Quito, Jan 17 (EFE).- Starting on Monday, Ecuador is implementing strict epidemiological monitoring and gathering restrictions after a 300 percent spike in Covid-19 infections during the worst week since the start of the pandemic with 42,000 newly detected cases. With an eye toward reducing the number of infections, most of them in all likelihood from …
Guam, the Maldives and San Marino, as well as some US states, are opening to tourists looking to beat vaccination waiting times back home.
But questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) about the rise of vaccine vacations have been met with a stern warning not to travel.
Carl Gutierrez is the chief executive of the Guam Visitors Bureau and a former governor of the United States territory.
He is one of the masterminds behind Air Vaccine and Vacation - Airvnv - a start-up operation for the Covid-19 era that s just launched in the tiny western Pacific island.
Pfizer s Covid-19 vaccine.
Photo: AFP
Medsafe s Medicine Assessment Advisory Committee will meet tomorrow to decide whether to approve it.
It was using data from Pfizer s clinical trials as well as from countries which had already been using the vaccine under emergency situations.
Medsafe group manager Chris James said they had been working with Australian and British regulators, as well as the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. That data is really helpful and New Zealand is in a fortunate position that we re able to learn a lot from countries that have been using the vaccine in their populations, he said.
Mass vaccination campaigns are under way around the world in the fight back against the coronavirus.
A nurse holds a vial of the Pfizer vaccine at the Pablo Arturo Suarez Hospital in Quito on 21 January, 2021.
Photo: AFP
A range of vaccines, designed in completely different ways, are being used to reduce people s chances of getting sick, needing hospital treatment or dying.
And two new vaccines have just been shown to work in large scale clinical trials.
Why do we need a vaccine?
It is more than a year since the virus first emerged, yet the vast majority of people are still vulnerable to the virus.