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US backs ‘historic’ COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver, India deaths skyrocket
Move comes as rich nations face accusations of hoarding vaccines SAMAA | AFP - Posted: May 6, 2021 | Last Updated: 3 weeks ago SAMAA | AFP Posted: May 6, 2021 | Last Updated: 3 weeks ago
Activists rally on the National Mall in support of global access to COVID-19 vaccines on May 5, 2021 in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP
The United States threw its weight behind a waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines as India Thursday posted record deaths and infections from a catastrophic wave swamping the country.
Rich nations have faced accusations of hoarding shots while poor countries struggle to get inoculation programs off the ground, with the virus surging across the developing world in contrast to the easing of restrictions in Europe and the United States.
(Getty Images)
The United States threw its weight behind a waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines as India Thursday posted record deaths and infections from a catastrophic wave swamping the country.
Rich nations have faced accusations of hoarding shots while poor countries struggle to get inoculation programs off the ground, with the virus surging across the developing world in contrast to the easing of restrictions in Europe and the United States.
Under intense pressure to ease protections for vaccine manufacturers, Washington’s Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Wednesday the country “supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines”.
Support Grows For Vaccine Patent Waiver As India Deaths Hit New Record ibtimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ibtimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
[BenarNews/S.Mahfuz]
The highly contagious “Indian variant” of the coronavirus has reached the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia, health officials said Monday.
Malaysian hospitals, meanwhile, are dangerously close to running out of beds for COVID-19 patients, with the country recording 60,000 new infections since early April, the Health Department chief said.
“We have detected one case of the [Indian] variant at our international gateway, and so far, we had only seen variants from South Africa and the U.K.,” Malaysian Health Minister Adham Baba said.
Making matters worse is a rise in infections from the other two highly contagious strains.