Europe

Vatican starts COVID-19 vaccinations

Editorial Bureau January 13, 2021

VATICAN CITY (ROME) – The Vatican, the world’s smallest state, began its COVID-19 vaccination programme on Wednesday but it was not clear when Pope Francis would get his shot. A statement said the programme started in the atrium of the large hall normally used for papal audiences.

UK

UK boosts COVID vaccinations amid its ‘worst weeks’ of pandemic

Editorial Bureau January 11, 2021

LONDON (UK) – Britain is boosting up its mass rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations as its top medical officer said the upcoming few weeks of the pandemic will be the worst yet. Deaths and cases would hit record highs, thereby putting the health service under huge pressure. Deaths from the virus have now exceeded 81,000 in […]

Europe

Netherlands tries to catch-up with Europe’s COVID-19 vaccine drive

Editorial Bureau January 6, 2021

VEGHEL (NETHERLANDS) – A nurse received the first COVID-19 shot in the Netherlands on Wednesday. As the country tried its hand at the vaccination, it kicked off one of Europe’s last vaccination programmes for the coronavirus. The European medicines regulator have considered approving a second vaccine. Approval of the Moderna vaccine would be a big […]

Europe

European drugs authority reconvene to discuss about Moderna vaccine

Editorial Bureau January 6, 2021

AMSTERDAM (NETHERLANDS) – The European Medicines Authority (EMA) was meeting on Wednesday to come to a decision regarding approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine after failing to come to a decision earlier this week. “The meeting of EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) to discuss COVID-19 vaccine Moderna has started,” the regulator said in a tweet.

UK

Minister says UK’s vaccine target can be met

Editorial Bureau January 6, 2021

LONDON (UK) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “Herculean” aim to inoculate around 14 million of the most vulnerable people against COVID-19 by the middle of next month can be achieved, his vaccine minister said on Wednesday. Johnson has set a target of vaccinating the elderly, including care home residents, the clinically vulnerable and

Europe

Nurse becomes first in Netherlands to receive COVID-19 vaccination

Editorial Bureau January 6, 2021

VEGHEL (NETHERLANDS) – A Dutch nurse on Wednesday became the first person in the Netherlands to get a COVID-19 shot as one of Europe’s last vaccination programmes for the new coronavirus is in progress after a late start. Sanna Elkadiri, a 39-year-old who cares for dementia patients at a care home in the east of […]

Europe

Europe sets out on rolling out vaccines to ward off pandemic

Editorial Bureau December 27, 2020

MADRID/ROME (ITALY) – Europe launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the COVID-19 pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. “Thank God,” 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to […]

Europe

Italy sets out on vaccinations against COVID-19 in Rome

Editorial Bureau December 27, 2020

ROME (ITALY) -Almost 10 months after the first Italian patient tested positive for the new coronavirus, Italy on Sunday vaccinated the first residents against COVID-19. Three health workers at the Rome Spallanzani hospital were inoculated shortly before 0700 GMT with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, a statement by the commissioner for the epidemic […]

Asia

China to inoculate ‘key groups’ during winter, spring, official says

Editorial Bureau December 19, 2020

BEIJING (CHINA) -China will prioritise vaccinating high-risk groups over the winter and spring before getting the vaccine across, to the general public, a senior health official said on Saturday. Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China’s National Health Commission (NHC) and director of State Council’s vaccine R&D working group, warned that China’s COVID-19

Europe

Dutch will set out on COVID-19 vaccinations on Jan 8

Editorial Bureau December 17, 2020

AMSTERDAM (NETHERLANDS) – The Netherlands will not be among the first EU countries ready to start with COVID-19 vaccinations in December, but will begin inoculation on Jan 8, health minister Hugo de Jonge said on Thursday. “We have opted for a planning that is careful, safe and responsible”, De Jonge said in a letter to […]