Pakistan receives 1st vaccines via COVAX – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday via the United Nations-backed COVAX initiative, over 1.2 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on Health, Dr. Faisal Sultan, urged people over 40 to register for shots, and said the Pakistani government could soon expand its vaccination program to other age groups.

A statement from the Pakistani National Command and Operations Center said that 1,238,400 doses of vaccine were received in the first COVAX allotment, while another batch of 1,236,000 is expected in a few days.

The delivery of the first vaccine shipment is the result of an unprecedented global partnership to ensure that no country is left behind in the global race against the coronavirus, said Alexa Reynolds, senior manager for Pakistan for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a partner in the COVAX initiative .

Pakistan is in the middle of a third wave of viral infections, which authorities say is worse than the previous two. The country reported 120 deaths and 4,105 new confirmed cases on Saturday ahead of a planned week-long shutdown of all businesses and transportation.

As of last year, Pakistan has reported 18,797 deaths from COVID-19 out of 854,240 confirmed cases.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

– India’s surge hits the southern states and leads to further lockdowns

– The EU says the US patent exemption proposal is not a panacea

– With the reopening of the US, the sites tighten virus restrictions

– Spain brings vaccine to rural home

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For more information on the AP pandemic, please visit https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE HAPPENS WHAT OTHER HAPPENS:

Madison, Wisc. – The U.S. states this week asked the federal government to withhold staggering amounts of COVID-19 vaccine in the face of falling demand for the shots, helping to keep the U.S. stockpile of doses growing.

From South Carolina to Washington states are calling on the Biden government to send them only a fraction of the funds allocated to them. The rejected vaccines total hundreds of thousands of doses this week alone, highlighting the US vaccine reluctance problem

More than 150 million Americans – about 57% of the adult population – have received at least one dose of vaccine, but leaders from the Biden government to city and county levels are doing everything they can to convince the rest of the country to get vaccinated.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Friday that the federal government had allocated $ 250 million to community organizations to help promote vaccinations, schedule appointments, and provide transportation.

The Biden government announced this week that the government will postpone the surplus to meet demand in other states if states fail to order all of the vaccine allocated to them.

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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has reported 120 deaths and 4105 new cases of COVID-19 in a single day before closing all shops and transportation for a week from Saturday.

Before the long shutdown began, thousands crowded to markets and shopping malls in every city in the country to look for the Eid that Muslims celebrate at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Many did not wear face masks.

Trade associations say they intend to oppose the proposed shutdown. The commissioner of the capital Islamabad said earlier that the government would strictly implement the government plan.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s health advisor, Dr. Faisal Sultan, advised people to stay home and not rush to the markets.

Pakistan is currently in the middle of a third wave, which authorities say is worse than the previous ones.

As of last year, Pakistan has reported 18,797 deaths from COVID-19 out of 854,240 cases.

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STOCKHOLM – According to the Swedish military, around 200 conscripts were sent home from a major military exercise involving thousands of soldiers in southern and central Sweden due to an alleged coronavirus outbreak.

The “Sydfront 21” exercise with over 3,500 participants from 13 different units of the Swedish armed forces is the first major military exercise in the Scandinavian nation since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exercise supervisor Maj.Ake Palm told Swedish broadcaster TV4 on Saturday that the military had decided to send some of the soldiers home after several conscripts with cold symptoms either tested positive or were suspected of being infected with coronavirus.

Alf Johansson, head of communication for the exercise, told the Swedish TT news agency that the affected unit had 200 soldiers and 8 positive coronavirus cases have been confirmed so far. He defended the organization of the exercise in the midst of the pandemic, saying the military had not put a strain on civilian health care.

“This is a very important exercise for the army to train together so that we can maintain our ability to defend Sweden,” Johansson told TT.

Sweden, a nation of 10 million, has registered just over 1 million coronavirus cases, with 14,173 deaths as of Friday.

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HARTFORD, Conn. – Of the more than 1.4 million Connecticut residents who are now fully vaccinated, 242 later contracted COVID-19. That is based on data released by the State Department of Public Health on Friday.

Of the 242 so-called “vaccine breakthrough” cases, 109 people had no symptoms of the disease. DPH reported three deaths in vaccinated people who were confirmed to have underlying diseases. They were between 55-64, 65-74 and 75 years of age and older.

There have been 132 vaccine breakthrough deaths nationwide, according to the DPH.

“The main finding is that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective and cases of infection are very rare after a person is fully vaccinated,” said Dr. Deidre Gifford, the acting public health officer for the state, in a statement. Cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated people in Connecticut are less than 0.1%, according to DPH data.

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HELENA, Montana – Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney announced that Montana will share COVID-19 vaccines with Canadian truck drivers from neighboring Alberta.

According to a Memorandum of Understanding signed on Friday, around 2,000 Alberta truck drivers transporting goods from Canada to the United States can be vaccinated at a motorway service station near Conrad.

The vaccines will be available between May 10th and May 23rd. A similar program to vaccinate Canadian truck drivers began last month in North Dakota.

The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana have given around 1,000 vaccines to their relatives and neighbors across the border.

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SACRAMENTO, California – The owner of a bar in Northern California was arrested on suspicion of selling counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards for $ 20 each to multiple undercover state agents known nationwide.

The plainclothes agents from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control were asked to write their names and dates of birth on sticky notes. They say bar workers cut the cards, filled in identifying information and fake vaccination dates, and then laminated the finished product.

Vaccination cards are used in some places as identification for attending large gatherings. The European Union is considering allowing tourists who can prove they have been vaccinated.

Following an anonymous tip-off from the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, four undercover agents went to the Old Corner Saloon in Clements City several times in April and bought four counterfeit laminated vaccination cards.

They returned to the small town bar this week and arrested the owner of the bar. Agents say they found two more finished cards and 30 additional blank cards along with a laminator and cutter.

It wasn’t immediately known if the bar owner Todd Anderson had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Nobody answered the phone at the bar on Friday.

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DENVER, Colorado. – A former warehouse worker at Amazon has filed a complaint against Amazon with Colorado officials over COVID-19 policies and allegations that her firing was retaliatory.

Linda Rodriguez claims Amazon fired her in 2020 for raising concerns about the company’s COVID-19 policies that she believes would put workers at risk. Her complaint was sent to the state’s Department of Labor on Thursday.

An Amazon spokesman responded to the complaint that Rodriguez had been fired for season ticket fraud, which the company said had been confirmed by time records and video footage. Amazon said the federal agency for occupational safety and health confirmed that Rodriguez had withdrawn a complaint filed with the agency.