Coronavirus Live News: Canada Secured Nearly 10 Vaccine Doses Per Person; US deaths pass 450,000 | World news

The United States – the hardest hit country in the world in terms of both the number of coronavirus cases and the number of people who died during the pandemic, has passed a death toll of 450,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, as it approaches the staggering half. lost a million lives.

The Biden administration has warned that the US toll could exceed 600,000 before the virus is under control.

Canada has the right to receive injections under the Covax scheme, which uses upfront purchases by rich countries to support vaccine development and subsidize doses for poorer countries. It contributed approximately $ 345 million, half of which to pay for its own doses.

But global health authorities have criticized countries for entering into private deals – of which Canada has done enough to secure 9.6 doses per person – that they say are driving up vaccine prices and representing a form of ‘double dipping’ – taking supplies from Covax while simultaneously signing private agreements that make it more difficult for the facility to secure doses that would be distributed fairly.

Other countries that have reserved significant stocks through side agreements with pharmaceutical companies, including Australia, Israel and the UK, have opted not to receive or be allocated a vaccine from the first batch of allocations announced Wednesday.

More from the Guardian’s report Michael Safi and Leyland Cecco:

Canada will receive a significant amount of vaccines in the coming months through a platform designed to maximize delivery to poor countries, according to a new forecast, despite reserving the most doses per person in the world through direct deals with pharmaceutical companies.

Chile and New Zealand, which have also entered into controversial side agreements to secure their own vaccine supplies, will also receive above-average doses, according to the interim allocation schedule released by Covax on Wednesday.

Covax, a mechanism to distribute Covid-19 doses fairly around the world, aims to deliver approximately 330 million doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines to 145 countries by June, volumes that the company says will be enough to cover an average of 3.3. % of the population of each country.

Ottawa has led the world in direct deals with drug companies to secure its own supplies and reserve enough for about 9.6 doses per person, according to Guardian analysis.

Michael Safi and Leyland Cecco from The Guardian report:

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus with me, Helen Sullivan.

As always, you can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Canada will receive a significant amount of vaccines in the coming months through a platform designed to maximize delivery to poor countries, according to a new forecast, despite reserving the most doses per person in the world through direct deals with pharmaceutical companies.

The Globe and Mail reports that Canada will be the only G7 country in the world to accept vaccines from the program.

My colleagues Michael Safi and Leyland Cecco report that Canada has the right to receive injections under the Covax program, which uses advance purchases by rich countries to support vaccine development and subsidize doses for poorer countries.

But Ottawa has also led the world into direct deals with drug companies to secure its own supplies, and according to a Guardian analysis, enough is reserved for about 9.6 doses per person.

More about this shortly. For now, here are the other major recent developments:

• Regulatory authorities in Belgium are the latest in Europe to advise against administration of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine to the elderly due to lack of efficacy data.
• SwitZerland has withheld approval for Oxford / AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, his drug regulator said today.
• Leaders in Europe are recklessly putting the health of their own people at risk by using self-service point scoring to attack the introduction of the UK’s coronavirus vaccine, British health experts have warned. “The views of politicians in Europe are in stark contrast to the scientific view of the European regulator,” said a former head of the drug regulator.
• New coronavirus infections in Greece have increased by more than 1,000 for the second consecutive day, with health authorities adding 1,151 to the country’s census after a month of the daily figure remaining in the triple digits.
• Veterinarians in Germany have trained detection dogs to detect the corona virus in human saliva samples with an accuracy of 94%.
• The Covax facility schedule aims to distribute at least 330 million doses by the first half of 2021, the co-leaders announced Wednesday. It has also signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India for up to 1.1 billion doses of AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines at $ 3 per dose for low- and middle-income countries.
• AstraZeneca and Oxford University are aiming to develop a next-generation vaccine as early as the fall to address new variants. a senior executive at the manufacturer told Reuters.