WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States will ship some 500,000 doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to Uruguay and 1.4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine to Afghanistan, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Thursday.
"We will ship 500,000 Pfizer vaccine doses to Uruguay and we will ship 1.4 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Afghanistan", Psaki said during a press briefing.
The move is part of the Biden administration’s commitment to share 80 million doses with countries around the world. The US government allocates the vaccines on the basis of availability and whether countries are ready to receive and administer them.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that 1 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines will be delivered to Bolivia and Paraguay. Guatemala and Vietnam received a combined 3.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccines on Tuesday and 4 million doses of the Moderna vaccine were sent to Indonesia late last week.
GENEVA (Sputnik) - The World Health Organisation has been tracking the AT.1 variant of the coronavirus, which was found in Russia in January, according to data on the UN agency's website.
The Russian variant was labeled an "Alert for Further Monitoring" on 9 June. The designation means it has genetic changes that are suspected to affect virus properties with some indication that the mutation may pose a future risk.
The list of twelve alert-level variants will be reassessed if evidence emerges that their changes affect how easily they spread, the severity of the disease, or the effectiveness of therapeutics and vaccines.
Russia reported 24,818 new cases on Thursday, more than twice the number seen a month ago. Over 6,000 cases were recorded in Moscow. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on 17 June that the city is facing more "aggressive" strains.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said that it has signed a deal with Janssen Pharmaceutica to provide 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) coronavirus vaccine for all member states in the African Union.
"UNICEF has signed an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to supply up to 220 million doses of the J&J single-dose vaccine for all 55 Member States of the African Union (AU) by the end of 2022", the Paris-based body said in a news release. "Some 35 million doses are to be delivered by the end of this year."
The deal will help implement the Advance Purchase Commitment signed between the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and Janssen in March, UNICEF said. The AU set up AVAT in November 2020 to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate 60 percent of each AU country’s population, it said.
"Vaccine access has been unequal and unfair, with less than 1 percent of the population of the African continent currently vaccinated against COVID-19. This cannot continue", UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in the release.
Under the plan, the African Export-Import Bank and AVAT have signed a cooperation agreement on behalf of the AU to create an APC Framework to support member states’ access to COVID-19 vaccines, the release said.
TOKYO (Sputnik) - Sporting competitions of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures will be held without fans, the Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday, citing sources.
The decision means that the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics will be held without spectators.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US jobless claims rose again last week after falling for two previous weeks in a row, with the Labor Department reporting an additional 2,000 filings for unemployment insurance this time that highlighted the job market's continued struggle for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
"In the week ending 3 July, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 373,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level", the Labor Department said in a news release.
TOKYO (Sputnik) - Sporting competitions of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures will be held without fans, the Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday, citing sources.
The decision means that the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics will be held without spectators.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Individuals who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of the UK's mass immunization program will no longer have to self-isolate upon their return to England from countries on the UK's so-called amber list, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Thursday.
"I can confirm today that from July 19, UK residents who are fully vaccinated through the UK vaccine rollout will no longer have to self-isolate when they return to England", Shapps said.
The transport secretary confirmed that travelers would still have to conduct a PCR test three days before they travel back to England.
