COVID-19 UPDATE: EUROPE ROLLS OUT VACCINES, MORE LOCKDOWN LOOMS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Sun 27 December 2020:

Canada confirms two cases of COVID-19 variant first seen in UK

Health officials in Ontario said on Saturday that two confirmed cases of the new COVID-19 variant first detected in the United Kingdom have appeared in the Canadian province.

The cases, identified in a couple in southern Ontario with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contact, came as the province which went into a lockdown on Dec. 26.

More lockdown restrictions loom in South Africa

According to the Sunday Times, citing a government insider, president Cyril Ramaphosa will recall cabinet ministers from their holidays to hold an urgent meeting on Tuesday (29 December) to address the crisis.

While it is not yet clear what restrictions will be modified at the meeting, a review could see:

Lowering the limits on the number of people allowed at gatherings;
Restrictions on movement;
Closing of borders;
Restrictions on the trade of alcohol.

Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane also warned that restaurants could face more restrictions if they do not adhere to the current lockdown regulations, the paper said.

Hospitals, both private and public, are reporting that they are filling up quickly, with some already at capacity. Making matters worse, is that a lot of hospitals are operating on thinner staff due to the holiday period – who will now bear the brunt of the second wave.

France says third lockdown likely

France has not ruled out imposing a third nationwide lockdown if coronavirus cases continue to rise, its health minister said Sunday, as the country braces for a possible post-Christmas spike.

“We will never exclude measures that are necessary to protect the public,” Olivier Veran told the Journal du Dimanche.

“That is not to say we have made a decision, but that we are watching the situation hour by hour.”

UK says regulator must be given time to carry out Oxford Covid-19 vaccine review

Britain’s Department of Health said on Sunday that medicines regulator MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) must be given time to carry out its review of the data of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

“We must now give the MHRA the time to carry out its important work and we must wait for its advice”, a Health Department spokeswoman said, commenting on a Sunday Telegraph report that Britain will roll out the vaccine from January 4.

Europe rolls out vaccines in bid to leave pandemic behind

Europe launches a cross-border vaccination programme of unprecedented scale on Sunday as part of efforts to end a Covid-19 pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives around the world.

The first doses of the @pfizer/BioNTech #COVID19 vaccine have arrived in #Denmark. They will now be sent to the five health regions and vaccinations in #Danmark and across #Europe begin tomorrow. Pictures courtesy of @SSI_dk pic.twitter.com/xFiipS943M

— Shane Woodford (@WoodfordinDK) December 26, 2020

The region of 450 million people has secured contracts with a range of suppliers for over two billion vaccine doses and has set a goal for all adults to be inoculated during 2021.

While Europe has some of the best-resourced healthcare systems in the world, the sheer scale of the effort means that some countries are calling on retired medics to help out while others have loosened rules for who is allowed to give the injections.

After European governments were criticised for failing to work together to counter the spread of the virus in early 2020, the goal this time is to ensure that there is equal access to the vaccines across the entire region.

But even then, Hungary on Saturday jumped the gun on the official roll-out by starting to administer shots of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to frontline workers at hospitals in the capital Budapest.

Countries including France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain are planning to begin mass vaccinations, starting with health workers on Sunday. Outside the EU, Britain, Switzerland and Serbia have already started in recent weeks.

Novel coronavirus has infected over 80.7 million people globally and has claimed more than 1.7 million lives.

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