Taiwan, once a COVID-19 success story, is now struggling with a spike in cases and vaccine shortages - 27-May-2021
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Taiwan, once a COVID-19 success story, is now struggling with a spike in cases and vaccine shortages - 27-May-2021
nzcity.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzcity.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This article has been updated.
A few sentences have shaken a century of science.
A week ago, more than a year after the World Health Organization declared that we face a pandemic, a page on its website titled “Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): How Is It Transmitted?” got a seemingly small update.
The agency’s response to that question had been that “current evidence suggests that the main way the virus spreads is by respiratory droplets” which are expelled from the mouth and quickly fall to the ground “among people who are in close contact with each other.”
The revised response still emphasizes transmission in close contact but now says it may be via aerosols smaller respiratory particles that can float as well as droplets. It also adds a reason the virus can also be transmitted “in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor settings,” saying this is because “aerosols remain suspended in the air or travel farther than 1 meter.”
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After delayed shipments, booking bungles and safety concerns, the federal government last month announced its “recalibrated” vaccine roll-out strategy.
That s well below the government’s initial plan to have 4 million adults vaccinated by the end of March and everyone (about 20 million adults, meaning 40 million doses) vaccinated by this October.
That schedule was thrown out after AstraZeneca - the backbone of Australia’s vaccination plan - was no longer recommended for people under the age of 50.
People wait in line for a vaccine in Melbourne on 3 May.
AAP
Under the new approach, those over 50 who don’t qualify for phase 1a or 1a have been brought forward in a bid to use up AstraZeneca supplies and save the limited Pfizer doses for high-risk groups and younger people. As of this week, they can now receive their jab at GP respiratory clinics and state and territory vaccination clinics.