August 16, 2021

SYDNEY – Poland is selling one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to boost Australia’s comparatively low COVID-19 inoculation rates. Australia has bought extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the Polish government for an undisclosed amount. The first shipment arrived in Sydney Sunday. Reports have said Poland has been trying to sell-on at least four million spare doses from its national stockpile. The deal is part of Canberra’s international hunt for extra doses to boost its vaccination rollout. With only about a quarter of its population fully inoculated, Australia has lagged behind many other countries. Half of the doses from Poland will go to 20-to-39-year-olds in the

The next couple of weeks will tell whether the U.S. will begin to offer coronavirus booster shots to its population, Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, told the television show “Fox News Sunday.” “There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness,” Collins said. Healthcare workers, nursing home residents and other older people would be the first in line to receive the booster shots, according to the NIH director. The delta strain of the coronavirus is driving up the COVID caseload in the U.S. to approximately 129,000 new infections a

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the COVID-19 state of emergency for Tokyo and several surrounding regions will continue through September 12 rather than expiring at the end of this month after a surge in new cases over the past three days. Tokyo announced 2,962 new daily cases on Monday, after a record 5,773 on Friday. All of Japan saw a record 20,400 cases that day. Suga told reporters the surge in infections is reaching alarming levels. He said the state of emergency currently in effect for Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa will include three other areas – Kyoto, Hyogo and