Health care

Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF has filed for registration of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in the European Union and expects it to be reviewed in February, as Moscow seeks to speed up its availability worldwide.

Turkey has administered the coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac to more than 1 million citizens who have received their first shots as of Jan. 20, according to the Health Ministry.

Turkey plans to start vaccinating nearly 90,000 residents and workers at care and nursing homes and disabled care facilities against COVID-19 this week, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Authorities are also hoping to complete administering the first dose of the virus jab to the country's more than 1 million health care professionals this week.

A total of 1,019 patients have been discharged from the ICU

Greece's vaccination program is going as fast as the delivery of new Covid-19 jabs allow it to go, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers on Friday, adding that there will be a delay in the delivery of Pfizer vaccines this month.

The National Committee for the Coordination of anti-COVID-19 Vaccination Activities (CNCAV) estimates that 84.6% of the medical staff, who started immunization in stage I, could be vaccinated by the end of January.

The Minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, has approved extending the annual anti-flu vaccination campaign for all population groups, without having an imposed prioritization of the risk groups. "It is necessary to continue the anti-flu vaccination during this pandemic period, to prevent sickness of any form is essential.

The vaccine works. For now, Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines do have effect. With the AstraZeneca vaccine, the adequate immune response is not 95%, but is lower, and some countries now have second thoughts about buying these vaccines. Bulgaria ordered most vaccines from AstraZeneca, said on BNT Prof.

US firm Johnson & Johnson is likely to apply for EU approval for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in February, a top lawmaker said on Wednesday.

Clinical data of the vaccine, which Johnson & Johnson is developing through its subsidiary Janssen, have been assessed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) since Dec. 1 under a rolling review to speed up possible approval.

"We will maintain these measures, we will not tighten them. Schools should start working, students should return to the benches or a combined teaching model should be applied. We must also keep the PCR test or the quarantine measure for those who do not have it," he said.
He believes that by respecting the measures during the holidays, we have avoided a new wave.