LISBON, Portugal — Portugal is getting extra assist from its European Union companions to ease strain on hospitals crunched by the pandemic, with France and Luxembourg the newest nations to supply medical employees.
The Portuguese well being ministry says France is sending a health care provider and three nurses, whereas Luxembourg is offering two medical doctors and two nurses.
The well being ministry mentioned in an announcement late Thursday the medics ought to arrive subsequent week.
The German military despatched eight medical doctors and 18 nurses earlier this month to assist at a Lisbon hospital.
The variety of COVID-19 sufferers in hospital and in intensive care fell Thursday for the third straight day, however Portugal’s seven-day common of each day deaths remained the world’s highest, at 1.97 per 100,000 folks, in response to Johns Hopkins College.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
Germany reinstates some border controls to battle variants. Dr. Fauci expects coronavirus shot classes to open up by April in U.S. California’s virus demise toll surpasses New York. African nations nonetheless inspired to make use of AstraZeneca vaccine. President Joe Biden’s virus-fighting crew is on a struggle technique to defeat the coronavirus.
— Observe AP’s pandemic protection 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:
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s second-largest metropolis will start its third lockdown attributable to a quickly spreading COVID-19 cluster centred on lodge quarantine.
The five-day lockdown can be enforced throughout Victoria state to forestall the virus spreading from the state capital Melbourne, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says.
Solely worldwide flights that have been already within the air when the lockdown was introduced could be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport.
A inhabitants of 6.5 million folks can be locked down from 11:59 p.m. till the identical time on Wednesday due to a contagious British variant of the virus first detected at a Melbourne Airport lodge has contaminated 13 folks.
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MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia is on monitor to fabricate and administer its personal model of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine by the top of March, the well being minister mentioned on Friday.
Well being Minister Greg Hunt was talking at biotechnology firm CSL Ltd.’s plant in Melbourne the place the primary doses are nearing completion.
The primary of Australia’s 20 million doses of German manufactured Pfizer vaccine is to be administered in late February.
The primary of the 1.2 million doses of overseas-made AstraZeneca vaccine is to be accessible in Australia by early March, though the Australian regulator has but to approve it.
The federal government maintains that Australia’s comparatively low incidence of COVID-19 doesn’t justify emergency vaccine approvals.
The federal government expects that everybody amongst Australia’s inhabitants of 26 million who desires to be vaccinated and is over the age of 16 may have entry to a vaccine by October.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand’s first coronavirus vaccine doses are attributable to arrive within the nation subsequent week, with border employees getting inoculated from Feb. 20, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduced on Friday.
New Zealand regulators gave provisional approval for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech earlier this month.
Ardern says it’s pleasing to get the primary doses forward of Pfizer’s preliminary schedule, given the pressures on international demand.
New Zealand has no neighborhood transmission of the virus and the nation’s 12,000 border employees are thought-about essentially the most weak to catching and spreading the illness as a result of they work together with arriving travellers, a few of whom are contaminated.
Nevertheless, New Zealand’s success in stamping out the virus additionally means it might want to wait longer than many different nations to get vaccine doses for the final inhabitants. Officers say they’ll hope to start basic inoculations within the second half of the 12 months.
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A COVID-19 variant first recognized in Southern California seems to have unfold to not less than 19 states and several other different nations, a research printed Thursday suggests.
The variant accounted for about 44% of Southern California circumstances as of late January, practically double from a month earlier, the research mentioned. It was first recognized in a single case in July and reemerged throughout a vacation surge in circumstances within the Los Angeles space.
Extra analysis is required to find out if the variant spreads extra simply than different COVID-19 variants or causes extra illness, mentioned research co-author Jasmine Plummer, a Cedars-Sinai researcher.
The paper was printed on-line within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s prime infectious illness professional, wrote in an accompanying editorial that mentioned new variants probably will proceed to emerge till unfold of the virus is decreased.
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LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles is quickly closing 5 mass vaccination websites together with Dodger Stadium for lack of provide because the state faces persevering with criticism over the vaccine rollout.
Mayor Eric Garcetti says the town will exhaust its provide of Moderna first doses — two are required for full immunization — forcing it to shut drive-through and walk-up vaccination websites Friday and Saturday.
They might not reopen till the town will get extra provides, maybe subsequent Tuesday or Wednesday. Smaller cell vaccination clinics will proceed working.
Garcetti says Los Angeles makes use of about 13,000 doses in a typical day however obtained solely 16,000 this week.
“This isn’t the place I need to be,” Garcetti mentioned. “It’s not the place we need to be.”
California has now recorded essentially the most confirmed deaths from the coronavirus with 45,496, edging previous New York’s toll of 45,312, in response to a tally by Johns Hopkins College.
Different coronavirus numbers are bettering within the state, nonetheless.
The seven-day take a look at positivity price has fallen to 4.8%, and the latest each day variety of confirmed constructive circumstances was 8,390, down from 53,000 in December.
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NEW YORK — U.S. well being officers at the moment are recommending that people who find themselves absolutely vaccinated in opposition to the coronavirus don’t have to enter a 14-day quarantine after publicity to an contaminated individual.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention quietly posted the up to date steerage this week. It says vaccinated folks could skip quarantine if they’re asymptomatic, and if their contact with an contaminated individual got here not less than two weeks after receipt of the ultimate dose within the two-shot vaccination sequence and inside three months of receipt of that final dose.
The advice is just like what the CDC has mentioned about individuals who developed immunity after being contaminated with COVID.
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SAN FRANCISCO — A surge of COVID-19 circumstances on the College of California, Berkeley, has prompted college officers to increase a lockdown on about 2,000 college students in residence halls and bar them from out of doors train.
The college says greater than 400 principally undergraduates have examined constructive since an outbreak began in mid-January. A weekly breakdown reveals about 200 constructive assessments because the begin of February.
A lockdown initially put in place for Feb. 1-8 has been prolonged by way of not less than mid-month. Among the many strict new guidelines are a ban on out of doors train that goes past state tips encouraging folks to get exterior to train.
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