Pages

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Coronavirus live news: highest number of France ICU Covid patients in a year; WHO criticises vaccine distribution

5,626 patients in French intensive care units; ‘travesty’ that some countries have not had enough access to vaccines to inoculate health workers, says WHO * EMA denies finding link between AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots * AstraZeneca jab could have causal link to rare blood clots, say UK experts * Israel and Chile both led on Covid jabs, so why is one back in lockdown? * EU blames AstraZeneca ‘failure’ for sluggish Covid vaccine rollout * Aegean islands aim to become first fully vaccinated areas of Greece 6.17pm BST The WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) expects there will be no reason to change its assessment that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 outweigh any risks, its regulatory director said on Tuesday. Reuters reports: The WHO is closely studying the latest data alongside European and other regulators, in light of reports of blood clots among people who have been vaccinated, said ROGERIO GASPAR, WHO director of regulation and prequalification. A senior official at Europe’s medicines regulator has said there is a clear “association” between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and very rare blood clots in the brain, though the direct cause of the clots is still unknown. 6.11pm BST Dozens of ITALIAN small business owners clashed with police on Tuesday as they tried to force their way into ROME’S parliament square to protest against the country’s long-running coronavirus restrictions. Reuters reports: “Freedom, freedom,” protesters shouted as police used batons and shields to push them back into an adjacent street. One policeman was injured after he was hit on the head by an object hurled at him from the crowd, local media reported. The government has imposed repeated curbs over the past 14 months to try to contain Covid-19, which has killed more than 111,000 people in Italy, the second worst tally in Europe after BRITAIN. Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com