Worldwide COVID news at a glance

US approves Pfizer young children

The United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has approved Pfizer vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11 years old. It is the first COVID-19 vaccination to be approved for young children in the US.

Only a few other countries, including China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates, have approved COVID-19 vaccines for children in this age group and younger. The US Centre For Disease Control and Prevention must still decide how the vaccine will be administered before shots are given.

The approved dose is 10-micrograms – lower than the 30-microgram dose for children aged over 12. Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine showed 90.7 per cent efficacy against coronavirus in a clinical trial of children aged 5 to 11.

Covid booster jabs offered in England

Covid booster jabs are now being given at walk-in clinics in England as the NHS aims to increase vaccine uptake before what is expected to be a challenging winter.

From Monday, anyone who had their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine at least six months ago can turn up at one of hundreds of sites to get their top-up without making an appointment. The walk-in centres are also offering vaccinations to 12- to 15-year-olds.

The move follows criticism of the booster campaign, with only about half of the 12 million people in England eligible so far for a third vaccine dose having received one. The vaccine rollout to teenagers has lagged behind that of countries including France, Italy and Spain.

‘Vax’ chosen as word of the year

In a year when talk over the virtual garden fence has focused on whether you have been jabbed, jagged or had both doses yet, and whether it was Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna you were injected with, Oxford Languages has chosen vax as its word of the year.

After deciding last year that it was impossible to sum up 2020 in one word, the company that produces the Oxford English Dictionary said the shorthand for vaccine had “injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language” this year during the Covid pandemic.

In September usage of the word “vax” was up more than 72 times from its level last year, the firm said. The word, and others related to vaccination, had also been broadened into a wider range of contexts including “fully vaxxed” and “vax cards”.

South Korea toward ‘living with Covid-19’

South Korea said on Friday it will drop all operating-hour curbs on restaurants and cafes and implement its first vaccine passport for high-risk venues, such as gyms, saunas and bars, as it tries to “live with Covid-19.”

The first phase will go into effect on Monday and last for a month, officials said, with plans calling for all restrictions to be scrapped by February. The push comes as South Korea still grapples with high daily case numbers, though they remain far below many of the worst hit countries, and serious infections and deaths are low.

Last week, South Korea met its goal of vaccinating 70% of its 52 million people, paving the way for the planned return to normal. It has now fully vaccinated about 72% of the population, and has given at least one dose of a vaccine to more than 79.8%.

Tonga faces prospect of lockdown

Tongan Prime Minister Pohiva Tuionetoa warned that residents on the country’s main island Tongatapu faced a possible lockdown next week after recording its first case of COVID-19.

The tiny Pacific kingdom had been among only a handful of countries to escape the virus so far, and the infection was detected in a person in managed isolation after returning to Tonga on a repatriation flight from New Zealand.

Most of Tonga’s population of 106,000 live on Tongatapu, and fewer than a third have been double vaccinated against COVID-19. Health officials said the person who tested positive had received their second jab in mid-October.

Russia and much of eastern Europe struggling

Medical staff are under huge pressure and patients who survived long periods in intensive care units have spoken about the mental pressures of knowing that many people around them have died.

Last week it was reported that the pace of vaccination had more than doubled after the country recorded its highest daily COVID-19 death toll since the beginning of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities in Crimea have set up checkpoints at the entry to Sevastopol, checking drivers for their vaccination status. Proof of vaccination has also been demanded at hotels and restaurants as many headed to resorts on the south coast.