Global

The steady drumbeat of reports about new variants of the coronavirus — first in Britain, then in South Africa, Brazil and the United States — has brought a new worry: Will vaccines protect against these altered versions of the virus?

Africa's COVID-19 case fatality rate surpasses global level Africa's coronavirus case fatality rate has risen alarmingly to 2.5%, higher than the global level of 2.2%, the head of the continent's disease control body said on Thursday. Reuters Staff U.S.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Africa’s coronavirus case fatality rate has risen alarmingly to 2.5%, higher than the global level of 2.2%, the head of the continent’s disease control body said on Thursday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/19/single-covid-vaccine-dose-in-israel-less-effective-than-we-hoped

Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be providing less protection than originally hoped, as the country reported a record 10,000 new Covid infections on Monday.

In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.

By contrast, those who had received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a six- to 12-fold increase in antibodies, according to data released by Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer on Monday.