Coronavirus LIVE: Stage set for world's biggest vaccination drive today

Coronavirus live updates: In the last 24 hours, India registered 15,515 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 10,528,346. Globally, more than 93.5 million people have been infected by the virus

3:49 AM

Pfizer says it has second doses of Covid-19 shot on hand, expects no US supply problems

Pfizer Inc has been holding on to second doses for each of its Covid-19 vaccinations at the request of the federal government and anticipates no problems supplying them to Americans, a spokeswoman said in a statement on Friday.
 

Pfizer's comments run counter to a report in the Washington Post that the federal government ran down its vaccine reserve in late December and has no remaining reserves of doses on hand.
 

"Operation Warp Speed has asked us to start shipping second doses only recently," the spokeswoman said. "As a result, we have on hand all the second doses of the previous shipments to the US."
 

The US Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment.
 

Pfizer has shipped more than 15 million doses to destinations around the United States, primarily from its Michigan facility, and expects to be able to produce around 2 billion doses worldwide in 2021, the spokeswoman said.
 

The United States has been struggling to administer the shots that have been distributed, however. Only around 12 million of the more than 31 million doses that have been shipped have been administered, according to data from the US Centers from Disease Control and Prevention.
 

Scattered vaccine shortages were reported on the front lines of the US battle against the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, prompting at least one large healthcare system to cancel a slew of appointments of people hoping to be inoculated.
 

Earlier on Friday, Pfizer announced there would be a temporary impact on shipments to European countries in late January to early February caused by changes to manufacturing processes to boost output.
 

Around nine of the 27 governments in the European Union complained of "insufficient" doses at a meeting this week, a participant said.
 

3:33 AM

EU regulator: Hackers 'manipulated' stolen vaccine documents

The European Union's drug regulator has said that Covid-19 vaccine documents stolen from its servers in a cyberattack have been not only leaked to the web, but “manipulated" by hackers.
 

The European Medicines Agency said on Friday that an ongoing investigation into the cyberattack showed that hackers obtained emails and documents from November related to the evaluation of experimental coronavirus vaccines.
 

The agency, which regulates drugs and medicines across the 27-member EU, had troves of confidential Covid-19 data as part of its vaccine approval process.

“Some of the correspondence has been manipulated by the perpetrators prior to publication in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines,” the agency said.
 

It did not explain what information was altered — but cybersecurity experts say such practices are typical of disinformation campaigns launched by governments.
 

Italian cybersecurity firm Yarix said it found the 33-megabyte leak on a well-known underground forum with the title “Astonishing fraud! Evil Pfffizer! Fake vaccines!” It was apparently first posted on December 30 and later appeared on other sites, including on the dark web, the company said on its website.
 

Yarix said “the intention behind the leak by cybercriminals is certain: to cause significant damage to the reputation and credibility of EMA and Pfizer.” The agency said that given the devastating toll of the pandemic, there was an “urgent public health need to make vaccines available to EU citizens as soon as possible.” The EMA insisted that despite that urgency, its decisions to recommend the green-lighting of vaccines were based “on the strength of the scientific evidence on a vaccine's safety, quality and efficacy, and nothing else.” The agency, which is based in Amsterdam, came under heavy criticism from Germany and other EU member countries in December for not approving vaccines against the virus more quickly.
 

3:32 AM

Biden's virus plan: 100 million shots just the start

Getting 100 million shots into Americans' arms in his first 100 days is only the beginning of his coronavirus plan, President-elect Joe Biden has declared.

Lasting impact, he said, will come from uniting the nation in a new effort grounded in science and fueled by billions in federal money for vaccination, testing and outbreak sleuths.
 

“You have my word: We will manage the hell out of this operation,” Biden said on Friday. But he also underscored a need for Congress to approve more money and for people to keep following basic precautions, such as wearing masks, avoiding gatherings and frequently washing their hands.
 

“This is not a political issue," Biden said. “This is about saving lives. I know its become a partisan issue, but what a stupid, stupid thing to happen.” Biden spoke a day after unveiling a $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” to confront the virus and provide temporary support for a shaky economy. About $400 billion of the plan is focused on measures aimed at controlling the virus. Those range from mass vaccination centres to more sophisticated scientific analysis of new strains and squads of local health workers to trace the contacts of infected people.
 

On Friday, Biden pledged to maximise the available supply of vaccines and materials needed to administer them, using a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to direct private manufacturing.
 

He also seconded the Trump's administration's call earlier this week for states to start vaccinating more seniors, reaching those 65 and older as well as younger people with certain health problems. Until now states have been focused on inoculating health care workers, and some are starting to vaccinate people 75 and older. Relatively few are providing shots to people between 65 and 75.
 

3:31 AM

DATA STORY: Global Covid death toll tops 2 mn, of which India accounts for 7.58%

India on Friday reported a net reduction of 576 to take its count of active coronavirus cases to 213,027, the lowest since June 29 and 79.07 per cent lower than the September 18 peak of 1,017,754. India’s share of global active coronavirus cases has declined to 0.86 per cent (one in 116). The country is 13th among the most affected countries by active cases. India added 15,590 cases to take its total caseload to 10,527,683. And, with 191 new fatalities its Covid-19 death toll reached 151,918, or 1.44 per cent of total confirmed infections.

 

The count of recovered coronavirus cases across India now stands at 10,162,738 – or 96.52 per cent of total caseload – with 15,975 new cured cases being reported on Friday. Read more

3:30 AM

Domestic air traffic slips to 7-year low in 2020 amid Covid-19 lockdown

Domestic air traffic slip­ped to a seven-year low in 2020 as a result of two-month lockdown. In 2013, airlines had flown 61.4 million.

 

In calendar year 2020, domestic airlines flew 63 million passengers, compared to 144.1 million in the previous year. Airlines flew 7.3 million passengers in December, resulting in month-on-month growth of 15 per cent. While they added flights in December, load factors declined resulting in slower growth compared to previous months. Read more

3:29 AM

New launches pick up, but home sales yet to revive amid Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic disruptions and the subsequent lockdown brought the already stressed real estate sector to its knees during mid-2020.

 

However, by the end of year, new launches bounced back – registering 12 per cent growth in the October-December quarter.

 

Sales, however, continue to remain tepid as a gloomy economic outlook, faltering income levels, and legacy issues in the sector keep buyers skeptical. Read more

3:28 AM

US President-elect Joe Biden unveils plan to speed Covid-19 vaccine rollout

US President-elect Joe Biden on Friday said he would order increased production of syringes and other supplies to ramp up vaccinations against Covid-19 and improve upon the Trump administration rollout that he has called a "dismal failure."
 

Under Biden's plan, federal disaster-relief workers would set up thousands of vaccination centers, where retired doctors would administer shots to teachers, grocery store workers, people over 65 years old and other groups who do not currently qualify.
 

According to a document released by his transition team, Biden would invoke the Defense Production Act to increase production of equipment needed to distribute the vaccines, such as glass vials, needles and syringes. He would also use the law to support vaccine refrigeration and storage.

 

States that use their National Guard in the effort would be reimbursed by the federal government, the transition team said. Read more

11:44 PM

Global death toll from Covid-19 tops 2 mn amid vaccine rollout

The global death toll from COIVID-19 topped 2 million Friday as vaccines developed at breakneck speed are being rolled out around the world in an all-out campaign to vanquish the threat. The milestone was reached just over a year after the coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The number of dead, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Brussels, Mecca, Minsk or Vienna.

While the count is based on figures supplied by government agencies around the world, the real toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of inadequate testing and the many fatalities that were inaccurately attributed to other causes, especially early in the outbreak. It took eight months to hit 1 million dead. It took less than four months after that to reach the next million.

10:20 PM

4,000 health workers to get Covid-19 vaccine in Mumbai daily

As many as 4,000 health workers will be administered Covid-19 vaccine every day at nine vaccination centres in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Friday. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will launch the vaccination drive from a centre at Bandra Kurla Complex on Saturday, the civic body stated in an official release.

The vaccination will start at Vile Parle-based Dr R N Cooper Hospital, it was stated. Vaccines will be administered at 40 booths in nine centres, including KEM Hospital (Parel), Sion Hospital (Sion), Cooper Hospital (Vile Parle), Nair Hospital (Mumbai Central), Bhabha Hospital (Bandra), V N Desai Hospital (Santacruz), Rajawadi Hospital (Ghatkopar), Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital (Kandivali) and BKC Jumbo COVID-19 centre.

Initially, on an avergae, 4,000 beneficiaries will be vaccinated daily at these booths, the release stated. As many as 1.30 lakh health workers have registered for immunisation, while the civic body has received 1,39,500 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine from Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

10:19 PM

Tamil Nadu records 621 new Covid-19 infections; 5 fatalities

The Covid-19 tally in Tamil Nadu touched 8,29,573 with 621 new cases being reported on Friday, while five more fatalities took the toll to 12,251, the health department said Recoveries eclipsed new infections with 805 people getting discharged as the total number of those cured so far rose to 8,11,023.

The number of active cases continued to decline and stood at 6,299 on Friday. As many as 55,847 samples tested in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of specimens examined so far to 1,51,24,787.