Live Updates: EU to Further Probe Blood Clot Cases Allegedly Linked to AstraZeneca Vaccine

PARIS (Sputnik) - French President Emmanuel Macron believes that the exports of vaccines against COVID-19 should be blocked if a manufacturer fails to fulfill its commitments on deliveries of drugs to the EU member states.

"I support the mechanism of control [over the deliveries of vaccines] introduced by the European Commission. I support the idea that we should block all the exports until a laboratory fulfills its commitments on [deliveries] to Europe," Macron said at a press conference following the first day of the EU online summit on late Thursday.

He added that the Pfizer and Moderna companies were fulfilling their commitments on the deliveries of vaccines to the European Union while AstraZeneca failed to do so.

The French leader said that the European Union would boost the production of vaccines against the coronavirus within the next several weeks.

"By summer, Europe will produce the largest number of vaccine doses in the world," Macron said.

According to the president, 2.6 million French citizens have got two doses of vaccine against COVID-19 and 7.1 million received one dose.

"By mid-April, we will vaccinate 10 million our citizens: the senior and the most vulnerable ones ... By mid-May, 20 million people will be vaccinated in France. By mid-June, 30 million," Macron added.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 125.38 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.75 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

France has confirmed about 4.5 million COVID-19 cases so far, with more than 93,000 fatalities.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The number of people, who have died of the coronavirus in Mexico, has risen by 584 to 200,211 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said.

The number of confirmed cases has increased by 5,787 to 2,409,459 within the same period of time.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 125.38 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.75 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Columbia is looking to vaccinate 70 percent of its population and have herd immunity against coronavirus by the end of 2021, President Ivan Duque said.

“Our goal is to vaccinate 35 million people by the end of the year so that we can reach 70 percent of the Columbian population and have some sort of a herd immunity in our country,” Duque said during a virtual event at the Atlantic Council Thursday.

The objective exceeds current vaccination levels by more than ten times.

Duque said that the country seeks to administer shots against the disease to three million people by April 17. Projections for next week is to reach 4 percent of the population, he added.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - The European Union is currently at the start of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.

"We are at the start of the third wave in Europe, and in many European member states infections are on the rise again, mostly due to the variant B117," von der Leyen said at a press conference following the EU summit on late Thursday.

The first jabs of Russian anti-coronavirus compound Sputnik V arrives in Lebanon, Sputnik correspondent reported in Thursday.

The vaccination campaign with Sputnik V is to kick off in Lebanon on March 30. The online platform for the registration of those willing to be inoculated has already been launched.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Brazilian Ministry Of Health reported on Thursday nearly 100,000 people, positively tested with the novel coronavirus, within the last 24 hours for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The exact number of new cases stands at 100,158, while the death toll has risen by 2,777 people within the same period of time.

As many as 12,320,169 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Brazil since the start of the pandemic, with 303,462 of them having died.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Every resident of California who reaches the age of 16 will become eligible for a coronavirus vaccine on April 15, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

“With vaccine supply increasing and by expanding eligibility to more Californians, the light at the end of the tunnel continues to get brighter,” Newsom said in a press release on Thursday. “We remain focused on equity as we extend vaccine eligibility to those 50 and over starting April 1, and those 16 and older starting April 15.”

California expects its current allocation of 1.8 million first and second vaccine doses per week to increase to 2.5 million in the first half of April and 3 million doses in the second half of the month, the release said.

The state also plans increased allocations of vaccines to providers in the hardest-hit communities, typically those with large minority populations, the release added.

Of the three vaccines authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration, only the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is approved for 16- and 17-year-olds, while people must be at least 18 to qualify for the vaccines produced by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Canadian health regulators on Thursday issued a disclaimer regarding blood clots that may potentially form in individuals who vaccinate with the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

Canada’s action mirrors that of European health regulators who issued a similar disclaimer admitting that the vaccine’s connection to blood clot cases could not be ruled out. The adverse side-effects have prompted a number of European nations to stop vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot.

"Today, Health Canada updated the product monograph - or label - for the AstraZeneca and COVISHIELD COVID-19 vaccines to provide information on very rare reports of blood clots associated with low levels of blood platelets (i.e., thrombocytopenia) following immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine", Health Canada said in a statement.

Health Canada is aware of reports that European health officials have identified the cause of the AstraZeneca vaccine complications, the statement said, but the department noted the scarcity of information available about this line of research.

Health Canada added that it has issued guidance for healthcare providers such as warning regarding signs of potential complication, and that it continues to work with international regulators to review all available information.

Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo told reporters that there have been 2,530 reports of adverse medical events after immunisation, with 320 being considered serious, as of 19 March.

“India commenced domestic COVID-19 vaccination programme on 16 January. Within days, we also commenced external supplies. As soon as purchase orders were placed, we also commenced supplies under COVAX Facility. So far, more than 60 million doses of Made in India vaccines have been supplied to over 75 countries, including through COVAX. Details are available on our website. No other country has supplied the world with as many doses as India has so far.

We had stated that keeping in view the domestic requirements of the phased rollout, India will continue to supply COVID-19 vaccines to partner countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased manner. This position remains unchanged. We have not imposed any ban on exports of vaccines unlike many other countries.

We remain committed to help the world with vaccines, including through COVAX Facility. Given our current manufacturing capacity and requirements of national vaccination programmes, there may be a need to calibrate the supply schedules from time to time. All stakeholders would have to work together to adjust the schedules as required. Only by such cooperation, we can collectively deal with the ongoing pandemic”, the statement read.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted initial discussions on allocating additional $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in support of the global COVID-19 recovery, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said on Thursday.

"We feel that by addressing the long-term global need for reserve assets, a new SDR allocation would benefit all member countries and support the global recovery form COVID-19", Rice said.

Rice emphasised that this is only an initial discussion on the matter, noting that IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has indicated that she would raise the issue at the IMF Executive Board meeting in June.

"If approved… a new allocation of SDRs would add a substantial direct liquidity boost to countries without adding to debt burdens", Rice said. "It would also free up badly needed resources for member countries to help fight the [coronavirus] pandemic, including to support vaccination programs and other urgent measures."

Rice explained that such a move would complement the range of tools deployed by the IMF to support its membership in a time of crisis.

The last time SDR allocation from the IMF was in 2009 during the global financial crisis and helped the global economy recover and boost confidence and growth, Rice said.

"We believe it can do so again", he added.

The southern African state of Lesotho has secured the first batch of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine with shipments scheduled to begin in two months, a local nonprofit organisation told Sputnik on Thursday.

Sesiu Sa Lets'oele Le Beta Poho ("It takes a village to take down the bull") is the country's nonprofit organisation in charge of providing support to Lesotho's COVID-19 vaccine acquisition and rollout efforts.

"We are at an advanced stage of placing the order for the first batch of the vaccine, which is Sputnik V. We expect it to land here in about 60 days from next week", Phafane Nkotsi, executive director of the organisation, said.

So far, the nonprofit has secured funds from 11 companies in the amount of over two million Maloti (about $171,000) for procurement and distribution of vaccines for the Lesotho population.

"Our choice of vaccine is dependent on efficacy data, number of doses and global supplies. As it stands, the global political climate of the US, UK and EU has led to restriction in global access", Nkotsi added.

Lesotho has a population of two million but has currently received only 36,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines through the WHO-backed Covax program.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is set to convene an "ad hoc expert group" on Monday to discuss the reports of individuals suffering blood clots after receiving AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.

Last week, the EMA's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) presented the findings of its preliminary review into the safety of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. The committee concluded that the vaccine's benefits outweighed the risk of use, adding that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the prevalence of blood clots.

"In this context, EMA is convening an ad hoc expert group on 29 March to provide additional input into the assessment", the agency said in a press release on Thursday.

According to the EMA, the expert group will consist of medical specialists in a range of fields.

"External experts in haematology (thrombosis and haemostasis), cardiovascular medicine, infectious diseases, virology, neurology, immunology, and epidemiology will meet to provide their views to PRAC on aspects such as any plausible mechanism of action, possible underlying risk factors, and any additional data needed to gain a deeper understanding of the observed events and the potential risk", the press release read.

"In the week ending March 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 684,000, a decrease of 97,000 from the previous week's revised level", the Labour Department said in a news release.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A new "double mutant" COVID-19 variant found recently in India has not yet been detected in Russia, the Russian consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, told Sputnik on Thursday.

"There is no virus variant with both of these mutations in Russia so far", Rospotrebnadzor said.

India's health ministry said on Wednesday that India had detected a new type of COVID-19 with E484Q and L452R mutations in the S protein.

Farhan HAS to follow Rancho and Virus has always been after us BUT this time he bloody caught up. 😡😡😄😄BUT-ALL IS WELL and the Covid🦠 will be in the Well soon. Though this is one place we don’t want Raju in😆😆. Thank you for all the love ❤️❤️I am recuperating well.🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/xRWAeiPxP4

— Ranganathan Madhavan (@ActorMadhavan) March 25, 2021

"The easing of the hard lockdown, which began in early March, as well as falling infection rates at the time of the survey (March 4-15) boosted consumer confidence. Both economic and income expectations have increased, along with the propensity to buy, in some cases noticeably. As a result, GfK is forecasting a decrease of 6.2 points in consumer confidence for April 2021, up 6.5 points from March this year (revised from -12.7 points)", the Growth for Knowledge (GfK) market research institute said in a press release.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia registered 9,221 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, up from 8,861 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,492,692, the coronavirus response centre said on Thursday.

"Over the past day, 9,221 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 1,173 cases (12,7 percent) without clinical symptoms", the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 4,492,692, with the rate of increase at 0.21 percent.

On Monday, AstraZeneca, which has yet to have its vaccine authorised in the United States, reported 79 percent efficacy of its drug against symptomatic COVID-19. The same day, the nation’s Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) expressed concern that AstraZeneca "may have included outdated information" in the efficacy data.

"Positive high-level results from the primary analysis of the Phase III trial of AZD1222 in the US have confirmed vaccine efficacy consistent with the pre-specified interim analysis announced on Monday, 22 March 2021 … The primary endpoint, vaccine efficacy at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 was 76%", the company said in a fresh press release.