05:35
Australia expects AstraZeneca vaccine to be rolled out in March despite EU export threat
The Australian government expects doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be rolled out in March and that there will be no shortfalls, despite threats by the European Union to block exports of the vaccine due to a lack of supply.
A spokesman for the health minister, Greg Hunt, said there was immense competition for Covid-19 vaccines around the world.
“We foresaw that early on,” the spokesman said. “We have the comfort and security of sovereign production here in Australia. That is why Australia has a contract with AstraZeneca and CSL for the onshore manufacture of approximately 50 million doses … these doses are being manufactured in Melbourne.
“This puts us in a strong position and it’s expected that doses will be available in March, as will international doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
As well as the 50 million doses being produced on-shore, Australia will also import 3.8 million doses:
05:06
Indonesia on brink of 1m cases
04:23
The former head of a Canadian casino company and his actor wife have been fined after chartering a private plane to a remote community near the Alaska border and receiving coronavirus vaccines meant for vulnerable Indigenous residents.
According to officials, Rodney and Ekaterina Baker travelled by chartered plane to Beaver Creek, a community of 100 in Canada’s Yukon territory, where a mobile team was administering the Moderna vaccine to residents. Among those slated for the vaccine were elderly members of the White River First Nation.
At the mobile clinic, the Bakers claimed to be workers at a local motel, according to reporting by the Yukon News.
But after the couple asked for a ride to the airport and the hotel confirmed they weren’t employees, staff with the mobile clinic called enforcement officers:
03:46
03:31
Mexico death toll passes 100,000
Mexico’s official death toll from the coronavirus passed 150,000 on Monday following a surge in infections in recent weeks that has stretched the health system in the capital to the limit and led to the president contracting Covid.
The Health Ministry on Monday reported 659 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to 150,273. There were 8,521 new cases on Monday for a total of 1,771,740 confirmed infections.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Mexico has struggled to contain the pandemic and has the fourth-highest death toll worldwide. In the capital, Mexico City, families are struggling to buy or rent vital tanks of oxygen for relatives suffering from Covid.
On Sunday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 67, who has a history of heart problems and high blood pressure, said he had tested positive for Covid and was being treated for mild symptoms.
Government officials close to Lopez Obrador said on Monday they would undergo testing. Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, who has spearheaded Mexico’s response to the outbreak, said in a video call during a regular government news conference that he was self-isolating due to potential exposure.
03:19
03:06
More from New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern who has just held her first post-cabinet press conference of 2021 and asked her people to remain “unified”.
“New Zealand will only truly feel like it returns to normal when there is a certain level of normality in the rest of the world too.”
“But given the risks in the world around us and the uncertainty of the global rollout of the vaccine, we can expect our borders to be impacted for much of this year.”
“For travel to restart, we need one of two things. We either need the confidence that being vaccinated means you don’t pass Covid-19 on to others – and we don’t know that yet – or we need enough of our population to be vaccinated and protected that people can safely re-enter New Zealand. Both possibilities will take some time.”
“In the meantime, we will continue to pursue travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific, but the rest of the world simply poses too great a risk to our health and our economy to take the risk at this stage.”
“Our team of 5 million worked too hard last year for us to risk any of the gains we have made. Health gains that see us going about our daily lives pretty much as normal, and saw the economy bounce back strongly from the initial shock. We need to remain unified, we showed last year how good we are at that and that’s exactly what we intend and need to do for 2021.”
02:41
Ardern disappointed that Australia PM closed border with New Zealand following new case
Ardern’s comments about keeping borders closed do not apply to the travel bubble with Australia.
Ardern said on Tuesday she is “disappointed” that Australian Scott Morrison decided to close its border to New Zealand after a single case was identified in the community this week.
Ardern said her government was still working to have a travel bubble up and running with Australia in the first quarter of this year, but a country to country bubble was now looking unlikely, as each state in Australia had different Covid-19 restrictions.
The prime minister said she needs to have confidence the two-way bubble won’t be susceptible to “short-notice border closures” such as happened on Monday.
Although it was Australia’s decision to close its border to New Zealand, Ardern offered assurance that the sole Northland community case was “well under control”.
02:40
New Zealand PM: borders to remain closed to foreign nationals until Kiwis ‘vaccinated and protected’
Prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern has said her country’s borders will remain closed to foreign nationals until Kiwis are “vaccinated and protected” and this would be “some time away”.
“We have taken a conservative approach and I stand by that decision,” Ardern said.
Vaccination of the general New Zealand population is not slated to begin until at least the middle of 2021, while border workers and health workers will begin receiving vaccinations in the second quarter of this year.
Ardern said her government would prioritise travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific but any opening up to the rest of the globe would need her country – and the rest of the world – to return to some state of normal.
Updated