Health sciences

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday (4 March) began a rolling review of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in a first step towards granting the approval of the jab across the EU.

The agency's human medicines committee (CHMP) said it would review Sputnik V, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Russia's Gamaleya national centre of epidemiology and microbiology.

When will children be able to get COVID-19 vaccines?

It depends on the child's age, but some teenagers could be rolling up their sleeves before too long.

"People who have been exposed to Covid-19 in Bulgaria are many times more than the official statistics reports. The real number of people who have had the disease is at least 2.5 million,"Dr. Trifon Valkov from the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Sofia stated in the morning program of Nova TV.

Germany will soon authorize the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 65, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday, the same day Belgium authorized its rollout to seniors.

The countries - both criticized for the slow pace of their inoculation drives - had previously said there was insufficient data about the effect of the vaccine on older age groups.

In a statement on the latest results of Phase 3 trials in Turkey of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on March 4 its overall efficiency was 83.5% with a hospitalization prevention rate of 100%.

"Our experience also shows that hospitalizations are being prevented [via vaccine]," he added.

Ljubljana – Slovenia is planning to start mass vaccination of teachers against Covid-19 next week, Jelko Kacin, the coordinator for the logistics of mass vaccination, announced as he visited a vaccination point in Ljubljana on Wednesday.

The National Committee for anti-COVID vaccination (CNCAV) informs that in the last 24 hours there were 38,695 vaccine doses administered, of which 30,006 - Pfizer and 8,679 - AstraZeneca and 10 from Moderna, according to the data provided by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP), through the National Electronic Vaccination Registry.

South Korean authorities are investigating the deaths of two people, both with pre-existing conditions, who died within days of receiving AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech has an efficacy of 83.5 percent based on the final results of Phase III trials, Turkish researchers said on March 3, a downward revision from a preliminary finding of 91.25 percent.

To build up a collective defense against coronavirus, about 80% of Bulgarians must acquire immunity. This became clear from the comment of the virologist Prof. Radostina Alexandrova on bTV.