The Czech Republic has requested a batch of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine while awaiting delayed EU-procured shots, the president has said, adding that Prague will also consider seeking Chinese jabs.

The EU member has ranked among the world’s worst-hit countries by the COVID pandemic in the past few weeks, with soaring numbers of infections and deaths, as the situation has been exacerbated by the new variants of the virus.

The vaccination rollout has been slower than expected with only 650,000 jabs administered since December in the country of 10.7 million people, which Czech politicians blame on slow procurement by the EU.

“After consulting the prime minister, I have sent a letter to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, asking him for a supply of the Sputnik vaccine,” President Milos Zeman said on TV Prima.

Information from the Russian embassy suggests it could arrive in the next few days,” he said.

Zeman said he would also welcome China’s Sinopharm vaccine in the country that has recorded over 1.2 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and more than 20,000 deaths, arguing that “vaccines have no ideology”.

Czechs have shown mistrust towards the vaccines on social networks, driven by their experience with low-quality Soviet-made goods shipped to their country during four decades of Communism in 1948-89.

Neither Sputnik V nor Sinopharm have been approved by the European Union regulator EMA, unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines currently used in the Czech Republic.

But Zeman and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said they would not wait for the EMA to give the green light.

“We cannot wait for EMA, when Russia has not applied (for approval),” Babis said on CNN Prima News. He said the approval by Czech drugs authority, SUKL, would suffice.

SUKL must examine the documentation and if they approve it, the Health Ministry has to issue an exemption… and then, whoever is interested, can get inoculated,” he said.

Babis and Zeman have already received both jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Separately, Babis said the government will discuss on Monday whether to introduce compulsory COVID-19 testing at the country’s largest companies. The announcement came after the government imposed stricter restrictions in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The seven-day average of new daily infections in the Czech Republic reached 1,383 per million people on Saturday, the highest infection rate in the world, according to data from Our World in Data.

Babis said on Sunday that his minority government will discuss whether to require companies with at least 250 employees to test their workers for COVID-19 or face a fine of up to 500,000 crowns ($23,077.63), to be effective from March 5.

During the first wave of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic last spring, some companies temporarily closed down, which contributed to a record contraction of the economy in the second quarter.

But the latest wave has led to a higher number of people in a serious condition due to COVID-19 and some hospitals have been forced to transfer patients hundreds of miles due to a lack of capacity.

Around one in 10 Czechs have been infected by the coronavirus in the past year, and the death toll has risen to 20,339 from about 600 five months ago.

US regulators have formally approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, the third jab to be authorised in the country.

The vaccine is set to be a cost-effective alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and can be stored in a refrigerator instead of a freezer.

Trials found it prevented serious illness but was 66% effective overall when moderate cases were included.
The vaccine is made by the Belgian firm Janssen.

The company has agreed to provide the US with 100 million doses by the end of June. The first doses could be available to the US public as early as next week.

The UK, EU and Canada have also ordered doses, and 500 million doses have also been ordered through the Covax scheme to supply poorer nations.
President Joe Biden hailed it as “exciting news for all Americans, and an encouraging development”, but warned that the “fight is far from over”.

“Though we celebrate today’s news, I urge all Americans – keep washing your hands, stay socially distanced, and keep wearing masks

As I have said many times, things are still likely to get worse again as new variants spread, and the current improvement could reverse,,” he said in a statement.

The authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came after an external committee of experts unanimously backed the vaccine on Friday.

Results from trials conducted in the US, South Africa and Brazil showed it was more than 85% effective at preventing serious illness, and 66% effective overall when moderate cases were included.

South Africa began administering the unapproved Johnson & Johnson jab to healthcare workers as part of a study earlier this month. It came after early trials suggested the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine offered “minimal protection” against mild disease from the variant dominant in large parts of the country.

So far the only other country to approve the vaccine for emergency use is Bahrain, which gave it the green light on Thursday.

Because the vaccine will require fewer doses than its two-shot Pfizer and Moderna counterparts, it will also require fewer vaccine appointments and medical staff.

The Philippines received its initial batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses on Sunday in a shipment donated by China, a day before its inoculation drive is due to begin, but President Rodrigo Duterte will not be among the first to be vaccinated.

Duterte attended a ceremony to mark the arrival of the initial 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac, which were delivered by a Chinese military aircraft ahead of a further 25 million CoronaVac doses due to be delivered in batches this year.

But Duterte, who turns 77 next month, told a news briefing that, though he wants to be vaccinated, his doctor wants a different Chinese brand of vaccine for him.

His comment emphasises the lack of support the Phillipines’ faces as it launches its inoculation drive. One opinion poll showed that less than a third of Filipinos are willing to be vaccinated because of perceptions over potential side-effects.

The country’s vaccination campaign is targeting healthcare workers, police and military personnel initially. It has also negotiated supply deals with other manufacturers, aiming to inoculate 70 million people, or two thirds of the population.

The Philippines is the last Southeast Asian country to receive initial vaccine supplies, fuelling concerns over recovery prospects for a consumption-driven economy that suffered its worst slump on record last year, hit by lengthy coronavirus lockdowns.

“What you see now are donated vaccines. The problem is everyone is rushing to secure supplies.

Until there is residual supply, we’ll just have to wait,”

Duterte vowed to ease restrictions further to support economic recovery but only when more vaccines become available.

Several German states called on Sunday for unused AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to be given to younger people, as worries about side effects and efficacy, as well as a recommendation it be used only for under 65s, have meant low take-up of available doses.

The German health ministry said this week it had administered only 15% of the AstraZeneca shots it has available, confirming concerns that Germans were being selective, slowing vaccination efforts.

Elderly people are first in line to be vaccinated, but Germany has recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine be given only to people aged 18 to 64. EU regulators have declared it safe for all.

The prime ministers of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Saxony told German papers on Sunday that if shots earmarked for older Germans stay unused, the prioritisation scheme should be softened, allowing younger people to get it sooner than originally planned.

“We cannot afford the vaccine sitting around and not being used because some of those entitled reject it”, Baden-Wuerttemberg’s prime minister Winfried Kretschmann told Welt am Sonntag.

Bavaria’s Markus Soeder made similar remarks to Bild am Sonntag and Saxony’s Michael Kretschmer to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Health authorities in some European countries including Germany are also facing resistance to the AstraZeneca vaccine after side-effects including fever and muscle pain led some front-line workers to call in sick. The other shots approved in Europe, developed by Pfizer and Moderna, have been linked to similar temporary side-effects.

The German government urged the public on Friday to take the AstraZeneca vaccine while the head of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, Lothar Wieler, said data from Britain and Israel showed it was “very, very effective”.

The recommendation that the vaccine go only to people under 65 came from Germany’s expert panel on vaccine use (STIKO). STIKO’s head, Thomas Mertens, said on Friday that it would update its recommendation very soon.

“Somehow the whole thing went kind of badly”, he told broadcaster ZDF.

Thailand kicked off its COVID-19 inoculation campaign on Sunday, with cabinet ministers, health officials and medical professionals among the first in the queue to receive vaccinations.

The first doses of vaccine, developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, were given to Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also the health minister, among others at an infectious diseases institute on the outskirts of Bangkok.

“I hope that the vaccination will result in people being safe from the spread of COVID-19 and it allows Thailand to return to normalcy as soon as possible,” Anutin told reporters afterwards.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, 66, attended the event, although his age falls outside the range of 18 to 59 suitable to receive SinoVac’s CoronaVac vaccine, so he did not get it.

Thailand received its first 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China and 117,00 imported doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine this week.

CoronaVac has been distributed to 13 high-risk provinces, which will start injecting front-line health professionals and volunteers on Sunday, the health ministry has said.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine will be ready for use by the second week of March, after going through quality control tests, the company said in a statement.

Thailand is expected to take delivery of a further 1.8 million doses of CoronaVac in March and April.

A mass campaign to administer 10 million doses a month is set to begin in June, with 61 million shots of AstraZeneca vaccines produced by local firm Siam Bioscience.

With a tally of just over 25,000 infections, Thailand has escaped the kind of fallout suffered by some other countries since the pandemic began last year.