United States will pledge US$4 billion to a vaccination program for poorer countries at a global economic summit this Friday and hopes other countries will follow and contribute additional funds, the White House anticipated.
With COVAX delivery of new vaccines expected soon in the Americas, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa F. Etienne called for overcoming barriers to ensure “fair and equitable access.”
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard during a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council called on rich countries to stop hoarding vaccines against Covid-19 impeding the poor from being inoculated.
Addressing the equitable distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus in the Security Council, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres proposed the creation of an emergency task force by the G20 countries to prepare and help implement a global immunization plan.
Peruvian interim president announced Monday night that 487 officials took part in the so-called vacunagate by taking advantage of their privileged positions to secretly receive early inoculations of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine that the government then bought for doctors and other health workers battling the pandemic. The list includes the former ministers of foreign affairs and health and the former president.
Argentina on Tuesday reported 4,003 new COVID-19 cases and 106 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total caseload to 2,033,060 and the death toll to 50,432, the health authorities said. Since the first case was detected on March 3, 2020, some 1,838,291 people infected with the virus have recovered, the health ministry added.
Rio de Janeiro suspends Covid-19 vaccination campaign until next week because the Brazilian city has run out of doses, Mayor Eduardo Paes announced. I have been informed that the new doses did not arrive. We will have to interrupt our campaign from Tuesday, Paes wrote on Twitter.
President Jair Bolsonaro said the Brazilian government would seek emergency use authorization for an Israeli-developed nasal spray against Covid-19 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a miracle treatment.
The Cyprus-based British cruise line Swan Hellenic is the next in a growing number of cruise lines that has stated it will be making vaccinations a requirement for all crew members on board.
One of the crew members from the Falklands bound trawler Argos Pereira, currently retained in Montevideo with 28 Covid-19 cases tested positive, had to be evacuated Monday afternoon and taken to a local hospital, because of further complications to his health situation.