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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Coronavirus live news: UK foreign secretary says EU threat to block vaccine exports needs explaining

Dominic Raab warns Ursula von der Leyen ‘the world’s watching’ after threat to block supplies to countries that are not reciprocating or with high vaccination rates * EU threatens to halt vaccine exports to UK unless it gets ‘fair share’ * AstraZeneca jab: EU regulator ‘firmly convinced’ benefits outweigh risks * Why home-produced vaccine hasn’t helped India, Russia and China rollouts * Australia among countries ‘blocking vaccine access’ for PNG * UK coronavirus updates – live 6.04pm GMT GREECE on Wednesday urged doctors to volunteer their services to the state health system as it struggles to contain fast-spreading coronavirus infections. Reuters reports: “We are at the most critical juncture of the pandemic,” Health Minister VASSILIS KIKILIAS told a weekly briefing, calling for general practitioners and pneumonologists to volunteer to work in state hospitals. He said that if some 200 doctors did not respond to his call in the next 48 hours he would recommend to the prime minister to allow health authorities to force them work for the state health system. 5.43pm GMT ENGLAND’S deputy chief medical officer said on Wednesday there was a lot of reassuring evidence suggesting there is no increased risk of blood clots from AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, adding he expected the European Medicines Agency to agree. JONATHAN VAN-TAM said at a news conference: Behind the scenes, there is a lot of work going on to look at whether there is a signal in relation to what we call venous thrombo-embolic events - clots. And there’s a lot of evidence emerging now that is reassuring that there is no overall excess signal or increased risk. And I expect, without prejudice to their absolute findings, those to be the final conclusions of the EMA and [Britain’s] MHRA in due course. Continue reading...


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