The Latest: Pakistan expects to get 15M doses through COVAX

The Latest: Pakistan expects to get 15M doses through COVAX

Pakistan’s foreign minister says the country will receive 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through the UN-backed COVAX program

By The Associated Press

April 12, 2021, 6:11 PM

• 12 min read

A member of the bar staff carries drinks to outdoor tables at the reopening of the Figure of Eight pub, in Birmingham, England, Monday April 12, 2021. Millions of people in England will get their first chance in months for haircuts, casual shopping and restaurant meals on Monday, as the government takes the next step on its lockdown-lifting road map. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s foreign minister says the country will receive 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through the UN-backed COVAX program.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the announcement Monday after meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.

Qureshi, who is on a two-day visit to Germany, said in a post on Twitter that the doses are expected to be delivered to Pakistan by May.

Pakistan is currently seeing a third wave coronavirus surge, reporting 58 single-day deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

The Islamic nation previously hoped to receive vaccines under the COVAX facility in April, and has largely relied on donated and imported Chinese vaccines.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Muslims are navigating coronavirus regulations for their second Ramadan in the shadow of the pandemic

— China's top disease control official said current vaccines offer low protection, mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost effectiveness

— Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

ROME — Police in Rome blocked hundreds of angry owners of shuttered establishments, such as restaurants and gyms, from reaching a square outside the Italian Parliament as frustration builds in business sectors over weeks of current pandemic lockdown measures.

The protesters took to the streets on Monday to demand that the government lift a decree that bans restaurants, cafes and bars from offering table or counter service through April. The owners say government promises of compensation for some of their lost revenues aren’t enough to feed their families and keep paying idle workers on payrolls.

Operators of gyms, cinemas, museums, theaters and concert halls are complaining they have not been given a firm date when they can open their doors to the public.

Premier Mario Draghi says unless the COVID-19 situation quickly improves and vaccination pace picks up, restrictions on dining at eateries will remain at least through this month. After being thwarted from demonstrating outside Parliament, many demonstrators moved to vast People’s Square to continue their protest.

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LONDON — An update to the U.K.’s official COVID-19 contact tracing mobile app has been halted because it apparently breached privacy rules laid down by Apple and Google.

The update was set to add new features to support the U.K.’s latest easing of lockdown restrictions on Monday.

The app, which runs on software jointly developed by Apple and Google, lets people record their visits to places like restaurants and bars by scanning codes. The updated version would ask users who test positive to upload a list of venues where they’ve checked in to help with tracing others with whom they might have come into contact.

But the BBC reports that would violate privacy-focused rules that ban the apps from using location data, so Google and Apple blocked the update.

“...We remain in discussions with our partners to provide beneficial updates to the app which protect the public," the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement.

Apple did not respond immediately to a request for comment and Google referred inquiries to the Department of Health.

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WASHINGTON – A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official says surging vaccines to Michigan would not help the hard-hit state control the latest COVID-19 wave that has strained its hospitals and is raising concerns nationwide, because vaccines take two to six weeks to confer protection.