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Asia nations give away land, gold, cattle, houses

Asia countries give away land, gold, cattle, homes

An elderly man will be given Covid-19 vaccine at the AstraZeneca Central Vaccination Center in Bang Sue Grand Station on July 13, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sirachai Arunrugstichai | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Businesses and local governments in Asia are developing creative ways to promote vaccinations among people who are still reluctant to get one – distributing everything from gold to farm animals.

The Asia-Pacific region is battling a resurgence of Covid as major cities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia report rising cases daily, particularly from the highly contagious Delta variant of the disease.

But most of Asia is struggling with low vaccination rates as vaccination hesitation persists and vaccine misinformation spreads.

In addition, many countries cannot get enough doses for their populations.

According to Our World in Data, vaccine progress is lagging behind Europe and North America. On August 8, 41.6% of Europeans and 38.8% of North Americans were fully vaccinated, compared with only about 11.6% of people in Asia.

Hong Kong: apartment, gold and a private flight

Hong Kong companies are giving awards to raise vaccination rates amid public distrust of the government.

Several sponsors, including the real estate developer Sino Group, have arranged a raffle for the vaccinated. The grand prize is a new one-bedroom apartment valued at approximately Hong Kong $ 10.8 million ($ 1.39 million).

To support a government vaccination campaign, Cathay Pacific Airways has awarded 20 million airline miles in Asia. A winner can host a private party on board the airline’s new Airbus A321neo.

An organization of gold trading firms – the China Gold and Silver Exchange – is giving away Hong Kong dollars worth 1.1 million Hong Kong dollars to those who have received two Covid shots.

Incentives provided by companies totaled more than $ 73 million Hong Kong ($ 9.4 million), the South China Morning Post reported in June. According to Our World in Data, about 35% of Hong Kong’s population was fully vaccinated on August 8th.

Philippines: land, cattle and sacks of rice

Both local governments and private companies are doing their part to get more people to vaccinate.

The community of San Luis Pampanga has started a campaign to give vaccinated people the chance to win a cow.

Congresswoman Camille Villar offered a number of incentives to the people of her town when they were vaccinated. Las Pinas City residents have a chance of winning a home, motorcycles, and even groceries if they receive at least one dose of Covid vaccine, the Manila Times reported.

On the outskirts of Manila, in Sucat, according to Reuters, 20 people have the chance to take a 25-kilogram sack of rice home with them every week if they get their injections. The initiative aims to attract poorer residents who need an extra boost to get vaccinated, the news agency said.

While some give out rewards, others threaten those who don’t get vaccinated.

After weak participation in several vaccination centers in the capital Manila in June, the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is said to have warned residents: “If you do not want to be vaccinated, I will have you arrested.”

As the city prepared for a two-week lockdown on Friday, Reuters reported that thousands of people showed up at vaccination centers across Manila.

Only 9.8% of the country’s population was fully vaccinated by August 5, according to Our World in Data numbers.

Indonesia: live chickens

Indonesia has the second highest number of cases in Asia, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

According to several media reports, government agencies in Cipanas, West Java Province, are distributing 500 live chickens to vaccinated seniors.

About 85% of Indonesia’s population are Muslim. Despite the religious approval of the country’s top Islamic body, many are concerned about whether the vaccines are halal or allowed by Islam.

“I was afraid that if I was vaccinated I would die immediately …

According to Our World in Data, 8.7% of the total population of Indonesia are fully vaccinated on August 8th.

India: gold, mixers and discounts

In India, McDonald’s fast food chain is offering vaccinated customers a 20% discount.

Goldsmiths in Rajkot, Gujurat, reportedly came together to encourage people over the age of 45 to get vaccinated. Women were given gold nasal needles for vaccination while men were given hand blenders, the Hindustan Times said.

India reported Friday that the country had given more than 500 million doses of vaccine.

However, so far only 8.2% of the population is fully vaccinated, as the figures from Our World in Data show.

According to local media reports, the country is threatened with a third wave of infections in the coming months.

China: eggs

China has been slow to start its vaccination program as the government was relatively successful in controlling the virus outbreak in the early days of the global pandemic. As a result, many citizens did not see the urgency of vaccination at first until new niches emerged in the country.

In March this year, a Beijing health center gave away 2.5 kilograms of eggs to residents who were 60 years of age or older when they received their first vaccination, the Associated Press reported.

However, some regions took a tougher approach.

Officials reportedly visited villages to persuade them to get vaccinated and were told it was their national duty, the Washington Post said.

The country had administered nearly 1.7 billion doses of vaccine as of August 3, the state media reported in Xinhua, citing the National Health Commission.

– CNBC’s Joanna Tan contributed to this coverage.

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Health

5 vaccinated international locations with excessive Covid charges depend on China vaccines

Five vaccinated countries with high Covid rates rely on China vaccines

Covid-19 vaccines from Chinese companies Sinopharm (left) and Sinovac arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia on June 8, 2021.

Sovannara | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Among the countries with both high vaccination rates and high Covid-19 infection rates, most rely on vaccines made in China, a CNBC analysis shows.

The results come as the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines comes under increasing scrutiny, compounded by a lack of data on their protection against the more transmissible Delta variant. CNBC found that weekly population-adjusted Covid cases have remained elevated in at least six of the world’s most heavily vaccinated countries – and five of them rely on vaccines from China.

CNBC identified 36 countries with more than 1,000 weekly new confirmed cases per million people on July 6, using figures from Our World in Data, which compiles information from sources such as the World Health Organization, governments and Oxford University researchers. CNBC then identified countries among those 36 where more than 60% of the population had received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine.

There were six countries, and five of them use Chinese vaccines as an essential part of their national vaccination programs: United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Mongolia, Uruguay, and Chile. The only country among them that does not rely on Chinese vaccines is the United Kingdom.

The UK has now approved vaccines from Moderna, AstraZeneca-Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech and Janssen. Covid cases in the UK have increased in recent weeks as the more transmissible Delta variant has spread there.

Sinopharm and Sinovac did not respond to CNBC requests for comment.

Several factors can lead to an increase in Covid cases in countries with high vaccination rates. Vaccines do not offer one hundred percent protection, so those who are vaccinated can still get infected. At the same time, new variants of the coronavirus might prove better at overcoming vaccines.

The best option for many countries

Countries shouldn’t stop using Covid-19 vaccines from China, epidemiologists say, especially when vaccine supplies are limited in low- and middle-income countries.

Many of the countries and territories that have approved Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are developing countries that cannot compete with wealthier countries for vaccines developed in the United States and Europe.

Ben Cowling, a professor in the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, said countries could choose to use certain vaccines depending on their long-term goals.

“Some countries may accept low prevalence as long as there are relatively few serious cases and deaths from COVID-19,” Cowling, who heads the school’s epidemiology and biostatistics department, told CNBC in an email. “That should be achievable with a high coverage of all available vaccines.”

However, some countries avoid vaccines in China. Costa Rica turned down shipments of vaccines developed by Sinovac last month after it concluded they were not effective enough.

WHO approval

The World Health Organization has approved Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines for emergency use.

The two Chinese vaccines are less effective than Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both of which have shown greater than 90% effectiveness.

Sinopharm’s vaccine is 79% effective against symptomatic Covid infections, the WHO says, but its effectiveness in certain groups – such as people over 60 – is not clear. The effectiveness of Sinovac’s shot ranges from around 50% to over 80%, depending on the country in which the trials took place.

Experts say that the results cannot be directly compared between clinical trials because each study is structured differently. However, a study in Hong Kong found “significantly higher” antibody levels in people who received the BioNTech injection compared to those who received the Sinovac vaccine, the South China Morning Post reported.

Some experts suggest that the technology behind the various Covid vaccines could explain differences in their effectiveness.

Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines trigger an immune response by exposing the body to a weakened or “inactivated” virus – a proven method that vaccines have used for decades. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna based their vaccines on a technology called messenger RNA, which instructs the body to make viral proteins that trigger an immune response.

“Inactivated vaccines are easy to make and are known for their safety, but tend to have a weaker immune response compared to some other vaccine types,” wrote Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow on Global Health at the University of Southampton in the UK, in an article, published on The Conversation website.

Still, large phase three clinical trials showed that inactivated vaccines were “highly effective against serious illness and death” from Covid, Cowling said.

The professor told CNBC that the spikes in Covid cases in some countries using Chinese vaccines “are typically an increase in mild infections with very few severe cases in fully vaccinated people”.

‘Herd Immunity’

When vaccines are less effective, more people need to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity”. This happens when the virus stops being transmitted quickly because most people are immune to vaccination or have recovered from an infection.

Some countries decided to try to achieve herd immunity at the beginning of the pandemic, but are not known to have succeeded. Some who said they would achieve herd immunity, like Sweden, have been hit much harder by Covid than neighboring countries that have taken the vaccination route.

A study by the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Sydney claimed that in the Australian state of New South Wales, herd immunity could be achieved if 66% of the population were given vaccines that were 90% effective against all infections.

The percentage of the population who needs to be vaccinated increases to 86% when vaccine effectiveness is 70%, and herd immunity is not achievable when vaccine effectiveness is below 60%, the study showed.

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Politics

U.S. to Transfer Afghans Who Aided Troops to Third International locations

U.S. to Move Afghans Who Aided Troops to Third Countries

WASHINGTON – Biden’s administration is preparing to move thousands of Afghan interpreters, drivers, and others who have worked with American forces to other countries to protect them while they apply for entry into the United States, high-ranking officials said Administrative officers.

With the American military in the final phase of withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, the White House has come under heavy pressure from lawmakers and the military to protect Afghan allies from Taliban revenge attacks and the lengthy and complex process that makes them special Provide immigrant visas.

On Wednesday, administrative officials began notifying lawmakers that they will soon begin a potentially massive move of tens of thousands of Afghans. Officials said Afghans would be deported from Afghanistan to third countries to await processing of their visa applications to enter the United States.

Officials did not want to say where the Afghans would be waiting and it is not clear if third countries have agreed to accept them. The opportunity to move is given to people who have already started the application process.

More than 18,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security, repairs, and embassy workers for the United States during the war are trapped in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas that are available to people because of their Labor are threatened for the US government.

These applicants have 53,000 family members, officials said.

A senior administrative official said the plan would also move family members of applicants from Afghanistan to a third country to await visa processing. Transportation from Afghanistan will not come with an assurance that a US visa will be issued. It was unclear whether people who somehow failed to qualify would be sent back to Afghanistan or left in a third country.

The officers spoke for anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the decision.

The decision is made as President Biden prepares to meet with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan on Friday amid deteriorating security in the country.

Aides said Mr Biden would urge Mr Ghani on the need for unity among the country’s leaders and call on them to stop fighting among themselves if the country is in crisis and government forces are at risk of seizing control of the nation to lose the Taliban.

They said he would pledge Mr. Ghani continued financial assistance from the United States to the Afghan government and people, including a humanitarian aid package of $ 266 million and $ 3.3 billion in security and substantial assistance Combating the coronavirus pandemic with vaccines, test kits and personal protective equipment.

Updated

June 23, 2021, 7:57 p.m. ET

Officials said the government has been working to streamline the visa process for Afghans who have worked with U.S. forces and has added people to process the applications.

Both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, the pressure on the government has grown steadily in recent weeks to act quickly for the Afghans. Lawmakers urged Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Pentagon budget hearing on Wednesday.

“These brave Afghan partners, these Afghan and American heroes, people we asked to risk their lives not just for Afghanistan but for America because we have their backs, their future is in your hands,” he said Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and a former naval officer.

“That much is certain,” said Mr. Moulton during the House Armed Services Committee hearing. “The Taliban will kill them if they can. And they will rape and murder their wives and children first if they can. “

Mr. Austin seemed to be hinting at the plans. “I am confident that sometime soon we will start evacuating some of these people,” he said.

General Milley said the military is ready to relocate Afghans who have applied for special visas. “I feel it is a moral imperative to care for those who have served by our side,” he said. “We are ready to do whatever we are asked to do.”

Chronic delays and traffic jams plagued the special immigrant visa program for more than a decade. Democrats have accused former President Donald J. Trump of exacerbating the problem by starving the program of resources and personnel.

The coronavirus pandemic didn’t help; A surge in cases at the embassy in Kabul has suspended face-to-face interviews and reviews.

In a January report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “limited staffing” and “local security conditions directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic” were referred to as “severe” on the visa application process.

In recent weeks, Democrats and Republicans have tabled bills in Congress to expedite the process and waive certain requirements, such as requiring applicants to undergo costly medical exams. And in December, under a huge fallback bill, Congress raised the overall visa program cap by 4,000 to 26,500.

The Biden government has also come under pressure from several nonprofit groups and refugee advocates to do more.

About 70 organizations recently wrote a letter to Mr. Biden urging his government to “immediately implement plans to evacuate vulnerable US-affiliated Afghans” – a move the White House is now taking.

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Health

WHO says delta Covid variant has now unfold to 80 nations and it retains mutating

WHO says delta Covid variant has now spread to 80 countries and it keeps mutating

A mobile Covid-19 vaccination centre outside Bolton Town Hall, Bolton, where case numbers of the Delta variant first identified in India have been relatively high.

Peter Byrne | PA Images | Getty Images

The delta Covid variant, first detected in India, has now spread to more than 80 countries and it continues to mutate as it spreads across the globe, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday.

The variant now makes up 10% of all new cases in the United States, up from 6% last week. Studies have shown the variant is even more transmissible than other variants. WHO officials said some reports have found that it also causes more severe symptoms, but more research is needed to confirm those conclusions.

The WHO is also tracking recent reports of a “delta plus” variant. “What I think this means is that there is an additional mutation that has been identified,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead. “In some of the delta variants we’ve seen one less mutation or one deletion instead of an additional, so we’re looking at all of it.”

The United Kingdom recently saw the delta variant become the dominant strain there, surpassing its native alpha variant, which was first detected in the country last fall. The delta variant now makes up more than 60% of new cases in the U.K.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the president, said last week that “we cannot let that happen in the United States,” as he pushed to get more people vaccinated, especially young adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designated the delta variant as a variant of concern in the U.S. on Tuesday. The WHO designated the delta variant as a variant of concern in early May.

The WHO on Tuesday also added another Covid mutation, the lambda variant, to its list of variants of interest. The agency is monitoring more than 50 different Covid variants, but not all become enough of a public health threat to make the WHO’s formal watchlist. The lambda variant has multiple mutations in the spike protein that could have an impact on its transmissibility, but more studies are needed to fully understand the mutations, Van Kerkhove said.

The lambda variant has been detected by scientists in South America, including in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, thanks to increased genomic surveillance.

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Health

Biden to Ship Thousands and thousands of Pfizer Vaccine Doses to 100 Nations

Biden to Send Millions of Pfizer Vaccine Doses to 100 Countries

WASHINGTON – President Biden, under pressure to aggressively address the global coronavirus vaccine shortage, will announce Thursday that his government will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and deliver them to about 100 countries next year The donation will be made by people familiar with the plan.

The White House reached the deal just in time for Mr Biden’s eight-day tour of Europe, which will be his first opportunity to assert the United States as world leader and to re-establish ties that have been badly frayed by President Donald J. Trump.

“We have to end Covid-19, not just at home we do, but everywhere,” Biden told American troops after landing at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. “There is no wall high enough to protect us from this pandemic or the next biological threat we face, and there will be others. It requires coordinated multilateral action. “

People familiar with the Pfizer deal said the United States would pay for the cans at a “not for profit” price. The first 200 million cans will be distributed by the end of this year, followed by 300 million by next June, they said. The doses will be distributed through Covax, the international vaccine exchange initiative.

Mr Biden is in Europe for a week to attend the NATO and Group of 7 summits and to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin in Geneva. He will likely use the trip to urge other nations to step up vaccine distribution.

In a statement Wednesday, Jeffrey D. Zients, White House official in charge of developing a global vaccination strategy, said Biden will “bring the world’s democracies together to resolve this global crisis, with America leading the way, the vaccine arsenal that will be of vital importance in our global fight against Covid-19. “

The White House is trying to highlight its success in fighting the pandemic – especially its vaccination campaign – and using that success as a diplomatic tool, especially as China and Russia are trying to do the same. Mr Biden has insisted that unlike China and Russia, who share their vaccines with dozens of countries, the United States will not attempt to extort promises from countries that receive US-made vaccines.

The 500 million doses are still well below the 11 billion the World Health Organization estimates to vaccinate the world, but well above what the United States has promised so far. Other nations have asked the United States to give up some of its ample vaccine supplies. In some African countries, less than 1 percent of people are fully vaccinated compared to 42 percent in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Global health advocates welcomed the news but reiterated their stance that it is not enough for the United States to simply give away vaccines. They say the Biden government needs to create the conditions for other countries to manufacture vaccines themselves, including transferring technology to make the cans.

“The world desperately needs new productions to produce billions more doses within a year, not just pledges to buy planned inadequate supplies,” Peter Maybarduk, director of the Citizens’ Access to Medicines Program, said in a Explanation. He added, “We have not yet seen a US government or G7 plan with the ambition or urgency to add billions more doses and end the pandemic.”

The Pfizer deal has the potential to open the door to similar agreements with other vaccine makers, including Moderna, whose vaccine, unlike Pfizer’s, was developed with US taxpayers’ money. In addition, the Biden government has negotiated a deal whereby Merck will help manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, and those doses may be available for use overseas.

The United States has already signed a contract to purchase 300 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, which requires two vaccinations to be distributed in the United States; the 500 million cans are on top of that, according to people familiar with the deal.

Biden in Europe

Updated

June 9, 2021, 8:50 p.m. ET

Neither Pfizer nor administrators would tell what the company is charging the government for the cans. Pfizer is also offering the Biden government the option to purchase an additional 200 million cans at cost to be donated overseas.

For Pfizer, the decision to sell so much of the supply to the Biden government for no profit is a significant step.

The vaccine accounted for $ 3.5 billion in sales for the first three months of this year, nearly a quarter of Pfizer’s total sales. By some estimates, the company made approximately $ 900 million in pre-tax income from the vaccine in the first quarter.

However, the company has also been criticized for disproportionately supporting wealthy nations, despite Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla promising in January to ensure that “developing countries have equal access to the rest of the world.”

The 200 million Pfizer cans the Biden government plans to donate accounts for about 7 percent of the three billion cans the company is expected to produce this year. Pfizer expects to deliver an additional 800 million doses to lower and lower middle income countries through other agreements with individual countries or Covax, a spokeswoman said.

For Mr Biden, the deal shows that his government is ready to intervene deeper in the treasury to help poorer countries.

Last week, Mr Biden said the United States would be distributing 25 million doses to countries in the Caribbean and Latin America this month; South and Southeast Asia; Africa; and the Palestinian Territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

These cans are the first of 80 million that Mr Biden intended to send abroad by the end of June; three quarters of these are sold by Covax. The rest will be used to address urgent and urgent crises in countries like India, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, government officials said. Many of the 80 million cans were manufactured by AstraZeneca and are still subject to a complex review by the Food and Drug Administration.

Mr Biden has also pledged to support a waiver of an international intellectual property treaty that would make it difficult for companies to refuse their technology. But European leaders are blocking the proposed exemption, and pharmaceutical companies are firmly against it. The World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council meets this week to review the derogation.

The president’s promise of vaccines for the world market comes as he prepares on Thursday for a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has urged leaders to pledge to feed everyone in the world by the end of 2022 vaccinate. Mr Biden’s announcement is likely welcome news to Mr Johnson, whose critics have questioned where the money will come from to keep his promise.

“The truth is, world leaders have been stepping down the street for months – to the point where they ran out of streets,” Edwin Ikhouria, executive director for Africa at ONE Campaign, a nonprofit that dedicated to eradicating global poverty, said in a statement on Wednesday.

About 64 percent of adults in the United States are at least partially vaccinated, and the president’s goal is to increase that number to 70 percent by July 4th, following an accessibility strategy and incentives to reach Americans who have not yet received any injections.

Despite these efforts, there are unused doses of vaccine that could be wasted. Once thawed, cans have a limited shelf life and millions could expire within two weeks, according to federal officials.

Equal access to vaccines has become one of the most persistent challenges in containing the pandemic. Wealthier nations and private corporations have pledged tens of millions of doses and billions of dollars to sustain global supplies, but the disparities in vaccine allocations so far have been stark.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, warned this week that the world is facing a “two-pronged pandemic” with countries short of vaccines struggling with virus cases even as better-served countries return to normal.

These lower-income countries will largely depend on wealthier ones until vaccines can be distributed and produced on a more equitable basis, he said.

Daniel E. Slotnik contributed the coverage from New York and Michael D. Shear from Plymouth, England.

Categories
Health

Delta variant first present in India spreads to 62 nations, sizzling spots type in Asia and Africa, WHO says

Delta variant first found in India spreads to 62 countries, hot spots form in Asia and Africa, WHO says

A health worker attends to a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient who is assisted by a mechanical ventilator and is undergoing dialysis in the COVID-19 emergency room at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute State Hospital in Quezon City COVID- 19 infections in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, April 26, 2021.

Eloisa Lopez | Reuters

The variant of Covid-19, first discovered in India in October, has now spread to at least 62 countries as outbreaks increase across Asia and Africa – despite a 15% decrease in cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

“We continue to see significantly increased communicability and a growing number of countries reporting outbreaks related to this variant,” said WHO of the Delta strain, noting that further studies were a high priority.

The WHO changed the name of the variant to “Delta” to simplify the scientific name B.1.617.2. The new naming system for Covid variants by letters of the Greek alphabet also avoids stigmatizing countries that discover new tribes.

The P.1 variant, now known as “Gamma”, which was first discovered in Japan from Brazil, has now spread to 64 countries, according to the WHO.

Even in countries with high vaccination rates, there has been an increase in cases in the last week or two, “so no one is out of the woods,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Emergency Health Program, in a WHO-hosted Q&A on Wednesday on social media platforms.

In Bahrain, where around 55% of the population are vaccinated with at least one dose, Covid cases have risen since the beginning of May and, according to Our World in Data, have reached the highest level of daily reported cases since the pandemic began.

“Relaxation of public health and social measures, increased social mobility, virus variants and unfair vaccinations are a very dangerous combination,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for Covid-19, explained some of the recent increases.

The West Pacific region reports the highest Covid cases and deaths since the pandemic began, according to the agency’s weekly update. The region reported more than 139,000 new cases in the past week, up 6% from the previous week. The highest number of new cases in the region was reported from Myanmar with 53,419 new cases in the past week. Most of the deaths in the region were reported from the Philippines, with 776 deaths in the past week.

“In every region (of the world) there are hotspots, there are countries that are really facing very, very difficult situations with an increase in transmission,” said Van Kerkhove, noting that a combination of highly contagious variants, relaxed measures Public health and inconsistent vaccination rates around the world are responsible for the recent surge in cases. “Eighteen months later, we are all fed up with this virus. It’s not done with us yet, and if we give it a chance to expand, it will. “

The African region reported over 52,000 new cases and over 1,100 new deaths in the past week, up 22% and 11% respectively compared to the previous week, according to the weekly update.

WHO also said last week that Africa would need at least 20 million AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses within the next six weeks to get the second round of vaccinations to people who have already received the first. The continent has received only 1% of all vaccines administered worldwide and needs another 200 million doses of all approved Covid-19 vaccines to vaccinate 10% of the continent by September.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is pulling out all the stops to at least partially vaccinate at least 70% of all American adults by July 4th, offering vaccines at hair and beauty stores, free babysitting, and Uber rides for people vaccinated, among other incentives. As of Tuesday, more than 62% of all adults in the US had at least one syringe.

Categories
Business

International locations Are Scrambling for Vaccines. Mongolia Has Loads.

Countries Are Scrambling for Vaccines. Mongolia Has Plenty.

Mongolia, a land of grassy hills, vast deserts, and endless skies, has a population not much larger than Chicago’s. The small democratic nation is used to living in the shadow of its powerful neighbors Russia and China.

But during a pandemic, there can be benefits to being a small nation sandwiched between two vaccine makers with global ambitions.

At a time when most countries are looking for coronavirus vaccines, Mongolia now has enough to fully vaccinate its entire adult population, thanks in large part to treaties with China and Russia. The officials are so confident that they promise citizens a “Covid-free summer”.

Mongolia’s success in obtaining the vaccines within a few months is a huge victory for a low-income developing country. Many poor countries have waited in line for shots, hoping for the best. But Mongolia, taking advantage of its status as a small geopolitical actor between Russia and China, was able to buy cans in a similar clip as it did in much richer countries.

“It speaks to the Mongolian ability to play against the two great powers and maximize their advantages even when they are walking a tightrope between the two countries,” said Theresa Fallon, director of the Center for Russia-Europe-Asia Studies in Brussels.

It’s also a win for China and Russia, which have extensive resource interests in Mongolia and ambitions to play a role in ending the pandemic, even if much of the world has expressed deep skepticism about their homegrown vaccines.

Mongolia is a buffer between Eastern Russia, which is resource-rich and largely uninhabited, and China, which is overcrowded and resource-hungry. While Russia and China are often aligned on the global stage, they have a history of conflict and are aware of mutual interests in Mongolia. These suspicions can be seen in their vaccine diplomacy.

“Putin is deeply concerned about what China is doing in its neighborhood,” Ms. Fallon said of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

Russia sold a million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to Mongolia. China has provided four million doses of vaccine – the final shipment of the doses arrived this week. Mongolia’s most recent agreement with the state-owned Chinese Sinopharm Group was made a few days before the World Health Organization received the emergency approval.

Mongolia was late for Covid-19 vaccines worldwide. For almost a year, officials boasted that there were no local cases. Then there was an outbreak in November. Two months later, the political crisis sparked by the abuse of the virus resulted in the Prime Minister’s sudden resignation. The prospect of ongoing coronavirus restrictions threatened to plunge the country into further political turmoil.

The new prime minister, Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, pledged to restart the economy that had suffered from lockdowns and border closings, particularly in the south, where Mongolian truckers are hauling coal across the border with China’s steel mills. But these plans were complicated by the growing number of cases, with the daily number rising from hundreds a day to thousands.

“We were pretty desperate,” said Bolormaa Enkhbat, an economic and development advisor to Mr. Luvsannamsrai.

Mongolia turned to China and Russia first, the foreign minister said in hopes that longstanding economic ties with each country would help put it at the forefront of vaccine-looking countries. Officials simultaneously explored diplomatic and private channels, soliciting donations from rich countries and the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers.

Updated

May 19, 2021, 8:11 p.m. ET

They contacted award-winning middlemen, international health organizations and vaccination alliances for poorer countries. An intermediary offered to sell Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine for $ 120 per shot, which is nearly a quarter of the average monthly salary, Ms. Enkhbat said. Covax, the global vaccine sharing alliance that Mongolia signed in July 2020, promised doses in the fall or winter.

With each breakthrough from Russia, negotiations with China moved faster.

At the beginning of February, Mongolia approved the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. Three days later, the Chinese Sinopharm Group received approval for its Vero Cell vaccine. Soon after, China donated 300,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine to Mongolia, citing a “deep traditional friendship” as motivation.

The opening of the border between China and Mongolia was also part of the vaccine discussions, Chinese and Mongolian officials said in Chinese state media. Mongolia needs China to buy its coal – exports to the country account for almost a quarter of Mongolia’s annual economic growth. The revenue helped add a quarter to Mongolia’s budget last year.

After a month of back and forth, in March the Mongolian government also signed a contract with the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute for one million doses of the Sputnik vaccine. Days later, Mongolia entered into an agreement to purchase 330,000 additional doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

When last-minute problems arose with delivery of the purchased Chinese vaccines, a phone call between China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai on April 7 helped smooth things out and reassure both sides. Until then, it was unclear whether Mongolia could rely on China or whether it would have to return to Russia for more vaccines.

“That paved the way for the rest of the business,” Ms. Enkhbat said of the call, Mr. Luvsannamsrais first with Mr. Li. “We set out the situation and said that we are betting on Chinese vaccines, at one time that the rest of the world is not. “

Mongolia has also received commitments from AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech. So far, it has only received 60,000 Sputnik vaccines due to manufacturing delays. But the Chinese vaccine will account for a large part of the Covid-19 shots for the Mongolian population.

“We are grateful to our partners, especially China, for providing us with vaccinations when they need them for home use,” said Battsetseg Batmunkh, Mongolia’s Foreign Minister.

The Chinese and Russian embassies in Mongolia did not respond to requests for comment.

in the UlaanbaatarIn the capital of Mongolia, 97 percent of the adult population have received a first dose and, according to government statistics, more than half are fully vaccinated. Across the country, more than three quarters of Mongolians have already received a shot.

The country’s vaccination efforts still face hurdles. Mongolia is economically dependent on China and many of its citizens continue to fear its power and influence. When tensions arose in the past, China closed its border and stopped buying Mongolian coal.

The Mongols also preferred the Russian Sputnik vaccine. To get the population to take the Sinopharm shot, the government has offered each citizen 50,000 tugriks – about $ 18 – to get fully vaccinated. The median monthly salary in 2020 was $ 460.

The terms and prices of the Sinopharm and Sputnik deals were not made public and the Mongolian Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the prices. Representatives from the Gamaleya Research Institute and Sinopharm did not respond to requests for comment.

While some global health experts have questioned whether Sinopharm can continue to meet its overseas commitments, it has delivered all of the cans Mongolia ordered. China has announced it will deliver up to five billion doses by the end of the year, despite officials warning the country is struggling to get enough shots for its citizens.

There is also evidence that governments that have chosen the Sinopharm vaccine may have to introduce a third booster shot earlier than expected.

For its part, China could play a long game, said Julian Dierkes, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in Mongolian politics. Although many Mongolians still do not trust China, the Mongolian government will remember how it made their vaccines available at a critical moment.

“We could coin a sentence here: ‘The opportunity of smallness’,” he said.

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Business

U.S. to share 60 million AstraZeneca doses with different international locations

U.S. to share 60 million AstraZeneca doses with other countries

A vial containing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is seen with syringes in the hospital of the Military Institute of Medicine in Warsaw, Poland on March 25, 2021.

Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty Images

The United States will share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine with other countries as coronavirus cases continue to rise worldwide, a senior US official said Monday.

Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response team, said the U.S. government will share the AstraZeneca footage as it becomes available. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the vaccine for use in the United States

The US will not distribute doses of the vaccine unless it meets FDA expectations for “product quality,” senior government officials told reporters during a news conference Monday.

The government believes the US could release 10 million doses of the vaccine “in the coming weeks” pending FDA approval, an official said. Another 50 million doses could be distributed in May and June, the official said.

“As part of the US strategy of being prepared for a number of scenarios, the US has already made some AstraZeneca cans,” the official said. “Given the strong portfolio of vaccines that the US already has, as mentioned earlier, and the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not approved for use in the US, we don’t need to use AstraZeneca vaccine here for the next several months . “

The move comes as state and local health officials say supplies of Covid vaccines are starting to outperform demand in some regions of the United States

More than 139 million Americans, or 42.2% of the total US population, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around 94.7 million people, or 28.5% of the population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

According to CDC data, the rate of Covid vaccinations in the US fell over the weekend. The 7-day average of shots administered daily fell to 2.8 million on Sunday, the lowest level since late March.

U.S. health officials say the nation doesn’t need the AstraZeneca vaccine to meet its goal of having enough doses for all adults in the U.S. by the end of May.

Biden previously said he expected the US to share its surplus of vaccine doses with other countries. China and Russia have also shared vaccines with other countries.

A day earlier, the Biden government announced that it would immediately provide the raw materials needed to manufacture coronavirus vaccines in India as the country works to counter an increase in Covid-19 infections.

Over the past seven days, India has reported an average of 321,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, according to Johns Hopkins University, a 50% increase from a week. The country has an average of 2,300 Covid deaths per day, according to Hopkins data. Media reports indicate that the official number is underestimated.

Cases are also increasing worldwide. The World Health Organization said earlier this month the number of new Covid-19 cases per week has nearly doubled in the past two months, which has brought global infections to their pandemic peak.

The WHO has urged wealthier nations like the US to donate vaccines to poorer or developing countries.

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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Business

WHO says 87% of the world’s provide has gone to higher-income international locations

WHO says 87% of the world's supply has gone to higher-income countries

The elderly wait in line to receive a dose of CoronaVac-Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Sinovac during a vaccination day for 67-year-old citizens in Brasilia, Brazil on March 29, 2021.

Ueslei Marcelino | Reuters

Wealthy countries have received the vast majority of the world’s supply of Covid-19 vaccine doses, while poor countries have received less than 1%, the World Health Organization said at a news conference on Friday.

Of the 700 million vaccine doses distributed worldwide, “over 87% went to high-income or high- and middle-income countries, while low-income countries received just 0.2%,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

On average, 1 in 4 people in high-income countries have received a coronavirus vaccine, compared to just 1 in more than 500 in low-income countries, Tedros said.

“There is still a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines,” he said.

Tedros said there is a shortage of doses for COVAX, a global alliance that aims to provide coronavirus vaccines to poor nations.

“We understand that some countries and companies plan to make their own bilateral vaccine donations and bypass COVAX for their own political or commercial reasons,” said Tedros. “These bilateral agreements run the risk of igniting the flames of vaccine inequality.”

According to Tedros, COVAX partners – including the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – are pursuing strategies to accelerate production and supply.

The alliance seeks donations from countries with an oversupply of vaccines, is accelerating the review of further vaccines and is discussing ways to expand global production capacity with several countries, said Tedros and Gavi CEO Dr. Seth Berkley.

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World News

U.S. working with IMF to supply $650 billion in forex help to nations hit by pandemic

U.S. working with IMF to provide $650 billion in currency aid to countries hit by pandemic

The U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, DC on Friday, March 19, 2021.

Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Treasury Department is working with the International Monetary Fund to provide monetary aid of up to $ 650 billion to countries hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

An announcement by the Treasury Department on Friday showed it was helping the IMF allocate $ 650 billion in Special Drawing Rights, which “would help build reserve buffers, smooth adjustments and mitigate the risks of economic stagnation in global growth.” “.

SDRs are currency reserves that countries can use to supplement their foreign exchange assets such as gold and US dollars.

The Treasury Department’s announcement indicated that the allocation of SDRs is within the level the department is allowed to allocate without the approval of Congress. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Senator John Kennedy, R-La., Had a heated discussion on the SDR issue during a public hearing recently.

In essence, the deal would allow countries to exchange their SDRs for US dollars. Global demand for American currency has been a recurring problem throughout the pandemic and has resulted in the Federal Reserve running a robust dollar swap program around the world as well.

The Treasury Department would exchange SDRs for dollars it holds in the Exchange Stabilization Fund. This, in turn, would require the government to borrow more money and create some coastline, namely the difference between the interest on the SDR and the interest on government bonds.

“These potential implied costs are much less than the benefits of a strong global recovery,” the department said in the press release.

“Addressing long-term global reserves would help support the global recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. A strong global recovery would also increase demand for US exports of goods and services – creating US jobs and US -Companies support “statement added.