Lebanon slaps new curbs after Covid-19 spikes; Austria scraps plan to ease lockdown after testing row: Britain rolls out AstraZeneca shots

LONDON: Britain on Monday began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, a possible game-changer in fighting the disease worldwide, while China raced to inoculate millions with a homegrown prophylactic.

Britain started the new drive with 530,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as it struggled to control a severe wave of infections that has threatened to overwhelm the public health system and prompted the government to warn tougher curbs can be expected.

The vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, is seen as a game-changer by many experts because it does not require very cold temperatures for storage like the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

That could mean greater access to the vaccine for less wealthy parts of the world in the fight against the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 85 million people with more than 1.8 million known deaths.

Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old retired maintenance manager, received the first jab at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital, NHS England said.

"I’m very pleased that I got the Oxford vaccine," he said, adding that it was a "no-brainer" to get the shot.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted that he was "delighted that today we roll out the @UniofOxford / @AstraZeneca vaccine across the whole UK."

"It’s a vital step in our fight against this pandemic," he said.

"We can see the way ahead in terms of a route forward, we can see how we can get out of this. But we do have a tough period ahead," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday.

Britain has already vaccinated around one million people after approving the Pfizer vaccine in early December and hopes to give shots to tens of millions in the next three months, Johnson said in a BBC interview.

Vaccinations were also under way in Europe, while thousands lined up in Beijing to receive shots as Chinese authorities raced to inoculate millions ahead of the Lunar New Year mass travel season in February.

Beijing has already administered around 4.5 million doses of largely unproven emergency vaccines this year -- mostly to health workers and other state employees destined for overseas jobs, according to authorities.

Elsewhere, American officials on Monday rejected claims by outgoing President Donald Trump that the country’s death toll of more than 350,000 was exaggerated, as they defended the stumbling rollout of vaccines in the world’s worst-hit nation.

The United States has a known caseload of more than 20 million, and the Trump administration has faced intense criticism for its handling of the pandemic, which has hammered the US economy.

It has started giving people the Pfizer and Moderna shots, but the 4.2 million people vaccinated so far are far below the official predictions of 20 million by the new year.

More than 13 million vaccine doses have been distributed nationwide, but efforts to inoculate health workers and vulnerable people have been hampered by logistical problems and overstretched hospitals and clinics.

"There have been a couple of glitches, that’s understandable," top US expert Anthony Fauci said, adding it was a challenge "trying to get a massive vaccine program started and getting off on the right foot."

Troubling reports have emerged of vaccines going bad due to poor organisation, lack of healthcare professionals to administer them or, in one isolated case, sabotage.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese government on Monday announced tightened restrictions through January in a bid to contain a spike in novel coronavirus infections threatening to overwhelm its health infrastructure.

The authorities had eased measures in December but scenes of revellers thronging bars and clubs during the holiday season had left little doubt that fresh restrictions were on the way.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan emerged from a long meeting of the committee tasked with battling the pandemic to announce a batch of measures to take effect "starting on Thursday morning and until the morning of February 1".

In a related development, Austria´s government on Monday effectively extended its third coronavirus lockdown, scrapping a proposal that would have allowed citizens to access some services if they took part in a mass-testing programme.

The country´s current lockdown is scheduled to run until January 24.

However, the government had proposed that those who tested negative in a nationwide, free Covid-19 mass-testing programme be allowed to visit shops, event venues, restaurants, cafes and bars from January 18.

But the plan would have obliged those who did not participate to stay at home for a week longer. Opposition parties harshly criticised the scheme, questioning the point of one-off tests and asking how the restrictions could be enforced.