BEIJING (AP) China has approved its first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine for general use, health regulators said Thursday, marking the addition of another vaccine in the global fight against a virus that is surging back in many places as winter sets in.
The two-dose vaccine from state-owned Sinopharm is the first approved for general use in China. The go-ahead comes shortly after the country launched a program to vaccinate 50 million people before the Lunar New Year holiday in February. It also comes one day after British regulators authorized AstraZeneca s inexpensive and easy-to-handle vaccine.
The back-to-back approvals could bring poorer countries, many of which have been unable to secure the Pfizer and Moderna doses being snapped up by rich countries, one step closer to getting vaccines sooner. Pakistan s science minister said Thursday that his government will buy 1.2 million doses of a Sinopharm vaccine, two days after its death toll topped 10,000.
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Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay informs Blue and White leader Benny Gantz he’s leaving the party, becoming the seventh member of the centrist list to jump ship.
Shay thanks Gantz, and says: “I admire Benny, respect him very much and wish for Israel to have more leaders like him with modesty, honesty, personal example, and unconditional sacrifice for the good of the state.”
Izhar Shay poses at the Knesset, on April 29, 2019 (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90) I m proud to work at The Times of Israel
I’ll tell you the truth: Life here in Israel isn’t always easy. But it s full of beauty and meaning.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a vaccination center in the Arab Israeli city of Tira, amid speculation he could place an Arab lawmaker on his Likud list ahead of the March 23 elections.
According to Channel 12, asked about the possible placement of an Arab lawmaker on his right-wing list, Netanyahu tells a reporter, “I don’t rule that out. I’ll sort out my issues with the Likud election committee and we’ll see.”
Netanyahu’s Likud has campaigned in the past on unfounded claims of electoral fraud in Arab communities. But the prime minister has in recent months formed a quiet alliance with the Joint List’s Mansour Abbas.
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Interim Police Commissioner Motti Cohen leaves the position tonight, after two years on the job as the government dawdled on naming a permanent police commissioner.
He’ll be replaced by Maj. Gen. Alon Assur until the government’s candidate for the position, Border Police chief Yaakov (Kobi) Shabtai, officially assumes the role of police commissioner.
Acting Chief of Police Motti Cohen visits a temporary checkpoint in Jerusalem on September 18, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
I m proud to work at The Times of Israel
I’ll tell you the truth: Life here in Israel isn’t always easy. But it s full of beauty and meaning.