January 26 coronavirus news

Because Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine vials are able to yield six doses, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says the United States’ contracted 200 million doses can be fulfilled two months earlier than expected. 

Some background: Each vial of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine was designed to contain five doses, but after some pharmacists reported they could to extract six doses, the FDA allowed an updated label that states: “After dilution, vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine contain six doses of 0.3mL of vaccine. Low dead-volume syringes and/or needles can be used to extract six doses from a single vial. If standard syringes and needles are used, there may not be sufficient volume to extract a sixth dose from a single vial.”

Bourla previously said that this increase in doses per vial, “provides an additional 20% capacity.” 

Pfizer told CNN on Friday that the company planned to base its vaccine commitment to the US government on doses, not vials, meaning it would count any extra doses that pharmacists can squeeze out of each vial.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN last week that Pfizer and the federal government will be keeping track of the sites with the ability to extract the full six doses and Pfizer will not charge for the extra dose per vial if sites aren’t able to extract it.

Officials with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are closely watching at least four coronavirus variants.

Here's what we know so far about them:

You can read more about the variants here.

Today, the historic Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building will double as a vaccination clinic for dozens of West Wing and National Security Council staff invited to receive the Covid vaccine, according to an email from the “Covid-19 Operations Team” reviewed by CNN. 

Officials have been told to report to the room where the White House Medical Unit will be administering the Pfizer vaccine to officials who present a valid government ID. The NSC and much of the West Wing has been ordered to telework since President Joe Biden took office, enforcing stricter Covid-prevention protocols than those of the previous administration. 

However for the NSC staff, who rely heavily on classified information to carry out their work, teleworking is far from ideal and there is now a rush to have staff vaccinated and back in the office to access the sensitive information that is critical to their work.

Several staffers, who are “holdovers” from the previous administration, already received the first dose of the vaccine before Trump left office, but most of those officials have also been ordered to telework indefinitely while the new administration decides on its Covid work protocols, according to several administration officials.

Brazil has temporarily banned the entry of foreign travelers who have passed through South Africa into the country. 

Direct flights from South Africa or flights passing through the country are now prohibited entry in Brazil. Similar restrictions had already been applied back in December for passengers and flights from the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. The measures aim to prevent the spread of new variants of coronavirus found in these countries. 

The ban is "on a temporary basis" and has no defined duration. Foreigners or nationals that are coming from those countries, or have passed through them in the past 14 days, would have then to quarantine for that period in countries that Brazil hasn’t yet declared banned before entering the county. 

The request to present a negative RT-PCR test result from not more than 72 hours prior to embarking is valid for all passengers, nationals and foreigners, coming from other countries.

The new restriction was established in an ordinance published today in Brazil's Official Gazette (DOU). The measure also renews the ban of entry via land or sea by any foreign travelers, which has been in force since March.

Airlines UK, the trade body representing airlines such as British Airways and Virgin, said the UK has already “introduced some of the highest levels of restrictions in the world” and “further measures would be catastrophic”.

Responding to speculation about further restrictions being put in place for international arrivals into the UK, Airlines UK in a joint statement with the Airport Operators Association warned the measures “will impact vital freight and PPE supplies and jeopardise tens of thousands of jobs and the many businesses that depend on aviation.”

The UK is set to make an announcement later Tuesday regarding the use of hotel quarantine, according to vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi.

UK Hospitality, which represents hotels tasked with introducing the quarantine plans, told CNN: “It is vitally important that we take steps to enforce existing quarantine and self-isolation arrangements for the UK.” 

“We are happy to play a full part in the national effort to help address this crisis. We have the capacity to help and businesses have already had plans in place to ensure their venues are safe,” it added.

However the UK association of travel agents, ABTA, says these measures could jeopardize summer vacation bookings. “No one is going to book a summer holiday if they have to quarantine at a hotel when they return,” said ABTA.

Travel to and from the UK has been largely limited since the UK suspended its travel corridors earlier in January. British media has reported that the UK government might impose a hotel quarantine on travelers coming from certain countries with known new variants.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran has approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, adding that Iran hopes to purchase and start joint production in the “near future," according to Russian news agency TASS.

The announcement comes following talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, TASS reported.  

During a conference on state TV, Iranian health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadaat Lari said the country recorded 6,420 new daily coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the country's total number of cases to 1,385,706.

Some background on Sputnik V:

Read more about Russia's Sputnik V vaccine here:

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed concern over “vaccine nationalism” in an address at this year’s virtual Davos summit.

While he didn’t identify a specific country, Ramaphosa asserted that wealthy nations had acquired more shots than they need.

“The rich countries of the world went out and acquired large doses of vaccines from the developers and manufacturers of these vaccines, and some countries have even gone beyond and acquired up to four times what their population needs, and that was aimed at hoarding these vaccines,” the president said. “This is being done to the exclusion of other countries in the world that most need this.”

Ramaphosa called upon governments to “release the excess vaccines that you’ve ordered and hoarded.”

“Ending the pandemic worldwide will require greater collaboration on the rollout of vaccines, ensuring that no country is left behind in this effort,” he also said.

Ramaphosa -- who is currently chairing the African Union -- said that throughout the pandemic the continent has “acted as one.” He said the continent-wide task force had secured a provisional 270 million doses for African countries from manufacturers. This is in addition to the 600 million doses expected from the WHO-led COVAX initiative.

WHO’s Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said Friday the initial 30 million doses are expected to arrive by March, with the rest by the end of 2021.

By the end of the year, the scheme is expected to cover about 20% of the population in African countries, based on two doses per person, she said, adding that healthcare workers and other high-priority groups will be prioritized in the vaccination drive.

Ramaphosa said the pandemic has had a “heavy toll” on South Africa, with the country recording around 1.4 million cases and more than 40,000 deaths.

Johnson & Johnson plans to report out Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trial results by early next week, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said on CNBC Tuesday. 

Wolk told CNBC’s Meg Tirrell the trial was a “very robust 45,000 person study” across eight countries in three different continent” and some that some new strains of the coronavirus were “potentially captured” in the data as there were sites in South Africa and Brazil.

About this vaccine: If all has gone well with its clinical trial, Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine will likely be the next one available in the United States.

Last week, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Johnson & Johnson is "right around the corner" from seeking emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Interim results from an ongoing trial show that Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody cocktail prevented Covid-19 among people at high risk of infection, the company said in a news release Tuesday.

The study involved 400 people who were exposed to the coronavirus within their households. Half received injections of the antibody therapy, known as REGEN-COV, and half received a placebo, which does nothing.

The number of infections was lower among those who received the treatment, and they were all asymptomatic, the company said. Among those who received the therapy, infections lasted no more than one week, while 40% of infections in the placebo group lasted three to four weeks. None of the infected people who received the therapy had high viral loads, while 62% of people in the placebo group who were infected had high viral loads.

There was one death and one hospitalization in the group that received the placebo, and no deaths or hospitalizations in the treatment group.

Regeneron expects to see the full data on the study early next quarter, and said it will discuss with the US Food and Drug Administration whether to expand the emergency use authorization for the therapy. The EUA allows it to be used to treat people with mild or moderate Covid-19 who are not currently hospitalized, but are at high risk of developing severe symptoms and requiring hospitalization.

Eli Lilly and Company announced last week its monoclonal antibody combination therapy, known as LY-CoV555 or bamlanivimab, was found to help prevent Covid-19 among nursing home residents and staff in a Phase 3 trial.