JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The first dose of Pfizer Inc s COVID-19 vaccine is 85% effective, a study of healthcare workers at an Israeli hospital has found, potentially fuelling a debate over the recommended two-dose schedule as governments try to stretch out supplies. The Sheba Medical Center s findings compare with overall efficacy of around 95% in a two dose regimen 21 days apart for the shot developed with Germany s BioNTech. The Sheba study, to be published in The Lancet medical journal, comes a day after Canadian researchers suggested that the second Pfizer dose be delayed given the high level of protection from the first shot in order to increase the number of people getting vaccinated. Their research showed efficacy of 92.6% after the first dose, based on an analysis of the documents submitted by the drugmaker from its late-stage human trials to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December. The FDA said in December data from those trials showed that the vaccine began conferring
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland will remain under significant restrictions until the end of April, Prime Minister Micheál Martin was quoted as saying on Thursday, as health officials warned the near dominance of the more infectious UK COVID-19 variant was slowing suppression. Ireland has been back in lockdown for almost two months after a wide reopening of the economy in December led to its most deadly COVID-19 surge to date, just as the variant known as B1.1.7 identified in Britain started to become more prevalent. Nine out of every ten transmissions are now attributable to the variant, cutting the daily fall in cases from 7-10% last month to just 0.2 to 0.4% this week and prompting the government to further push out any gradual reopening of the economy. We ve already certainly indicated that beyond Easter we ll look at it again but until the end of April you can look at significant restrictions and we ll review it after that, Martin told the Irish Mirror newspaper in an interview. The go
an online format because of a coronavirus lockdown, with mainstays such as
Victoria Beckham shunning the event but others like Burberry embracing the online avatar.
Despite the absence of global celebrities and fashionistas, designers such as Turkey s Bora Aksu, Britain s Molly Goddard and Ireland s Simone Rocha will stream their collections on the London Fashion Week website.
Most of the 94 designers participating in the show, which concludes on Tuesday, February 23, will broadcast video highlights of their collections showcasing menswear, womenswear or mixed fashions in an event that is now gender-neutral.
On Monday,
British brand Burberry
will present its menswear Autumn/Winter collection for 2021, designed by Italian creative director Riccardo Tisci.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong s Health Secretary said on Friday that the government had not politicised any coronavirus vaccine, as she sought to reassure residents worried about China s Sinovac, due to be rolled out in the global financial hub from next week. Chan told Reuters that standards had not been lowered to accept the Sinovac vaccine and there was no pressure from Beijing to get it approved in the Chinese special administrative region. The government has not politicised any vaccine. In fact, we really think that one should not politicise any of the vaccination process, because really the COVID-19 vaccine is our hope, she said in an interview at her office in government headquarters. (This story refiles to add dropped s in first paragraph) (Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and John Stonestreet)
DAKAR (Reuters) - More than 11,000 Ebola vaccines are expected to arrive in Guinea this weekend, with more to follow, and inoculations could start as soon as Monday, the World Health Organization and a Guinea health ministry official said on Thursday. WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti told a news conference that 11,000 doses were being prepared in Geneva, while 8,600 more doses would be shipped from the United States. Mohamed Lamine Yansane, a senior adviser to Guinea s health minister, told the news conference that as soon as the vaccines arrive in Guinea on Sunday, the vaccination campaign can start on Monday. Health authorities in the region and international organisations aim to halt a resurgence of the disease in Guinea and Congo to prevent a repeat of the 2013-16 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, making it the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record. We think that it s not likely at all that we will