Vaccine

The European Union and African leaders agreed to a "renewed partnership" at a summit last week with pledges of major investments, but Europe was accused of ignoring calls to waive patents for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has urged people to get Turkovac shots, the locally developed vaccine against COVICD-19, saying that it is already available in all 81 provinces of the county.

Turkey's three most populous cities, Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, have seen increases in the weekly COVID-19 cases at varying rates.

The incidence rate, measuring the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 people, rose slightly to around 895 in Istanbul, which is home to nearly 16 million residents, in the week of Jan. 29-Feb. 4 from 890 between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28.

"If the experts of the commission that the government is supposed to appoint decide to cancel the compulsory vaccination, we will listen to that," he said.
Nehammer said that the law is constantly being analyzed, which is required by the governors of the provinces.

About a third of the European population has not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19, and Bulgaria ranks last in this indicator. This was said online to journalists by Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, quoted by BTA.

About 20,000 deaths from complications of Covid-19 were prevented by vaccination against the coronavirus infection, according to a new pre-published study by professors Sotiris Tsiodras and Theodoros Lytras, conducted during the period 11 January 2020 - 8 December 2021.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Canada's capital on Jan. 28 to protest vaccine mandates, masks and lockdowns.

Some parked on the grounds of the National War Memorial and danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, others carried signs and flags with swastikas and some used the statue of Canadian hero Terry Fox to display an anti-vaccine statement, sparking widespread condemnation.

"I do not believe that Omicron will end the pandemic. New variants of the virus are constantly appearing. The mutation of the virus is a normal biological process. For every virus - not just this one. There will be many other mutations. The question is not whether the pandemic with Omicron will disappear, but what measures will be taken.

The benefits do not outweigh the risks of the vaccine, Swedish authorities said

The German "Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases" reported 203.136 positive tests in the last 24 hours, which is 69.600 cases more than on the same day a week ago, Reuters reports. The seven-day incidence per 100.000 people rose to 1.017 from 941 the previous day, while 188 people died. Thus, the number of deaths has increased to 117.314 since the outburst of the pandemic.