Reuters Health News Summary

Turkey's vaccine blitz tops 500,000 on second day of rollout Turkey has vaccinated more than 500,000 people in the first two days of administering COVID-19 shots developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd, health ministry data showed on Friday, among the speediest rollouts globally.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Exclusive: International COVID-19 vaccine poll shows higher mistrust of Russia, China shots

People across the world are generally likely to say yes to getting a COVID-19 vaccine, but would be more distrustful of shots made in China or Russia than those developed in Germany or the United States, an international poll showed on Friday. The survey, conducted by the polling company YouGov and shared exclusively with Reuters, found Britons and Danes were the most willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them, while the French and Poles were more likely to be hesitant. Turkey's vaccine blitz tops 500,000 on second day of rollout

Turkey has vaccinated more than 500,000 people in the first two days of administering COVID-19 shots developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd, health ministry data showed on Friday, among the speediest rollouts globally. Ankara launched the nationwide programme on Thursday, vaccinating health workers first, and inoculated more than 285,000 people on the first day. As of 1137 GMT, the total was 523,338. African Union vaccines to be allocated according to population

Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses secured by the African Union (AU) will be allocated according to countries' population size, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday. Ramaphosa, who is the current AU chairman, said on Wednesday that vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca would be available this year, but he did not specify how much each African country would get. Some U.S. nursing home residents face delays for COVID-19 vaccines despite extreme risk

A former Arkansas health official is sounding alarms about the pace of coronavirus vaccines being administered to residents of long-term care facilities under a U.S. plan that puts major pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens in charge of many of the shots. Fewer than 10% of doses allocated to those Arkansas seniors have been administered, according to the state health department. The two pharmacies are working with about 40% of the state's facilities. Some of those were told that they were scheduled for February or March, said Dr. Joe Thompson, former Arkansas surgeon general and chief executive of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement China COVID-19 vaccinations gather momentum as outbreaks spread

A little-known Beijing museum of urban planning looks set to see more visitors after being converted into a COVID-19 vaccination site as China seeks to ramp up inoculations amid a new upsurge in infections. "Initially there were a few hundred people a day, and then it reached a peak of 4,000," said Zheng Hongwei, a doctor at the makeshift vaccination site. For Los Angeles-area ambulance crews, the COVID-19 calls never stop

For Southern California ambulance crews, the shifts feel never-ending and the calls to pick up COVID-19 patients seem endless. "In 30 years, I've never seen a call volume like this," said Eileen Cegarra, 56, an ambulance dispatch center supervisor for Care Ambulance Service, one of the largest ambulance companies in the Los Angeles area, which has become the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic. Philippines senators query government's preference for China vaccine after new efficacy data

Philippine senators on Friday questioned the government's preference for the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine after latest data showed it has a lower efficacy rate, saying this would not bode well for a country seeking to boost confidence in vaccines. President Rodrigo Duterte's office said on Monday it was expecting to receive next month the first batch of coronavirus shots developed by Sinovac Biotech, which at that time has not yet filed an emergency use request with local regulators. Analysis: Biden's federal boost to vaccine rollout is critical to speeding inoculations

President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to boost the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, including by spending $20 billion to create mass vaccination centers, should help speed up putting shots into the arms of millions of Americans, experts and officials told Reuters. The Biden administration on Thursday revealed a nearly $2 trillion proposal to address the economic harm from the COVID-19 pandemic that included $20 billion for vaccine distribution and $50 billion for testing. It builds on the $1.4 trillion COVID relief bill passed in December, more than tripling the funding allocated to state and local governments for vaccine distribution. Azerbaijan to begin vaccinations next week, to use Chinese shot: govt

Azerbaijan will begin vaccinating its population against COVID-19 next week using a vaccine developed by China, government spokesman Ibrahim Mammadov said. He did not disclose which Chinese vaccine would be used but said it would be the same one as Turkey had acquired. Turkey is using shots developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Some big U.S. pharmacies will not check ID before administering COVID-19 vaccines

Many U.S. pharmacies, including those inside Kroger Co supermarkets and the drugstore chain of CVS Health Corp, say they will not be checking IDs before administering COVID-19 vaccines, leaving the door open to those who do not meet states' guidelines to jump the line. While the United States has distributed more than 30 million vaccine doses, a little over 11 million had been administered as of Thursday, a lag that prompted U.S. health secretary Alex Azar to call on states to begin vaccinating the vulnerable older population and those with certain chronic health conditions to get more vaccines into arms.