Coronavirus live news: WHO says ‘don’t panic’, all will get Covid vaccine; new US CDC director sworn in

In the US, a new CDC director is arriving to a mammoth task: reasserting the agency while the pandemic is in its deadliest phase yet and the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign is wracked by confusion and delays, AP reports.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, 51, an infectious-diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was sworn in Wednesday as the head of the CDC.

While the agency has retained some of its top scientific talent, public health experts say, it has a long list of needs, including new protection from political influence, a comprehensive review of its missteps during the pandemic and more money to beef up basic functions like disease tracking and genetic analysis.

Walensky has said one of her top priorities will be to improve the CDC’s communications with the public to rebuild trust. Inside the agency, she wants to raise morale, in large part by restoring the primacy of science and setting politics to the side.

The speed at which she is assuming the job is unusual. In the past, the position has generally been unfilled until a new secretary of health and human services is confirmed, and that official names a CDC director. But this time, the Biden transition team named Walensky in advance, so she could take the agency’s reins even before her boss is in place.

Walensky, an HIV researcher, has not worked at the CDC or at a state or local health department. But she has emerged as a prominent voice on the pandemic, sometimes criticising certain aspects of the state and national response. Her targets have included the uneven transmission-prevention measures that were in place last summer and a prominent Trump adviser’s endorsement of a “herd immunity” approach that would let the virus run free.

Nobody should panic about getting access to a Covid-19 vaccine because everyone who wants one will get one, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

AFP: The WHO’s assistant director-general Mariangela Simao said the UN health agency was working towards ensuring access to coronavirus jabs all around the world.

“No one needs to panic, because you’re going to get a vaccine,” said Simao, the assistant DG for access to medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

“We’ve been working very hard to ensure that all countries, all populations, do have the opportunity to access these vaccines,” she told a WHO social media live event.

Simao said that around 50 countries have started vaccination campaigns, with more than 40 of them being high-income states.

The WHO co-led Covax facility, a globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort, has struck agreements with five manufacturers for two billion vaccine doses.

It aims to secure vaccines for 20 percent of the population in each participating country by the end of the year, with funding covered for the 92 lower- and lower-middle income economies involved.

“We are expecting to have the first doses reaching countries end of February,” Simao said.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next while.

As always, you can find me on Twitter here.

Nobody should panic about getting access to a Covid-19 vaccine because everyone who wants one will get one, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The WHO’s assistant director-general Mariangela Simao said the UN health agency was working towards ensuring access to coronavirus jabs all around the world.

“No one needs to panic, because you’re going to get a vaccine,” said Simao, the assistant DG for access to medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

Meanwhile in the US, Dr Rochelle Walensky, 51, an infectious-diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, was sworn in Wednesday as the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She takes the helm at a time when the country’s death toll has eclipsed 400,000 and continues to accelerate.

Here are the other key recent developments in the pandemic:

• Joe Biden marks start of presidency with executive orders to tackle Covid-19. The president signed orders to mandate mask wearing and social distancing in federal buildings and lands, and to create a position of a Covid-19 response coordinator.
• UK reports 1,820 more Covid deaths, the most recorded in one day. The number of new cases also rose sharply to 38,905, after a fall earlier in the week which inspired optimism that lockdown restrictions were working.
• France may follow Germany in making clinical masks mandatory. Medical-grade face masks rather than cloth coverings could become mandatory in a number of European countries to help contain the rapid spread of highly contagious Covid variants first identified in the UK and South Africa.
• Dubai cancels non-essential surgery as Covid-19 cases surge. Dubai has ordered hospitals to cancel non-essential surgery for the next month after a surge in coronavirus cases in the Middle East’s tourism and business hub.
• Indian hesitancy sets back world’s biggest Covid vaccination drive. India’s Covid-19 vaccine drive has been hampered by turnout as low as 22% in some states, as fears over the safety of the vaccine and the spread of misinformation has fuelled widespread hesitancy.
• Spain logs record number of new Covid infections. Spain recorded 41,576 new cases in the preceding 24 hours, bringing the country’s total caseload to 2,412,318. It also recorded 464 deaths.
• Italy considers legal action over Pfizer vaccine delivery delays. Italy is preparing to take legal action against Pfizer over delays in delivery of pre-ordered Covid-19 vaccines. Italy received 48,000 vaccines for this week, out of an allocated 397,000, and was also left short by 165,000 last week.
• Record 343,00 people in UK receive first dose of Covid vaccine in one day. The NHS is scaling up its11push to vaccinate 15 million people by mid-February, although with 25 days to go it will require about 400,000 immunisations a day to remain on track.
• Syria’s White Helmets awarded £920,000 to make PPE. Syria’s White Helmets, who rescue victims from the rubble of airstrikes,13have added making personal protective equipment to their efforts saving lives in areas of the country outside Bashar al-Assad’s control.