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Vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax report positive trial results
A coronavirus vaccine developed by the US firm Novavax has been shown to be 89 per cent effective in preventing covid-19 in clinical trials. The trials included participants in the UK and South Africa, and found the vaccine to be 86 per cent effective against the UK variant of the virus, but only 60 per cent effective against the variant in South Africa. Novavax said it will immediately begin development on a vaccine specifically targeted to the South African variant.
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Janssen, a subsidiary of US firm Johnson & Johnson, announced that its covid-19 vaccine showed 66 per cent efficacy in an international trial. These results are based on a single dose of the vaccine, which makes it easier to administer than the two-shot vaccines that have already been approved. The company has said it will sell its vaccine on a not-for-profit basis.
By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
A social media post has claimed that only 26 patients died from ‘COVID-19 alone’ at a Welsh Health Board. This statistic, however, has been taken out of context in posts that use it to further arguments that the UK’s pandemic response has been disproportionate.
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The post (here) claims that between March 1 and Dec. 31, there had been only 26 deaths from COVID-19 at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board Wales.
“Any life lost is horrific but this figure sounds more like the true figure rather than those that died following testing positive for COVID 19”, the post writes.
MORE than 30,000 people in North Wales have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Teresa Owen, executive director of Public Health, said on January 19, that in the past week BCUHB had administered the highest number of vaccinations of any Welsh Health Board, which equated to 22 per cent of the cumulative number of first dose vaccines administered in Wales. This compares to 11 per cent of the Welsh total two weeks ago. Ms Owen said: We started this week having vaccinated over 30,000 people since the beginning of the programme. We are confident that we have the capacity and the operational plan in place to meet the first target. This requires more than 184,000 vaccines to be administered before February 14. The only limiting factor will be the access to vaccine supplies.
Dr Owen Evans, Karen Shaw and Ali Ellis; Middle row - Dr Clare Corbett, Dr Eve Blakemore and Staff Nurse Linda Hughes-Roberts; front row - Nurse Manager Nicola Anderton, Staff Nurse Lois Roberts, Sian Turner and Iwona Kedzierska A SENIOR partner at Clarence Medical Centre in Rhyl who has been a GP in the area for more than 20 years has given an insight into their Covid vaccination efforts. Dr Simon Dobson said - up to January 17 - he and his team had vaccinated 17 homes in Rhyl, a total of 416 residents. He added: We have done this on behalf of the North Denbighshire GP cluster. We would like to express our thanks to the staff of the care homes for their help in making the process a success. We are also grateful for the pragmatism of the Central Area team of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) for facilitating the supply of vaccines to make it happen.