Development of COVID-19 vaccines

Pfizer Inc said on Friday it had withdrawn an application for emergency-use authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine in India, after failing to meet the drug regulator's demand for a local safety and immunogenicity study.

Immunization against COVID-19 with AstraZeneca vaccine is recommended for the 18 to 55 age group, with the possibility of increasing this range as new scientific data emerge, and the recommended time interval between the two doses is 8 weeks, the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) specified on Thursday.

After some European countries opted to use Sputnik vaccine Russia, Iran also received the vaccine. Last month, the Iranian parliament had pleaded for a ban on Western-produced, and especially US-made vaccines, for political reasons.

The first shipment of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Iran on Thursday.

The European Union put on a brave face on Feb. 1, defending its troubled vaccination programme and insisting that renewed pledges of vaccine deliveries would make up for a production shortfall.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 9 million additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union during the first quarter, the bloc's executive arm said on Jan. 31.

Reports in German media outlets that the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is less effective in older people appear to be unfounded, the German government said Tuesday.

This morning, another shipment of Pfizer vaccines,14,040 doses - arrived in Sofia Airport. They will make up for the amount that didn't arrive last week. Another 2,300 doses of the vaccine are expected to come from the same company, again as a compensation for the delayed deliveries.

A warning from AstraZeneca that initial supplies of its COVID vaccinations to Europe will be lower than expected has sparked fresh concern over the rollout of inoculations, forcing some countries to plan for a sharp drop in deliveries.

According to the website worldometers, so far 98,010,507 people have been infected with coronavirus in the world, 70,402,587 are considered cured, and 2,097,279 people have died as a result of this infection.
Currently, 25,510,641 cases are active, but only 111,745 of them, or 0.4 percent, are in a serious or critical condition.