COVID-19 vaccination in the United States

1,455 is the number of newly registered Covid-19 cases out of the 22,554 tests performed in the country in the past 24 hours, a positivity rate of almost 6.5%, Single Coronavirus Portal data show. 84.05% of the new infections are among the unvaccinated.

On Friday, the EU medicines supervisor said countries could use Merck's covid pill in emergencies caused by the growing number of cases before treatment is officially approved across the bloc.

Bulgaria needs to speed up coronavirus vaccination to limit health risks for its people and other countries, EU Internal Market Commissioner for the Implementation of the Vaccine Strategy Thierry Breton was quoted as saying by Reuters.

With Greek hospitals in various regions at the breaking point, Alternate Health Minister Mina Gaga has again issued an urgent plea for people to get the COVID-19 jab - both for the first time and the third, booster shot - and underlined that the pandemic now hits mainly unvaccinated people.

Turkey's health minister has called for a common and coordinated action in order to accelerate vaccinations against COVID-19.

"We are expecting support from the healthcare community to help overcome vaccine hesitancy and from all media outlets to reach out to the public and get messages regarding the vaccination across," Fahrettin Koca said.

The platform at emvolio.gov.gr opens tonight, for those wishing to book an appointment for the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (people over 18 years old who had their second shot more than 5,5 months ago).

There are 12,136 children in Bulgaria with completed vaccination against COVID-19. This was announced by the Ministry of Health / MH / in the profile of the department on Facebook. 16,195 children were immunized with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, a total of 28,331 vaccines have been given to children aged 12 to 17, inclusive.

Conspiracy theories, security concerns, threat downplaying or simply rebellion - whatever the reasons for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, they seem to have found fertile ground in the Balkans to take root.

Ljubljana – Slovenia’s top officials have received booster shots of coronavirus vaccines nearly nine months after they received their first shots in the early stages of the vaccination campaign. President Borut Pahor received his booster shot on Tuesday and Prime Minister Janez Janša on Monday, according to their social media posts. Speaker Igor Zorčič was vaccinated last week.

Amidst a major surge of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, some experts are calling for new, tougher restrictions on unvaccinated citizens, while others maintain in addition that the only way to build a strong wall of immunity is for those who are fully vaccinated to receive a third dose of the vax.