WHO: Mass vaccinations will not bring about herd immunity this year
Scientists at the World Health Organization warned that mass vaccinations would not bring about herd immunity to the coronavirus this year, even as one leading producer boosted its production forecast, AFP reported.
England meanwhile launched the first of its mass-inoculation sites in major cities, racing to get ahead of the rapid spread of a new strain of the disease there, according to AFP.
The pandemic has infected more than 90 million people and the death toll has passed 1.94 million since China confirmed the first death in the central city of Wuhan a year ago, AFP added.
China has largely brought the virus under control, but is tackling a number of local infections.
More than half a million people were placed under lockdown in Beijing on Monday as the government imposed strict measures to stamp out a handful of cases.
Infection numbers were, however, surging across Europe, particularly as Britain coped with a new strain of the disease that could see hospitals being overwhelmed.
Russia on Sunday confirmed its first case of the new UK coronavirus strain, which scientists fear is significantly more contagious.
The virus has also exploded across the US.
German company BioNTech said it could produce millions more doses of its coronavirus doses than originally expected this year, boosting production forecast from 1.3 to two billion.
The announcement by BioNTech, which partnered with US firm Pfizer to produce the first vaccine approved in the West, was a boost to countries struggling to deliver the jabs.
But the company also warned that COVID-19 would “likely become an endemic disease,” and said vaccines would need to fight against the emergence of new viral variants and a “naturally waning immune response.”
Later on Monday, the WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan warned it would take time to produce and administer enough vaccine doses to halt the spread of the virus.
“We are not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” she said in the AFP report, stressing the need to maintain physical distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing to rein in the pandemic.
Britain, the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, opened seven mass vaccination sites across England on Monday.
But England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty told BBC television: “The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers into the NHS (National Health Service).”
“What we need to do, before the vaccines have had their effect … is we need to really double down” on observing lockdown measures, he added.
Russian officials said they would trial a one-dose version of the country’s Sputnik V vaccine, part of efforts to provide a stopgap solution for badly hit countries, according to AFP.