German health minister says more needs to be done to bring virus under control despite falling cases; Russia reaches 3,591,066 cases * Biden plan to vaccinate 100m people in 100 days ‘doable’ * Bolsonaro rival says vaccine is ‘triumph of science against denialists’ * All adults in UK to be offered vaccine by September, says minister * ‘An unmitigated disaster’: America’s year of Covid * See all our coronavirus coverage 11.21am GMT FRANCE is on track to reach its target of vaccinating 1 million people against COVID-19 by the end of January and has enough doses to increase the total to 2.4 million by the end of February, health minister Olivier Veran said on Monday. During a visit to a vaccination centre in the eastern city of Grenoble, Veran told reporters that France had now set up about 800 such centres. “With the acceleration of the vaccination campaign in retirement homes, we will comfortably reach our goal of 1 million French people vaccinated by the end of this month,” he said. 11.19am GMT AUSTRIA, GREECE and DENMARK will jointly pressure the European Medicines Agency to approve AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday, adding: “Every week counts.” Kurz was speaking before a European leaders’ virtual summit on Thursday, and a day after he said Austria’s lockdown was being extended until at least Feb. 7 as it tries to contain highly infectious new variants, Reuters reports. EMA, the EU drugs regulator, said last week it would review the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Britain’s Oxford University this month under an accelerated timeline. Kurtz told a news conference: Every week counts. We expect that work be done day and night, that a decision be reached unbureaucratically and that Europe not fall behind. What is now needed is - based on all scientific facts, of course - an immediate and quick decision, because AstraZeneca can deliver up to two million doses in the first quarter for Austria alone, and that of course makes an enormous difference to our success in vaccinating the population. Yes, there will now have to be a small adjustment here or there because it currently seems as though we will receive 20% less, which will then be caught up in February at the latest. Continue reading...
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