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Southeast Asian nations go ahead with COVID-19 vaccination

April 20, 2021 by en.vietnamplus.vn

AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippines ‘ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson of the US and India’s Bharat Biotech, it said on April 20.

Both vaccines can be administered to people aged 18 and above in the Philippines, the agency chief, Rolando Enrique Domingo, said in a mobile text message.

So far, the Southeast Asian country has granted emergency use approval for six coronavirus vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson is conducting late-stage clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines.

Data from worldometers.info, the Philippines has confirmed more than 945,000 COVID-19 cases and 16,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

Meanwhile, the Brunei government has announced that the administration of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine can resume in the country after two weeks of reviewing adverse side effects.

According to Brunei’s Ministry of Health, since the temporary pause on the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on April 6, it had reviewed reports from other countries of very rare cases of blood clots with low platelets following vaccination with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

In Brunei, among the 2,323 individuals who have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, no events of this nature have been identified, the health ministry said.

The health ministry said that based on available data, taking into account the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine, especially to those at risk such as the elderly, and given that the reported incidence of blood clots with low platelets is very rare, the COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Committee believes that the administration of this vaccine can resume in Brunei with conditions.

Brunei reported no new coronavirus cases on April 19, with the national tally unchanged at 221.

Indonesia has extended the implementation of restrictions on micro-based community activities (PPKM) from April 20 to May 3.

The PPKM extends on five provinces, namely West Sumatra, Jambi, Bangka Belitung Islands, Lampung, and West Kalimantan, said Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto on April 19.

The PPKM scheme was first applied in Indonesia on January 11 this year and has been extended several times.

Indonesia on April 18 received another six million doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine bulk from China, which is part of the supply of 140 million doses to be delivered this year./.

VNA

National, Asia-Pacific quality awards to be presented this weekend

April 20, 2021 by en.vietnamplus.vn

At the press conference (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Winners of the National Quality Awards and the Global Performance Excellence Awards (GPEA) 2019-2020 will be honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on April 25.

The ceremony will be broadcast live by Vietnam Television and Voice of Vietnam (VOV), a press conference held by the Ministry of Science and Technology on April 20 heard.

The awards aim to honour businesses that have made outstanding achievements in improving the quality of products and services, competitiveness, operational efficiency, and regional and international economic integration.

In his remarks, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh said that despite the challenges and difficulties during 2020, many enterprises still showed successful operations, especially in terms of quality and productivity improvements.

He expressed his hope that Vietnam’s business community will grow even stronger in the time ahead.

The National Quality Awards were approved by the Prime Minister and are included in the GPEA. The PM signed decisions presenting the awards to 61 companies in 2019 and 55 last year.

Over the past 25 years, more than 2,000 enterprises have won these awards, including 240 receiving the golden prize. Of note, 50 were also honoured with a GPEA.

The GPEA programme is administered by the Asia-Pacific Quality Organisation (APQO), which is a non-profit organisation bringing together all of the leading quality societies in the Asia Pacific region.

To be eligible for the prestigious award, businesses must earn a national quality award for two years preceding the year of application and be recommended by the national awards body./.

VNA

UNICEF says AstraZeneca supply problems outside India resolved

April 21, 2021 by tuoitrenews.vn

Problems that have delayed AstraZeneca supplies to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility have been resolved, UNICEF told Reuters on Tuesday, saying it should receive 65 million doses by end-May from manufacturers outside India.

The rollout of COVID vaccines has been disrupted by supply shortfalls in many countries, aggravated by a temporary hold on exports of the inoculation made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) as the country battles to contain a surge in infections.

“The initial challenges related to release of vaccines due to ramping up a new supply chain and production across different continents have now been resolved,” the U.N. agency responsible for distributing vaccines through the programme told Reuters in an email.

“At this point, UNICEF expects around 65 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from suppliers outside of India will be available for supply through the end of May to 80 countries.”

COVAX is also holding talks with New Delhi for SII to resume supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine, UNICEF said.

In addition to the 65 million doses expected from outside India, mostly made in South Korea, it also anticipates receiving 50 million doses next month from the SII compared with almost none this month.

COVAX had expected a total of more than 100 million doses from SII between February and May, excluding supplies for India, but has so far received only about 18.2 million.

As India battles its biggest jump in coronavirus infections and opens up vaccinations to all its adults from next month, SII is unlikely to be able to restart major exports soon.

“While discussions on the resumption of SII deliveries continue, COVAX will continue to transmit vaccines from other delivery partners,” such as Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca outside India, UNICEF said.

“A number of shipments are currently being planned to ensure that all available supplies are put to use without delays following release from the manufacturers. Plans are also being laid to make up lost ground as soon as supply allows.”

India this week approved an advance payment of about $400 million for SII, the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, for it to expand its monthly capacity to more than 100 million doses by end-May from up to 70 million now.

India has so far administered more than 127 million vaccine doses, 91% of those the SII-made AstraZeneca drug. The other vaccine in use is domestically developed Covaxin.