According to a press release from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on the 25th, the Secretary for Food and Health today approved the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine of Fosun Pharmaceutical/German pharmaceutical company BioNTech in Hong Kong under the Prevention and Control of Diseases (Use of Vaccines) Regulation (Cap. 599K).
Globally, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is approaching 100 million, and the number of new cases in Europe and the United States is rising every day. It has to close borders again and restart the home quarantine policy.
In China, sporadic or cluster cases have appeared for many consecutive days, and many places have strengthened prevention and control, and the initiative is to celebrate the Spring Festival on the spot to curb the spread of the epidemic.
Against this background, the global competition between vaccines and viruses has attracted much attention.
How are the vaccinations in countries in this race against the virus?
China’s vaccines continue to “circle fans”
On the afternoon of the 20th, at a press conference held by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council, Wang Bin, inspector of the Disease Control and Control Bureau of the National Health Commission, said that up to now, the number of COVID-19 vaccinations in China has exceeded 15 million!
WHO previously said that the WHO team is currently working with Kexing Company and the State Pharmaceutical Group in China to evaluate the COVID-19 vaccine it produces, which may be included in the WHO emergency use list.
At the same time, China’s coronavirus vaccine is being rapidly promoted in many countries around the world. Many dignitaries, including Turkish President Erdoğan, Indonesian President Joko, Seychelles President Ram Karawan, etc., have also been vaccinated against China.
According to Xinhua News Agency, on the 22nd local time, Brazil’s National Health Supervision Bureau held another special meeting and unanimously approved the second batch of emergency use licenses for the Kelofo coronavirus vaccine developed by Beijing Kexing Company.
The UAE Ministry of Health announced that the vaccine was effective at 86% after reviewing the vaccine products produced by China National Pharmaceutical Group. The Lancet, an authoritative international medical journal, said that China Kexing’s vaccine products can produce viral antibodies in more than 90% of vaccinators.
At present, three enterprises, China Pharmaceutical Zhongsheng Beijing Company, China Medicine Zhongsheng Wuhan Company and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Company, have completed the task of capacity construction in 2020 and met the conditions for large-scale production.
Industry insiders analyzed that the main contradictions in the field of COVID-19 vaccines in China will be transformed from vaccine research and development and listing to vaccine industrialization.
United States: The vaccination progress is far lower than expected
The United States has launched a large-scale coronavirus vaccination since December last year, but the vaccination progress is not as expected.
According to the data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 9:00 a.m. local time on January 24, a total of 21.85 million doses of vaccinations have been completed and 41.41 million doses of vaccine have been distributed in the United States. Still far behind the Trump administration’s previous promise to vaccinate 20 million people by 2020.
Reference News reported that topics such as unreasonable vaccine allocation, imperfect vaccination data, increasing vaccination amount by reducing vaccination dose, and vaccine side effects continue to attract attention and heated discussion in the United States.
In order to accelerate vaccination, the U.S. federal government said that more than 31 million doses of vaccines have been distributed throughout the United States, and reserves that were originally reserved for the second dose of vaccination have been released. It also recommended that states relax the standards for vaccination targets.
According to U.S. media reports, in Florida, Tennessee, Texas and other places, the medical system is overloaded to meet the vaccination needs.
At present, several state governments question the number of vaccines promised by the federal government.
United Kingdom: The efficacy of Variant viruses to be verified
Vaccination in the UK seems to be accelerating. British Prime Minister Boris said on Twitter on the 25th: Since last Monday, the United Kingdom has vaccinated 2.3 million people, bringing the total number of vaccinations in the UK to 6.3 million. In the past 24 hours, the UK has been vaccinated against 492,000 doses.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the pace of vaccine research and development and approval in the UK has been accelerating. According to the British government, the UK has so far ordered 367 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, including three approved vaccines and four other vaccines that have not been approved in the UK, and the government has set aside a large amount of funds for the development and procurement of coronavirus vaccines.
Since December last year, the situation of the Variant novel coronavirus announced by the British government has attracted global attention. Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said that there is no evidence that the Variant virus may bring higher mortality or affect the efficacy of vaccines and therapeutic drugs, and experts are intensifying research to further confirm this information.
Public Health England has published a COVID-19 vaccine surveillance plan, which will continuously collect vaccinations and analyze the effectiveness.
On the 21st, several British media said that in order to persuade more people to be tested and self-isolate after testing positive results, the British government is planning to grant a one-time subsidy of £500 to everyone who tests positive for the novel coronavirus. Once the plan is approved, the British Treasury is expected to spend about £2 billion a month.
Russia: Phased vaccination of “Sputnik V”
Since the 18th, Russia has carried out mass vaccinations against people who volunteer. Russian residents can choose one of the two registered vaccines – “Sputnik V” or “Peptide Coronavirus Vaccine” at no cost.
It is reported that Russian President Putin ordered on January 13 that mass vaccination from December 10, 2020 will be transitioned to mass vaccination.
Anna Popova, director of the Russian Federation’s Supervisory for Consumer Protection and Public Welfare, pointed out that vaccination should be organized with the goal of forming herd immunity before the autumn epidemic season. At the same time, she said that the first year of vaccination can cover 60% of the country’s population.
under the coordination of Russia and other health departments in Asia and Europe, including Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other countries have orderly promoted the local production and vaccination of Russia’s “Sputnik V” coronavirus vaccine.
Germany: “Vaccine shortage” appears in many places
According to China News Service, according to the data released by the German disease control agency on the 17th, Germany has vaccinated more than 1 million people since the launch of the coronavirus vaccination on December 27 last year.
However, the epidemic situation in most parts of Germany is still severe. According to Beijing Youth Daily, Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhardt in southeastern Germany are the hardest hit by the epidemic.
In terms of vaccination, following the delivery bottleneck of Pfizer vaccine, AstraZeneca also said that it could not be delivered in time in the first quarter.
The German Minister of Health also had no choice but to admit that the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine was far less than expected. At present, there is a “vaccine shortage” across Germany. Brandenburg cancelled thousands of vaccination appointments, and the vaccination center in North Wales was only open for half a day.
