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 India to begin commercial vaccine exports
India has cleared commercial exports of COVID-19 vaccines, with the
first consignments to be shipped to Brazil and Morocco on Friday,
the foreign secretary told Reuters.
The shots developed by British-based drugmaker AstraZeneca and
Oxford University are being manufactured at the Serum Institute of
India, the world's biggest producer of vaccines, which has received
orders from countries around the world.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said South Africa and Saudi
Arabia would be next to get supplies. The Indian government had held
off exporting doses until it began its own domestic immunisation
programme last weekend.
Tokyo Olympics to go ahead, Japan says
Japan doubled down on its commitment to host the Tokyo Olympics this
year and denied reports on Friday of a cancellation but that is
unlikely to ease public concern about holding the event during a
global pandemic.
A Japanese government spokesman said there was "no truth" to a
report in the Times that the government had privately concluded the
Tokyo Olympics would have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus
pandemic. The Times, citing an unidentified senior member of the
ruling coalition, said the government's focus was on securing the
Games for Tokyo in the next available year, 2032.
Japan has been hit less severely by the pandemic than many other
advanced economies but a recent surge in cases has forced it to
close its borders to non-resident foreigners and declare a state of
emergency in Tokyo and other major cities. Tokyo has reported new
daily coronavirus cases of more than 1,000 for nine straight days
through Thursday and set a single-day record of more than 2,400
infections earlier in the month.
Fauci says U.S. infections may be about to plateau
[to top of second column] |
 Dr Anthony Fauci, the top U.S.
infectious disease expert, said on Thursday that
based on recent seven-day averages, coronavirus
infections may be about to hit a plateau in the
United States. If 70% to 80% of
Americans are vaccinated by the end of summer, he added, the country
could experience "a degree of normality" by the fall.
Fauci praised U.S. President Joe Biden's willingness to "let the
science speak" in contrast to the Trump administration, standing by
his side on Thursday as Biden unveiled sweeping measures to battle
COVID-19 on his first full day in office.
EU to tighten travel curbs for virus hot spots The
European Commission proposed to EU leaders on Thursday identifying
"dark red" coronavirus hot spots from which all but essential travel
would be discouraged after a meeting to discuss the mounting
challenge from more infectious virus variants.
EU leaders also agreed during a video conference that it should be
possible to agree on common standards for vaccine certificates for
medical purposes.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news
conference after the meeting that countries should not close their
borders, to ensure the functioning of the single market, including
the flow of goods and travel for cross-border workers, but that the
Commission would add a new "dark red" category to its traffic light
indications of risk, for regions where the virus was circulating at
a very high rate. Today, almost all of Europe is red.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh)
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