Coronavirus world updates: US enforces India travel ban, Joe Biden's ambitious vaccine goal
As the US stops “most” travel from COVID-ravaged India, Joe Biden announces his latest vaccine aim for America.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The US has instituted a ban on most travel from India as the COVID-ravaged country passed 20 million coronavirus cases.
“The policy [was] implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in India,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said of the decision, which was made on the advice of the Centres for Disease Control.
The travel ban doesn’t apply to US citizens or permanent residents and their spouses. Other individuals who might qualify for exemptions include humanitarian workers, certain journalists and academics, and students commencing studies in the fall, according to a determination by the US State Department, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The exceptions mirror those for other countries affected by pandemic-related travel restrictions. Most other travellers who have been in India during a 14-day period before their attempted entry into the US are prohibited.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden wants 70 per cent of adults in the US to have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by America’s July 4 Independence Day holiday, the White House said on Tuesday (local time).
Administration officials who asked not to be identified said Mr Biden would announce the ambitious goal in a speech later on Tuesday.
In addition to getting 70 per cent at least partially vaccinated, Mr Biden wants “160 million Americans fully vaccinated” by the same date, an official told reporters.
One senior official said reaching the target in just 60 days was “not easy but we know we can do it.”
The United States is already “far ahead of where anyone thought we would be in our war” on the COVID virus, the official said.
Meeting the goal, which would mean overcoming stubborn pockets of vaccine hesitancy, will significantly change the way Americans experience their summer, another official said.
There are “going to be far less public health restrictions.”
EU VACCINATIONS SURGE
Meanwhile, a quarter of the European Union’s population have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine jab, prompting EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to say the bloc is on track to have 70 per cent of adults immunised by late July.
The milestone showed that Europe was now surging ahead in vaccinations following a lacklustre first-quarter rollout that was starved of doses because of a shortfall in deliveries by AstraZeneca.
As of mid-Tuesday, 25.1 per cent of the EU’s population of 446 million had received at least one injection, according to official tallies.
“Vaccination is gaining speed across the EU: we have just passed 150 million vaccinations,” Ms von der Leyen tweeted.
“A quarter of all Europeans have had their first dose. We’ll have enough doses for vaccinating 70% of EU adults in July.” AFP’s collected data show 112 million people in Europe had received at least one jab, with more than 153.8 million doses administered. At least 41.9 million people were fully vaccinated, amounting to 9.4 percent of the population.
The heightened pace means the EU can expect to see 70 percent of its 365 million adults immunised by late July.
That target has been brought forward two months, largely because of sped-up deliveries of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, accounting for a large proportion of the jabs given in the 27 EU countries.
DENMARK HALTS J&J VACCINE
Denmark has halted its use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following the COVID-19 jab being linked to rare blood clots.
The government announced its decision on Monday local time, saying via statement, “The Danish Health Authority has concluded that the benefits of using the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson do not outweigh the risk of causing the possible adverse effect, VITT [vaccine induced immune thrombocytopenia], in those who receive the vaccine. Therefore, the Danish Health Authority will continue the Danish mass vaccination programme against COVID-19 without the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.”
Denmark also banned the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine earlier in the year after it was linked to similar rare blood clots.
The decision puts the nation’s vaccine schedule back by approximately four weeks, authorities say.
The government called the decision to ban the vaccine “difficult”, but later added, “taking the present situation in Denmark into account, what we are currently losing in our effort to prevent severe illness from COVID-19 cannot outweigh the risk of causing possible side effects in the form of severe blood clots in those we vaccinate.”
Last month, America paused its use of the J&J vaccine after similar cases of blood clotting were detected. Last week, however, an independent government advisory panel voted to resume the use of the vaccine with on the proviso that it is issued with a warner to consumers.
EASING RESTRICTIONS ACROSS EUROPE
Europe is looking at easing travel restrictions on foreign tourists as early as next month, if they are fully vaccinated or come from a country with COVID under control, officials said on Monday (local time).
The European Commission is recommending EU member states agree to restart the bloc’s vital tourist industry in time for the European summer after a wipe-out season last year when travel plummeted worldwide.
“Time to revive the EU tourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle — safely,” commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.
But there are caveats. Brussels is seeking to ensure the EU’s rapidly accelerating vaccination rollout is not threatened by new virus variants, and that there is reciprocity for Europeans going abroad.
The commission statement said vaccinated people arriving in the EU on “non-essential travel” would need to have received EU-approved jabs, currently those from BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Even if they are fully immunised — meaning having received two doses, except for the single-jab Johnson & Johnson vaccine, then waiting two weeks for them to be fully effective — EU countries can still require COVID tests, quarantine or even both.
Then there is an “emergency brake” allowing EU countries to halt arrivals from where a “variant of concern or interest is detected”, such as those spreading in Brazil, India and South Africa.
“Even vaccinated persons would be subject to the travel restrictions coming from these countries subject to this emergency brake,” said a commission spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz.
Meanwhile, Denmark says the COVID-19 vaccine from US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson will not be included in its national vaccination campaign, citing worries over serious side effects involving blood clots, following a similar move against the AstraZeneca jab.
INFECTION RATE
In terms of how the EU would judge whether other countries are doing a good enough job in curbing Covid, the key metric would be their infection rate per 100,000 inhabitants averaged over two weeks.
An EU official involved in drafting the recommendation told journalists an old threshold of 25 infections per 100,000 fixed nearly a year ago would be raised to 100 to reflect “a different reality” because of increasing vaccinations.
Consequently, the EU’s list of acceptable countries could expand from seven at the moment — Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand; and China with a thus-far-unmet reciprocity condition — to many more.
Last week, Ms von der Leyen told the New York Times she expected many Americans to be able to return to the EU as tourists for summer, given the US vaccination program.
European countries are keen to welcome back big-spending American tourists under the eased travel restrictions, though the EU official speaking to journalists said the US must first “put its own house in order”.
He said he hoped to see “a gradual convergence” of vaccine certificate registration in the US to overcome the current fragmented situation of US states issuing many different certificates, making verification difficult internationally.
The International Tourism Organisation and the World Health Organisation (WHO) were working on certification that would be accepted globally, he noted.
RUSSIAN, CHINESE JABS EXCLUDED
While the European Commission recommendation talks about vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, it says other COVID-19 vaccines accepted by the WHO for emergency-use jabs may be added later.
As it stands, though, neither Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine nor ones made by China would be included, excluding jabs that are used in dozens of lower-income countries.
That goes in the same direction of the EU’s planned “digital green certificate” which is also to be launched next month for Europeans to be able to travel more freely within the bloc.
That document will not only show the vaccination status of the bearer, but also recent negative COVID test results, and immunity acquired while recovering from a COVID infection.
COVID VACCINE TRIALS BEGIN ON CHILDREN
Meanwhile, Europe’s drugs regulator says it has begun evaluating the use of Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds after a similar request in the United States, a move seen as a crucial step towards achieving herd immunity.
And US biotech firm Novavax said on Monday (local time) it had started clinical trials of its proposed COVID-19 vaccine on children, in a program that will involve up to 3000 adolescents aged 12-17.
Far fewer children have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults, and most have mild to no symptoms, but they can be infected and spread the virus.
Novavax said the trials would test “the efficacy (and) safety” of the vaccine, with participants receiving either the vaccine candidate or placebo in two doses, 21 days apart.
Participants will be monitored for up to two years after their injections. The Novavax vaccine has not yet been authorised in any country, including for adults, but the company plans to file for emergency authorisation in Britain “in the second quarter of 2021”, followed by in the United States.
Novavax announced at the end of January that clinical trials conducted in Britain involving 15,000 adults showed 89.3 per cent efficacy.
The Novavax vaccine, which uses different technology from the doses already widely licensed around the world, is a protein-based vaccine engineered from the genetic sequence of the first strain of the coronavirus.
It can be stored at a temperature between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
Other vaccine companies including Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are also conducting trials in adolescents.
Read related topics:Joe Biden
Join the conversation
Australia’s $7 billion move amid ‘arms race’
Australia is spending billions on defence upgrades as it contests a regional “arms race”.
Read more
50 Cent speaks after Diddy accused of raping a 13yo
50 Cent has spoken for the first time about Sean “Diddy” Combs who has been accused of allegedly drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl at an awards after party in New York.
Read more