FDA Backs Shots for Kids; Russia’s Deadly Month: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine was cleared by U.S. regulators for children ages 5 to 11, a long-awaited pandemic milestone that opens a new phase of the immunization campaign. 

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to order Maine to allow religious exemptions to its new requirement that health-care workers be inoculated against Covid-19.

A new study offers more evidence that Covid-19 vaccines provide stronger protection against hospitalization than immunity from an earlier infection, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

Russia suffered its deadliest September since World War II. Denmark, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, will more than double its testing capacity after the number of virus infections jumped in recent weeks.

Key Developments:

• Virus Tracker: Cases approach 245.8 million; deaths surpass 4.98 million
• Vaccine Tracker: More than 6.98 billion shots given
• Shots for younger kids need doctors’ push to sway leery parents
• Fake vaccine cards pose enforcement challenge as mandates rise
• U.S. moms working at home were more likely to quit in pandemic
• Amazon boosted workforce by 75% during Covid and is still hiring

Top Court Allows Mandate Without Religious Opt-Out (5:57 p.m. NY)

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to order Maine to allow religious exemptions to its new requirement that health-care workers be inoculated against Covid-19.

Over three dissents the high court rejected a group of workers and one employer who said their religious views put them at risk of losing their jobs and health-care practice. The challengers said they object to the three available vaccines because they have links to cell lines derived from aborted fetuses.

The case marked the first time the court had been asked to say that a vaccine mandate must include a religious exemption. 

FDA Backs Vaccines for Young Children (3:28 p.m. NY)

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine was cleared by U.S. regulators for children ages 5 to 11, a long-awaited pandemic milestone that opens a new phase of the immunization campaign. 

The emergency authorization, announced Friday in a statement by the Food and Drug Administration, brings the U.S. a step closer to shots being administered at schools, pediatricians’ offices and pharmacies around the country. The formulation for young kids is one-third the dose of the adult shot.

Before youngsters can begin to receive the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee will also meet to make more specific recommendations about who should get it and how to administer it. The panel is currently scheduled to convene on Nov. 2 and 3.

U.S. Spies Say Covid Origin Unclear (3:22 p.m. NY)

Covid-19 was probably not a biological weapon and most U.S. analysts believe it wasn’t genetically engineered at all, but a final conclusion on the virus’s origins is impossible without cooperation from China, a declassified U.S. report says.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its long-awaited public findings on the virus’s origins on Friday, a declassified version of the secret report submitted to President Joe Biden this summer. 

Chicago Council Preserves Vaccine Mandate (3:30 p.m. NY)

The Chicago city council Friday voted to keep Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccination policy in place.

The city’s policy requires that employees reported vaccine status by Oct. 15 or be subject to weekly testing through the end of the year, when all employees without medical or religious exemptions get vaccinations. The policy has faced pushback among some police and firefighters. 

Tonga Records First Covid Case (2:50 p.m. NY)

For almost two years, the Kingdom of Tonga has watched on as Covid-19 spread to almost every corner of the world, except its own. 

On Friday, that remarkable virus-free streak came to an end when Prime Minister Pohiva Tu’ionetoa said the country of some 100,000 people had found its first confirmed Covid case, local media reported. 

The infection was in a passenger on a plane from Christchurch, New Zealand, about 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) southwest of Tonga. The person is in mandatory hotel quarantine, but was among 215 people on the aircraft, website Matangi Tonga said.

Biden Pushes for More Testing In Schools (2:40 p.m. NY)

President Joe Biden’s administration is planning to encourage schools to set up regular Covid-19 testing for students and staff, ABC News reports.

Biden had pledged $10 billion in March to help with the efforts, but some states rejected their slice of the funding and some schools have been slow to implement testing plans.

Resources in the new initiative include sharing testing providers to make it easier to launch the screenings. The administration and The Rockefeller Foundation will also host webinars connecting experts and districts twice a week.

Harris to Get Booster (1:49 p.m. NY)

Vice President Kamala Harris will receive her Moderna vaccine booster on Saturday, a White House spokesperson said. Harris, 57, is required to travel frequently and is considered at increased risk of exposure due to her job, an official said.

Vaccines Protect More Than Earlier Infection (1:05 p.m. NY)

A new study offers more evidence that Covid-19 vaccines provide stronger protection against hospitalization than immunity from an earlier infection, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

Hospitalized patients who weren’t vaccinated but had been previously infected with Covid were about five times more likely to test positive for the infection than people who had been vaccinated, according to the CDC study.

Firefighter Dismissed for Refusing Testing (12:11 p.m. NY)

A veteran firefighter in Oklahoma City has been dismissed for refusing to submit to Covid-19 testing protocols after members of his team were infected, the Oklahoman newspaper reported.

Corporal Jerimiah Hoffstatter, a nine-year veteran, was cited for gross insubordination, the newspaper reported. He was a member of a special team sent to Louisiana to assist with hurricane relief, the newspaper said.

An Oklahoma City Fire Department statement said: “Required testing of Oklahoma Task Force 1 members upon return to Oklahoma City revealed three Oklahoma City Fire Department personnel had contracted Covid while deployed.”

Russia’s Deadliest Month Since World War (12:06 p.m. NY)

Russia suffered its deadliest September since World War II, according to figures published Friday, even before the peak of its current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic forced authorities to order non-working days for the first week of November. 

There were 44,265 deaths associated with the virus last month, bringing the pandemic’s total to nearly half a million, according to Federal Statistics Service data published late Friday. That contributed to the highest number of September fatalities since the war, said Alexei Raksha, a demographer who left the agency last year after a dispute over its coronavirus numbers.

N.Y., Connecticut Cases Slow More Than Most (11:29 a.m. NY)

Connecticut and New York were among 10 U.S. states with the biggest declines in new cases during the week through Wednesday, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published Friday.

Infections in Connecticut fell by 35%, the third-biggest decline after New Hampshire and Oklahoma. New York reported a 20% drop, tied with Florida and Virginia for 10th place. Alabama, Utah and New Mexico led 17 states with rising trends.

The report shows cases increasing the most in the U.S. northwest, in a group comprising Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Utah, while declining in almost every part of the nation.

Air Canada Calls Back Remote Workers (11:04 a.m. NY)

Air Canada said employees working remotely must gradually return to the office starting Nov. 15 and be fully vaccinated, as Covid-19 cases ebb across Canada. 

The country’s biggest airline described its plan on Friday as “a balanced approach” that allows employees to keep working some “set days” remotely. In a statement, Chief Executive Officer Michael Rousseau cited Canada’s high vaccination rate as part of the company’s rationale for bringing workers back. 

Denmark Boosts Testing as Cases Rise (10:46 a.m. NY)

Denmark, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, will more than double its testing capacity after the number of virus infections has jumped in recent weeks.

Denmark will increase PCR tests to about 150,000 a day from currently 100,000 and will also re-introduce private quick-test facilities, which will be able handle about 100,000 tests daily, health authorities said in a statement on Friday.

Oramed to Run South Africa Oral Vaccine Trial (7:25 a.m. NY)

Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. won approval to run an initial clinical trial for its orally delivered Covid-19 vaccine candidate in South Africa.

The U.S.-listed company has been given permission by the South African Health Regulatory Products Authority to start enrolling patients in Phase 1 of tests, it said in a statement on Friday. 

EU Urges Lifting Argentina, Colombia Curbs (6:52 a.m. NY)

The European Union recommended lifting any remaining travel restrictions on Argentina, Colombia, Namibia and Peru. The EU can only advise its member states; it has no actual power over limiting access to its territory.

German Minister Calls for Vaccine Boosters (5:24 p.m. HK)

Vaccine boosters will help prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said.

“Everyone who gets a booster, who discusses it with his doctor, is doing his bit to help us get through the winter safely,” Spahn said in an interview with RBB Inforadio on Friday.

The 41-year-old minister, who was eligible for a booster because he was originally immunized with AstraZeneca Plc’s shot, got a third shot himself yesterday. Germany’s infection rate is at its highest since May.

The health ministry is calling for third shots for everybody over age 60, plus for carers and health-care workers, those with pre-existing conditions and younger people who got the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson shots.

Indonesia to Quicken Vaccination Pace (5:09 p.m. HK)

Indonesia will accelerate its vaccination pace to 2.1 million doses per day by December from 1.7 million in October, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said in a statement on Friday.

South Africa Offers Booster to Health Workers (2:10 p.m. HK)

South Africa’s government will offer booster Covid-19 shots to health workers next month and is planning incentives to improve vaccination rates.

Boosters will be offered to almost 500,000 people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of a trial earlier this year, Health Department Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp said by phone on Friday.

Meanwhile, the government also plans to offer 100 rand ($7) of grocery vouchers to people over the age of 60 who go and get vaccinated for the first time.

Almost Everyone in Delhi May Have Antibodies (1:20 p.m. HK) 

As many as 97% of the residents of Indian capital Delhi have antibodies against Covid-19 because of prior infection or because they’ve been vaccinated, according to a survey conducted in September. 

It’s the first such study after a second wave of infections in April and May overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums and made India the world’s second-worst affected nation after the U.S.

India has administered more than a billion shots but only about 34% of its adult population is fully inoculated. On Wednesday, the federal Health Ministry said a door-to-door vaccination campaign will start in districts with low levels of inoculation.

Uganda to End Controls After Almost 2 Years (1:17 p.m. HK) 

Uganda will fully reopen its economy in January after almost two years of controls, President Yoweri Museveni said.

The East African country expects to have vaccinated 12 million of the targeted 21 million people by the end of December, Museveni said in a televised address. “Now that the vaccines are available the economy will be opened in January,” he said. Uganda has received more than 9.5 million doses of mainly AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and expects more by year-end, he said.

Schools, bars and entertainment centers have been closed since the virus was first detected in the country in March 2020 and a dusk-to-dawn curfew been enforced.  

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