VIRUS-TICKER vaccination start in Australia By Reuters

–

Feb 22 (Reuters) – The following are current developments related to the virus pandemic:

01:51 a.m. – Australian Head of State Scott Morrison is vaccinated with the BioNTech (NASDAQ 🙂 / Pfizer PFE.N vaccine at the start of the vaccination campaign. “Today is a real milestone in our joint response to the fight against Covid-19 and to get things under control as quickly as possible,” says the head of the TGA health authority, Michael Kidd, on the public television channel ABC. By the end of the week, more than 60,000 cans from the German manufacturer will initially be inoculated to health care workers and senior citizens. The first batch of AstraZeneca’s vaccine is expected to reach Australia in the next two weeks.

1:00 a.m. – The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, warns against loosening the situation in view of the increasing number of infections. “Anyone who talks about easing in times of rising R-values ​​is acting absolutely irresponsible,” says the doctor to the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” (Monday editions) according to a preliminary report. Because with every opening there is a significant increase in the numbers. “The incidence value shows where we are currently. The R value shows where we are going. A value well above 1.0 threatens exponential growth again – and that is exactly the case now.” The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) had given the nationwide seven-day R-value on Sunday afternoon as 1.10, which was the third time in a row that it was above the critical level of 1.0. The seven-day incidence also climbed again to over 60 cases per 100,000 population.

12:20 a.m. – SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil expects the federal and state governments to make concrete opening decisions at their next lockdown summit on March 3rd. “We have to make an effort to make a lot of things possible again for people in this country as quickly as possible,” said Klingbeil in the political talk of the newspaper “Bild”. Politicians now have to send out other signals “than always closing down, extending.” It must be understandable from what point onwards what happens.

12:14 a.m. – The SPD doubts the promise made by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) to provide free corona tests for all German citizens from March 1st. “During the vaccination we noticed that we couldn’t believe Jens Spahn’s announcements. Corrections and corrections continue to be made. And I’m a bit afraid that we will create the next disappointment (during testing),” says Secretary General Lars Klingbeil Politics talk by the newspaper “Bild”. There are still “many questions” that Spahn did not answer.

–