The pharmaceutical company Moderna announced today that it has submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a request for full approval of its Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 18 and over.
The vaccine received an emergency permit from the FDA on December 18, a process that enabled a rapid response to the health crisis.
More than 124 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered nationwide since then, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US federal main public health agency.
An emergency license is based on “the best available data” without waiting for long-term monitoring data, necessary for full approval, the FDA explains on its website.
This type of emergency permit, which is granted conditionally, can be revoked or modified at any time, depending on the new data collected.
“We are pleased to announce this important step,” Moderna CEO Stefan Bancel said in a statement.
The American biotechnology company “will continue to provide data (…) continuously in the coming weeks” to the health authorities in order to support its request, he added.
The Pfizer / BioNTech alliance also applied to the FDA in early May for full approval of its own vaccine for Covid-19, for people 16 years of age and older.
In addition, new cases of coronavirus continue to be recorded internationally.
For the first time since September 11, 2020 (when it was 4,820), the number of active coronavirus cases in Austria is again below 5,000, and today stands at 4,824 active cases, according to figures from the Ministries of Health and the Interior in Vienna. .
At the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in the country, in mid-November 2020, more than 77,000 active cases were recorded in Austria, and at the beginning of April 2021, at the peak of the third wave, the active cases amounted to over 37,000.
In the last 24 hours, there have been 337 new infections across the country, well below the average of the last seven days, which was 431, but the number of 12 deaths in the past 24 hours was above the average of the previous seven days – with 9.1 deaths per twenty-four hours.
A total of 64 more victims of Covid 19 were added last week and 10,615 deaths have been reported across Austria since the pandemic, 119.3 people per 100,000 inhabitants have died from or with Covid-19, and the “seven-day impact” – new infections in the previous seven days per 100,000 inhabitants – is at 33.9.
Further deterioration of the situation in the country's hospitals is recorded today, Tuesday, with the total number of patients hospitalized amounting to 414 and of these 147 are in Intensive Care Units, a number that for the first time since October 21, 2020 is below from 150, having decreased by 71 within a week.
In India, thousands of doctors today wore black armbands to demand the arrest of a popular guru who claims that yoga can prevent Covid-19 and that conventional medicine has killed thousands of patients with a new coronavirus.
Baba Ramdev, the founder of an empire of traditional medicine products, claimed last month that the pandemic showed that modern medicine was a “stupid and failed science” and that hundreds of thousands of people “died because of allopathic medicine” (conventional).
Today, the “Black Day” of protest, in photos posted on social media, doctors were seen holding placards calling for the arrest of “Ramdev the charlatan” or wearing protective uniforms with the slogan # Arrest Ramdev.
Ramdev, a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, withdrew his remarks following a phone call from the country's health minister.
However, he created a new scandal stating that he does not need the vaccine against the new coronavirus, as it is protected by yoga and traditional medicine (Ayurveda).
His company, Patanjali Ayurved, valued at millions of dollars, sells all kinds of merchandise, from toothpaste to jeans, in stores across the country.
A few weeks ago, at an event attended by Health Minister Ramdev, who also owns a television network, he presented a treatment he named Coronil, which he says cures Covid. -19.
His company, the 13th company Indians say they trust, according to a ranking last year, has previously confirmed that it has cancer treatments.
Ramdev also said he could “cure” homosexuality and AIDS.
The pandemic has claimed the lives of at least 330,000 people in India, including more than 1,200 doctors, according to the Medical Association of India.
In Serbia, the epidemiological situation has improved significantly with daily cases below 300 in the last four days. The number of deaths from complications of Sars Cov-2 disease has also decreased.
As of May 15, less than 20 deaths of patients have been recorded on a daily basis.
In the last 24 hours, 230 new cases and seven deaths were confirmed.
The coronavirus reference hospitals treat 594 patients, of which 41 are intubated.
Restriction measures have begun to ease and so from today the opening hours of restaurants are extended for two hours, which will now be open until midnight.
The same schedule applies to theaters and cinemas. The number of people who will be able to participate in conferences, lectures or cultural events has also increased to 200, from one hundred until today.
The vaccination program in Serbia is progressing smoothly and according to official data to date, 47% of the population has been vaccinated with the first dose while 38% have completed the vaccinations.
According to Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, the government's goal is to vaccinate 56% of Serbia's citizens by the end of June.
The improvement of the epidemiological situation has caused complacency among the citizens and in the last two weeks the attendance at the vaccination centers has decreased.
The government is trying with financial incentives and facilities to rekindle the interest of citizens for vaccination.
The government's online platform was launched today, where all those who were vaccinated will be able to register a bank account to receive the amount of 25 euros as a reward for the responsibility they showed.
More incentives are offered to young people where the vaccination rate is extremely low and does not exceed 13%. Free tickets to festivals, concerts, theaters, cinemas and gyms are some of the incentives offered to young people to get vaccinated.
The Serbian government also conducts vaccine diplomacy, offering assistance to other countries. Yesterday he donated 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine to the Czech Republic and in the coming days he will donate 30,000 doses to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
To date, Serbia has donated 102,190 doses of various coronavirus vaccines to neighboring Balkan countries. Also in early March, some 40,000 foreigners from northern Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia were vaccinated free of charge in Serbia.
