COVID-19 shots will be free, declares Bahrain

Medical staff are seen in the ICU centre for COVID-19 patients at the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital in Riffa in Bahrain. Pic/AFP

Bahrain has announced plans to give the public free coronavirus vaccines, as Saudi Arabia said it approved an inoculation by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech to fight the pandemic.

The island nation of Bahrain made the vaccine pledge in an announcement published late on Thursday by its state-run Bahrain News Agency. "A safe vaccine will be provided free of charge to all citizens and residents within the kingdom," it said, without elaborating on which vaccine it would offer.

A week ago, Bahrain said it had become the second nation in the world to grant an emergency-use authorisation to the Pfizer vaccine after the UK. It had already granted emergency-use authorisation for a Chinese vaccine made by Sinopharm and has inoculated some 6,000 people with it. Earlier on Thursday, Saudi Arabia's Food and Drug Authority said it had registered the Pfizer vaccine, paving the way for its import.

GSK, Sanofi vaccine not effective in older adults
Drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi say their potential COVID-19 vaccine won't be ready until late next year as they seek to improve the shot's effectiveness in older people. The companies said on Friday that early-stage trials showed the vaccine produced an "insufficient" immune response in older adults, demonstrating the need to refine the product so it protects people of all ages. They said they now expect the vaccine to be available in the fourth quarter of 2021. GSK and Sanofi, based in London and Paris, respectively, said they were confident of the vaccine's ultimate success due to positive results from other tests.

4,06,454
Total no. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

6,88,45,368
Total no. of cases worldwide

15,84,788
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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