Nigeria received expired doses from Europe – report
Up to one million Covid-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used, two sources told Reuters news agency, one of the biggest single losses of doses that shows the difficulty African nations have getting shots in arms.
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and home to more than 200 million people, fewer than 4% of adults have been fully vaccinated, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The expired doses were made by AstraZeneca and delivered from Europe, the sources with direct knowledge of vaccine delivery and use told Reuters.
They were supplied via Covax, the dose-sharing facility led by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO which is increasingly reliant on donations.
A third source with knowledge of the delivery said some of the doses arrived within four-to-six weeks of expiry and could not be used in time, despite efforts by health authorities.
WHO says current vaccines are highly unlikely to fail
Omicron does not appear to cause more severe disease than previous Covid variants, and is “highly unlikely” to fully dodge vaccine protections, a WHO official has told AFP news agency.
The official said that while a lot remained to be learned about the new, heavily mutated variant of Covid-19, preliminary data indicated it did not make people sicker than Delta and other strains.
At the same time, he said there was no sign that Omicron could fully sidestep protections provided by existing Covid vaccines.
Brazil’s announces new traveling requirement
Brazil has ruled out requiring a Covid-19 vaccination certificate for foreign travelers arriving in the country, despite a recommendation from the national health regulator.
Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga told reporters after a meeting at the presidency that “people cannot be discriminated between vaccinated and unvaccinated to impose restrictions.”
However, Queiroga said that with the precise characteristics of the Omicron variant still unknown, Brazil will require “a five-day quarantine” for unvaccinated travelers, as recommended by the health regulator Anvisa.
New record for booster shot receivers in US
Americans are lining up for booster doses of vaccines at a record pace, with concerns about the newly-detected Omicron coronavirus variant spurring millions to get shots, the US government has said.
Just under a million people a day received booster doses of one of the three authorised vaccines last week, the highest rate since US regulators gave the nod to additional shots for some adults in September, government data shows.
All in all the United States administered 12.5 million vaccines in the last week, Zients said at a White House briefing, its highest rate since May.
Around 47 million people in the United States have now received a booster shot, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows, almost a quarter of all fully vaccinated adults in the country.
Comment here