COVID-19 vaccine

Australia on Dec. 5 cleared the first COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11, with the next stage of its vaccine rollout expected to start in early 2022.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said medical regulators had granted provisional approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be administered to younger children for the first time.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has once again called on the public to continue to adhere to the anti-virus rules and getting the vaccine against COVID-19.

German biotech company BioNTech should be able to adapt its coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the Omicron variant, said its CEO Ugur Shahin, adding that despite the mutations, the vaccines must continue to protect people against serious illness.

The number of coronavirus vaccinations in the world has exceeded 8 billion. More than half of them (4.16 billion) are in three countries - China (2.5 billion), India (1.2 billion) and the United States (0.46 billion).

The World Health Organization has no data that there is a reduction in effectiveness of existing coronavirus vaccines following the emergence of the Omicron variant.

The EU Could Approve a Vaccine against Omicron in 3-4 Months

Turkey is not presently considering imposing lockdowns or other stricter measures despite the emergence of the new COVID-19 strain, Omicron, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said, renewing calls for the public to get vaccinated and adhere to basic anti-virus rules, noting that millions of people are still not fully protected.

The European drug regulator announced on Tuesday that it would approve vaccines adapted to Covid's new version, Omicron, within three to four months if necessary, but existing drugs would continue to provide protection, Reuters reported.

Only a global vaccination plan can end the global pandemic and this unfair and immoral situation, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was quoted as saying by world news agencies today.

The head of drugmaker Moderna said Covid-19 vaccines were unlikely to be as effective against the coronavirus Omicron variant as before, raising new concerns in financial markets about the trajectory of the pandemic, Reuters reported.

BioNTech has begun work on a vaccine specifically for the new variant of the coronavirus Omicron, which was first identified in South Africa.

The development of an adapted vaccine is part of the standard procedure.

The first steps for a possible new vaccine are carried out in parallel with the assessment of whether one will be needed after the advent of Omicron.