lebontását alacsony fertőzésgyakoriság és hatékony tesztelési rendszer mellett lehet elkezdeni – mondta. A Robert Koch közegészségügyi intézet (RKI) adatai szerint a hétnapi fertőzésgyakoriság  országos szinten már március 21-én átlépte a 100-as határértéket, és ma, vasárnap reggel 129,70-en állt. 24 óra alatt 17 176 fertőződést szűrtek ki tesztekkel. Ez csaknem 25 százalékos növekedés az egy héttel korábbi 13 733-hoz képest. Az új regisztrált fertőződésekkel együtt 2 772 401 ember szervezetében mutatták ki a SARS-CoV-2-t. A járvány áldozatainak száma 75 870 Németországban. A mostani hullámot megakadályozni nem lehet, csak fékezni. Tíz-tizennégy napos kijárási korlátozásra van szükség Németországban a koronavírus-járvány harmadik hullámának megfékezéséhez – jelentette ki ma Spahn szövetségi egészségügyi miniszter. A Robert Koch közegészségügyi intézet (RKI) vezetőjével, Wielerrel tegnapi közös tájékoztatójukon figyelmeztettek, hogy a következő hetekben teljesítőképessége határára érhet az egészségügyi ellátórendszer a SARS-CoV-2 vírus új változatainak terjedése és a napi új fertőződések gyarapodása miatt. A miniszter mostani nyilatkozata szerint a húsvétot követő egy hétben is szükség lesz még a szigorú kijárási korlátozásokra. Nyilatkoztak az ügyben intenzív osztályon dolgozó orvosok; azt mondták, hogy csak kéthetes szigorú otthonmaradással kerülheti el a társadalom, hogy a kórházak intenzív osztályai összeomoljanak a teher alatt. Karagiannidis, az intenzív és sürgősségi orvoslás németországi szövetségének elnöke azt tanácsolta a politikusoknak, hogy egyelőre vessék el mindenféle nyitás tervét, ne hagyják cserben a kórházi személyzetet. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

24 Mar 2021 Angela Merkel took the unusual step of issuing a personal apology to the nation, as she performed a U-turn on plans to put Germany under a hard lockdown over Easter. Following an acrimonious summit between the chancellor and the heads of Germany’s 16 federal states in March 22, Merkel had announced an extension of the partial lockdown until 18 April, as well as a tightening of restrictions from 1-5 April. The proposals were immediately questioned by epidemiologists, business associations and members of Merkel’s own political bloc. Under the planned Easter lockdown, all shops and business would have been told to remain shut for five days in a row, while grocery stores were to briefly reopen on Holy Saturday – a proposal that many feared would lead to crowded aisles and super-spreader events in supermarket queues. Merkel’s interior minister, Seehofer, of the Christian Social Union (CSU), criticised the request for churches to hold Easter services online. Today morning the German chancellor said the plan to close churches and shops over a five-day period had been her mistake. An emergency break on further reopenings that will apply to areas exceeding 100 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over a seven-day period remains in place. National elections will take place in September. (Source: TheGuardian)

23 March, 2021 Germany has announced that it will extend its lockdown for a further three weeks in response to a rapidly rising rate of coronavirus infections. The restrictions will be particularly tough over the Easter weekend. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that the country is now in a “very serious” situation. Today the German leader said: “We basically have a new pandemic.” In Germany 7,485 infections have been reported in the past 24 hours and 250 deaths have been recorded. Lockdown measures will include Germans being asked to stay at home for five days, from 1 April. A so-called “emergency brake” will prevent further reopenings in areas of the country where infection numbers reach more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people, for a period of seven days. As of Sunday, March 21, in Germany around 4 per cent of the population had received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, with 9 per cent having had their first dose. (Source: Independent)

March 22, 2021 Germany may buy the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine if no alternative sources of vaccines are found soon. "As far as the Russian vaccine is concerned, I share the opinion that we should use any vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency. But I would rather prefer European purchases. If there are no European purchases and no signs indicating their possibility, we will have to take the German path alone," Angela Merkel told on March 18 after a meeting with heads of German regions to discuss anti-coronavirus vaccination in the country. "I think that we have very good chances of fulfilling our promise to give every citizen an opportunity of becoming vaccinated [against COVID-19]  by the end of this summer," she said, adding that a lot depends on how many doses of vaccines will be supplied to the country. The EU started the certification process of the Sputnik V vaccine in mid-January. Russia finally sends all the documentation required and the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be approved  for use in the EU by the European Medical Agency by the end of May. In the background the preparations for manufacturing Sputnik V in Europe are well underway. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the Russian sovereign wealth fund that is behind the vaccine’s development, reached agreements with companies from Italy, Spain, France and Germany to jointly produce Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, RDIF CEO Dmitriev told on March 16. Russia came up with a high quality vaccine very quickly and in meantime has developed two more. Russia has approved CoviVac, its third coronavirus vaccine, for domestic use, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said, although large-scale clinical trials have not started yet, which scientists say could be even more effective than Sputnik V which has a 91% efficacy score. The epidemic is now in retreat, Russia is expected to reach “herd immunity” levels of 70% of the population with anti-bodies as soon as August. Russia has entered into agreements to set up production in multiple counties including Turkey and Belarus which should come online shortly. (Source: IntellyNews)

2021. 03. 21.  Sok országban a nyár végéig tarthat a járványügyi korlátozások időszaka az új típusú koronavírus elleni védekezésben, de legalább egy évig tart még, mire világszerte sikerül megszerezni az ellenőrzést a kórokozó terjedése felett – mondták a német BioNTech cég alapítói. A török származású Türeci és férje, Sahin elmondta: helyi járványkitörések továbbra is lesznek és új vírusváltozatok is kifejlődnek, de nagy valószínűséggel nem okoznak majd nagy veszélyt. Rendre szükség lesz majd emlékeztető oltásra, de még nem tudni, hogy évente vagy ötévente. Egyelőre azt sem lehet pontosan látni, hogy mekkora átoltottság kell a járvány megállításához. A két kutatóorvos a napokban megkapta Steinmeier szövetségi elnöktől az egyik legmagasabb német állami elismerést, a Nagy Érdemkereszt Csillaggal kitüntetést, illetve a lapkiadó Axel Springer német multinacionális vállalat díját. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

European Council
26 March 2021  In February, the EU executive launched an export mechanism to ensure transparency by better tracking where vaccine exports are directed. Under these rules, companies manufacturing vaccines in Europe require authorisation from national authorities – which can be denied under certain conditions – before shipping vaccines outside the EU. While European Council President Michel lauded a very strong consensus among the member states on the issue of the mechanism and France, Italy and Spain showed strong support for it, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland asked the Commission to refrain from blocking shipments without consulting national authorities and vaccine manufacturers. Since the start of the mechanism on 1 February, more than 380 export requests were, and one has been stopped. The data shows the EU as open, reliably exporting region in the world, mentioning that the US and their executive order prioritise US citizens and the fact that the UK has not shared the same figures on exports. Troubles are mounting at home, as the EU’s supply chain is still undermined by the lack of deliveries that affect the roll-out of vaccines. It has had 88 million doses delivered so far, of which 62 million doses have been administered. 18.2 million people have been fully vaccinated so far, almost 4.1% of the population. “We want to make sure that Europe gets its fair share of vaccines because we must be able to explain to our citizens that if companies export their vaccines to the whole world, it is because they are fully honouring their commitments without putting at risk the security of supply in the EU,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told. In 24 March the Commission tightened up the mechanism including new criteria which could deny export to countries that have already ensured a certain vaccination rate, if it is higher than the one in the EU. Missing deliveries from the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca remains a major issue, with questions remaining over whether it is prioritising the UK supply over the EU one. EU officials remain frustrated by the behaviour of AstraZeneca pharmaceutical - which is still struggling to deliver the expected doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to EU - and are set to use all the tools at their disposal to secure further doses for EU citizens. A change of tack is expected in the second quarter of the year, although AstraZeneca has committed again to a lower number of doses than was contracted – 70 million instead of 180 million. “There are some concerns serious concerns with regard to this one company,” said Michel, calling for AstraZeneca to ensure predictability of their vaccine production and respect contractual delivery deadlines. The situation could still change if the export mechanism is used. Von der  Leyen made clear that the company has to honour the contract it has with the EU member states, before it can engage again in exporting vaccines. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi reserved harsh words for AstraZeneca, saying European citizens felt “disappointed” and “fooled” by the company. BioNtech/Pfizer and Moderna are, however, expected to deliver doses of their vaccinese, with the possibility of even increasing the doses produced, von der Leyen told EU leaders. The single-shot Johnson&Johnson vaccine will increase the array of vaccine available in the second quarter. Accelerating the production, delivery and deployment of vaccines remains essential and urgent to overcome the crisis, the EU leaders agreed during the summit. They confirmed the deadlock over the distribution of the additional 10 million BioNTech-Pfizer doses. Countries more exposed by the shortfalls in the supply of the cheaper AstraZeneca vaccine have asked for these extra doses not to be distributed pro-rata but following criteria that take into account infections and the current quantity of vaccines in a certain member state. This coalition of countries was lead by Austria, who threatened to veto the Council’s final statement at a certain point of the meeting. The EU leaders passed the issue to the EU ambassadors asking them to solve the issue “in a spirit of solidarity” but confirming “the pro-rata population key for the allocation of vaccines.” (Source: euractiv)
Note: According to the source, EU is the region that exports the highest number of vaccines worldwide. According to the Commission’s figure, the total number of exports from the EU amounts to approximately 77 million doses to 33 different countries, including the poorer nations included in the COVAX initiative.

Európai Unió     European Union
2021. 03. 28.  Breton, a belső piacért felelős Európai Uniós biztos, EU oltási stratégiáért is felelős francia politikus megerősítette, hogy az EU nyárra elérheti a koronavírus-elleni kollektív immunitást a területén gyártott oltóanyag-mennyiségnek köszönhetően. „Megvan a kapacitásunk arra, hogy a negyedév végéig legyártsunk és leszállítsuk európai honfitársaink számára az ígért 360 millió dózist, július végéig pedig mintegy 420 milliót. Ez a szükséges mennyiség ahhoz, hogy kollektív immunitásról beszélhessünk” – mondta. Egy héttel ezelőtt azt mondta, hogy Európa július 14-re érheti el a közösségi immunitást. Elmondta, hogy a közös EU-s egészségügyi igazolás június 15-től lesz érvényes digitális és papír változatban is mind a 27 tagállam számára. „Attól a pillanattól kezdve, hogy biztosak lehetünk abban, hogy minden európai, aki szeretné magát beoltatni, egyformán hozzáférhet az oltáshoz, kell lennie egy dokumentumnak, amely igazolja mindenki állapotát” – fogalmazott a biztos. A QR kóddal ellátott igazoláson szerepelni fog a tulajdonos neve, születési dátuma, az útlevele száma, illetve az, hogy kapott-e oltást és hogy milyen típusút, valamint, hogy átesett-e a fertőzésen és vannak-e antitestjei. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

March 27 2021  Yesterday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved three new sites for the production of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna jabs for the EU supply chain. Everyone will hope this can help relieve shortages across all member states. (Source: Independent.ie)

25 March 2021 EU leaders to discuss boosting vaccine supplies. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen complained that the EU had exported more than 10 million doses to the UK, but the UK had so far exported none in return. The tougher export controls are most likely to affect vaccine-exporting countries that have higher vaccination rates than the EU, such as the UK and US. The key criteria for the proposed regulations are "reciprocity" and "proportionality": the EU says there is no reciprocity if a country importing vaccines from the EU restricts exports itself - so it may review exports to this country; member states and the Commission will also consider the state of the pandemic in that country, its vaccination rate and vaccine supplies. (Source: BBC)

March 24, 2021  EU curbs vaccine exports - introduced emergency legislation that would allow it to control exports of COVID-19 vaccines. The legislation is aimed chiefly at halting exports of vaccines from AstraZeneca PLC to the rest of the world, and is expected to disrupt supply to the U.K. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen threatened to use emergency powers to curb exports, as she pointed out the EU has allowed for 41 million doses to be sent to 33 countries since early February. She said that AstraZeneca has overpromised and underdelivered on its contract with the EU. EU officials have been criticized for allowing vaccines to be exported, while other countries, notably the U.S. and U.K., have moved fast  to secure domestic production for their own citizens. In the U.S. 164 million doses had been distributed to states, 128.2 million doses had been administered and 83.9 million people had received at least one dose, equal to 25.3% of the population. So far, 45.5 million Americans have received two doses and are fully vaccinated, equal to 13.7% of the population. (Source: MarketWatch)

March 21, 2021  The European Union is rebuffing British government calls to ship AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines produced in a factory in the Netherlands. Two factories in Britain run by Oxford Biomedica and Cobra Biologics are listed as suppliers to the EU in the contract with AstraZeneca, but no vaccine has so far been shipped from Britain to the EU, despite Brussels’ earlier requests. Officials have said that Cobra is not fully operational.  AstraZeneca told EU officials that the UK is using a clause in its supply contract that prevents export of its vaccines until the British market is fully served. “The Brits are insisting that the Halix plant in the Netherlands must deliver the drug substance produced there to them. That doesn’t work,” an official told. “What is produced in Halix has to go to the EU,” the official added. The Leiden-based plant which is run by sub-contractor Halix is listed as a supplier of vaccines in both the contracts that AstraZeneca has signed with Britain and with the European Union. AstraZeneca has declined to comment on the amount of vaccines that are currently stockpiled at Halix. (Source: Reuters)

Szerbia    Serbia
2021. 03. 28. vasárnap. Tülekedés ingyenes oltóanyagért. A szerb kormány lehetővé tette, hogy az AstraZeneca koronavírus elleni oltóanyagát akár külföldiek is megkapják a kijelölt oltópontokon. Ingyenesen és előzetes regisztráció nélkül is fel tudják venni a hétvégén a védőoltást, akár külföldiek is. Tegnap, szombaton a legnagyobb sorok a bosnyák–szerb, valamint az észak-macedón–szerb határon alakultak ki, nagyon sokan érkeztek Montenegróból is azért, hogy Belgrádban vagy Újvidéken megkapják az oltást. Szombaton a legnagyobb sorok a boszniai-szerb, valamint az észak-macedón-szerb határon alakultak ki, de nagyon sokan érkeztek Montenegróból is azért, hogy Belgrádban vagy Újvidéken megkapják az oltást. A Szerbiában regisztrált koronavírus-fertőzöttek száma mára 4497-tel 581 617-re, Koszovóban 873-mal 87 027-re, Észak-Macedóniában 1320-szal 126 230-ra, Montenegróban 369-el 89 732-re, Bosznia-Hercegovinában pedig 1843-mal 163 875-re növekedett. A járvány halálos áldozatainak száma az utóbbi 24 órában Szerbiában 37-tel 5151-re, Koszovóban 11-gyel 1834-re, Észak-Macedóniában 35-tel 3642-re, Montenegróban 7-el 1241-re, Bosznia-Hercegovinában pedig 60-al 6322-re nőtt. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

27-Mar-2021  Serbia is the second stop on China's defense minister General Wei's four-country journey through central and southeastern Europe. As Serbian Defense Minister Stefanovic announced after meeting with General Wei, China's military will donate COVID-19 vaccines to Serbia's soldiers and their families. General Wei also met Serbian President Vucic and attended Serbian military special forces drills. 'My visit here is with the support of President Xi,' said Wei. 'The aim is to realize the consensus between President Xi and President Vucic about deepening friendly relations between our two armies.' The emphasis on friendly ties not just relevant 'to defense and military' cooperation: economic ties are the backbone of the relationship between the two countries. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the medical collaboration became the most important area for the two nations, as Wei emphasized in talks with his Serbian counterpart Stefanovic, who said the Serbian Military Medical Academy would soon open a Center of Chinese traditional medicine. The two defense ministers spent more than two hours talking behind closed doors, after which they signed an agreement on the Chinese military's donation of 'military aid' to Serbia. Stefanovic gave the public just a glimpse of the other topics discussed. One more topic was shared yesterday in Belgrade: China will help the Serbian defense industry's efforts to perfect its indigenous attack drone, the Pegasus. Defense Minister Wei continues his four-country tour today when he'll visit Greece before his last stop in North Macedonia. (Source: cgtn)

** United Kingdom
March 28, 2021  To combat the ever-changing virus. On March 4, 2020, when there were just 84 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.K., professor Peacock, 62 recognized that the country needed to expand its capacity to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus. The Cambridge University microbiologist understood that genomic sequencing would be crucial in tracking the disease, controlling outbreaks and developing vaccines. So she began working with colleagues around the country to put together a plan. Within a month, the government had provided 20 million pounds ($28 million) to fund their work. The initiative helped make Britain a world leader in rapidly analyzing the genetic material from large numbers of COVID-19 infections, generating more than 40% of the genomic sequences identified to date. These days, their top priority is finding new variants that are more dangerous or resistant to vaccines. This is the first time authorities are using genomic sequencing to provide real-time surveillance of a global pandemic. She, "the variant-hunter-in-chief" is executive director and chair of the COVID-19 UK Genomics Consortium, known as COG-UK, the group she helped create a year ago. During the first week of this month, COG-UK sequenced 13,171 viruses, up from 260 during its first 12 days of operation in March last year. Positive COVID-19 tests from hospitals and community testing programs around the country are sent to a network of 17 laboratories where scientists spend their days extracting the genetic material from each swab and analyzing it to identify that virus’ unique genetic code. The sequences are then cross-referenced with public health data to better understand how, where and why COVID-19 is spreading. When mutations in the virus correspond with an otherwise unexplained increase in cases, that’s a clue that a new variant of concern is circulating in the area. The importance of genomic sequencing became obvious late last year as the number of new infections began to spike in southeastern England. Combing through data from genome sequencing, scientists identified a new variant that included a number of mutations that made it easier for the virus to hop from one person to another. More than 120 countries are submitting sequences to GISAID, a data-sharing hub originally created to track influenza viruses. Iceland, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark actually sequence a higher percentage of their COVID-19 cases than Britain, and Denmark does the work faster. The U.K. has submitted 379,294 of the almost 898,000 sequences in the GISAID database. Representatives from COG-UK took part in a recent call with American researchers and the Rockefeller Foundation aimed at building capacity in the United States. The U.K.’s sequencing success was built on  the foundation of groundbreaking genetic science in Britain, stretching back to the work of Watson, Crick and Franklin, who were credited with discovering the chemical structure of DNA.  Success attracted investment, such as the Wellcome Trust’s 1992 decision to create the Sanger Centre to help map the human genome, further expanding the pool of expertise in Britain. (Source: AP)

March 28, 2021  U.K. expects to receive first Moderna vaccines in coming weeks. The arrival of the shot comes as the European Union toughens restrictions on exports and Britain faces a significant reduction in supplies in April due to a delayed delivery from India. The economy had its deepest contraction last year for more than three centuries. The government is on track to offer first doses of a vaccine to all over 50s by the middle of April and to the rest of the adult population by the end of July. There is also no danger of people unable to get their second dose of the same jab within 12 weeks, the culture secretary spoke. The aim is to remove remaining restrictions on social contact from June 21. Britain and the EU are in talks to resolve a standoff over vaccine sharing as the bloc attempts to get its own immunization program back on track. Last week, the two sides indicated progress in defusing the spat. (Source: Bloomberg)

27 March 2021 Vaccines Minister Zahawi said people aged over 70 could start receiving Covid booster jabs from September to protect them from new variants. Mr Zahawi also confirmed drive-thru vaccine sites are being considered to persuade younger people to take a Covid jab. Mr Zahawi also told that the government was hoping to have up to eight vaccines available by the autumn - with several made in the UK - including one that could guard against three different variants via a single jab. The UK is currently using two vaccines - developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech - to protect people against Covid-19. A third - the Moderna vaccine - has been approved by the UK's medicines watchdog. All have been shown to be effective at preventing people from becoming seriously ill and dying from Covid. The Oxford vaccine offers a good level of protection against the "Kent" variant now dominant in the UK. Early research on other vaccines, including Pfizer, suggest they also protect against this variant. There are concerns vaccines may not work as well against variants first spotted in South Africa and Brazil, and some UK variants too, but they can be updated. Despite ministers warning that the UK's vaccine supplies would fall in April, No 10 said all adults in the UK  will still receive a first Covid jab by the end of July. (Source: BBC)

26 Mar 2021 Embattled scientists at AstraZeneca feel they have been unfairly targeted for trying to do something that goes against the profit-driven grain in the pharmaceutical industry – produce a low-cost, easy to use vaccine that will work well for low and middle-income countries but will not make them money in the short-term. Sir Bell, the Oxford University professor who helped drive the vaccine’s development, suggested morale at AstraZeneca is plummeting and that it had never received due credit for its decision to take no profit. Others are making fortunes –  Moderna expects $18bn in revenue this year from the vaccine and Pfizer/BioNTech $15bn. (Source: TheGuardian)

23 Mar 2021 A research led by scientists at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) found that human rhinovirus (the virus that causes the common cold) triggers an innate immune response that seems to block SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells of the respiratory tract. Professor Murcia explains: “This means that the immune response caused by mild, common cold virus infections, could provide some level of transient protection against SARS-CoV-2, potentially blocking transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and reducing the severity of COVID-19. “The next stage will be to study what is happening at the molecular level during these virus-virus interactions, to understand more about their impact on disease transmission. The study, ‘Human rhinovirus infection blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication within the respiratory epithelium: implications for COVID-19 epidemiology’ is published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Source: UniversityofGlasgow)

21 March 2021 Professor Bell, leading member of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine team criticised France for refusing to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to under-55s after the country previously said the jab was unsuitable for older people. He has slammed the EU's 'completely hopeless' efforts to track outbreaks of coronavirus variants. Lack of genome sequencing on the continent means importing the South African variant from Europe is now the 'biggest risk' facing the UK, he said. (Source: DailyMail)
A comment: "Reading between the lines. If the South African variant hits the UK, and it will, the AZ vaccine won't work".

21 Mar 2021  Waging war over vaccines can only end in tragedy for Britain and the EU. Gloating over Europe’s travails is a stupid and shortsighted way for the UK to respond. A government with an enlightened perspective on the long-term interests of Britain would see value in offering expressions of sympathy and gestures of solidarity with the EU at its time of severe trial. That could generate a lot of goodwill among European voters and leaders. It might be the more effective in winning friends for Britain for being so unexpected from a Brexiter government.  Raab, the foreign secretary, instead prefers to play tit for tat. He responded to Ms von der Leyen by accusing her of the “kind of brinkmanship” usually practised by dictatorships, an echo of those Brexiter tropes which insultingly compared the EU with Nazi Europe or the Soviet bloc. Other cabinet members huff and puff that threats to curtail vaccine exports show that the EU can’t be trusted to honour contracts. There is a problem with this attempt by ministers to seize the title deeds to the moral high ground. Their behaviour has robbed them of any claims on it. No one is worse qualified to lecture others about contract-breaking than a member of Mr Johnson’s government. It is not so long ago that he was brazenly threatening to break international law by tearing up clauses of the withdrawal agreement that he signed. More recently, the government abandoned attempts to renegotiate aspects of the agreement which are working badly in Northern Ireland and announced a reneging on previous commitments. “My word is my bond” has not exactly been the motto by which Boris Johnson has lived his life. Bermann concluded her time as French ambassador in London with a valedictory assessment of Mr Johnson which described him as “an unrepentant and inveterate liar”, a view widely held among European leaders. The chances of avoiding a mutually destructive struggle with the EU over vaccine supplies would be much better had Britain a prime minister who was regarded as a trustworthy international partner by his peer group. An escalation into a full-blown “vaccine war” between Britain and the EU would be a disaster for both on many levels. The production of vaccines depends on intricate multinational supply chains. Take the Pfizer dose. Ingredients for that vaccine are shipped from the UK to the company’s plant in Belgium before some of the finished product is exported across the Channel. A round of beggar-my-neighbour export bans will be self-defeating. The EU’s problems will deepen, while the government will find it harder to realise its ambition to get a shot into every adult by July. Vaccine nationalism is already a dimension of this crisis. It would set a terrible example to the world if countries that advertise themselves as mature, sophisticated and internationalist democracies were to unleash a vaccine war in Europe. Britain and her near neighbours are going to have to live and work with each other long after Covid-19 has become history. The UK’s security and prosperity still depend in great part on what happens within the EU. It cannot be in the EU’s interests to have permanently toxified relations with such a substantial country on its border. A vaccine war would be a conflict without a winner, only many losers. Any words or actions that further inflame very raw nerves are highly dangerous. Careless talk costs lives. (Source: TheGuardian)

.

2021. III. 28.

E vírus-fertőzés áldozatainak száma ('Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases')

/Forrás: - térképes megjelenítéssel is -:

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE)

at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)/:

https://tinyurl.com/uwns6z5

Bizonyítottan fertőzöttek száma
('Global cases')
127 014 568

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok * 30 255 303
Brazília ** 12 490 326
India *** 11 971 624
Franciaország 4 606 185
Oroszország 4 469 327
Egyesült Királyság 4 347 010

...
Magyarország 633 861

-----------------------------------------

Elhunytak száma
('Global Deaths')
2 780 749

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 549 288
Brazília 310 550
Mexikó 201 429
India 161 552
Egyesült Királyság 126 832
Olaszország 107 933

...
Magyarország 19 972

-----------------------------------------

'Gyógyultak' száma
('Global Recovered ')
71 958 415

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok (vonatkozó összesített adatot nem közöl)
India 11 323 762
Brazília 10 948 382
Oroszország 4 092 015
Törökország 2 957 093
Olaszország 2 850 889

...
Magyarország 395 790

-----------------------------------------

A fenti adatok a honlap ekkori frissítésekor voltak érvényesek:
'Last updated: 3/28/2021 10:26 p. m."

------------------------------------------------

Kína    China
2021. 03. 25. Több tízmillió adagot kínált fel a COVAX-programnak a CanSino Biologics kínai gyógyszergyártó vállalat az általa gyártott egydózisú oltóanyagból „versenyképes áron”; azt 2021 második felétől 2022 végéig szállítaná, hozzátéve, hogy készek 2022 után is szállítani, ha igény lesz rá. Peking korábban bejelentette, hogy 10 millió dózist ajánl fel az oltóanyagok méltányos elosztására létrehozott COVAX programnak, bár a szállítás dátumát nem említette. A CanSinoBIO mellett a Sinovac Biotech és a Sinopharm kínai gyártó is jelentkezett a programra. "A CanSino adenovírus-vektor alapú oltóanyagát, amelyet a vállalat a kínai Katonai Orvostudományi Akadémiával közösen fejlesztett, Kínán kívül mostanáig Pakisztánban, Magyarországon és Mexikóban engedélyezték'. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

March 22, 2021 China’s CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) said today its COVID-19 vaccine has been authorised for emergency use in Hungary, the second Chinese vaccine to receive approval in that nation. The Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition granted the approval for its vaccine, with the trade name Convidecia, based on the interim results of its phase III trial, the company said in a statement. CanSinoBIO’s vaccine is a single-dose vaccine that is currently also approved in China, Pakistan and Mexico. Hungary’s daily coronavirus infections on Friday, 19 March were hitting a record of 10,759, while the daily death toll also hit a record at 213 in the central European country of 10 million. (Source: Reuters)

*** India
March 24, 2021 India’s health ministry said today that a new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus and other 771 “variants of concern” have been detected among 10,787 positive samples in a survey across 18 of the country’s states and union territories, saying that such variants “have not been detected in numbers sufficient to either establish a direct  relationship or explain the rapid increase in cases in some states”. 736 samples have tested positive for the UK variant, 34 the South African variant and one sample was found positive for the Brazilian variant. The country recorded 47,262 new cases in the previous 24 hours, the largest daily spike in months. Total number of Covid cases rose above 11.7 million. The health ministry said only five states - Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat - account for about 77 per cent of the new cases. India became the fifth country in the world to sequence the genome of the novel coronavirus. India ramped up its genomic sequencing efforts amid concerns about the arrival of the UK variant into the country in December. The health ministry revealed an increase in incidences of both the E484Q and L452R mutations, as compared to December 2020. “Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity. These mutations have been found in about 15-20 per cent of samples and do not match any previously catalogued variants of concern, it said. These mutations have also been detected in other countries; E484Q has been found in 11 countries, while L452R mutation has been detected in about 22 countries. Several states have announced a ban on gatherings ahead of the festival of Holi next week to curb the rising number of Covid-19 cases. The government of Delhi said “public celebrations and all gatherings and congregations during upcoming festivals should not be allowed in public places.” (Source: Independent)

* United States
March 27, 2021  About 49 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, and about 1 in 3 have received at least one dose. 71% of seniors have received one shot, because that age group accounts for roughly 80% of the Covid deaths up to this point. With the increase in vaccine supply, there will be enough vaccine doses for every adult in the US by the end of May and the three manufacturers who have received emergency use authorization for their  vaccines in the US - Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson - "are setting and hitting targets." (Source: CNN)

March 25, 2021 The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are effective in pregnant and lactating women, who can pass protective antibodies to newborns, according to research published today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard looked at 131 women who received either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. Among the participants, 84 were pregnant, 31 were lactating and 16 were not pregnant or lactating. Samples were collected between Dec. 17, 2020 and March 2, 2021. The vaccine-induced antibody levels were equivalent in pregnant and lactating women, compared to non-pregnant women. The antibody levels were “strikingly higher” than those resulting from coronavirus infection during pregnancy, the team noted. In addition, the team found that women passed protective antibodies to their newborns, measured in breast milk and the placenta. Additional research is needed to understand how long those protective antibodies last in newborns.  (Source: CNN)
Note: Pregnant and lactating women were not included in the initial clinical trials of the vaccines.

March 24, 2021  An assortment of hand cleaners that flooded into the market contain high levels of benzene, according to Valisure, a New Haven, Connecticut-based online pharmacy that tests products for quality and consistency. Benzene causes cancer, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The World Health Organization’s cancer research arm puts it in the highest risk category, on par with asbestos. Valisure analyzed 260 bottles from 168 brands and found 17% of the samples contained detectable levels of benzene. Twenty-one bottles, or 8%, contained benzene above two parts per million, a temporary limit the FDA set for liquid hand sanitizers to ease the supply squeeze. That level “can be tolerated for a relatively short period of time,” the FDA said in June. Fifteen brands were represented among the 21 bottles with the highest levels of contamination. Most hand sanitizers Valisure found and tested were gels. The pharmacy’s test results were verified by Yale University’s Chemical and Biophysical Instrumentation Center and Boston Analytical, a private lab. It isn’t clear how benzene became present in the products. It may have been introduced during the manufacturing process when germ-killing alcohol is purified. In certain chemical industries the material is used to make plastics and rubber. Benzene has been linked to certain blood cancers, such as leukemias. Skin absorption and ingestion are also possible. Focusing on hand-sanitizer safety, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January blocked imports of products from Mexico after many were found to contain methanol, a form of alcohol that’s poisonous to humans. Most of the products Valisure found to contain high levels of benzene were made in China or the U.S. One Scentsational product that tested for high levels of benzene held 14 times the limit of methanol, which is 630 parts per million. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers typically should not contain methanol; they’re usually made with ethanol, or grain alcohol. (Source: msn)
See also: March 24, 2021 "Valisure’s citizen petition to the FDA, including a list of brands identified with high benzene levels" (Source: Valisure): https://tinyurl.com/c6v4pjf2

March 24, 2021  GlaxoSmithKline fired ex-chief scientist of the U.S. government’s Covid vaccine development effort Operation Warp Speed during the Trump administration Slaoui, as Galvani Bioelectronics board chairman, over ‘substantiated’ sexual harassment claims. Slaoui, 61, had spent 30 years at GSK, overseeing vaccine development at that pharmaceutical giant. Slaoui’s firing came 10 months after then-President Trump tapped him to oversee the U.S. effort to development vaccines to fight the coronavirus pandemic. At the time he was appointed, he was on the board of Moderna. Slaoui last month joined Centessa Pharmaceuticals as chief scientific officer and advisor. 'Slaoui also has been advising the European Union on its coronavirus vaccine rollout. ' (Source: cnbc)

March 23, 2021  To have access to therapeutic options, Pfizer Inc. said it has begun human safety testing of a new pill to treat the coronavirus that could be used at the first sign of illness. If it succeeds in trials, the pill could be prescribed early in an infection to block viral replication before patients get very sick. The drug binds to an enzyme called a protease to keep the virus from replicating. Protease-inhibiting medicines have been successful in treating other types of viruses, include HIV and Hepatitis C. The study could generate results within weeks. The new protease inhibitor is the second such medicine Pfizer has brought into human trials to treat Covid-19. Pfizer’s oral protease inhibitor, code-named PF-07321332, had a number of potential advantages. In lab tests, it worked against many coronaviruses, including the original SARS virus and MERS. Additionally, the coronavirus protease doesn’t mutate much, which means the therapy is likely to work equally well against numerous variant strains. In theory, the protease inhibitor could also be combined with other antiviral drugs, such as the one Merck is developing. Pfizer is testing another given intravenously to hospitalized virus patients. Pfizer could begin a much larger combined phase 2-phase 3 trial early in the second quarter, potentially allowing it to apply for emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this year, depending on how the pandemic evolves. The drug is likely to be given twice a day for about five days. Pfizer also plans to explore whether the drug works to protect healthy people who have been exposed to the coronavirus, such as family members or roommates who live with someone who got sick. Easy-to-use treatments are lacking for early-stage Covid-19 patients. While antibody therapies from EliLilly & Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. are authorized in the U.S. for Covid patients who haven’t yet been hospitalized but are at high risk of developing severe symptoms, they  must be infused in the hospital or at a doctor’s office. For sicker people Gilead Sciences Inc.’s antiviral drug remdesivir must be infused over several days and is approved only for hospitalized patients. Merck & Co. has one of the few coronavirus pills that is far along in human testing. Its experimental antiviral drug molnupiravir works by a different mechanism than the Pfizer drug and is in late-stage human trials. Merck is developing its drug in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP. (Source: msn)

March 23, 2021  Late yesterday the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) notified the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and AstraZeneca that it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial. The DSMB expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data. "We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible". (Source: NationalInstitutesofHealth)

March 22, 2021  Companies sponsoring drug or vaccine trials typically wait for the monitoring board to review analyses and conclude that the study has yielded an answer before they announce trial results. In recent days, the monitoring board’s analysis of the AstraZeneca trial was delayed several times because the board had to ask for revised reports from those handling trial data on behalf of the company. The monitoring board ultimately conveyed the results of the study to AstraZeneca in a meeting over the weekend, leading to the company’s announcement yesterday morning. It was highly irregular to see such a public display of friction between a monitoring board and a study sponsor, which are typically in close concordance. Many millions of people have received the AstraZeneca shot worldwide, including more than 17 million in Britain and the European Union, almost all without serious side effects. In an effortto increase public confidence, many European political leaders have gotten the injections in recent days. The AstraZeneca vaccine has also been administered in the past week to leaders in South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. (Source: TheNewYorkTimes)

** Brazil    Brazília
March 27, 2021  Home to 212 million people, the country trails only the U.S. in the virus’ toll. Brazil has become the epicenter of the pandemic, recently reporting records of more than 100,000 cases and 3,650 deaths a day. While vaccinations have picked up in the last week, the 19 million shots deployed so far have only covered 7% of the population with one dose, and fully vaccinated about 2%. The national death toll crossed 300,000 this week, two-and-a-half months after hitting 200,000, half the time it took to go from 100,000 to 200,000. Brazil is facing a rising number of deaths among the young. So far this month, about 2,030 Brazilians aged 30 to 39 have died from Covid, more than double the number recorded in January. Among those in their 40s, there have been 4,150 fatalities in March, up from 1,823 in January, and for those 20-29, deaths jumped to 505 from 242. The explanation for the growing infection rate among the young - in a country that is largely young - remains unclear although officials and medical experts suggest several possibilities. First, throughout 2020, local and regional restrictions hampered socializing. That changed with the holidays, the new year and the loosening of lockdowns. Second, a variant first spotted in the Amazonian city of Manaus is probably partly to blame. Patients are largely getting sick with that variant or the U.K. one, which is also more contagious. A study carried out in Sao Paulo found one of the two variants in 71% of cases. Third, vaccines are limited in Brazil and there is no time line for inoculating the young. The mutation of the virus into a much more contagious version with a viral load that makes people sick in a  faster and more aggressive way has meant young people have gone from mostly asymptomatic cases to being gravely affected. (Source: Bloomberg)

2021. 03. 26. Brazília ma bejelentette, hogy elkészült a koronavírus elleni első saját gyártású, Butanvac nevű oltóanyaga, amelyet az Instituto Butantan nevű állami biológiai kutatóközpont fejlesztett ki, s amelyet jóváhagyás esetén azonnal elkezdenek embereken tesztelni. Az Instituto Butantan gyártja Brazíliában a Sinovac Biotech kínai gyógyszergyártó CoronaVac nevű oltóanyagát is, amellyel az emberek túlnyomó többségét oltják a dél-amerikai országban. A koronavírus-járvány által sújtott, 210 millió lakosú Brazíliában eddig 12 320 169 fertőzöttet és a fertőzéshez köthető 303 462 halálesetet regisztráltak, a gyógyultak száma 10 808 499. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

Mexico
Mar 28 2021  The government has acknowledged that the country's true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic now stands above 321,000, almost 60 per cent more than the official test-confirmed number of 201,429. Mexico does little testing, many Mexicans died at home without getting a test. The only way to get a clear picture is to review excess deaths and review death certificates. Yesterday, the government quietly published such a report, which found there were 294,287 deaths linked to Covid-19 from the start of the pandemic through February 14. Since February 15 there have been an additional 26,772 test-confirmed deaths. Mexico has a population of 126million. Suggestive were the overall number of excess deaths since the pandemic began, around 417,000. A review of death certificates found about 70.5 per cent of the excess deaths were Covid-19 related, often because it was listed on the certificates as a suspected or contributing cause of death. But some experts say Covid-19 may have contributed to many of the other excess deaths because many people couldn't get treatment for other diseases because hospitals were overwhelmed. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

Globalization
March 26, 2021 Ending the pandemic will require vaccinating children too. Children’s infection rates are low - they make up about 13% of COVID-19 cases documented in the U.S. 268 have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone and more than 13,500 have been hospitalized, according to a tally by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s more than die from the flu in an average year. Additionally, a small number have developed a serious inflammatory condition linked to the coronavirus. Apart from their own health risks, there still are questions about how easily  children can spread the virus. Last month in Britain, AstraZeneca began a study of its vaccine among 6- to 17-year-olds. Johnson & Johnson is planning its own pediatric studies. In China, Sinovac recently announced it has submitted preliminary data to Chinese regulators showing its vaccine is safe in children as young as 3. In the first phase of the Pfizer study, a small number of children receive different doses of vaccine as scientists winnow out the best dosage to test in several thousand kids in the next phase. (Source: AP)

26 March 2021  More than 500 million doses of vaccines have been given around the world as of yesterday. Israel still leads the race by far, with nearly six out of 10 of its population  having received at least one dose. More than half of Israelis have received a second dose. Next is the United Kingdom (43 percent of the population has received at least one dose), the United Arab Emirates (more than 39 percent), Chile (32 percent), Bahrain (27 percent), the United States (26 percent), Serbia (19 percent) and Hungary (19 percent). The US is way ahead  with 133 million jabs given, followed by China with 91 million and India (55.5 million). European Union countries have given 65 million doses between them to 10 percent of the bloc's population. The vaccines produced by US-German Pfizer/BioNTech and the American Moderna are more expensive and harder to store. They are mainly used in rich countries. The American Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the first to require just one dose, has so far only been rolled out in the US and South Africa though it has been approved in Canada and the EU. Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs have been administered mostly in their home markets as well as emerging and developing countries. The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has been administered in rich countries and India, as well as poorer ones, notably thanks to Covax of which it is the main supplier. '0.1 percent of the doses injected around the world were given in poor countries, home to nine percent of the global population'. Several of the world's poorest countries have started their vaccination campaigns using doses delivered for free under the Covax scheme launched by the WHO, the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Cepi coalition. (Source: Yahoo / AFP)

.

2021. III. 20.

E vírus-fertőzés áldozatainak száma ('Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases')

/Forrás: - térképes megjelenítéssel is -:

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE)

at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)/:

https://tinyurl.com/uwns6z5

Bizonyítottan fertőzöttek száma
('Global cases')
122 639 917

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 29 774 306
Brazília 11 871 390
India 11 555 284
Oroszország 4 397 816
Egyesült Királyság 4 304 839
Franciaország * 4 277 182

...
Magyarország ** 560 971

-----------------------------------------

Elhunytak száma
('Global Deaths')
2 705 934

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 541 738
Brazília 290 314
Mexikó 197 219
India 159 558
Egyesült Királyság 126 359
Olaszország 104 642

...
Magyarország 18 068

-----------------------------------------

'Gyógyultak' száma
('Global Recovered ')
69 464 058

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok (vonatkozó összesített adatot nem közöl)
India 11 107 332
Brazília 10 470 969
Oroszország 4 014 770
Törökország 2 807 572
Olaszország 2 686 236

...
Magyarország 366 774

A fenti adatok a honlap ekkori frissítésekor voltak érvényesek:
'Last updated: 3/20/2021 11:26 p. m."

------------------------------------------------

** Magyarország     Hungary
2021. III. 20. Eddig 66 333 079 adag koronavírus elleni oltóanyag érkezett az Európai Unióba, amelyből 53 057 739-et oltottak be. A legtöbbet lakosság-arányosan Málta és Magyarország oltott – derült ki az Európai Betegségmegelőzési és Járványvédelmi Központ (ECDC) legfrissebb, tegnapi összesítéséből. Az ECDC szerint az Európai Unió lakosságának 10,7 százaléka kapta meg valamelyik koronavírus elleni oltóanyag legalább első adagját, míg a második adag a lakosság átlagosan 4,2 százalékához jutott el. Magyarországon az oltás első adagját a lakosság 17,9 százaléka, a második adagját 5,3 százaléka kapta meg. Lakosság-arányosan a legtöbb adag oltást Magyarország szerezte be: 31,8 adag oltóanyag jut 100 felnőtt (18 évnél idősebb) lakosra. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

March 19, 2021  Hungary can start the first stage of easing coronavirus restrictions once a further one million citizens have been vaccinated, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said today.  Around 1.5 million Hungarians have been inoculated so far, and he said curbs could start to be eased once that number rose to 2.5 million - equivalent to a quarter of the population. Orbán reiterated his backing for Hungary’s use of Chinese and Russian vaccines, which it was the first European Union country to authorise and deploy. Orbán said the daily tally of coronavirus-related deaths stood at a record 213, with more than 10,000 people in hospitals, which were managing to cope with a record wave of infections. Orbán aims to get as many people immunised as quickly as possible to reopen and jump-start the economy, which shrank by 5.1% last year. Fidesz yesterday submitted its resignation from the European People’s Party (EPP), the mainstream conservative grouping in the European Parliament. He said his Fidesz party would team up with like-minded parties in Italy and Poland to reorganise European right-wing politics. He would soon meet with Salvini, who heads Italy’s League party, and Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. “We will plan the future together.” (Source: Reuters)

2021. III. 19.  Magyarország az eddigi 6,5 millió adagról 10,9 millióra növelte a lekötött Pfizer-BionTech oltóanyag mennyiségét, így már összesen 31 millió adag oltóanyagot kötött le. Ebből 24 millió adag oltóanyagot várunk az Európai Uniós beszerzésből, ennek eddig a 7 százaléka érkezett meg három gyártótól (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca). A Johnson & Johnson oltóanyagának szállítása várhatóan csak április második felében kezdődik. A Janssen egydózisú oltóanyagból 4,36 millió adagot vár Magyarország, amely ugyanennyi ember oltását teszi lehetővé. A kínai oltóanyagból eddig három szállítmány érkezett, az első több mint félmillió adagos szállítmányt a háziorvosok gyakorlatilag mára beoltották a regisztrált idősek körében, a második 450 ezer adagos szállítmányt jövő héten kezdik felhasználni a már beoltott idősek második körös oltására. Az ezen a héten érkezett 100 ezer adag kínai oltóanyaggal a szükséges hatósági vizsgálat után lehet majd oltani, ezt szintén a regisztrált idősek első és második körös oltására használják majd. Az eddig érkezett Szputnyik-oltóanyaggal a regisztrált idősek oltását  végezték a kórházi oltópontokon, a legutóbb érkezett 180 ezer adag első dózisú oltóanyag alkalmazását a Nemzeti Népegészségügyi Központ t(NNK) március 15-én engedélyezte, és ezt a hét második felében szállították ki a kórházi oltópontokra, ahol a háziorvosok által beküldött regisztrált időseket oltják vele. Márciustól a Pfizer-BionTech második adagját a korábbi 21 nap helyett 35 napos különbséggel, az AstraZeneca második adagját a korábbi 4 hét helyett 12 hetes különbséggel adják be. Az eddig csak 18-59 év közöttiek oltására engedélyezett AstraZeneca alkalmazása is megváltozott, már a 60 év felettieket is olthatják vele a háziorvosok. Az operatív törzs kifejezetten azt kérte a háziorvosoktól, hogy a még be nem oltott regisztrált időseket oltsák ezzel az oltóanyaggal is. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI / koronavirus.gov.hu)

2021. március 19. Az immun-válasz kialakulása és későbbi hatása /video/ (Forrás: MTA): https://tinyurl.com/ecajmkzz

2021. III. 18. A beoltottak száma 1 441 706, ebből 421 915 fő már a második oltását is megkapta. A brit vírus-mutáns nagyon gyorsan terjed, jelentősen nő az aktív fertőzöttek és a kórházi betegek száma. A járvány kezdete óta összesen 539 080 főre nőtt a beazonosított fertőzöttek száma, az elhunytaké 17 628 főre emelkedett. A gyógyultak száma 360 895 fő, az aktív fertőzöttek száma 160 557 főre emelkedett. 10 386 koronavírusos beteget ápolnak kórházban, közülük 1170-en vannak lélegeztetőgépen. Müller, országos tiszti főorvos elmondta: több vírusvariáns van, amit a PCR-tesztek nem tudnak kimutatni. A Magyarországon használt PCR-tesztek háromféle antigént is ki tudnak mutatni. Az oltási program rendben, ütemezetten zajlik, a veszélyeztetettségük miatt továbbra is a regisztrált idősek oltása van elől a sorban. A következő napokra ehhez a háziorvosoknak átlagosan 10 fő oltására elég AstraZeneca oltóanyag jut, további 44 idős embert tudnak kórházi oltópontra szervezni, ahol Szputnyik és Pfizer oltóanyagok vannak. Ma 54 ezer Moderna oltóanyag érkezett, valamint 21 600 AstraZeneca, amiből 74 ezernek kellett volna érkeznie. ​Várhatóan a jövő héten is kevesebbet kapunk majd. Ahogy beérkeznek az oltóanyagok, azokat be is adják. (Forrás: Híradó)

2021. 03. 13.  Kínai oltóanyag üzlet; 55 milliárdos beszerzés, cégalapítás, tulajdonosváltások, kapcsolati háló. A kínai Sinopharm-oltóanyag beszerzésére egy 'rendkívül zavaros hátterű céggel" kötött szerződést a magyar állam, miközben közvetlenül a gyártóval is megállapodhatott volna. Az orosz oltóanyagokért 19,9 dollárt, míg a Sinopharmért 30 euro + 5 százalék áfát fizet az állam - utóbbiért utalnak majd 57 milliárd forintot a beszerzést lebonyolító Danubia Pharma Kft.-nek. Ez az 2009-ben alapított, gyógyszer-nagykereskedelemmel foglalkozó cég 2020. november 27-én új tulajdonoshoz, a Syntonite Med Zrt.-hez került, amelynek a vezérigazgatója, Tuza, a Danubia Pharmát is vezeti. A Syntonite Med-et 2020. november 24-én hozták létre, két magánszemély alapította, a budapesti Gergely, valamint egy dunakeszi lakos, Kovács. Három nap múlva a Syntonite Med-et már be is jegyezte a cégbíróság - ugyanazon a napon, amikor a Zrt. megszerezte a Danubia Pharma 100 százalékos tulajdonrészét. A cég bejegyzésével kapcsolatos eljárásokban Kovalenko egyéni ügyvédet bízta meg az egyik alapító, Kovács. Az ilyenkor fizetendő illetéket – ami 50 ezer forint volt – egy negyedik személy, dr. Vámosi-Nagy fizette. Dr. Vámosi-Nagy egyik alapítója az SRF Silk Road Zrt.-nek, amelynek vezérigazgatója Szeverényi  gyógyszerkereskedő lett, aki egyidejűleg résztulajdonosává vált az 'üzletviteli, egyéb vezetési tanácsadás' főtevékenységű Fourcardinal Tanácsadó Kft-nek. Ez utóbbi azon cégek egyike volt, mellyel a Külgazdasági és Külügyminisztérium szerződést kötött lélegeztetőgépek beszerzésére. 'Az 1000 darabos beszerzésre szóló kontraktus értéke 17 milliárd forint volt, vagyis gépenként 17 millió forint'. Szeverényi testvérét Áder a külgazdasági  és külügyminiszter előterjesztésére rendkívüli és meghatalmazott nagykövetté nevezte ki 2020. júliusában. 'Az innovatív termékeket és szolgáltatásokat exportálni kívánó magyar vállalkozások külföldi piacra jutásának segítése' a nagykövet Budapestről végzett feladata. Diplomata férje Szabó - volt külügyminiszter-helyettes és amerikai nagykövet - jelenleg a kormánypárti sajtótermékeket kiadó Mediaworks elnök-vezérigazgatója. Szabó 2020 áprilisában, a lélegeztető-beszerzések kellős közepén hagyta hátra a washingtoni missziót, lépett ki a külügy kötelékéből. Az indok: 'elfogadott egy felkérést a gazdasági szférából'. Sógora, Szeverényi épp ezzel egyidőben kötötte meg a 17 milliárdos lélegeztetőgép-szerződést a külüggyel. 2021. február 5-én, bő két hónappal a Syntonite Med alapítás és egy héttel a kínai oltóanyag szerződés aláírása után változás történt a tulajdonosi szerkezetben; kiszállt a cégből Kovács, tulajdonrészét Tuzának adta át. Gergely és Tuza jelenleg fele-fele részben birtokolja a Danubia Pharma mögött álló Syntonite Med Zrt.-t. (Forrás: 24.hu)

Denmark
March 18, 2021   People over 65 who have recovered from COVID-19 have a 50-50 chance of a second attack within six months of their first illness, a new Danish study published in the Lancet medical journal has found. About 80 percent of healthy people under age 65 did not suffer a second attack within six months of a first COVID-19 illness. The study looked at 4,000 test subjects Dr. Ethelberg from the Statens Serum Institute in Denmark said. (Source: NewYorkPost)
The study /at 17 March 2021/: "Assessment of protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 among 4 million PCR-tested individuals in Denmark in 2020: a population-level observational study" (Source: TheLancet): https://tinyurl.com/3m8anv7k

* France
18/03/2021 French Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced a limited month-long lockdown for Paris and several other regions to combat surging Covid-19 cases. Non-essential businesses will close and movement outside will be restricted in the affected regions. Schools will stay open and outdoor exercise allowed up to 10 kilometres from home. Some 1,200 people are in intensive care in the Paris region alone. Residents in affected regions will not be allowed to leave, except for essential business. The curfew that has been in place nationwide will be relaxed all over France so it ends at 7:00 pm rather than 6:00 pm. (Source: Reuters)

March 16, 2021  France has discovered a new COVID-19 variant that appears to be able to escape detection by standard tests for the virus. The French Health Ministry said yesterday that a cluster of cases of the new variant was detected at a hospital in Lannion, in the Brittany region. Several of the patients tested negative on PRC tests. Researchers at the Institut Pasteur are looking into whether the variant has genetic modifications that make it more difficult to detect. Though potentially harder to trace, the variant does not appear to be more serious or transmissible than others. The latest coronavirus surge has seen averages of more than 20,000 new cases a day. “The situation is not getting better, there is a higher and higher number of infections and hospitals are very burdened with many patients, whose average age is getting lower and who don’t always have comorbidities,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said. (Source: NewYorkPost)

Ireland
13 Mar, 2021 The monkey with the biggest stick gets all the coconuts. 34m doses of vaccine have been exported from the EU, including 9m to the UK and 1m to the US. This tremendous figure, despite queues of anxious citizens across Europe, is put in context by the fact that Ireland will get only a further 46,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as part of a new EU deal. Had those 34m vaccines gone to the world's poor countries, then it might be a moment to concede to greater needs, but they have gone to rich countries. March 9 figures show that of 34,090,287 doses exported from the EU to 31 countries, 9,106,162 went to the UK, 3,917,640 to Canada, 3,134,204 to Mexico, 2,720,210 to Japan, and 1,368,900 to Saudi Arabia. Other destinations included Hong Kong (1.3m), Singapore (967,030), the US (953,723), Chile (942,825), and Malaysia (751,140). Challenging figures that demand a plausible explanation. This week by Washington telling the EU that it should not expect AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in the US any time soon. One of the reasons Germany is working to produce at least 360m doses a year within the EU. We are asked, time and time again, to be patient. (Source: IrishExaminer)

Németország     Germany
2021. 03. 21. Sok országban a nyár végéig tarthat a járványügyi korlátozások időszaka az új típusú koronavírus elleni védekezésben, de legalább egy évig tart még, mire világszerte sikerül megszerezni az ellenőrzést a kórokozó terjedése felett – mondták a német BioNTech cég alapítói. A török származású Türeci és férje, Sahin elmondta: helyi járványkitörések továbbra is lesznek és új vírusváltozatok is kifejlődnek, de nagy valószínűséggel nem okoznak majd nagy veszélyt. Rendre szükség lesz majd emlékeztető oltásra, de még nem tudni, hogy évente vagy ötévente. Egyelőre azt sem lehet pontosan látni, hogy mekkora átoltottság kell a járvány megállításához. A két kutatóorvos a napokban megkapta Steinmeier szövetségi elnöktől az egyik legmagasabb német állami elismerést, a Nagy Érdemkereszt Csillaggal nevű kitüntetést, illetve a lapkiadó Axel Springer német multinacionális vállalat díját. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

15 March 2021 The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut informss temporary suspension of vaccination with COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca following intensive consultations on the serious thrombotic events that have occurred in Germany and Europe. Cases have been reported in Germany. The experts now see a striking accumulation of a special form of very rare cerebral vein thrombosis (sinus vein thrombosis) in connection with a deficiency of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia) and bleeding in temporal proximity to vaccinations with the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca. The data are being further analysed and evaluated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). (Source: pei.de)

Európai Bizottság      European Commission
2021. 03. 21. Az Európai Bizottság az uniós tagállamok megbízásából és egyetértésükkel csak előzetes beszerzési megállapodásokat kötött a koronavírus elleni oltóanyagokat gyártó hat vállalattal, a konkrét mennyiségi és szállítási szerződéseket a tagállamok írták alá – közölte az Európai Bizottság magyarországi képviselete. Ezek a megállapodások a közös oltóanyag-beszerzés alapvető feltételeit szabják meg. A tagállamok bármelyike dönthetett volna úgy, hogy nem vesz részt ebben a megállapodásban, de egyik sem élt a lehetőséggel – közölték. Az EU-s szintű előzetes beszerzési megállapodások alapján a tagállamok egyénileg kötik meg a konkrét megrendelési szerződéseket a gyártócégekkel; az adott államra vonatkozó  gyakorlati szállítási és mennyiségi feltételeket ezek a szerződések tartalmazzák. A szerződéses feltételek bizalmas kezelését az oltóanyag-gyártók kötötték ki üzleti érdekeikre hivatkozva. Az Európai Bizottság a szerződések közül hármat – AstraZeneca, CureVac, Sanofi-GSK – már nyilvánosságra hozott az érintett cégek egyetértésével, bizonyos bizalmas üzleti adatok kitakarásával– írták. Az Európai Bizottság eddig a Johnson & Johnson (Janssen, 400 millió adag), a Pfizer–BioNTech (600 millió adag), a Moderna (460 millió adag), az AstraZeneca (400 millió adag), a CureVac (405 millió adag) és a Sanofi–GSK (300 millió adag) vállalattal írt alá szerződést védőoltás-beszerzésről. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)

19 March 2021  European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen has said the EU will consider restricting vaccine exports to the UK. She has called for reciprocity on vaccine exports amid an ongoing row with the UK and US over jab deliveries. An average of just 10 per cent of Europeans have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine. That compares to 25.7m people who have received their first injection in the UK -  equivalent to almost 39 per cent of Britain’s population.     More than fifteen countries issued a temporary ban on the Astrazeneca vaccine this week over reports of blood clots among patients in several countries. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said yesterday it remains 'firmly convinced' that the benefits of the Astrazeneca vaccine outweigh the small risk of side-effects, as it gave the jab the green light for use across the bloc. France, Spain, Italy and Germany are among the European countries that confirmed last night they will resume rolling out the Astrazeneca vaccine following the EMA’s ruling.      Von der Leyen confirmed this morning that Russia’s Sputnik vaccine was still under review, though it would need to be approved by the EMA before being rolled out across Europe. (Source: cityam)

16 March 2021   EU Commission agrees delivery top-up with Pfizer/BioNTech. The agreement would see an accelerated delivery of additional 10 million doses being delivered to member statesover the next three months. This will bring the total EU deliveries of this vaccine to 200 million for that quarter. These additional doses are to be drawn forward from the option of 100 million doses in the second contract with Pfizer/BioNTech, foreseen for the third and fourth quarters of this year. (Source: TheJournal.ie)

.

2021. III. 20.

E vírus-fertőzés áldozatainak száma ('Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases')

/Forrás: - térképes megjelenítéssel is -:

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE)

at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)/:

https://tinyurl.com/uwns6z5

Bizonyítottan fertőzöttek száma
('Global cases')
122 639 917

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok * 29 774 306
Brazília 11 871 390
India ** 11 555 284
Oroszország 4 397 816
Egyesült Királyság *** 4 304 839
Franciaország 4 277 182

...
Magyarország 560 971

-----------------------------------------

Elhunytak száma
('Global Deaths')
2 705 934

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 541 738
Brazília 290 314
Mexikó 197 219
India 159 558
Egyesült Királyság 126 359
Olaszország 104 642

...
Magyarország 18 068

-----------------------------------------

'Gyógyultak' száma
('Global Recovered ')
69 464 058

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok (vonatkozó összesített adatot nem közöl)
India 11 107 332
Brazília 10 470 969
Oroszország 4 014 770
Törökország 2 807 572
Olaszország 2 686 236

...
Magyarország 366 774

A fenti adatok a honlap ekkori frissítésekor voltak érvényesek:
'Last updated: 3/20/2021 11:26 p. m."

------------------------------------------------

European Union
16 Mar  The majority of countries in Europe are falling short on tracking coronavirus variants, such as those first detected in the UK, South Africa and Brazil - meaning more contagious strains are spreading undetected. The so-called UK variant, which up to 75 percent more transmissible, is spreading significantly across Europe - with some 24,000 cases officially registered in EU/EAA countries. It continues to predominate in new cases reported in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Denmark, among others. In Germany, it is now responsible for 22 percent of new infections. Only Ireland, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, and Finland, together with non-EU Iceland and Norway, have increased genome sequencing to at least 10 percent of positive test results - the level recommended for detecting and monitoring the emergence and dominance of these strains. To identify changes in genes is considered crucial to understanding the progress of the virus behaviour, and, accordingly, the role of adapted vaccines. Meanwhile, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is itself sequencing genomes on behalf of those member states that have very limited or none genome-sequencing  capacity - such as Bulgaria, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia. Under its new HERA Incubator programme, the European Commission wants to mobilise €75m to support member states with genomic sequencing. The commission will soon propose speeding up the regulatory approval for adapted vaccines. Companies will not be obliged to submit an entire file from scratch as the new shot would be approved as "a kind of variation" of doses that have been already approved by the EU agency. Moreover, manufacturers will be able to ask for the approval of different modified vaccines under the same marketing authorisation application. (Source: Reuters)

March 15, 2021  The EU has signed deals with six Western vaccine makers and launched talks with two more. It has approved four vaccines so far but production glitches have slowed its inoculation campaign and some member states are seeking their own solutions. Hungary and Slovakia have already bought the Russian shot, the Czech Republic is interested, and the EU official said Italy was considering using the country’s biggest vaccine-producing bioreactor at a ReiThera plant near Rome to make Sputnik V. On Feb. 25, when Mario Draghi made his debut at an EU summit as Italy’s new prime minister, the former European Central Bank chief, who is highly regarded in Brussels for saving the euro from its worst crisis years earlier, took an assertive stand on vaccines to quicken the pace of both inoculations and production in Europe. He told fellow leaders the EU must buy more doses, including from outside the bloc, and expand vaccine production. Italy, traditionally supportive of a softer stance on Moscow, is now pushing EU governments to consider Sputnik V. At a meeting of EU diplomats in 10 March, Italy’s representative urged the EU to broaden its supply of vaccines, including with the Russian shot. EU governments were considering launching talks with Sputnik V developers and it would take requests from four EU states to start the process. If Sputnik V were to join the EU’s vaccine arsenal, it would be a diplomatic triumph for Russia, whose trade with the bloc has been hamstrung for years by sanctions.. A spokesman for the European Commission, which coordinates talks with vaccine makers, said the EU was not required to launch talks with Sputnik V developers, even if the bloc’s drug regulator approves the vaccine. The EU official said no decision had yet been made about whether to approach Sputnik V developers following internal talks on the matter. Even last week, Michel, who chairs summits of EU leaders, again cast doubt on Russia’s motives for promoting Sputnik V. 'We should not let ourselves be misled by China and Russia, both regimes with less desirable values than ours, as they organise highly limited but widely publicised operations to supply vaccines to others,' he said. “Europe will not use vaccines for propaganda purposes.” On March 4, the EMA launched a rolling review of Sputnik V, the first step in a  process that could lead to its EU-wide approval. A decision on possible authorisation could come as early as May. (Source: Reuters)

*** United Kingdom
20 March 2021  Half of all adults in the UK have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The UK health services vaccinated a total of 26.8 million people between 8 December and 19 March with first doses, while 2.1 million people - around 4% of the adult population - have had their second dose so far. The UK is on track to achieve the target of offering the vaccine to all over-50s by 15 April, as well as all adults by the end of July. During April around 12 million people will receive their second doses. Through the government’s Vaccines Taskforce, the UK has secured early access to 457 million doses of 8 of the most promising vaccine candidates, including: BioNTech/Pfizer for 40 million doses; Oxford/AstraZeneca for 100 million doses; Moderna for 17 million doses; GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur for 60 million doses; Novavax for 60 million doses; Janssen for 30 million doses; Valneva for 100 million doses; CureVac for 50 million doses. Both the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective in reducing COVID-19 among older people aged 70 years and over. The Moderna vaccine has also been approved by the MHRA and will be deployed from the spring. Rolling reviews are also underway by the MHRA to assess the Janssen and Novavax vaccines. To date, the government has invested over £300 million into manufacturing a successful vaccine to enable a rapid roll out.  (Source: gov.uk)

18 March 2021  A semi-retired British ex-Pfizer scientist became an anti-vax hero. He co-authored a petition to Europe's medicines regulator. The petitioners made the demand COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials to be halted. They speculated that the vaccines could cause infertility in women. The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. Within weeks, doctors and nurses in Britain began reporting that concerned women were asking them whether it was true. In January, a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that 13% of unvaccinated  people in the United States had heard that 'COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to cause infertility.' One of the petition's co-authors spent 16 years at Pfizer. He joined Pfizer in 1995 and rose to become a vice president and head of allergy and respiratory research. A blog with an alarmist headline – 'Head of Pfizer Research: Covid vaccine is female sterilization' – was shared thousands of times on Facebook. The visage and views of him are widely identified as an "Ex-VP of Pfizer,' and can be seen on social media in languages including German, Portuguese, Danish and Czech. On Feb. 3, his Twitter account had a message for his 91,000 followers: "A tweet recently appeared under my ID, which was horribly offensive. As a result my account was locked. I of course deleted it. I want you to know of course that I didn't write it." He didn't make clear what tweet he was referring to. But shortly after, several Twitter users and a blog called Zelo Street posted screenshots of numerous offensive anti-Muslim tweets from his account from about a year ago. Many were captured at the time by archive.org. On Feb. 4, he cryptically mentioned in a tweet, "I'll soon be gone." Two days later, he was off Twitter. His followers were greeted with this message: "This account doesn't exist." His LinkedIn profile also soon changed, now stating that he is "Fully retired." Craig, a British pathologist, compared his treatment on Twitter – where some users derided his views as nonsense and dangerous – to medieval societies burning heretics at the stake. "There is no other way to see it than the burning of the witches," said Craig, who has  criticized lockdowns and COVID-19 tests. "Science is always a series of questions and the testing of those questions and when we are not allowed to ask those questions, then science is lost." "He will have a think about how he will contribute in the future," she said. (Source: Reuters)

16 Mar 2021 The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group has told Downing Street it wants a statutory public inquiry led by a senior judge to “determine a definitive, official, evidence-based narrative of what did and did not happen, independent of political influence” during the pandemic. Frontline health workers also want a wide-ranging inquiry to provide a platform for their experiences, while minority ethnic leaders believe an inquiry can only determine what went wrong if wider societal inequalities relating to work, health and housing are investigated. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group cites the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster, which produced an interim report in less than four months. It argues that, for the bereaved, a public inquiry is “likely to be the only way they can obtain answers to what happened to their loved ones, and whether the death could have been prevented”. It says the government has a duty to investigate under the European convention on human rights which demands it in cases where there is an arguable case that there has been a breach of the duty to protect life. (Source: TheGuardian)

March 16, 2021  The coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, is associated with an estimated 64% higher risk of dying from Covid-19, according to the study published in the medical journal The BMJ in March 10. The greater risk of death associated with the variant emerges around two weeks in the course of a patient's Covid-19 illness. Could it be that they're getting bacterial infections, because they're in the hospital longer? Blood clots? What complication is causing that delay in death?  B.1.1.7 is projected to become the dominant variant in the US by the end of this month or early April. (Source: CNN)
The study (Source: BMJ): https://tinyurl.com/d7uadux7

Europe
19 Mar, 2021  Excess deaths in UK were among highest levels in Europe for under-65s last year. By the week ending December 18 deaths for this age group were 7.7% higher than the equivalent average figure for the years 2015 to 2019. Only Bulgaria recorded a higher rate of cumulative excess mortality (12.3%). The individual rate for England stood at 8.7%, higher than the figures for Scotland (7.7%), Wales (5.0%) and Northern Ireland (4.1%). For deaths among all ages, Poland ended 2020 with the greatest cumulative excess mortality (11.6% above the five-yearaverage), followed by Spain (10.6%) and Belgium (9.7%). Central and eastern European countries were worse hit in the second half of the year. Cities of central and eastern Europe suffered particularly high excess mortality in the autumn and winter period, with Sofia (112.5%) and Warsaw (103.8%) having the highest weekly excess mortality rates. But these were much lower than those cities affected during the spring of 2020, such as Madrid (452.0%), Barcelona (266.0%) and London (228.4%). (Source: IrishExaminer)

16 Mar  The majority of countries in Europe are falling short on tracking coronavirus variants, such as those first detected in the UK, South Africa and Brazil - meaning more contagious strains are spreading undetected. The so-called UK variant, which up to 75 percent more transmissible, is spreading significantly across Europe - with some 24,000 cases officially registered in EU/EAA countries. It continues to predominate in new cases reported in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Denmark, among others. In Germany, it is now responsible for 22 percent of new infections. Only Ireland, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, and Finland, together with non-EU Iceland and Norway, have increased genome sequencing to at least 10 percent of positive test results - the level recommended for detecting and monitoring the emergence and dominance of these strains. To identify changes in genes is considered crucial to understanding the progress of the virus behaviour, and, accordingly, the role of adapted vaccines. Meanwhile, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is itself sequencing genomes on behalf of those member states that have very limited or none genome-sequencing  capacity - such as Bulgaria, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia. Under its new HERA Incubator programme, the European Commission wants to mobilise €75m to support member states with genomic sequencing. The commission will soon propose speeding up the regulatory approval for adapted vaccines. Companies will not be obliged to submit an entire file from scratch as the new shot would be approved as "a kind of variation" of doses that have been already approved by the EU agency. Moreover, manufacturers will be able to ask for the approval of different modified vaccines under the same marketing authorisation application. (Source: Reuters)

** India
March 16, 2021   Poonawalla, chief executive of the world’s largest vaccine producer Serum Institute of India (SII), repeated warnings that just half of global population will be vaccinated in the next two years. Export curbs by the US on raw materials critical for Covid-19 shots will slow global efforts to inoculate people, he said. He expressed concern that his company and others would face shortages of vital supplies after the U.S. administration placed export controls on them to boost domestic vaccine production. Filters, bags, key raw materials are only sourced from the US. Last week, the White House said it had used the Korean War-era US Defence Production Act, which prevents the export of materials to prioritise local production, to help drugmaker Merck make Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine. SII is producing the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca at its factory in Pune, western India. By January, the company has already released 95 million doses, half of them for local use, with monthly production set to increase from May to 100 million doses, from 60 million. Mr Poonawalla said he had begun building a factory to produce vaccines for Covid-19 variants and as forward planning for the next pandemic. SII has plans for a factory that could make a billion doses within months, but needs major funding from governments. “I will eventually go to governments and offer this to different regional governments so they don’t have to build  their own facilities which might become too costly and impossible for them to do,” Mr Poonawalla said.  (Source: TheNational.uae)

Australia
March 17, 2021  Australia will donate 8,000 locally produced COVID-19 vaccines to Papua New Guinea (PNG). Canberra will suspend all travel to and from PNG from today midnight. Australia said today it will ask the European Union to release 1 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to help PNG - parts of which are just a short boat ride from Australian territory - to battle a dangerous outbreak that authorities fear could spread to other parts of the region. PNG, the impoverished country of almost nine million people has officially recorded over 2,300 cases since the pandemic began, a figure experts say vastly underestimates the true outbreak. Prime Minister James Marape earlier this week warned local hospitals would soon be overwhelmed. Australian Chief Medical Officer Kelly said the limited coronavirus testing being done in PNG was showing alarming results. Thousands of people gathered to mourn the death of Michael Somare, PNG’s first prime minister after independence from Australia. (Source: euobserver)

* United States
March 16, 2021  Moderna to launch COVID-19 vaccine trial on children. The move makes Moderna the first U.S. vaccine maker to test its vaccine on infants - Moderna's trial will enroll nearly 7,000 children from ages 6 months to 12 years in the U.S. and Canada. The first age group to start in the trial will be children ages 6 to 11, followed by children ages 2 to 6 and then children 6 months to 2 years of age. Both the Moderna and Pfizer pharmaceutical companies have enrolled children 12 and older in clinical trials of their vaccines and hope to have results by the summer. Last month, the administration announced a revised timeline for children to receive COVID-19 vaccines, telling in Feb. 19 that high school students may receive vaccines in the fall, but elementary school children won't receive them until early 2022. More than 70 million adults in the U.S. have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, or nearly 28% of the adult population. (Source: GoodMorningAmerica)

Globalization
March 13 2021  Flu numbers are down all over the world. And when we emerge from the Covid crisis and start to relax public-health measures - in particular, allowing international air travel to resume - more dangerous agents could surprise us with a violent resurgence. In 1980, a measles outbreak killed some 2.6 million people worldwide. By 2014, vaccinations had brought yearly deaths down to 100,000. The disruption to measles vaccinations, including cancellations, during the current pandemic mean that measles may be set for a massive global outbreak just as the world wakes from the Covid nightmare. The measles vaccine is composed of two doses - known as MCV1 and MCV2 - and the vaccination rate needs to be above 95 percent with both doses to prevent outbreaks. Unfortunately, MCV1 coverage has been stuck at around 85 percent for more than a decade, and MCV2 coverage, while rising, is still only at 71 percent. This is why, after measles cases fell steadily from 2010 to 2016, numbers again began growing - reaching 89,000, 109,000, 142,000 and 207,000 deaths in the following years. In 2020, during the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic, some 50 countries canceled mass vaccination campaigns for various viruses. Routine immunizations were also disrupted with millions of children missing out on important vaccinations. This is like priming an explosive: the measles, is a fierce infectious agent. The reproductive number for measles is 12 to 18, making it one of the world’s most contagious known viruses. We’ve had effective measles vaccines for decades. The challenge is how to achieve sufficient vaccine coverage. (Source: Bloomberg)

.

.

2021. III. 12.

E vírus-fertőzés áldozatainak száma ('Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases')

/Forrás: - térképes megjelenítéssel is -:

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE)

at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)/:

https://tinyurl.com/uwns6z5

Bizonyítottan fertőzöttek száma
('Global cases')
118 867 662

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok  29 330 642
India 11 308 846
Brazília 11 277 717
Oroszország 4 321 588
Egyesült Királyság 4 261 393
Franciaország 4 050 680

...
Magyarország * 498 183

-----------------------------------------

Elhunytak száma
('Global Deaths')
2 634 979

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok 532 151
Brazília 272 889
Mexikó 193 142
India 158 306
Egyesült Királyság 125 578
Olaszország 101 564

...
Magyarország 16 627

-----------------------------------------

'Gyógyultak' száma
('Global Recovered ')
67 329 604

Országonként:

Egyesült Államok (vonatkozó összesített adatot nem közöl)
India 10 953 303
Brazília 10 031 732
Oroszország 3 928 114
Törökország 2 670 273
Olaszország 2 564 926

...
Magyarország 346 904

A fenti adatok a honlap ekkori frissítésekor voltak érvényesek:
'Last updated: 3/12/2021 10:23 p. m."

------------------------------------------------

* Magyarország
20210311 Az állam a Danubia Pharma Gógyszerkereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Kft közvetítőn keresztül vásárolja meg a kínai oltóanyagot. A vevő - a Nemzeti Népegészségügyi Központ (NNK), azaz a magyar állam - 30 euro +5% áfá-t fizet darabonként az eladónak, valamint a vám, illetéki, szállítási, biztosítási és egyéb költségek is az államot terhelték. Gulyás, Miniszterelnökséget vezető miniszter a Facebook-on tette közzé az orosz és kínai oltóanyagok beszerzéséről szóló szerződést. A kínai oltóanyagra vonatkozó szerződésből nem derül ki, hogy az eladó milyen áron szerzi be azt. A szerződés tartalmazza a leszállítás idejét: 500 000 adagot március 15-ig, valamint azután minden hónap tizenötödik napjáig leszállít májusig; június 15-ig pedig 3 500 000 darab oltóanyagot kell leszállítania a gyártónak, és az oltóanyagnak legalább a leszállítást követő hatodik hónapig felhasználhatónak kell lennie. Ha az oltóanyagot késéssel szállítják le, akkor a vevő az eladóval szemben nem alkalmaz szankciókat a szerződés szerint. A beérkezett oltóanyagok minőségiellenőrzése az NNK által meghatározott körülmények között történik, és ehhez az eladónak (a Danubia Pharmának) kötelessége a gyártótól az OGYÉI vizsgálatához szükséges dokumentumokat beszereznie és az NNK részére biztosítania. A februárra és márciusra szerződött  teljes vételár, valamint az április és májusi mennyiség vételára együtt 66 millió euro, amit a  szerződés megkötése utáni 3. napig az államnak ki kell(ett) fizetnie az eladó felé. A fennmaradó összeg 70%-át (azaz 84 millió euro-t) március 31-ig fizeti ki az állam. "A kínai vakcinák beszerzési összege így összesen 150 millió forint (Sic!) + áfa volt'. Ha a szerződés meghiúsul (mert például közben kivonják a forgalomból az oltóanyagot), akkor az eladó 20%-ot fizet kötbérként a vevőnek a még be nem tárolt mennyiség arányában. "További részletek hamarosan.' (Forrás: portfolio)

2021. 03. 11 Érkezett Kínából  összesen egymillió adag oltóanyag már. A beoltottak száma 1 millió 150 ezer, 327 ezren már a második oltást is megkapták. Az emberek kevesebb mint 50 százaléka kér oltást, el kellene érni a 60-70 százalékos arányt. A szabad ágyak száma 13 244, a szabad lélegeztetőgépeké 1918. A szükséges humánerőforráshoz kellő döntéseket a kormány meghozta, az átvezénylésekről az egészségügyben az Országos Kórházi Főigazgatóság dönt. Rendelkezésre állnak a jogszabályok ahhoz is, hogy a magánszolgáltatók is bekapcsolódjanak az ellátásba. Több mint hétezer kijelölt oltópont van az országban. Az egészségügyi jogviszonyra vonatkozó szerződéseket az egészségügyi dolgozók 96,3 százaléka írta alá. 727 olyan orvos volt, aki nem szignálta. 420 új belépő volt, így mintegy 300-zal csökkent az orvosi létszám. Gulyás, Miniszterelnökséget vezető miniszter azt mondta: az orosz oltóanyagból  a két oltás ára 19,90 dollár, mintegy 17 euro, a kínai vakcinából pedig a két dózis 63 euro. Hozzátette: az Európai Uniós beszerzésből származó oltóanyagok valamivel olcsóbbak, van amelyik sokkal, van amelyik valamennyivel. Ezek árát az EU-nak kellene nyilvánosságra hoznia – tette hozzá. Kitért arra is: Magyarország 4 millió 360 ezer adagot kötött le a Johnson and Johnson oltóanyagából, amelyet a gyártókapacitásnak megfelelően szállítanak majd. Ebből az oltásból, a többivel ellentétben, csak egyet kell beadni. Közölte: a kormány egy napon belül nyilvánosságra hozza az orosz és a kínai oltóanyagokra kötött szerződéseket, hozzátéve: levélben fordul az illetékes biztoshoz, hogy az Európai Bizottság által a tagállamok nevében kötött oltóanyag-szerződéseket is nyilvánosságra lehessen hozni. Brüsszel megtiltja a tagállamoknak ezek nyilvánosságra hozatalát – jelentette ki, Mindenkinek joga van tudni, hogy a Bizottság melyik oltóanyag-gyártóval mikor kötött szerződést, mi az oka, hogy számtalan ország, amely előbb szerződött, lényegesen jobban áll a beszerzésben, milyen feltételek és ütemezés mellett szerződött a brüsszeli testület – hangsúlyozta. (Forrás: Híradó / M1)

2021. 03. 11  Újabb 55 200 adag AstraZeneca oltóanyag érkezett. Előzetes jelzések szerint ebből az oltóanyagból kevesebbet fognak szállítani a következő héten. Érkezett további 450 ezer Sinopharm-oltóanyag is. Az oltóanyag-szállítmányok adatait közzéteszik a koronavirus.gov.hu oldalon is, mindenki számára nyomon követhető. Müller, országos tiszti főorvos a múlt heti járványügyi adatokat ismertetve elmondta: a 9. héten 35 802 koronavírusos betegek regisztráltak, átlagéletkoruk 44,5 év, és 55 százalékuk nő, 45 százalékuk férfi. A betegek 23 százaléka a 40-49 éves korosztályhoz, 17 százaléka az 50-59 éves  korosztályhoz, 15 százaléka a 30-39 éves korosztályhoz tartozott. A 20-29 évesek és a 65 év felettiek aránya 12-12 százalék volt. (Forrás: Híradó / M1)

2021. 03. 10. Készülnek a védettséget igazoló színes plasztikkártyák, jobb felső sarkukban a magyar címerrel. Név, útlevél- és személyazonosító szám szerepel rajtuk, valamint egy adattároló kód, amelyet informatikai eszközzel lehet leolvasni. Megjelölik az oltás időpontját, a fertőzéséből felgyógyultak esetében pedig az érvényességi időt. Az információkat magyarul és angolul is feltüntetik. (Forrás: Híradó / M1)

2021. 03. 09. Kásler a koronavírus-fertőzés kórházi kezelésében már igen hatásosnak bizonyult favipiravir hatóanyagú gyógyszer - tabletta - ambuláns alkalmazásáról döntött. A gyógyszer a tapasztalatok szerint megakadályozhatja a tünetek súlyosabbra fordulását. Mostantól már a háziorvos is felírhatja, az otthonukban gyógyuló enyhe vagy  középsúlyos tüneteket mutató járóbetegek számára, kezelésükre, ezzel is elősegítve a betegség könnyebb lefolyását és csökkentve a kórházi kezelést igénylő betegek számát. A gyógyszeres terápia javasolt hossza 5 nap; magzatkárosító hatása miatt várandósság alatt nem alkalmazható. A gyógyszer kizárólag magyar orvosi vény ellenében adható ki, térítésmentesen. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI)