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 Biden to outline how he would oversee vaccine.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will lay out on
Wednesday how, if elected, he plans to develop and distribute a safe
coronavirus vaccine, seeking to draw a contrast with U.S. President
Donald Trump's approach to combating the pandemic.
Biden will deliver remarks in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware,
after getting briefed by public health experts.
The speech is part of a delicate balancing act the former vice
president has struck in recent weeks, as Trump has suggested a
vaccine could be approved ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Biden has questioned whether Trump is pressuring agencies like the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sign off on a vaccine to boost
his re-election prospects.
UK testing in chaos
Amid growing anger over a bottleneck in Britain's creaking
coronavirus testing system, the government promised to do whatever
it takes to boost laboratory capacity that has left people across
the land with no way to get a COVID-19 test.
In an attempt to slow one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in
the West, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in May to create a
"world-beating" system to test and trace people exposed to the
virus.
But repeated attempts by Reuters reporters to get COVID-19 tests
failed, while at a walk-in testing centre at Southend-on-Sea in
eastern England hundreds of people were queuing to get a test - some
from as early as 0500 GMT.
Russia to sell 100 million doses of vaccine to India
Russia's sovereign wealth fund has agreed to supply 100 million
doses of its coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik-V, to Indian drug company
Dr Reddy's Laboratories, as Moscow speeds up plans to distribute its
shot abroad.
The deal comes after the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)
reached agreements with Indian manufacturers to produce 300 million
doses of the vaccine in India, which is a major consumer of Russian
oil and arms.
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Dr Reddy's, one of India's top pharmaceutical companies, will carry out Phase
III clinical trials of the vaccine in India, pending regulatory approval, RDIF
said in a statement. Deliveries to India could begin in late 2020.
The agreement comes as India's coronavirus cases surged past 5 million.
China inoculates before vaccine trials completed
China is inoculating tens of thousands of its citizens with experimental
coronavirus vaccines and attracting international interest in their development,
despite concerns among experts over the safety of drugs that have not completed
standard testing.
Aiming to protect essential workers and reduce the likelihood of a resurgence of
the pandemic, the vaccines are also grabbing attention in the global scramble by
governments to secure supplies.
China's approach runs counter to that of many Western countries, where experts
have warned against authorising the emergency use of vaccines that have not
completed testing, citing a lack of understanding about longer-term efficacy and
potential side effects.
Australia on track to relax extended hard lockdown
Australia's Victoria state on Wednesday said the daily rise in infections in its
coronavirus hot spot of Melbourne has eased further, putting it on course to
relax an extended hard lockdown in the city by the end of the month.
Construction sites, manufacturing plants, warehouses and childcare facilities
can reopen, allowing more than 100,000 workers to return to their jobs, if the
14-day rolling average is under 50 cases as of Sept. 28.
From late Wednesday, in regional Victoria, outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people
will be permitted, residents of a household will be allowed to visit one other
home, and cafes will be able to seat up to 50 people outdoors.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes and Karishma Singh; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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