US to start vaccinating as Germany returns to partial lockdown

KALAMAZOO, US - The United States prepared to start its Covid-19 vaccination program on Monday as the nation's death toll edged towards 300,000, while Germany announced a partial lockdown over the holidays due to an explosion of cases.

Delivery trucks with special refrigeration equipment rolled out of a facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Sunday as part of a public-private plan to ship millions of doses of the newly approved Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine to vulnerable Americans.

Courier services FedEx and UPS have deployed fleets of trucks and planes to carry their precious cargo -- sometimes under armed guard -- to all 50 states, where healthcare workers and nursing-home residents will be first in line.

"Vaccines are shipped and on their way," President Donald Trump tweeted. "Get well USA. Get well WORLD."

One state governor, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, said that "we now believe that the first individuals will be vaccinated" on Monday -- less than 72 hours after the vaccine received emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.

An initial 2.9 million doses are set to be delivered by Wednesday, with officials saying 20 million Americans could receive the two-shot regimen by year end, and 100 million by March.

But the breakthrough comes at one of the darkest moments of the pandemic, with infections in the United States and many other countries soaring, and health experts still struggling against vaccine skepticism, lockdown fatigue and uneven adherence to safety rules.

GRIM US DEATH TOLL

The US has the world's highest death toll of more than 299,000, and the largest number of cases, at 16.2 million -- including more than 1.5 million new cases in just the past week.

Worldwide, there have been at least 1.6 million deaths since the outbreak emerged in China last December, and 71.6 million cases overall.

The start of vaccination campaigns this week in the US -- and also Canada -- came as Germany announced a partial lockdown from Wednesday, with non-essential shops and schools to close in a bid to halt an "exponential growth" in infections.

The restrictions, agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders, will apply through the holidays until January 10. 

Europe's biggest economy has been severely hit by a resurgence of the coronavirus, with daily new infections more than three times their springtime peak. Daily death tolls last week approached 600.

Germany's hardest-hit states had already ordered new measures. Saxony state, where in some areas incidence rates have hit 500 per 100,000 people, will shutter shops and schools from Monday.

Italy, meanwhile, overtook Britain as the European nation with the highest death toll.

"I am worried about the two weeks of Christmas holidays... The battle still has not been won," Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza warned as the country recorded 64,520 deaths, surpassing Britain's 64,267.

Elsewhere, the prime minister of the small African nation of Eswatini died in a South African hospital on Sunday, two weeks after contracting coronavirus.

In Algeria, 75-year-old President Abdelmadjid Tebboune made his first televised appearance since being hospitalized with Covid-19 in October.

"Thanks to God," he said, "I have started on the road to recovery." 

And President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil faced scathing criticism over his government's plan -- or lack thereof -- to vaccinate the population.

Brazil, the country with the world's second-highest death toll, published its vaccination policy on Saturday under pressure from the Supreme Court, but listed no start date or details of how it would secure sufficient doses.

Leading newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, in a scathing front-page editorial, said virus-skeptic Bolsonaro had shown "murderous stupidity."

South Korea -- once seen as a model of how to combat the pandemic -- on Sunday reported 1,030 new coronavirus cases, a record high for a second day in a row.

'DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN'

Even as US health experts welcomed the unprecedented vaccine effort, they cautioned people not to grow lax in observing precautions.

"The next number of weeks are going to be hell, I fear," New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told ABC's "This Week." 

"So we're begging people to please, please, please don't let your guard down."

UPS and FedEx are to ship glass vials of the vaccine to 636 sites around the country by Wednesday.

Doses are being shipped in boxes containing dry ice that can keep supplies at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit), the frigid temperature needed to preserve the drug.

Trials have shown the vaccine to be 95 percent effective, and Americans are being told it is safe unless they have an allergy to any of the drug's components.

The US National Security Council said Sunday that senior federal officials will be among those given priority access to keep the government functioning, but Trump later tweeted that government workers should be vaccinated "somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary."

"I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time," he said.

Agence France-Presse

US doubles spending on potential virus vaccine to nearly $1 billion

WASHINGTON - The United States has doubled its investment -- to nearly $1 billion -- to expedite development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine by American firm Moderna, which on Monday begins the decisive final phase of clinical trials.

The government now plans to spend up to $472 million on top of the previously announced $483 million, the Moderna biotechnology company announced Sunday.

Moderna said the added investment was justified by its decision, in conjunction with the government, to "significantly" expand a Phase Three clinical trial of a candidate vaccine to include 30,000 participants. 

In a small, initial trial, Moderna's experimental vaccine produced coronavirus antibodies -- which should help fend off the disease -- in the bodies of all 45 participants. 

In the expanded trial starting Monday, half the 30,000 participants will receive a 100-microgram dose of the vaccine, while the rest will be given a placebo. 

The United States has suffered more than 146,000 coronavirus deaths, leading the world in that grim category, even as the number of new cases has continued to surge. 

It has announced massive investments in a huge effort to expedite vaccine development and get millions of Americans vaccinated by early next year.

On Wednesday, the American-German BioNTech/Pfizer pharmaceutical alliance announced that the US government had committed $1.95 billion to procure 100 million doses of its eventual vaccine.

With laboratories around the world in a furious race to develop a first effective vaccine, Moderna seems to hold the lead as it enters a final round of clinical trials -- a decisive step in determining whether a vaccine is both effective and safe. 

Moderna, which has been working with US health authorities, said it expects to be able to produce 500 million doses a year -- and potentially up to 1 billion -- starting in 2021.

Chinese biotech firm Sinovac said July 6 that it, too, would begin a Phase Three clinical trial "this month," in collaboration with Brazil's Butantan biologic research center. 

Also reporting encouraging early results have been a British project developed by Oxford University in partnership with the multinational AstraZenica laboratory, and a Chinese project, led by researchers from agencies including the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

That effort is being financed by the CanSino biotechnology group, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. 

In all, nearly 200 candidate vaccines are in development, including 23 now in the clinical phase, being tested on humans.

Agence France-Presse

Huge European rescue plans, vaccine hopes fuel virus optimism

WASHINGTON - A half-trillion-euro European fund laid out by France and Germany sparked optimism Monday about fighting economic fallout from the coronavirus, as did encouraging early results on vaccine research by a US biotech firm. 

Global markets surged as Europe pushed towards normality with major landmarks reopening after a two-month hiatus, and as China told the World Health Organization it would back an independent inquiry into the handling of the outbreak once the pandemic is "brought under control."

At the White House, President Donald Trump slammed China's handling of the crisis -- and dropped a bombshell by revealing he has been taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that is an unproven treatment against coronavirus.

Trump, who has tested negative for COVID-19, dismissed safety warnings about the drug, saying he is taking it "because I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories."

Nearly 4.8 million people have tested positive and 317,565 have been killed by the disease since it emerged in Wuhan, China late last year, according to an AFP tally.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, battling allegations from Washington and elsewhere that his country concealed the scale of the problem, told the World Health Assembly -- the WHO's decision-making body -- that Beijing had been "transparent" throughout the crisis. 

Beijing also offered to share a vaccine once one became available.

But China's main critic, the United States, sharpened the tone at the same talks, accusing the WHO of being too close to Beijing, citing as evidence the continued exclusion of Taiwan from the UN health agency.

VACCINE HOPE

In the United States, the hardest hit nation, deaths surpassed 90,000 -- but all 50 states have begun easing lockdown measures to varying degrees.

In Michigan, car assembly lines cranked up for the first time in two months, with employees wearing masks and enduring temperature checks and social distancing protocols.


And as death and hospitalization rates continue to drop in Europe -- Italy's daily death toll fell below 100 for the first time since early March -- Europe sought to pick up the pace on its exit from the lockdown.

St Peter's Basilica and the Acropolis in Athens opened their doors to visitors alongside many European shops, restaurants and churches and in Venice, the gondolas returned to the waters, even if the gondoliers wore gloves and masks. 


"It's good news, a sign of everyone's desire to get back to normal as soon as possible, but without ever lowering our guard in order to defeat the virus once and for all," said Giovanni Giusto, city councilor for the Protection of Traditions. 

Global markets were buoyed meanwhile by the 500-billion-euro ($540 billion) European fund, along with encouraging early results from clinical trials of a potential vaccine by Moderna. 

The first stage trial provoked an immune response similar to people convalescing from the COVID-19 disease in eight recipients, according to the company which has a larger phase 2 trial due to begin soon.

BUT FEARS FOR LATIN AMERICA, AFRICA

But despite the hopeful signs, recent days have also seen soaring infections in Brazil, India and South Africa, and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned the virus' impact on the southern hemisphere could be "even more devastating" than in the north.

India extended its lockdown covering 1.3 billion people to the end of May as its reported infections jumped.

In Latin America, Brazil now has the fourth-highest caseload worldwide at 245,000 confirmed infections and deaths have risen sharply.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has blamed lockdowns for unnecessarily hurting Brazil's economy. He has defied social distancing measures, even as experts and regional leaders warn the country's healthcare infrastructure could collapse.

Ecuador reported the first COVID-19 case in one of its indigenous Amazon tribes, deepening the crisis in one of South America's hardest-hit countries.

Nicaraguan hospital staff have said the nation's health system is overwhelmed with patients suffering from respiratory illnesses.

Relatives have reported that the bodies of loved ones were being carted off in pick-up trucks for "express burials" without their consent.

"Mourners are forced to chase trucks with the coffin to find out where their loved ones are being buried," the opposition National Coalition said in a statement denouncing government secrecy. 

There was also grim data in Africa, where the number of infections rose rapidly.

South Africa on Sunday reported 1,160 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily number since the first case was recorded in March, taking the total to 15,515 -- the highest on the continent.

And South Sudan's first vice president, the former rebel leader Riek Machar, has tested positive for COVID-19, his office said Monday. 

LOANS, NOT GRANTS

The coronavirus has left the world economy facing its worst downturn since the Great Depression. Fresh evidence of the deep damage came when Japan announced its first recession since 2015.

The world's biggest economy is also headed to a massive downturn, US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned.

April-to-June data "will be very, very bad," Powell said, adding that the economic hardship "could stretch through the end of next year."

In a gesture of European solidarity, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed "borrowing from the market in the name of the EU" to fund 500 billion euros of spending on the 27-strong bloc's "worst-hit sectors and regions".

Countries receiving financing would not have to repay the sum, said Macron. 

Northern countries including Germany had until now firmly rejected joint debt in the name of budget discipline -- and the plan quickly met resistance from some quarters.

But the relaunch plan was welcomed elsewhere as a sliver of light, with European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde dubbing it "ambitious, targeted and welcome."

Agence France-Presse