World Coronavirus Dispatch: China recovery consolidates with record growth

Malawi to dump 16,000 AstraZeneca doses, Pfizer and White House plan booster shot 6-12 months after initial two, Hong Kong opens jabs to 16-year-olds and other pandemic-related news across the globe

A year after lockdowns, China sees record growth

A year after a coronavirus-led collapse, China has posted its strongest growth ever as the economy expanded by a record 18 per cent in the first quarter of 2021. The output shrank 6.8 per cent in the year-ago period. In a remarkable post-pandemic recovery, the growth rate in the first quarter is the highest since China began reporting quarterly GDP in 1992, surpassing the previous best of 15.3 per cent in the first quarter of 1993. However, when we compare with the previosu quarter, the economy has just grown by 0.6 per cent. And if we take out the low base of last year, analysts say the growth rate comes to about 5.4 per cent in the January-March quarter. Beijing set a relatively modest 2021 growth target of 6 per cent or higher, which leaves more room for officials to tackle rising debt levels and other financial risks. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 139,109,041

Global deaths: 2,986,608

Nations with most cases: US (31,495,649), India (14,291,917), Brazil (13,746,681), France (5,248,853), Russia (4,622,464).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Pfizer chief says follow-up shots will probably be needed

A third dose of the coronavirus vaccine will “likely” be needed within a year of vaccination, followed by annual vaccinations, Pfizer’s chief executive said in an interview to a channel. He said that more data and sequencing would be needed to determine a re-vaccination protocol but that “a likely scenario” is “a third dose somewhere between six and 12 months, and from there it would be an annual re-vaccination.” Strengthening the argument, a White House official has also said the US is preparing for the possibility that a booster shot will be needed between nine and 12 months. In February, Pfizer-BioNTech said they planned to test a third shot as well as update their original vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration has said that vaccine developers will not need to conduct lengthy trials for vaccines that have been adapted to protect against variants. Read here

Hong Kong opens vaccinations to 16-year-olds

Vaccinations will be given to people as young as 16 in Hong Kong as the government plans to boost its vaccination pace, that has been hampered by low participation. Under the expanded plan, shots of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine will be made available to residents 18 and older, while those 16 and over will be eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Hong Kong has handled the pandemic far better than much of the world, with 209 coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the city of 7.5 million people. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced last week that a fourth wave of infections in the city had been brought under control. Read here

Malawi to dump 16,000 AstraZeneca doses amid fears of rise in vaccine hesitancy

More than 16,000 expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 doses are to be destroyed in Malawi as concerns over vaccine hesitancy increase. The vaccines are among 102,000 doses donated by the African Union (AU) to the Malawian government last month. Health campaigners are concerned that the possible link with rare cases of blood clots and rumours that people were being given out-of-date doses of the vaccine were putting people off coming forward. Currently, about 230,000 doses have been administered, enough to vaccinate nearly 1 per cent of the population. Initially, Malawians responded to the vaccine enthusiastically, with long queues at vaccination points and hospitals since the rollout began last month. But numbers have dropped off. Read here