Subject: RE: RE: Our standing WB offer to support the government of Georgia during the COVID-19 crisis
From: Alexander Khvtisiashvili <[email-masked]>
To: Sebastian-A Molineus <[email-masked]>, Natela Turnava <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, Lasha Khutsishvili <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: Ekaterine Mikabadze <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, Evgenij Najdov <[email-masked]>, Ahmet Levent Yener <[email-masked]>, Abdulaziz Faghi <[email-masked]>, Thea Gigiberia <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2021 15:55:09 +0000

Thank you Sebastian,

Best Regards,

Alexander

Best reagards,

Alexander KHVTISIASHVILI

Deputy Minister

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia

Tel: +995 32 294 5000
ext
1006

[email-masked]

f  -
ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY

From: Sebastian-A Molineus

Sent: Thursday, April 8, 2021 6:20 PM

To: Natela Turnava ; [email-masked]; Lasha Khutsishvili ; Alexander Khvtisiashvili ; [email-masked]

Cc: Ekaterine Mikabadze ; [email-masked]; [email-masked]; [email-masked]; [email-masked]; Evgenij Najdov ; Ahmet Levent Yener ; Abdulaziz Faghi ;
Thea Gigiberia

Subject: RE: RE: Our standing WB offer to support the government of Georgia during the COVID-19 crisis

Dear colleagues –

Ahead of the long weekend, please find attached our weekly WB COVID-19 monitoring presentation with key indicators across the region, as well as UN COVID-19 crisis management team weekly update below.

Kind regards,

Sebastian

2021

Apr 7

Summary – Key Development

Global COVID-19 Numbers as of April 06, 2021 (7 pm ET):

132,019,041
cases

2,864,366
deaths

Fully vaccinated:  146.81 million

Number of doses administered:
677.81 million

·
Front runner countries (vaccine doses administered
per capita): Israel, UAE, Chile, UK, Bahrain, USA, Serbia, Hungary, Qatar, Morocco.

·
WHO epidemiological update:
Globally, COVID-19 confirmed cases continued to rise for a fourth consecutive week, with just under 3.3 million new cases reported in the last week.

·
A coronavirus variant
identified in 64 cases in Angola carries more mutations than any strain previously identified.

·
Brazil
discovers new coronavirus variant similar to one from South Africa.

·
Double mutant’ COVID-19 variant from India found in the
USA.

·
Mutations
could render current Covid vaccines ineffective in a year or less, epidemiologists warn.

·
Globally,
new COVID-19 cases rose for a sixth consecutive week, with over 4 million new cases reported in the last week. The number of new deaths also increased by 11% compared to last week, with over 71 000 new deaths reported

·
The largest increases in case incidence were observed in the South Asia (most notably in India).

·
WHO
released the report
from the virus origins mission.

·
The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report
finds that the pandemic has widened the gender gap by a generation.

·
Astra Zeneca
Further controversy over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe, with a number of countries continuing to apply restrictions on the vaccine. The
European
Medicines Agency said that there is a
clear
link between AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots in brain.

·
Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines
may block infection as well as disease. Studies suggest fully vaccinated people pose a low risk for transmitting the coronavirus. Antibody activity elicited by the
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
persisted.

·
BioNTech
and Pfizer will boost manufacturing capacity of their COVID-19 vaccine to 2.5 billion doses by the end of 2021.

·
The WHO has warned
Sub-Saharan countries that they face threats of new COVID-19 variants and could be hit by the third wave in the coming weeks.

·
Africa CDC
issues warning over Indian vaccine delays.

·
Peru
reports new COVID deaths record.

·
Argentina’s president
tests positive for COVID-19.

·
Despite
Chile’s
speedy Covid-19 vaccination drive, cases soar. Experts say Chile’s government eased restrictions on travel, business and schools much too early, creating a false sense of confidence that the worst of the pandemic was over.

Health officials in Chile have identified cases of new variants that were first detected in Brazil and Britain.

·
Iran
receives first AstraZeneca doses through COVAX.

·
Indian states
seek widening of vaccination amid new COVID-19 wave. The
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India says this new “double mutant” variant has not been found in sufficient numbers to account for the
increase in COVID-19 cases
across the country. Despite recent export restrictions on vaccine due to a
record spike,
India
could resume vaccine exports by June.

Headlines and Epidemiology update

Update on Key Tools

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Update

Number of weekly confirmed cases reported

IBRD: 2,490,343

IDA-eligible: 152,012

Number of weekly confirmed deaths reported

IBRD: 48,687

IDA-eligible: 2.363

Total number of confirmed cases

IBRD: 63,679,088

IDA-eligible: 3,933,318

Total number of confirmed deaths

IBRD: 1,502,479

IDA-eligible: 72,313

60.3% of all new weekly COVID-19 cases (Mar 29-Apr 5) are reported in IBRD countries, 3.7% in IDA-eligible countries and 36.0% in high-income
countries. Likewise, 67.7% of all COVID-19 deaths since last week are reported in IBRD countries, 3.3% in IDA-eligible countries and 29.0% in high-income countries.

Of the total COVID-19 cases: 48.6% were reported in IBRD countries, 3.0% were reported in IDA-eligible countries, and 48.4% in High-income
countries.

Source: The case and death data is collected from WHO situation reports and population data is from World Development Indicators (World Bank Data). Only IDA and IBRD countries included.
Countries that are not reporting data are not included. (As of April 1, 2021).

Epidemiology Update – New SARS-CoV-2 variants

·
A coronavirus variant
identified in Angola carries more mutations than any strain previously identified.
64 Cases of New variant have been detected in Angola.

·
Brazil
discovers new coronavirus variant similar to one from South Africa.

·
‘Double mutant’ COVID-19 variant from India found in the
USA.

·
New variant
discovered in Arizona, USA, officially named B.1.243.1. Confirmed last month by researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, who said it is similar to the South African variant that was also found in the state in March.

·
A type of T-cell responsible for destroying cells infected with virus was able to recognize three Covid-19 variants in a
small U.S. study,
a promising sign that the vaccines should still protect against new, emerging strains, researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Tuesday.

·
A new
study
found that in lab experiments looking at virus survival in artificially produced aerosolized particles, a B.1.1.7 lineage virus (first identified in the UK) had about the same survival rate as a strain of the virus that was circulating in Wuhan, China, in
January 2020.

·
Efficacy of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine by AstraZeneca
against SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern 202012/01 (B.1.1.7).
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 showed reduced neutralization activity against the B.1.1.7 variant compared with a non-B.1.1.7 variant in vitro, but the vaccine showed efficacy against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2.

·
Mutations
could render current Covid vaccines ineffective in a year or less, epidemiologists warn.

Other Headlines

·
Globally,
new COVID-19 cases rose for a sixth consecutive week, with over 4 million new cases reported in the last week. The number of new deaths also increased by 11% compared to last week, with over 71 000 new deaths reported. The largest increases in case incidence
were observed in the South and South-East Asia (most notably in India).

·
WHO
released the report from the virus
origins mission. The joint team concluded that the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 likely started in late 2019, possibly between November and early December, but could be as far back as September 2019. Further studies will be
needed
in a range of areas, including on the early detection of cases and clusters, the potential roles of animal markets, transmission via the food chain, and the laboratory incident hypothesis.

·
WHO
informs that several Member States and technical bodies have proposed
the development of an international pandemic treaty or framework convention, a process which would be Member State-driven. The WHO Director-General
appointed
the former Prime Minister of Sweden as WHO Special Envoy for the ACT-Accelerator.

·
At a High-Level Event on Debt and Liquidity on Monday, the
UN
Secretary-General emphasized that developing countries need access to additional liquidity to respond to the pandemic, and to invest in recovery.

·
In a
policy brief
on debt and liquidity, the Secretary-General highlights that the rapid growth of financing needs and the collapse in revenues and GDP growth caused by the pandemic have exacerbated debt burden risks across the globe. The brief notes that half of least developed
and low-income countries are assessed as being at a high risk of debt distress or in debt distress. The brief recommends policy interventions to address: (i) liquidity constraints, (ii) provision of fresh financing, (iii) a new general allocation of Special
Drawing Rights, (iv) debt service suspension, (v) debt relief and the Common Framework, and (vi) the international debt architecture.

·
The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report
finds that the pandemic has widened the gender gap by a generation and based on the current trajectory, women will have to wait another 135.6 years, up from 99.5 years in 2020, to achieve overall parity with men.

UPDATE ON KEY TOOLS

Vaccine Development and WHO approval

·
Valneva
has reported positive early results for its Covid-19 vaccine, giving the UK government a potential domestic supply of a shot that could be used as a booster or to tackle virus variants.

·
WHO
- Chinese vaccine makers Sinopharm and Sinovac have presented data on their COVID-19 vaccines indicating levels of efficacy that would be compatible with those required by the WHO, the chair of a WHO advisory panel said.

·
Pfizer
to test Covid-19 vaccine that doesn’t need ultracold storage.

Vaccine  Access, Delivery, and Rollout

·
Astra Zeneca
Further controversy over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe, with a number of countries continuing to apply restrictions on the vaccine. The
European
Medicines Agency said that there is a
clear
link between AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots in brain.
UK reports seven
blood clot deaths after AstraZeneca vaccine. There were 30 cases of blood clots
that have been reported among 18.1 million people (up to March 24), who were given AstraZeneca vaccines.

·
Impact of findings:
Germany, Netherlands has suspended use of the Astra Zeneca vaccine in  <60 years old, Canada and France for <55 years old, Finland for <65 year olds. Sweden and Iceland now only use the vaccine
for their elderly population (>70 years), while Denmark and Norway have prolonged their suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine until the middle of April. In Iceland, only people older than 70 will get the AstraZeneca vaccine. British authorities have recommended
that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine not be given to adults under 30 where possible because of strengthening evidence that the shot may be linked to rare blood clots. Costa Rica is holding the roll-out of Astra Zeneca vaccines until further clarity.

·
Ongoing lessons:  Moderna
and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines may block infection as well as disease. Studies suggest fully vaccinated people pose a low risk for transmitting the coronavirus. Antibody activity elicited
by the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
persisted at least through 6 months after the second dose across all age groups, according to results from an ongoing phase 1 trial. The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech is highly effective at protecting against symptomatic Covid-19
up to six months after the second dose.

·
Pregnant women who get the
coronavirus vaccine pass their antibodies on to their newborns, recent studies suggest, a promising sign that babies can acquire from their mothers some protection against Covid-19.

·
CureVac and Celonic
have entered a commercial supply agreement to manufacture over 100 million doses of the former’s mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate CVnCoV.

·
BioNTech
and Pfizer will boost manufacturing capacity of their COVID-19 vaccine to 2.5 billion doses by the end of 2021, BioNTech said on Tuesday, as it projected sales of nearly 10 billion euros
($11.7 billion) from the product this year.

·
Toyota Land Cruiser
gets WHO approval to carry vaccines.

·
COVAX
Vaccine rollout to exceed 100 countries soon.

·
ICAO, ILO, IMO, IOM and WHO
issued a joint statement calling for the prioritization of vaccination for seafarers and aircrew.

·
UNESCO
urges all countries to consider teachers as frontline workers; data shows
that 56 countries do not prioritize teachers in national vaccine rollout plans.

Africa (AFE and AFW)

·
The WHO
has warned Sub-Saharan countries that they face threats of new COVID-19 variants and could be hit by the third wave in the coming weeks.

·
Africa CDC
issues warning over Indian vaccine delays.

·
Coronavirus vaccines are finally reaching poor countries in
Africa, but some can’t
afford the cost of administering them.

·
Kenyans
have begun getting inoculated with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines for a fee after the nation’s authorities approved the shots for emergency purposes.
Pregnant and Lactating Mothers warned not to take Covid-19
vaccine in Kenya.

·
South Africa signs deal for 20
million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA)
has also registered the COVID-19 Johnson & Johnson vaccine with conditions.

·
Johnson
& Johnson announced an advanced purchase agreement to make up to 400 million doses of vaccine available to AU member states.

·
Vaccination uptake surpasses
100,000 mark in Zimbabwe. Facebook and WHO Launch Campaign
to Curb Covid-19 Vaccine Misinformation in Zimbabwe.

·
A consignment of 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines has been provided by the government of India to
Nigeria to assist in the efforts to curb the debilitating
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigerian government
to redistribute unutilized Covid-19 vaccine to states.

Europe and Central Asia

·
The
WHO Regional Director for Europe said
that the vaccine rollout in Europe is “unacceptably slow.”

·
Astra Zeneca
European Union health ministers have been told that new regulatory guidance for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is expected to have an immediate impact on inoculation plans and would require a
coordinated response.

·
Governance
Slovakian
Prime Minister resigned on 30 March following weeks of disputes within the governing alliance sparked by the controversial purchase of Sputnik V.

·
German Health Minister
the 16 state health ministers decided to suspend the routine use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under age 60 at an emergency meeting.
Germany
considering buying Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine.

·
Serbia
has procured enough vaccines for its population but as conspiracy theories spread, many remain hesitant over taking the shots.

·
Daily COVID-19 cases exceed 40,000 in
Turkey,
highest level yet.

·
Moldova introduces state of emergency
to contain coronavirus pandemic. Non-EU member Moldova
has received barely enough doses for 3 percent of its population, while Romania has already administered almost three million.

·
France
to begin producing Covid-19 vaccines for EU rollout.

·
Austria
is negotiating with Russian authorities to purchase the Sputnik V vaccine, while
Germany and France
had discussions with Russian leadership about the vaccine.

East Asia and Pacific

·
Australia has fallen 3.4 million doses short
of its target of delivering four million Covid vaccinations by 31 March, prompting criticism of the government. The 85% shortfall comes two days after Brisbane entered another snap lockdown to combat a small outbreak.

·
Japan to get first batches of
AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from U.S.

·
COVID-19 cases in
Philippines near 800,000,
lockdown extended in the country.

·
The man behind
Vietnam’s
successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, has been formally sworn in as president.
Vietnam asks for
foreign support in procuring COVID-19 vaccines.

·
China
reports biggest daily COVID-19 case jump in over 2 months.

·
AstraZeneca Covid vaccine will be
Thailand’s
‘principal’ shot.

·
Malaysia
to receive first 600,000 AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots in June.

·
Mongolia
confirms 602 daily cases of COVID-19.

·
Health official in
Papua New Guinea
explains how Facebook spreads misinformation.

Latin America and the Caribbean

·
Peru
reports new COVID deaths record.

·
Argentina’s president
tests positive for COVID-19.

·
Despite
Chile’s speedy
Covid-19 vaccination drive, cases soar. Experts say Chile’s government eased restrictions on travel, business and schools much too early, creating a false sense of confidence that the worst of the pandemic was over.

Health officials in Chile have identified cases of new variants that were first detected in Brazil and Britain.

·
Brazil’s drug
regulator Anvisa has rejected Bharat Biotech International’s application for supplying Covaxin in the country after an inspection of the company’s facility at Hyderabad in March found
violations of norms for good manufacturing practices.

·
Brazil COVID-19 deaths
on track to pass worst of U.S. wave.

Manaus, a
Brazilian
city of more than two million has stood out as one of the world’s leading COVID hotspots. Tragically, it continues to provide the wrong lessons about what should be done to ease the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.

·
Venezuela’s
government will ask a UN health program for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine that may not be available until July, eschewing AstraZeneca shots that would be accessible earlier.

·
OCHA reports the
Mexican Government has recognized that the country’s COVID-19 death toll may exceed 321,000, nearly 60 per cent more than the official test-confirmed death toll of 201,826. A review of death certificates found that about 7 of every 10 excess deaths were COVID-19
related. Mexico has had low testing rates throughout the pandemic, leading many cases and deaths to go unreported.

Middle-East and North Africa

·
Iran
receives first AstraZeneca doses through COVAX.

·
Pfizer says working
on a new deal to supply more vaccines to Israel. This comes after the company
halted shipment of 700,000 COVID vaccines to Israel after the country reportedly failed to make payment.

·
Tunisia
Struggles to Contain UK COVID-19 Strain.

·
Iran
faces fourth COVID wave after Nowruz holidays.

·
More than 100,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine have arrived at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, the first shipment to reach
Libya.

·
Third coronavirus wave will begin with Ramadan in
Egypt, according to health officials.

·
In
Yemen, 74 doctors
have died of Covid-19. A shipment of 360,000 Indian-made COVID-19 vaccines arrived in
Yemen,
as part of the first batch of 1.9 million doses it will receive throughout the year.

South Asia Region

·
Indian states
seek widening of vaccination amid new COVID-19 wave. The Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare of India says this new “double mutant” variant has not been found in sufficient numbers to account for the
increase in COVID-19 cases
across the country. Despite recent export restrictions on vaccine due to a
record spike,
India
could resume vaccine exports by June.

·
The health ministry of
Bangladesh
has decided to procure Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson to reduce dependence on India.
Bangladesh
protest over COVID curbs
turns violent, three people have been shot.

·
Pakistan
receives another large COVID vaccine shipment from China. 500,000 Sinopharm doses and 60,000 CanSino jabs received, with a further 500,000 vaccine doses expected soon.

·
Bhutan
has almost vaccinated its entire adult population within a week of launching campaign.

Mobility

·
New
Zealand’s prime minister has announced details of a trans-Tasman travel bubble with Australia, meaning Australians will be able to travel to New Zealand without needing to quarantine.

·
India’s richest state
has announced stringent COVID-19 restrictions from Monday, after a rapid
rise in infections now accounting for more than half the daily new cases in India.

·
Colombia
to extend coronavirus restrictions as infections rise.

·
In
Mozambique, curfew extended to all provincial capitals.

·
England's lockdown to ease as planned
on 12 April.

·
France schools to close under
third lockdown.

·
Ontario, Canada
hastily reverses reopening as new variants usher in a third wave of Covid cases.

·
Bangladesh
goes into second lockdown.

·
The
Croatian government
is tightening the measures introduced to limit the spread of the coronavirus by imposing a ban on indoor sports training, restricting working hours of children playrooms and temporarily restricting the crossing of the country's borders.

·
Philippines extends coronavirus
curbs in capital and nearby provinces .

Treatment

·
Pfizer's
new oral protease inhibitor could possibly treat and prevent covid-19. Vaccines still pose a myriad of challenges in terms of vaccine hesitancy, the unknown length, and duration of protection,
and their efficacy against the ever-mutating variants. Therefore, only a multifaceted approach utilizing vaccines, drug treatments, and public health measures will prevent infections from spreading.

·
Zydus Cadila
has sought approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for the use of the Hepatitis C drug, Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2b (PegIFN), for treating Covid-19 patients.

·
Published
Peer-Reviewed Data Demonstrate Bamlanivimab’s High Potency Against SARS-CoV-2 and Support its Use as a Foundational Antibody Therapy to Treat and Prevent COVID-19 - Bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555)
has greater affinity and potency relative to other RBD-binding and ACE2-blocking antibodies tested in this study. Because of its potency, bamlanivimab provides a therapeutic foundation to be administered with another antibody to expand the protection against
viral variants

·
Anti-inflammatory drug protects
against lethal inflammation from COVID-19 in animal models - Mount Sinai researchers have found that a widely available and inexpensive drug targeting inflammatory genes has reduced morbidity and mortality in mice infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19.

·
both cancer and COVID-19 is berzosertib, which is licensed by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

·
The
World Health Organization recommended against using generic anti-parasite drug ivermectin in patients with COVID-19 except for clinical trials, because of a lack of data demonstrating
its benefits.

·
Infliximab may hinder the effectiveness
of some COVID-19 vaccines - The study included over 1,300 patients with inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn’s disease, who were being treated with Infliximab, when they received
one dose of either the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine, or the BNT162b2 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech.

Diagnostics

·
Durham diagnostics
is shipping out its first devices allowing for rapid detection of the novel coronavirus in 17 minutes.

·
Israeli COVID test,
which provides accurate results in 20 seconds, gets European approval.

·
US FDA Authorizes
two rapid, at-home Coronavirus tests.

Thank you and kind regards,

Sebastian

Sebastian Molineus

Regional Director for the South Caucasus

Europe and Central Asia

T
+995 (32) 291 6238

M
+995 (577) 78 7821

M
+1 (202) 492-3914

E
[email-masked]

W
www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca

@smolineus

www.linkedin.com/in/molineus/

From: Sebastian-A Molineus

Sent: Friday, April 2, 2021 11:07 AM

To: Natela Turnava <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked];
[email-masked]; [email-masked]; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>

Cc: Ekaterine Mikabadze <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked]; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked]; Evgenij Najdov <[email-masked]>; Ahmet Levent Yener <[email-masked]>; Abdulaziz Faghi
<[email-masked]>; Thea Gigiberia <[email-masked]>

Subject: RE: Our standing WB offer to support the government of Georgia during the COVID-19 crisis

Dear colleagues – please find attached and below our weekly WB COVID-19 and Vaccine Monitoring report and presentation with key indicators across the region. A nice weekend to all.

Sebastian

2021

Mar 31

Summary – Key Development

Global COVID-19 Numbers as of March 30, 2021 (7 pm ET):

127,880,539
cases

2,796,431
deaths

Fully vaccinated:  126.62 million

Number of doses administered:
564.56 million

Front runner countries (vaccine doses administered per capita): Israel, UAE, Chile,
UK, Bahrain, USA, Serbia, Hungary, Qatar, Morocco, Turkey.

·
Globally,

new COVID-19 cases rose for a fifth consecutive week, with just over 3.8 million new cases reported in the last week. The number of new deaths increased for the second consecutive week, increasing by 5% compared to last
week, with over 64,000 new deaths reported.

·
Global
Leaders Unite in Urgent Call for International Pandemic Treaty – 25 heads of government and international agencies come together in extraordinary joint call for a new treaty that would signal high-level political action needed to protect the world
from future health crises.

·
In countries where the B.1.1.7
variant is dominating, the picture is getting much worse.

·
Pfizer
and Moderna vaccines were 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 infection in a real-world setting.

·
The
T cell response—a crucial element of the immune system—induced by infection with the original coronavirus was shown to be protective against the top 3 virus variants, those first discovered in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil.

·
India reports novel
COVID-19 variant, daily deaths at year’s high.

·
COVID-19
vaccine hesitancy could lead to thousands of extra deaths - High numbers of people refusing or delaying a vaccine could increase the mortality rate by up to eight times compared with ideal
vaccination uptake.
Asian countries scrambled to find alternative sources for COVID-19 inoculations on Tuesday after export restrictions by manufacturer
India left a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine sharing programme short of supplies.

·
Johnson
& Johnson would start delivering its single-shot Covid vaccine to Europe on April 19, giving the continent a boost as it struggles to speed up its vaccination drive.

·
Johnson&Johnson
will supply up to 220 million doses of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine to African Union’s 55 member states from the third quarter of 2021.

·
BioNTech-Pfizer
raise 2021 vaccine output goal to 2.5 billion doses.

·
India
suffers highest daily coronavirus infections in five months.

Headlines and Epidemiology update

Update on Key Tools

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Update

Number of weekly confirmed cases reported

IBRD: 2,553,796

IDA-eligible: 149,032

Number of weekly confirmed deaths reported

IBRD: 8,987

IDA-eligible: 2,309

Total number of confirmed cases

IBRD: 61,188,745

IDA-eligible: 3,781,306

Total number of confirmed deaths

IBRD: 1,453,792

IDA-eligible: 69,950

58.1% of all new weekly COVID-19 cases (Mar 22-29) are reported in IBRD countries, 3.4% in IDA-eligible countries and 38.1% in high-income
countries. Likewise, 65.3% of all COVID-19 deaths since last week are reported in IBRD countries, 3.1% in IDA-eligible countries and 31.6% in high-income countries.

Of the total COVID-19 cases: 48.2% were reported in IBRD countries, 3.0% were reported in IDA-eligible countries, and 48.8% in High-income
countries.

Epidemiology Update – New SARS-CoV-2 variants

·
In countries where the B.1.1.7 variant is dominating,
the picture is getting much worse. French ICUs are packed with 5,000+ COVID-19 patients for the first time since April 2020. Turkey has reached record daily case numbers. Canada reports rising case numbers and hospitalizations.

·
Brazil’s out-of-control outbreak
could seed more dangerous variants, given “the virus’s track record of acquiring mutations in areas where it abounds,”. The P.1 variant first discovered in Manaus has since reached 34 other countries—and has been shown to be “more pernicious than its predecessors.”

·
The T cell
response—a crucial element of the immune system—induced by infection with the original coronavirus was shown to be protective against the top 3 virus variants, those first discovered in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil.

·
India reports novel COVID-19 variant, daily deaths at
year’s high.

·
In Brazil, more young people seem to be getting severely ill and dying
from Covid-19.

VACCINES AND VARIANTS

NEW VARIANTS

Source:
WHO
; Date: 03/30/2021

Other Headlines

·
Globally, new COVID-19 cases rose for a fifth consecutive week, with just over 3.8 million new cases reported in the last week. The number of new deaths increased for the second
consecutive week, increasing by 5% compared to last week, with over 64,000 new deaths reported. All regions reported an increase in the number of cases this week. Europe and the Americas continue to account for approximately 80% of all new and cumulative cases
and deaths.

·
AMR and COVID-19
Many Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Are Given Antibiotics.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues into its second year, public health experts are increasingly concerned that the response to this global crisis may be accelerating another one: the development
and persistence of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as superbugs. Why? All antibiotic use hastens the emergence of resistance. And although antibiotics aren’t used to treat Covid-19, which is a viral illness, they’re often prescribed to Covid-19 patients
who are at risk for bacterial infection.

·
First baby born
with COVID antibodies after mom got the Moderna vaccine— here's why that matters.

·
Global
Leaders Unite in Urgent Call for International Pandemic Treaty – 25 heads of government and international agencies come together in extraordinary joint call for a new treaty that would signal high-level political action needed to protect the world from
future health crises. The main goal of a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response would be to foster a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach to strengthen national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics.

·
COVID-19 drives a more severe form of acute kidney injury.

UPDATE ON KEY TOOLS

Vaccine Development and WHO approval

·
Shanghai
mRNA COVID-19 vaccine begins phase 1 clinical trials -The double-blind placebo-controlled vaccine trials are being conducted among people at high risk of contracting COVID-19 aged 18 and
above.

·
Pfizer
has started a clinical trial testing its COVID-19 vaccine on healthy 6-month to 11-year old children, a crucial step in obtaining
federal regulatory clearance to start vaccinating young kids and controlling the pandemic.

·
AstraZeneca
has begun advertising for participants in an early-stage trial to deliver the COVID-19
vaccine it jointly developed with AstraZeneca as a nasal spray.

·
Novavax’s
Covid-19 Vaccine Trials Start in India with the aim of launching it by September.

·
mRNA
vaccines and monoclonal antibodies protect against new NYC-B.1.526 variant research team tested how susceptible the B.1.526 variants were to neutralizing antibodies from convalescent plasma,
monoclonal antibodies, and mRNA vaccines.

·
Pfizer
and Moderna vaccines were 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 infection in a real-world setting.

·
Vaccine effectiveness of the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 against
SARS-CoV-2 infection in residents of Long-Term Care Facilities (VIVALDI study).
The first dose of BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 vaccines was associated with substantially reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection risk in LTCF residents.

Vaccine  Access, Delivery, and Rollout

·
UK
will produce up to 60m doses of Covid-19 vaccine under a new deal to boost domestic supply, due to potential export bans hitting shipments of vaccines from Europe and India.

·
BioNTech-Pfizer
raise 2021 vaccine output goal to 2.5 billion doses.

·
Iran’s
‘Fakhra’ vaccine to be mass-produced by late May.

·
EMA
gives BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna approval for new COVID-19 production facilities which will become one of the largest mRNA vaccine manufacturing sites in Europe and the world. Elsewhere,
additional sites are also set to produce AstraZeneca and Moderna doses.

·
BioNTech-Pfizer
Raise 2021 Vaccine Output Goal to 2.5 Billion Doses after opening of a new German facility.

·
Canada
to pause AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine use for those under 55, require new risk analysis based on age and gender.

·
EU
leaders support “global value chains” rather than support Brussels in using new powers to block COVID-19
jab exports to highly vaccinated countries, despite being told that 21m doses had been sent to the UK.

·
Novavax
is delaying signing a contract to supply its COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union as the U.S. biotech company warned it was struggling to source some raw materials.

·
UK
is reportedly planning on giving millions of Covid-19 vaccines to Ireland in a bid to stave off a third wave in Northern Ireland.

·
China's
CanSino has proposed supplying "tens of millions of doses" of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX .

·
Russia
has celebrated the arrival of its homegrown vaccine, Sputnik V, in Latin America and Africa, and even in some countries in Europe, calling it a solution to shortages around the world, while importing vaccines at home.

·
Russian
Direct Investment Fund  had reached an agreement with China's Shenzhen Yuanxing Gene-tech to produce over 60 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus in China,
with production due to start in May.

·
COVID-19
vaccine hesitancy could lead to thousands of extra deaths - High numbers of people refusing or delaying a vaccine could increase the mortality rate by up to eight times compared with ideal
vaccination uptake. The team estimate that this hesitancy would lead to an extra 236 deaths per million population over a two year period for a vaccine with high efficacy.

·
Asian
countries scrambled to find alternative sources for COVID-19 inoculations on Tuesday after export restrictions by manufacturer India left a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine
sharing programme short of supplies.

·
Johnson
& Johnson would start delivering its single-shot Covid vaccine to Europe on April 19, giving the continent a boost as it struggles to speed up its vaccination drive.

·
Israel
plans to buy millions of additional doses of coronavirus vaccine that may be used once its initial inoculation drive is complete.

·
A new factory in
Abu Dhabi
will start manufacturing Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine later this year.

·
India
extends shelf life of AstraZeneca vaccine.

·
Third Covid vaccine
in India likely to be approved soon.

Africa (AFE and AFW)

·
Johnson&Johnson
will supply up to 220 million doses of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine to African Union’s 55 member states from the third quarter of 2021.

·
Ethiopia
expects to receive a consignment of 300,000 doses of the China-backed Sinopharm vaccines on March 30.

·
Kenya confirms presence
of new Covid-19 variants.

·
Mali
approves Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

Europe and Central Asia

·
Excess deaths in Russia suggest
Covid death toll is closer to 450,000 than the official number of 94,000.

·
Ukraine
and Bulgaria are reporting record numbers of COVID-19 deaths and cases, respectively,;  in the

Bulgarian city of Yambol, 98% of hospital beds are occupied.

·
Uzbekistan
to start mass coronavirus vaccination from April 1.

·
A third wave of coronavirus infections was emerging in
Russia,
which has recorded more than 4.5 million cases since the start of the pandemic.

East Asia and Pacific

·
A court in
Vietnam
on Tuesday issued a two-year suspended jail term to a flight attendant over breaking COVID-19 quarantine rules and allegedly spreading the virus to others.

Latin America and the Caribbean

·
Despite

Chile’s speedy covid-19 vaccination drive, cases soar in the country.

·
Brazil
to spend extra $1 billion to fight pandemic as country hits daily death record.

·
Hospitals in

Ecuador's capital overwhelmed by COVID-19 infections.

Middle-East and North Africa

·
Egypt's
COVID-19 robot hospital assistant might just save lives.

South Asia Region

·
Pakistan
continues to grapple with third wave of coronavirus. Pakistan’s President and
Finance Minister test positive for COVID-19 as hospitals reach capacity.

·
India
has highest number of critical cases. India
pushes ahead with coronavirus vaccination drive to head off new surge.

·
India donates 200,000 vaccines
to protect UN blue helmets against COVID.

·
India suffers
highest daily coronavirus infections in five months.

Mobility

·
Nairobi
goes into partial lockdown.

·
Philippine
Capital Back in Lockdown as cases surge.

·

Treatment

·
Lilly-Vir's
COVID-19 antibody treatments reduced viral load in low-risk COVID-19 patients, results from a mid-stage trial showed.

·
Cynata
Theraputics is all set to expand recruitment criteria in its active MEseNchymal coviD-19 (MEND) clinical trial of Cymerus mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in intensive care patients with respiratory failure.

·
How
new insights into COVID's spike protein could guide treatment design SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, is structurally similar to SARS-CoV-1, the virus that caused a much smaller outbreak two decades ago. So why has today’s iteration
of the virus been so much more infectious?

·
The
PROTECT-V trial investigating UNIONs COVID-19 candidate receives Urgent Public Health Prioritization from the UK government

·
Pfizer
began the phase one trial of a pill to treat COVID-19. The treatment is a potent protease inhibitor, the same kind of technology used to treat HIV and hepatitis C. The pill demonstrated potent in vitro anti-viral activity against SARS-CoV-2, as well as activity
against other coronaviruses.

·
New
phase III data shows investigational antibody cocktail casirivimab and imdevimab
reduced hospitalization or death by 70% in non-hospitalized
patients with COVID-19.

·
Foresee
Pharmaceuticals FP-025 showed significant therapeutic efficacy in preclinical inflammation and fibrosis models of the lung, suggesting that FP-025 may potentially avert the lung injury
and fibrosis caused by COVID–19 infections.

·
Antibody
agents effective at neutralizing European, South African, and United States SARS-CoV-2 variants - Researchers in the United States have demonstrated the effectiveness of three antibody
agents at neutralizing recently emerged variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Diagnostics

·
New economical test
can accurately detect covid-19 antibodies in a drop of blood in less than an hour.

Thank you and kind regards,

Sebastian

Sebastian Molineus

Regional Director for the South Caucasus

Europe and Central Asia

T
+995 (32) 291 6238

M
+995 (577) 78 7821

M
+1 (202) 492-3914

E
[email-masked]

W
www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca

@smolineus

www.linkedin.com/in/molineus/

From: Sebastian-A Molineus

Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2021 4:29 PM

To: Natela Turnava <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked]; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked]; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>

Cc: Ekaterine Mikabadze <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked]; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>; [email-masked]' <[email-masked]>;
[email-masked]; Evgenij Najdov <[email-masked]>; Ahmet Levent Yener <[email-masked]>; Abdulaziz Faghi
<[email-masked]>; Thea Gigiberia <[email-masked]>

Subject: RE: Our standing WB offer to support the government of Georgia during the COVID-19 crisis

Dear colleagues – please find attached our weekly WB COVID-19 Monitoring report and presentation with key indicators across the region. Two highlights re. AZ:

·
AstraZeneca advised that a review of safety data from 17 million people vaccinated in the EU and the UK has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.

·
Please find a link to AZ’s most recent link on its efficacy rate:

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2021/azd1222-us-phase-iii-primary-analysis-confirms-safety-and-efficacy.html

Thank you,

Sebastian

2021

Mar 24

Summary – Key Development

Global COVID-19 Numbers as of March 23, 2021 (7 pm ET):

123,968,736
cases

2,728,117
deaths

Fully vaccinated:  104.12
million

Number of doses administered:
458.13 million

Front runner countries (vaccine doses administered per capita): Israel, UAE, Chile,
UK, Bahrain, USA, Serbia, Hungary, Qatar, Morocco.

·
WHO epidemiological update:
Globally, COVID-19 confirmed cases continued to rise for a fourth consecutive week, with just under 3.3 million new cases reported in the last week.

·
IHME reports
that global case increases in recent weeks are being driven by the spread of the P1 VOC in LAC; and the spread of the VOC 501Y.V1, compounded by increases in mobility and decreases in mask use, in Europe and the US.

·
India
reports novel coronavirus variant, daily deaths at year's high.

·
UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA report
that drastic cuts in the availability and use of essential public health services across South Asia, due to COVID-19, may have contributed to an estimated 239,000 additional child and maternal deaths in 2020.

·
Past infection
confers 80.5 per cent protection against reinfection, which decreases to 47.1 per cent in those aged 65 years and older. These findings show the importance of policies to protect the elderly during the pandemic.

·
Tuberculosis may have claimed an extra 500,000 lives in 2020 because of the lack of TB diagnosis and care, according to a new

WHO report published ahead of World TB Day.

·
WHO listed
the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (Johnson & Johnson) for emergency use in all countries and for COVAX roll-out. COVAX has shipped over 30 million vaccines to 52 economies.

·
AstraZeneca will publish
up-to-date results from its major U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial within 48 hours after health officials publicly criticized the drug maker for using “outdated information” to show
how well the immunization worked.
Earlier last week,
AZ had announced results from Phase 3 trial in Chile, Peru, and the US, claiming the vaccine was 79% effective.

·
AstraZeneca advised
that a review of safety data from 17 million people vaccinated in the EU and the UK has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.

·
Nearly 1 in 4 people
in the US have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, US CDC data shows.

·
The first 165,000 AZ doses of up to 7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that MTN Group is donating to African Union countries have

arrived in Ghana.

·
UN
Deputy Secretary-General highlights that the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has reported 27.8 per cent of global deaths due to the pandemic despite representing only 8.4 per
cent of the global population.

·
India
restricts vaccine exports amid rising COVID-19 cases. The
Serum Institute of India (SII), has told Brazil, Morocco and Saudi Arabia that further supplies of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine will be delayed.

·
Nepal
becomes third country to give emergency approval to Indian vaccine COVAXIN.

Headlines and Epidemiology update

Update on Key Tools

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Update

Number of weekly confirmed cases reported

IBRD: 1,652,390

IDA-eligible: 87,388

Number of weekly confirmed deaths reported

IBRD: 34,098

IDA-eligible: 1,391

Total number of confirmed cases

IBRD: 58,634,949

IDA-eligible: 3,632,274

Total number of confirmed deaths

IBRD: 1,404,805

IDA-eligible: 67,641

50.1% of all new weekly COVID-19 cases (March 15-22) are reported in IBRD countries, 2.6% in IDA-eligible countries and 47.3% in high-income
countries. Likewise, 57.6% of all COVID-19 deaths since last week are reported in IBRD countries, 2.4% in IDA-eligible countries and 40.0% in high-income countries.

Of the total COVID-19 cases: 47.9% were reported in IBRD countries, 3.0% were reported in IDA-eligible countries, and 49.2% in High-income
countries.

Epidemiology Update – New SARS-CoV-2 variants

·
IHME reports
that global case increases in recent weeks are being driven by the spread of the P1 variant of concern in Brazil, Peru and some neighboring areas; and the spread of the VOC 501Y.V1 (VOC 202012/01) variant of concern, compounded by increases in mobility and
decreases in mask use, in Europe and the US. IMHE states that helping South America to vaccinate on an accelerated basis should be a global priority.

·
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
estimate a 55 per cent higher hazard of death associated with the VOC 202012/01 variant of concern. This analysis suggests that this variant is not only more transmissible than pre-existing variants, but may also cause more severe illness.

·
Supercomputer analysis
reveals why B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 Coronavirus Variants Are More Contagious, Deadly.

·
The neutralizing-antibody response
to four variants is compared in infected and vaccinated individuals to determine how mutations within the spike protein are associated with virus neutralization.

·
India reports
novel coronavirus variant, daily deaths at year's high.

VACCINES AND VARIANTS

Source:
WHO
Date March 16th, 2021

Other Headlines

·
WHO epidemiological update:
Globally, COVID-19 confirmed cases continued to rise for a fourth consecutive week, with just under 3.3 million new cases reported in the last week (ten percent increase from last week). At the same time, the number of new deaths reported plateaued after a
six week decrease, with just over 60,000 new deaths reported.

·
UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA report
that drastic cuts in the availability and use of essential public health services across South Asia, due to COVID-19, may have contributed to an estimated 239,000 additional child and maternal deaths in 2020.

·
G7 nations
support the IMF’s plan to increase aid for low-income nations.

·
Past infection
confers 80.5 per cent protection against reinfection, which decreases to 47.1 per cent in those aged 65 years and older. These findings show the importance of policies to protect the elderly during the pandemic.

·
Domestic travel measures implemented
in Wuhan were effective at reducing the importation of cases internationally and within China, and additional travel restrictions were also likely important. The findings highlight the need to evaluate the potential effectiveness of travel measures using a
risk and context-based assessment and suggest the need to strengthen WHO’s
PHEIC procedures.

·
Tuberculosis may have claimed an extra 500,000 lives in 2020 because of the lack of TB diagnosis and care, according to a new

WHO report published ahead of World TB Day today. According to the report, 1.4 million fewer people received the TB care they needed in 2020 compared to the year before.

·
The virus that causes the
common cold can effectively remove the Covid virus out of the
body's cells, say researchers.

UPDATE ON KEY TOOLS

Vaccine Development and WHO approval

·
AstraZeneca advised
that a review of safety data from 17 million people vaccinated in the EU and the UK has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.

·
CureVac’s
COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, demonstrates protection against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant (first seen in South Africa) in preclinical challenge study.

·
Clinical trials approved
for CanSino’s inhaled COVID-19 vaccine.

·
Premas Biotech,
an Indian firm has collaborated with American company Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. and announced the development of an oral Covid-19 vaccine candidate that has shown efficacy after a single dose.

·
German group Curevac
said Monday it will broaden its mRNA Covid vaccine trials to include new virus variants as it aims to file for EU approval in the second quarter of 2021.

·
Sinovac said
its COVID-19 vaccine is safe in children ages 3-17, based on preliminary data, and it has submitted the data to Chinese drug regulators.

·
ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila,
is undergoing phase III trials. The DNA plasmid platform vaccine is expected to be approved by May-June.

Vaccine  Access, Delivery, and Rollout

·
WHO listed
the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (Johnson & Johnson) for emergency use in all countries and for COVAX roll-out. COVAX has shipped over 30 million vaccines to 52 economies.

·
An editorial in
The Lancet and a
letter in The BMJ raised the idea of appointing a Global Vaccine Coordinator, who would lead an international effort for the equitable distribution of vaccines. The authors argue that clear leadership and oversight are needed to organize what has become largely
a piecemeal vaccination effort, with nations, NGOs, and the private sector working independently or bilaterally. While a centralized global champion or body could provide high-level coordination for global vaccine allocation and distribution, it would be a
major challenge to ensure they have the authority necessary to compel national governments and private sector companies to participate

·
AstraZeneca will publish
up-to-date results from its major U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial within 48 hours after health officials publicly criticized the drug maker for using “outdated information” to show
how well the immunization worked.
Earlier last week, AZ
had announced results from Phase 3 trial in Chile, Peru, and the US, claiming the vaccine was 79% effective.

·
Nearly 1 in 4 people
in the US have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, US CDC data shows.

·
A

large plant to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine was cleared by U.S. regulators on Tuesday, setting the stage for the weekly U.S. supply to surge more then 20 percent.

·
Early successes in
developing vaccines
by upstarts like Moderna and BioNTech now face the next phase: manufacturing doses on an enormous scale.

·
The European Medicines Agency
plans to inspect the Sputnik V vaccine production facility to see if it can be authorized in the EU.

·
The European Medicines Agency declared that the AZ vaccine was “safe and effective,” and the
rollout resumed in France
on Friday. However, the reboot efforts were sluggish.

·
Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic
approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, but has so far not ordered J&J’s one-shot vaccine.

·
India's
Stelis Biopharma to make 200 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine.

Africa (AFE and AFW)

·
South Africa
sells AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to other African countries.

·
Several African nations
including DR Congo, Cape Verde and eSwatini have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine citing possible side-effects.

·
The first 165,000 AZ doses of up to 7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that MTN Group is donating to African Union countries have

arrived in Ghana.

·
Kenya hospitals
run out of ICU beds as Covid-19 impact hits hard.

·
Mauritius increases
lockdown measures to combat Covid-19 spread.

·
Mauritius receives 200,000 doses
of Covaxin Vaccine from government of India.

Europe and Central Asia

·
Excess deaths in Russia suggest
Covid death toll is closer to 450,000 than the official number of 94,000.

·
Ukraine
and Bulgaria are reporting record numbers of COVID-19 deaths and cases, respectively,;  in the

Bulgarian city of Yambol, 98% of hospital beds are occupied.

·
Uzbekistan
to start mass coronavirus vaccination from April 1.

East Asia and Pacific

·
Moderna
announced that the Philippines has secured 7 million additional doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna through a new supply agreement, bringing its confirmed order commitment
up to 20 million doses.

·
Vietnam
is expected to have the first batch of locally-produced COVID-19 vaccines at the end of the third quarter of 2021.

·
Singapore
and Malaysia to work towards mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccine certificates and progressively restore cross-border travel.

·
China’s
daily output of COVID-19 vaccines has reached about 5 million doses, more than tripling the 1.5 million-dose daily production rate on Feb. 1.

·
Indonesia
to resume use of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

·
Papua
New Guinea will kick-off its coronavirus vaccination program by this weekend, helped by 8,000 AstraZeneca doses from neighboring Australia as it tries to prevent its basic health system being overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 cases.

·
Macau,
China has suspended the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech SE due to defects found in the caps of some vials.

Latin America and the Caribbean

·
UN
Deputy Secretary-General highlights that the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has reported 27.8 per cent of global deaths due to the pandemic despite representing only 8.4 per
cent of the global population.

·
The
IMF warns
that the economic impact of the pandemic may be felt in the Caribbean long after the health emergency is controlled due to its heavy reliance on tourism. Assuming no new external financing and realistic tourism scenarios, the IMF estimates the region’s financing
gap at around US$ 4 billion, 4.8 per cent of regional GDP.

·
Uruguay confirmed on Monday that
it had detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighboring Brazil as the tiny South American nation faces a spike in cases and deaths.

·
Chile
has vaccinated 25% of its population against COVID-19.

·
Chile’s
fast vaccination program has reached the shores of Antarctica.

·
Colombia
will impose new restrictions on movement and enact nightly curfews in municipalities with high occupancy levels in intensive care units as it tries to avoid a severe third wave of COVID-19.

Middle-East and North Africa

·
The
Egyptian government
hopes to sign an agreement with China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd before the end of March to manufacture its coronavirus vaccine in Egypt.

·
Egypt
receives its second shipment of Covid-19 vaccines as a gift from China.

·
Jordan records 109 COVID-19 deaths,
highest daily toll since start of pandemic.

South Asia Region

·
Pakistan
has bought more than 1 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccines, its first purchase from any manufacturer having previously relied on donations.

·
India’s health ministry warned
that a huge gathering of devotees for a Hindu festival could send coronavirus cases surging as the country recorded the most new infections in nearly four months.

·
Bangladesh
sees highest cases in a day in 8 months.

·
Understanding Covid-19
vaccine wastage in India.

·
Mumbai, India
to randomly test for Covid at crowded places without consent.

·
India
restricts vaccine exports amid rising COVID-19 cases.

·
The Serum Institute of India (SII),
has told Brazil, Morocco and Saudi Arabia that further supplies of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine will be delayed.

·
Nepal
becomes third country to give emergency approval to Indian vaccine COVAXIN.

·
The suspension of the vaccine campaigns
in Europe may be a blessing in disguise for Nepal, which is facing delays in shipments of Covishield.

Mobility

·
Spain
to welcome German visitors over Easter break despite restrictions on national tourism.

·
Ukraine tightens border controls
amid rising COVID-19 deaths.

·
Bucharest
close to quarantine due to rise in COVID-19 cases.

·
Indonesian tourism minister
says preparations can begin for 'safe travel corridor' between Singapore, Batam and Bintan.

·
Royal
Caribbean International is resuming cruises aimed at U.S. vacationers.
The cruises will depart from Bermuda and the Bahamas, and adult passengers must be vaccinated against COVID-19. Passengers under 18 will be able to sail with a negative coronavirus test. Crew members
will also be vaccinated.

·
Poland goes
into partial lockdown as COVID-19 cases top 2 million.

Treatment

·
Pfizer
began the phase one trial of a pill to treat COVID-19. The treatment is a potent protease inhibitor, the same kind of technology used to treat HIV and hepatitis C. The pill demonstrated potent in vitro anti-viral activity against SARS-CoV-2, as well as activity
against other coronaviruses.

·
New
phase III data shows investigational antibody cocktail casirivimab and imdevimab
reduced hospitalization or death by 70% in non-hospitalized
patients with COVID-19.

·
Antioxidants and pentoxifylline
as co-adjuvant measures to standard therapy to improve prognosis of patients with pneumonia by COVID-19

Diagnostics

·
Association of Vitamin D Levels,
Race/Ethnicity, and Clinical Characteristics With COVID-19 Test Results.

·
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security is launching a new

informational webinar series on SARS-CoV-2 testing strategies and best practices from selected organizational leaders. This webinar series will be hosted as part of the Center’s new

COVID-19 Testing Toolkit, which aims to provide essential information for all organizations seeking to engage in SARS-CoV-2 testing.

Thank you and kind regards,

Sebastian

Sebastian Molineus

Regional Director for the South Caucasus

Europe and Central Asia

T
+995 (32) 291 6238

M
+995 (577) 78 7821

M
+1 (202) 492-3914

E
[email-masked]

W
www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca

@smolineus

www.linkedin.com/in/molineus/

Thank you and kind regards,

Sebastian

Sebastian Molineus

Regional Director for the South Caucasus

Europe and Central Asia

T
+995 (32) 291 6238

M
+995 (577) 78 7821

M
+1 (202) 492-3914

E
[email-masked]

W
www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca

@smolineus

www.linkedin.com/in/molineus/