Covid-19 has infected more than 418M people and killed over 5.8M worldwide. Here are some of the latest coronavirus-related developments:
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Brazil registers nearly 1,100 Covid deaths in a day
Brazil had 147,734 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours and 1,085 deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry has said.
The South American country has now registered 27,806,786 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 640,774, according to ministry data.
Mexico reports over 500 Covid deaths
Mexico has recorded 520 more deaths from Covid-19, bringing the total death toll to 314,128, according to the government data.
Hong Kong tells residents to ‘remain confident’
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has called on residents to “remain confident” and support her administration’s measures to contain a worsening Covid-19 outbreak, as daily infections surged by more than 40 times since the start of February.
Lam’s comments, in a statement released late, came after Chinese President Xi Jinping told Hong Kong’s leaders their “overriding mission” was to stabilise and control the coronavirus in the global financial hub.
In a move to free up beds for isolation, Lam said she had spoken with local hotel owners to identify up to 10,000 hotel rooms for patients. Security chief Chris Tang would oversee the operation of participating hotels, she said.
Moderna aims for August to release booster
An Omicron-specific booster could be ready by August, the CEO of US biotech firm Moderna has told Reuters news agency, but the firm is still gathering clinical data to determine whether that vaccine would offer better protection than a new dose of the existing jab.
Last month Moderna began clinical trials for a booster dose specifically designed to target Omicron but initial results from studies in monkeys show the Omicron-specific shot may not offer stronger protection than a new dose of the existing vaccine.
Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said in an interview the company aimed to have a booster ready by August 2022, before next autumn when he said more vulnerable people may need it.
BioNTech to ship mobile vaccine labs to Africa
Germany’s BioNTech, which together with Pfizer developed the first mRNA vaccine against the coronavirus, has said it plans to ship mobile vaccine production units to Africa.
BioNTech said it aims to establish the “first manufacturing facility in the African Union” in “mid-2022” and expects to ship the modular production units to Rwanda and/or Senegal.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall attended the Vaccine Equity for Africa meeting at BioNTech’s mRNA production site in Marburg, Germany, along with Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo and World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Source: Reuters
Brazil posts nearly 1,100 new Covid deaths – latest updates
Source: Pinay Pop Showbiz
