BitGou: Friday Morning Briefing: Inside Europe's fight for COVID-19 vaccines

The coronavirus

In a meeting last week in the Europa building in Brussels, home of the European Union’s political leadership, diplomats for the 27 member states were desperate.

A week earlier, the EU had set a target to vaccinate 70% of adults against COVID-19 by the end of summer, a potential ticket out of lockdowns that have cost countries billions. As the impact of the vaccine shortfall became clear, the bloc embarked on a campaign to shame drugmakers hit by production delays into releasing more supply.

“This is a catastrophe,” French ambassador Philippe Leglise-Costa told the Jan. 27 meeting, according to a diplomatic note seen by Reuters.

Track daily COVID-19 infections and deaths data for 240 countries and territories around the world.

The number of people infected by the coronavirus in Tokyo may have increased nine-fold since last summer, antibody tests showed, as Japan tries to rein in the country’s third and most lethal wave of the pandemic ahead of the Olympics in July.

Pfizer said it had withdrawn an application for emergency-use authorization of its vaccine in India, after failing to meet the drug regulator’s demand for a local safety and immunogenicity study.

Johnson & Johnson said it has asked U.S. health regulators to authorize its single-dose vaccine for emergency use, and it will apply to European authorities in coming weeks.

Australia’s biggest state will exit a snap five-day lockdown after reporting no cases for five straight days, as the national cabinet decided to lift the temporary caps on citizens returning from overseas from the middle of this month.

New Zealand said it will start receiving refugees again this month, nearly a year after it shut its borders to stop the spread of COVID-19. A group of 35 refugees will arrive in February, with about 210 refugees expected to enter the country by June 30, Immigration New Zealand and officials said.

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‘America is back’
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