Coronavirus Live Updates: Several Major EU States Suspend AstraZeneca Vaccine Use

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The South African coronavirus strain has been detected in Russia, but no cases of the Brazilian variant have been confirmed in the country so far, the Russian consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, informs.

"We have detected 28 isolates belonging to the UK variant, two belonging to the South African variant; no isolates belonging to the Brazilian variant were identified. In 16 cases, other mutations were identified," Rospotrebnadzor said.

HANOI (Sputnik) - Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev brought to Vietnam a batch of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which Moscow donated to Hanoi, the Council said in a statement.

Patrushev arrived in Hanoi for two-day Russian-Vietnamese security consultations.

The Russian Security Council said that on an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin, an Il-96 plane, which carried Patrushev, delivered the Sputnik V vaccine batch as donation to Vietnam.

HELSINKI (Sputnik) - Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said she had tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“Today I joined the thousands of Estonians who tested positive for coronavirus,” Kallas wrote on Facebook.

The prime minister said she did not know exactly where she could have gotten infected.

"Until last Thursday, as a close contact, I was in self isolation for 10 days. Upon coming out of isolation, I took a test, the result was negative, I felt great. But even after that I tried to work as much as possible on the Internet in order to reduce the number of contacts," Kallas said.

CHISINAU (Sputnik) - Moldovan President Maia Sandu said she was holding talks with Janssen Pharmaceutica on the issue of receiving Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine.

"Today, I held talks with representatives of Janssen Pharmaceutica, which produces Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, which has been approved and is being used in the United States. We considered the possibility of our citizens gaining access to the vaccine, both through the COVAX platform and directly," Sandu wrote on her Facebook page.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Mexico has asked the United States for the AstraZeneca vaccine that is in stock in the US but has not yet been approved there, Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for multilateral affairs, Martha Delgado, told Reuters.

"The possibility exists of being able to have access to some AstraZeneca batches they have," Delgado said, explaining that the vaccine is already authorized in Mexico.

The deputy foreign minister said the US has not yet addressed Mexico’s request for AstraZeneca, as well as other COVID-19 vaccines, including the ones from Moderna and Novavax.

Este 17 de marzo, comienza la aplicación de la 2da dosis de la vacuna Sputnik en @Alc_Tlahuac, @XochimilcoAl e @IztacalcoAl.

Es importante llevar su comprobante de vacunación y sólo se aplicará a quienes recibieron la primera, porque el componente de ambas es distinto. pic.twitter.com/gNsvpA9QFB

— Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) March 15, 2021

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - Portugal’s National Authority for Medicines and Health Products (Infarmed) is temporarily halting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus amid side effect concerns, the national Publico newspaper reports.

The decision was made on Monday, in the wake of two cases of side effects in the country.

KIEV (Sputnik) - A new coronavirus variant has been discovered in Ukraine, Oleh Ruban, the head of the State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, said on Monday.

"There are five globally confirmed coronavirus strains: COVID-19 itself, 'UK,' 'Spanish,' 'South African' and 'Brazilian.' These are five active variants that have spread around the world from China. What was discovered in Bukovina [the Chernivtsi Region] is the so-called combovirus, which is circulating in Ukraine along with COVID-19. It ... is similar to the UK strain, which is a modification of the 'South African' and 'Brazilian' strains. It also contains traits that have not yet been registered by the World Health Organization [WHO]," Ruban said, as quoted in the Vesti newspaper.

The watchdog head added that the so-called combovirus was aggressive in its spreading.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States is on track to provide Americans 100 million COVID-19 vaccines and the same volume of relief checks in 10 days, President Joe Biden said on Monday.

"Over the next ten days we will reach two goals. First is 100 million shots in people’s arms and 100 million checks in people’s pockets," Biden said at the White House.

Speaking of $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the president promised to provide $1,400 rescue checks to all Americans in the near future.

"This plan… extends unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans unemployed," he said.

Biden said his plan will allow small businesses to keep doors open, and help in creating over 7 million new jobs by the end of the year

"It will generate economic growth for the entire nation," he added.

BRUSSELS(Sputnik) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) insists that immunization with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine must continue,  head of the agency's health threats and vaccines strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said on Monday.

Cavaleri told the European Parliament's health committee that the agency "will not see any problem in continuing with the vaccination campaign using this vaccine."

The EMA said in a separate statement, published on Monday, that it was still investigating the link between the AstraZeneca shots and the increased occurrence of blood clots.

"EMA is working closely with the company, with experts in blood disorders, and with other health authorities including the UK’s [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] MHRA based on its experience with around 11 million administered doses of the vaccine. EMA’s investigation has been continuing over the weekend and rigorous analysis of all the data ... will be carried out in the coming days," the agency said.

MOSCOW, March 15 (Sputnik) - The Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) has decided to hold up the use of the UK-Swedish AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amid fears that the recipients may develop potentially deadly blood clots, BPOM head Penny Lukito said on Monday.

"We are communicating with the [World Health Organization] WHO and the [Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization] SAGE out of precautions. The results will then be submitted to inter-agency team and the Health Ministry who will then decide whether AstraZeneca vaccine can be used in the national vaccination drive", Penny said, as quoted by the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

The BPOM chief expressed hope that it would not take long for the final say on the matter.

According to the media outlet, Indonesia received 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week through the WHO-led COVAX international distribution initiative.

WHO is expected to hold a meeting on the safety of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca said on Sunday that it had found no evidence of increased risk of blood clots from its COVID-19 vaccine after conducting a careful review of safety data of over 17 million inoculated people across the European Union and the United Kingdom. In the meantime, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg and Norway have temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after citizens reported side-effects following inoculation from the vaccine's ABV5300 batch.

The World Health Organisation's (WHO) global advisory committee on vaccine safety will hold a meeting on Tuesday on the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"The WHO's advisory committee on vaccine safety has been reviewing the available data, is in close contact with the European Medicines Agency and will meet tomorrow", Tedros said at a briefing.

The Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has scheduled an extraordinary meeting for March 18, during which it intends to evaluate all recent incidents related to vaccinations with AstraZeneca, the regulator said.

"EMA’s safety committee (PRAC) will further review the information tomorrow (Tuesday) and has called an extraordinary meeting on Thursday 18 March to conclude on the information gathered and any further actions that may need to be taken", the statement says.

EMA also confirmed that during the investigation, the regulator proceeds from the position that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks associated with it.

Rik Daems, a Belgian senator heading the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said on Monday that an EU authority was considering member states’ requests for buying Sputnik V vaccine.

Daems made the comment during a meeting with Russian parliamentary speaker Viacheslav Volodin in Moscow. He was quoted by the legislature's official news website, Duma TV.

Reuters cited an unnamed EU official as saying earlier in the day that the European Union was open to talks with Sputnik V developers and was waiting for enough requests from EU nations to launch the process.

Hungary and Slovakia broke ranks to buy the anti-coronavirus shot from Russia after complaining about a slow rollout of EU-approved vaccines. The Czech Republic is in talks to secure a batch. The EU drugs regulator started a rolling review of Sputnik V in early March.

Spain will suspend the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for at least 15 days from Monday, the Cadena Ser broadcaster reported on Monday.

Health Minister Carolina Darias convened an emergency meeting of the inter-territorial health council on Monday to work with autonomous communities to discuss the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine amid reports of blood clots allegedly caused by it, the broadcaster reported.

The European Union has botched its coronavirus vaccine rollout and now has to use every available option to make up for the time lost, Thierry Mariani, a member of the European Parliament from France's right-wing National Rally party, told Sputnik in an interview.

The lawmaker pointed to the successes of the United Kingdom and Serbia, non-EU countries, in acquiring vaccines, as a stark contrast to the bloc's less-than-stellar effort.

"We must acknowledge that Europe has tremendously failed in this mission, everybody understands it", Mariani said, adding that "In order to catch up [with the vaccination campaign] – if this is still possible – it has to use every possibility."

The lawmaker turned to Russia's Sputnik V vaccine to say that if the medication is effective then the block must purchase it.

"But Europe is losing time, hesitates, drowns in formalities. The vaccination for Europe is a proof of inefficiency, and this burden it will be dragging for a very long time", Mariani said.

Mariani added that Paris is long due to start cooperating with Moscow to jointly produce the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V.

"For months we should have been working together – at least France should have shared a certain number of its pharmaceutical production capacities working together with Russia to produce this vaccine in the interests of both sides", Mariani said.

The European Union started its vaccination campaign in late December and, so far, has authorised the use of vaccines by AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. The bloc is at 6.4 percent of its population vaccinated with at least one dose, which is much lower compared to the countries of most other regions.

Anastasia Levchenko - San Marino is receiving hundreds of calls and emails from Italians wishing to get a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine that is available in the republic, but it can only be possible once the local vaccination campaign is completed, a representative of the Social Security Institute (ISS) of San Marino, the main public health institution of the republic, told Sputnik.

In mid-February, the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that San Marino authorized the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

"The population of San Marino has responded very well to the anti-Covid vaccination. I must add that the interest in the Sputnik V vaccine has also been very strong in Italy, and not only with hundreds of calls and even emails asking for the possibility to come and be vaccinated in San Marino. But this is currently not possible. It is necessary that there is first an agreement between the states and that vaccination of the San Marino population is completed", ISS Medical Director Sergio Rabini said.

In the future, retail sale of vaccines in pharmacies can also come to the fore. However, it is too early to envisage at the moment, Rabini went on to say.

"For now, the sale of the anti-Covid vaccines has not yet been planned. These are the decisions that are up to the government. If vaccine doses are avaliable for retail sale, the Social Security Institute will endeavor to allow this possibility as well, but only once vaccination has been completed for the entire San Marino population", Rabini specified.

At the same time, San Marino is in talks with Russia on buying additional doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in addition to the doses that were agreed upon in February, according to the official.

"At the moment, negotiations are on to receive more doses ... to be able to proceed quickly with the vaccination campaign", ISS Medical Director Sergio Rabini said.

According to Rabini, no unusual side-effects of Sputnik V vaccine have been registered in the republic so far.

"The reported side effects are in line with those of other vaccinations. The main adverse reactions that occurred are influenza-like manifestations (approximately 15.2%) and injection site reactions (approximately 5.4%)", Rabini specified.

The Pizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus is also available in San Marino apart from Sputnik V.

The United States will provide coronavirus vaccines to other countries only when it vaccinates its own people, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said on Monday.

"Our responsibility is getting our people vaccinated first before we start giving doses to other countries", Fauci told reporters during a press briefing.

Fauci expressed high confidence that the United States will have a surplus of vaccines and provide it to other states.

"But that will not occur until we actually have our people vaccinated", he said.

President Joe Biden had vowed that his administration would administer 100 million vaccine doses within his first 100 days in office. During his first prime time address, Biden said the United States was on track to reach this mark on his 60th day in office.

Americans should continue taking safety precautions to prevent another spike of novel coronavirus cases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Monday.

"Cases climbed last spring, they climbed again in the summer. They will climb now if we stop taking precautions when we get more people vaccinated", Walensky said during virtual press briefing.

The Unites States is moving in the right direction with respect to vaccinations, but the country is only starting to turn the corner in its fight with the disease, she said.

Walensky also expressed concern over people traveling throughout the United States without wearing face masks.

"We have seen footage of people enjoying spring break activities maskless. This is all in a context of still 50,000 cases per day", she said.

The United States has reported 29.4 million people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus with more than 534,000 virus-related deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker.

The successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in the United Kingdom has pushed UK business optimism to its highest level since 2015, with hotels and restaurants being the most optimistic sectors, data from a survey released on Monday has shown.

According to the study conducted by Accenture/ IHS Markit, 68 percent of the 1,400 firms polled last month expect an increase in business activity during the year ahead, while barely 11 percent forecast a reduction.

“At +57% in February, the resulting net balance was up sharply from +34% last October, signalling the highest levels of business optimism since June 2015”, the Irish consulting firm and the London-based American-UK information provider said in a press release.

Commenting on the survey, Rachel Barton, strategy & consulting lead at Accenture UK & Ireland, said: “After a tough year it is encouraging to see business confidence bouncing back. Although we are not out of the woods yet, it is important for UK business to take advantage of this confidence in order to build a sustainable recovery.”

The Accenture/IHS Markit UK business outlook also show that hotels and restaurants owners have changed their perception and from being the least confident sector in October last year have now become the most optimistic, with 79 percent expecting a strong recovery in the coming months.

Business optimism was widely based on the progress of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the UK, where more than 24,1 million people have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The government´s plan is for all adults in the country to have been offered their first dose by the end of July or even earlier.

The easing of the COVID-19 lockdown measures, with the hospitality sector scheduled to reopen in the coming weeks, also fuelled optimism among the UK business sector.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday that he expected the decision of the EU regulator on the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine within a week.

"Based on a current recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the federal government is suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precautionary measure. The reason is new reports of cerebral vein thrombosis that coincided with the Astrazeneca vaccination", Spahn told a news conference.

He noted that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would decide on the further use of the vaccine. The AstraZeneca vaccine, which requires two shots, will not be applied to those who have already received the first shot. According to the minister, if the EMA makes a positive decision, "it will be possible to catch up."

Spahn stressed that the decision had been taken as a precautionary measure and was not political.

"We understand the consequences, this decision was not easy for us, but it is obvious to me: this is a professional decision, not a political one", he said.

According to him, the German authorities took such a step so that the vaccine enjoyed the confidence of citizens and to confirm that its benefits outweigh the risks. "

We are suspending the use [of the vaccine] for testing, and the result of the inspection is open. Therefore, we expect that the European Medicines Agency, ideally, will make a decision within this week," the minister said.

"European regulator EMA [European Medicines Agency] will give its opinion on the use of this vaccine tomorrow afternoon. On the recommendation of the Minister of Health ... it was decided as a precautionary measure to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the hopes of resuming it quickly if the opinion of the EMA allows", President Emmanuel Macron said during a press conference, adding that France suspends the use of the vaccine until Tuesday.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is driving small and medium-sized businesses into bankruptcy, their market share is likely to be entrenched by the large companies, increasing the corporate market power and narrowing competition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday.

"Firm-level analysis using Orbis data, which includes listed and private firms, suggests that the pandemic-driven wave of bankruptcies will lead to increases in industry concentration and market power", the IMF said in a report on corporate market power and related policy issues.

The share of the top four firms in the total sales of the top 20 companies within a narrowly defined sector may rise by 4 percent - to 60 percent - as a result of the pandemic "if the sales of bankrupt firms were to be reassigned to leading firms within their sector," the organisation underlined.

"The pandemic-driven shift to online activities is also benefiting the large technology companies, which could further strengthen market concentration in their industries", the IMF noted.

In light of this, the regulatory authorities should be especially vigilant in merger control as such decisions might be harmful in the future, according to the organization.

The global economy has suffered from unprecedented pressure last year due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 and contracted by some 3.5 percent, the IMF said in January. Hospitality sector, the passenger airlines and the oil and gas sector were hit the most in light of the lockdown measures.

Die Europäische Arzneimittelbehörde EMA wird entscheiden, ob und wie sich die neuen Erkenntnisse auf die Zulassung des Impfstoffes auswirken. 3/3 #AstraZenaca

— BMG (@BMG_Bund) March 15, 2021

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday accused Western countries of hoarding three times more vaccines than they need.

"I wish we knew that the vaccine could not be hoarded. Why has the West hoarded the vaccine three times more than its needs?", Zarif said during the closing ceremony of a coronavirus event in Tehran, as quoted by the Mehr news agency.

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China has administered around 65 million vaccine doses, Li Bin, the vice chairman of the National Health Commission, said on Monday.

"As of March 14, 64.98 million vaccinations against COVID-19 have been done in our country", Li said during a briefing.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Israel will lift its coronavirus-related restrictions and resume flights with all countries on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry's press office said, adding that Ben Gurion airport will only be able to receive up to 3,000 people per day.

"Starting tomorrow, restrictions on a number of passenger flights to and from Israel will be lifted. Flights to Israel can now be operated from any destination. A number of arriving flights will be limited by a quota of 3,000 people per day, as well as by social distancing measures and test procedures at the airport", the press office said.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - There are currently no negotiations between the European Commission and producers of Russian COVID-19 vaccines on their purchase for the whole European Union, commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker said on Monday.

The spokesman specified that EU member states and the commission can decide "at any time" to expand the vaccine portfolio.

"For the time being, however, as I also said last week, no talks are ongoing between an EU team or a negotiation team and the Russian vaccine producer", de Keersmaecker said during a briefing.

Firefighters from the southern Bouches-du-Rhone region of France have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine against coronavirus for their staff, after signs of negative side effects, according to BFM TV and AFP.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is urging governments to avoid enacting border closures should there be another spike in new COVID-19 cases amid the pandemic's so-called third wave, Sebastian Mikosz, the association's senior vice president for member and external relations, told Sputnik in an interview.

"I think that for airlines, the real challenge is being certain, and this is why we are so vocal towards governments not to close markets when we have another spike of the virus because we have to learn how to live with it", Mikosz stated.

"From the data we currently have and with the spread of the British mutation, we would argue strongly to return immediately into a lockdown to avoid a strong third wave", Christian Karagiannidis, director of Germany's intensive care register, told the broadcaster RBB.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - At least 10 cases of side effects after using the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 were registered in the Netherlands, the Dutch Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb said, as the authorities suspend the use of the vaccine in the country.

According to the centre, AstraZeneca vaccination-related side effects have been found to include thrombosis and embolism. At the same time, it is noted that there were no cases of a decrease in the number of blood platelets, as it was in cases recorded in Denmark and Norway. The Lareb centre said it would investigate all cases.

"Today, that number [New Yorkers lost to COVID-19] is more than 30,000. It’s a number we can barely imagine. More New Yorkers lost than in World War II, Vietnam, Hurricane Sandy, and 9/11 put together", New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a commemorative ceremony for victims of the pandemic.