PARIS — French Health Minister Olivier Veran received the first injection of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Monday at a hospital near Paris, arguing it was providing enough protection against almost all virus spreading in the country.
France received its first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines last week, representing 273,600 doses all reserved for health professionals under 65, which includes Veran, a neurologist.
Veran’s comments come after South Africa has suspended plans to inoculate its front-line health care workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine as a small clinical trial suggested that it isn’t effective in preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country.
Veran said “at least 99%” of the virus circulating in France do not correspond to the variant widely spread in South Africa, which makes the AstraZeneca vaccine effective on the French territory.
Veran said new measures are being implemented to avoid further spreading of variants imported from other parts of the world, including the one that was first identified in the U.K.
The period of self-isolation for any person infected with one of the variants, or suspected to be, has been extended from 7 to 10 days, he said.
Measures also include quicker contact tracing efforts and instructions to close school classes as soon as one student has been infected with a variant.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Virus variants are prompting new travel restrictions, dashing hopes of an industry recovery
— South Africa seeks a new virus vaccination plan after deciding not to use AstraZeneca jab, fearing it's not effective enough against the country's dominant variant
— Chicago's mayor touts agreement with teachers union over COVID-19 safety protocols that could avert school district strike
— Tom Brady and Tampa Bay win Super Bowl, capping NFL season that had no cancellations despite pandemic
— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
SEOUL, South Korea —— South Korea’s capital says it will give pet dogs and cats free coronavirus tests if they come into contact with infected humans and show symptoms.
Seoul official Park Yoo-mi told an online briefing that pets found infected with the virus must be quarantined at their homes or a city-run facility for 14 days.
The central government last week released guidelines on virus tests on pets, after a cat in the southeastern city of Jinju became the country’s first animal confirmed to have COVID-19. The cat belongs to a mother and daughter who were among dozens of confirmed patients associated with a Jinju religious facility.
Park said officials are ready to conduct free tests of pets starting Monday.
Seoul officials say authorities will test pets, not all animals, because they are in close contact with humans. Other local governments plan to launch similar tests for pets.
South Korea’s tally of newly confirmed coronavirus cases fell below 300 on Monday for the first time in more than two months as authorities slightly eased physical distancing rules. Officials began allowing restaurants, coffee shops, indoor gyms and other facilities outside the densely populated Seoul region to stay open an hour longer.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Sri Lanka health ministry said Monday it would receive the first part of the COVID-19 vaccines provided under the U.N.-backed COVAX program this month.
Dr. Hemantha Herath said under COVAX, Sri Lanka is expected to get 8 million doses, enough to cover 4 million people, 20% of the Indian ocean island nation’s population. He did not name which vaccine Sri Lanka was getting.
Led by the World Health Organization, a coalition for epidemic preparedness known as CEPI and a vaccine alliance called GAVI, COVAX was created to distribute COVID-19 vaccines fairly. Countries can join either to buy vaccines or to get donated shots.
On Sunday, Sri Lanka announced they would begin inoculating the public against the COVID-19 beginning next month. At present, the ministry is conducting a vaccination drive to inoculate about 250,000 frontline health workers and selected military and police officers.
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ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatia has launched its vaccination campaign with AstraZeneca shots, imposing none of the age limits that have been put in place by some other European Union countries.
Many EU states have been cautious with the AstraZeneca jab, recommending it for those under 65 because there was little data on how effective it is on older people.
“No vaccine gives 100% protection,” epidemiologist Bernard Kaic said. “If someone wants to take some other vaccines, no one will force them to take this one.”
Two Croatian retiree unions have asked the national coronavirus response team to delay the vaccination of older people with the AstraZeneca vaccine, citing the decisions made in Germany, France, Poland and several other EU states.
Croatia has recently seen a drop in new COVID-19 cases that has been attributed to partial lockdown measures, leading to the reopening of some schools for students on Monday.
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BRUSSELS — Belgium’s strategy to counter the coronavirus pandemic continues to bear fruit as the number of patients in intensive care units has dropped below 300 for the first time since October.
The number of new infections has reached a plateau, with new daily cases between 2,000 and 2,500, while coronavirus-related deaths are decreasing.
The country with 11.5 million inhabitants has been severely hit by the virus, which has killed more than 21,352 people in Belgium. But it has coped well with a surge of new virus variants despite keeping schools and many stores open.
Bars and restaurants have been closed since October and traveling abroad for holidays is currently banned. As of Monday, there were 1,676 coronavirus patients in Belgian hospitals, including 299 in ICUs.
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan’s military says the People’s Liberation Army in neighboring China has given a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan's armed forces.
However, the army will contribute all of the donated vaccine to health workers, saying they are the real heroes because they have been “fighting against the pandemic and saving precious lives,” it said.
It praised the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese government for donating the vaccine, which it did not identify.
About a week ago, Beijing donated 500,000 doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistani authorities, who are using it to vaccinate front-line health workers.
Pakistan has reported 12,026 deaths among 555,511 cases of the coronavirus.
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VIENNA — Schools, shops, hairdressing salons and museums are reopening in Austria after the country’s third lockdown, but concerns linger about infection rates and the spread of new coronavirus variants.
The relaxation of measures taking effect Monday is far from complete. People going to the hairdresser will need to show a negative test result that’s at most 48 hours old. In shops, customers have to wear full protective masks rather than just fabric face coverings.
Restaurants and hotels remain closed, and authorities say they won’t reopen this month.
The lockdown had been in place since Dec. 26. While the government has said that Austria needs to get as close as possible to an infection level of 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days, the figure is still considerably higher — currently 108.
The country’s opposition leader says that reopening more than schools is a significant risk.
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PORTLAND, Maine — America’s lobster exporters recovered from the Trump-era trade war with China to have a good 2020.
But the industry is approaching one of the most critical times of the year with trepidation because of the coronavirus.
Lunar New Year is typically one of the busiest parts of the calendar for America’s lobster shippers, who send millions of dollars worth of the crustaceans to China.
The holiday this year is Feb. 12, and industry members say they are prepared for a weak year.
Shipping is complicated this winter by the threat of the virus.
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BEIJING — China appears to have stamped out its latest coronavirus outbreaks centered on the northeast, reporting no new cases of local infection in its latest daily report.
The National Health Commission said Monday that 14 newly confirmed cases had been brought from outside the country but no new cases were registered in the provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin that have seen China’s latest clusters.
While China has relaxed some social distancing rules, extensive testing, electronic monitoring and periodic lockdowns remain in place.
The country has reported 4,636 deaths among almost 90,000 cases since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.
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JOHANNESBURG — South Africa has suspended plans to inoculate its front-line health care workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine after a small clinical trial suggested that it isn’t effective in preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country.
South Africa received its first 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week and was expected to begin giving jabs to health care workers in mid-February. The disappointing early results indicate that an inoculation drive using the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be useful.
The trial results, which aren’t yet peer-reviewed, suggested the AstraZeneca vaccine “provides minimal protection against mild-moderate COVID-19 infection” among young adults exposed to the South Africa variant.
Oxford University and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg said that protection against more severe forms of the disease could not be assessed in the trial because those participating were at low risk.
The variant appears more infectious and is driving a deadly resurgence, accounting for more than 90% of COVID-19 cases, health minister Zweli Mkhize said Sunday night.
