Filenews 8 April 2021
New announcements are being made by several countries on the age-based administration of AstraZeneca.
Others diversify travel regulations and impose measures due to a new mutation of the coronavirus from India.
In its circular, the Italian Ministry of Health made it known that the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine is preferably recommended for people over 60 years of age, "given the low rate of blood clot complications and the high mortality from covid-19 recorded in the elderly".
However, the authorisation given to persons over the age of 18 shall not be cancelled. Citizens who have already been given the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine will receive the second.
Australia will not currently alter deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) detected a possible link between the rare blood clots and the vaccine.
Health authorities in Australia have ordered an urgent investigation into the findings by the EMA with Morrison awaiting updates later today from the relevant drug management authority and the vaccination advisory group.
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said the country's medicines regulator has the freedom to make its decision "honestly and without fear" including the possibility of ending vaccination for people under 30.
The Australian Government is considering accelerating AstraZeneca's locally produced vaccine vaccination programme as local production of 50 million doses is planned in Australia by CSL Ltd.
Thailand is considering closing nightclubs in Bangkok and 40 provinces, the group responsible for dealing with COVID-19 announced, as authorities rush to stem a new wave of coronavirus and the arrival in the country of its most contagious mutant strain.
Thailand's COVID-19 task force has urged the public and private sectors to allow their employees to work from home and avoid non-essential travel, as 405 new cases were announced today in a new outbreak linked to Bangkok's nightlife.
Moreover, yesterday Thailand confirmed for the first time the local presence of the most contagious variant strain of the new B.1.1.7 coronavirus first identified in Britain.
New Zealand authorities have confirmed the emergence of a case of new domestic transmission coronavirus in Oakland, two days after the decision to open travel with Australia.
At the moment there is no consideration of imposing a lockdown on New Zealand's largest city or any change in the opening of this future "travel bubble".
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, however, announced the temporary suspension immediately of flights coming from India, from where the majority of the new crown operators have arrived in recent weeks.
Stricter enforcement of punishments in the event of violations, an information and awareness campaign to keep the population more vigilant: Cuba has decided to implement new measures to limit the increase in cases as it now records about a thousand a day since the beginning of April.
The Government will proceed "to strengthen measures aimed at checking the current epidemiological situation, with actions to promote and inform health and tangible measures to be adopted by organisations and the national health system", the newspaper Tribuna de La Habana summed up.
Police patrols will be longer to ensure that solitary confinement is respected in quarantined districts and to impose fines on those who do not wear a mask, or violate solitary confinement measures.
Most cases are found in Havana, where 2.1 million people live. and where new measures, even more stringent in terms of travel, will be announced later today.
Source: eyenews/CYPE
