• South Africa grants fast-track approval for emergency use of AstraZeneca’coronavirus vaccine inder Section 21; it expects to receive one million doses from India’s Serum Institute on 1 February. Sources 1,2
• Nepal begins a nationwide vaccination campaign with one million doses of Covishield donated by India’s Serum Institute. Source
• Pfizer/BioNTech issue a press release highlighting findings from a preprint article, which reports that laboratory studies found that efficacy of their coronavirus vaccine was “slightly lower” against the B.1.352 variant, but they “ …believe the small difference in viral neutralization observed in these studies are unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine.” Source
• After announcing that it will delay production of a coronavirus vaccine it is co-developing with GSK to improve its efficacy in older people, Sanofi says that it has agreed to begin production of more than 100 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for the EU in summer of 2021. Sources 1,2
• Myanmar begin coronavirus vaccinations with Serum Institute’s Covishield.
• Peru institutes lockdowns across 10 regions until 14 February due to “extreme” COVID-19 threat.
• Thailand reports 800 new coronavirus cases. Source
