MINSK (Sputnik) - Belarus has stopped negotiations with the manufacturers of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines against the coronavirus, First Deputy Health Minister Elena Bogdan told state media on Monday.
"We held talks with representatives of vaccine makers AstraZeneca and Pfizer. They did not come to us [the ministry] and we aren’t talking anymore", Bogdan told the Zvezda newspaper.
The eastern European nation, however, is still negotiating a Pfizer delivery through the US embassy in the capital of Minsk, she added.
Belarus has approved Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 shots. More than 980,800 people have been immunised with at least one dose in the country of 9.3 million, with 652,600 people being fully vaccinated.
KIEV (Sputnik) - The Ukrainian Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it had authorised the Johnson & Johnson's single-dose coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in the country.
"On 2 July 2021, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health registered the Janssen vaccine (Johnson & Johnson) against the coronavirus for emergency medical use", the ministry said in a statement.
Apart from the Janssen vaccines, Ukraine's immunisation campaign, launched in February, uses the vaccines by Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca, as well as the latter's Indian-produced version, Covishield. Last month, Kiev registered the Italian version of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. The country is also expecting to receive Moderna's vaccine in July through the international COVAX shot-sharing mechanism.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Over 620 medical workers across two hospitals in Australia's Sydney have been put on quarantine after coming into contact with an unvaccinated student nurse who worked at the two medical facilities while being infected with COVID-19, The Guardian reported on Monday.
According to the newspaper, the situation has put a further strain on the already overwhelmed facilities and is most critical at Royal North Shore hospital, where five wards are affected, prompting the authorities to move nursing staff from neighbouring hospitals to fill the shortfall in services.
"Our health system was already at extraordinary high activity, and there was minimum staffing available because casual staff who might've backfilled absences are being absorbed at vaccination and testing centres", the general secretary of New South Wales Nurses and Midwives' Association, Brett Holmes, was quoted as saying.
In addition to the isolation measure, the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) announced that no visitors will be permitted in WSLHD hospitals and healthcare facilities.
This announcement prompted questions about whether women giving birth can be accompanied by a support person, but the local health body clarified that "exemptions will be allowed under extenuating circumstances only and a centralised exemption process has been established".
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Australia has registered over 30,800 COVID-19 cases and 910 related fatalities.
Last week, the Duchess of Cambridge came into contact with someone who has since tested positive for COVID-19, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said as cited by ITV. "Her Royal Highness is not experiencing any symptoms, but is following all relevant government guidelines and is self-isolating at home".
LONDON (Sputnik) – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce on Monday the final step of his road map out of the COVID-19 lockdown in England, despite the latest data and scientific modelling suggesting that cases will continue to rise as restrictions are eased, his office said in a statement.
"Today we will set out how we can restore people's freedoms when we reach step 4. But I must stress that the pandemic is not over and that cases will continue to rise over the coming weeks", Johnson was quoted as saying ahead of his press conference.
According to the prime minister's office, Johnson is expected to reiterate that COVID-19 will become a virus "that we learn to live with as we already do with flu", meaning that hospitalizations, serious illness and deaths from the disease will continue, although at a much lower level than before the vaccination program started in December.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow has started a clinical trial of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine among teenagers aged 12-17 years old, and the first volunteers are already undergoing a medical examination before inoculation, Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said on Monday.
"Together with the Gamaleya Center, we began a clinical study of the Sputnik V vaccine for adolescents 12-17 years old … For this purpose, we have already recruited the planned number of participants — 100 people. Today a medical examination of the first volunteers, which includes a mandatory PCR test, started", Rakova told reporters.
