COVID-19 UPDATE: BRAZIL’S RIO CANCELS NEW YEAR’S BEACH PARTY, CALIFORNIA ORDERS BODY BAGS

Wed 16 December 2020:

Covid-19 pandemic has infected more than 73.7 million people, claiming at least 1.6 million lives around the world. Here are updates for December 16

Brazil’s Rio cancels New Year’s beach party over pandemic

Rio de Janeiro’s annual New Year’s Eve beach bash, already reduced in scope and format, has been canceled due to the raging coronavirus pandemic, the mayor’s office has said Tuesday.

The South American nation has registered 964 additional deaths during the past 24 hours and 42,889 new cases, the nation’s health ministry said.

Brazil has now registered 182,799 total coronavirus deaths and 6,970,034 total confirmed cases.

Canada getting 168K Moderna vaccine doses before year end

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada has contracted to receive up to 168,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine before the end of December, pending approval by the country’s health regulator.

Trudeau said deliveries could begin within 48 hours of regulatory approval and health officials said they expect to approve use of the Moderna vaccine soon.

California orders body bags as intensive care swamped by virus

California officials ordered thousands of extra body bags as record virus cases left Los Angeles with fewer than 100 intensive care beds available for a county of 10 million people.

The situation has grown severe across southern parts of California, which was praised for its response at the start of the pandemic in spring, but which has seen Covid-related hospital admissions soar sixfold since mid-October.

Costa Rica and Panama authorise Pfizer’s vaccine

Panama and Costa Rican have approved the use of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The first batch of the shot could reach Panama in the first quarter next year, the Central American country’s health vice-minister Ivette Barrio said.

The United States, Britain, Canada, Bahrain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Singapore have also approved or authorised emergency use of the shot.

South Africa gets first Covid-19 vaccine application

Pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson is the first company to apply to register a Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) said on Monday (14 December).

Semete said that the regulator would focus on the safety, quality and efficacy of the vaccine. She added that the regulator has held a number of pre-submission discussions with pharmaceutical companies in which it advised about the data required for a successful application.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa is in the process of finalising its process in the Covax facility, which is a resource sharing initiative which will give countries suitable access to several possible vaccines.

“It is anticipated that we could have access to a suitable vaccine by the second quarter of 2021 and will initially receive quantities for at least 10% of the population,” he said in a statement this week.

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