A sign is pasted into an upper window at Pfizer manufacturing center in Puurs, Belgium, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Two U.K. studies released Monday showed that COVID-19 vaccination programs are contributing to a sharp drop in hospitalizations, boosting hopes that the shots will work as well in the real world as they have in carefully controlled studies. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
In this Feb. 12, 2021, file photo, scripps health official draws from a vile of the COVID-19 vaccine prior to administering it at their new drive-thru vaccination site at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, Calif. Executives from the major COVID-19 vaccine producers are set Tuesday, Feb. 23, to answer questions from Congress about expanding the supply of shots needed to curb the pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
Israeli medical teams administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to Palestinians at the Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. While moving aggressively to vaccinate its adult population, including Arab citizens, Israel has not shared significant quantities of vaccines with the Palestinians in the West Bank. Tuesday's vaccinations were offered to Palestinians who have Israeli residency rights but live in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A woman holds a packet containing vials of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm at a Hungarian pharmaceutical wholesaler in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. A shipment of COVID-19 vaccines produced in China arrived in Hungary on Tuesday, making it the first of the European Union's 27 nations to receive a Chinese vaccine. (Marton Monus/MTI via AP)
Doctors and nurses wait to receive China's Sinovac COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a community vaccination centre in Hong Kong Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Frontline workers and high risk people are the first in line to be vaccinated in the territory. (Peter Parks/Pool Photo via AP)
The owner of a closed restaurant has placed plush panda bears at the tables in central Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, as Germany is still in a partiallockdown. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus ride an escalator at an office and shopping complex in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. China has been regularly reporting no locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 as it works to maintain control of the pandemic within its borders. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk past a display in the window of a commercial space in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. China has been regularly reporting no locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 as it works to maintain control of the pandemic within its borders. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
A health worker takes a nasal swab sample at a COVID-19 testing center in Hyderabad, India, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Cases of COVID-19 are increasing in some parts of India after months of a steady nationwide decline, prompting authorities to impose lockdowns and other virus restrictions. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
An Afghan security personnel, left, receives Indian's AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from health officials at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Afghanistan has started its first implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine during a ceremony at the Afghan presidential palace. (The Presidential Palace via AP)
A sign shows the way to the vaccination center in central Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, as Germany is still in a partiallockdown. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
A Cathay Pacific pilot receives China's Sinovac COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a community vaccination centre in Hong Kong Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Frontline workers and high risk people are the first in line to be vaccinated in the territory.(Peter Parks/Pool Photo via AP)
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk across a street in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. China has been regularly reporting no locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 as it works to maintain control of the pandemic within its borders. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
A vial of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is held at a vaccination site Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Californian Governor Gavin Newsom talks during a visit to Arvin Veterans Hall in Arvin, Calif. in Kern County on Monday, Feb. 22, 2021, to highlight the state's efforts to administer COVID-19 vaccines quickly and equitably across California. Newsom said more vaccines are headed to California's vast Central Valley, an agricultural region that has been hard hit by the coronavirus. (Alex Horvath/Bakersfield Californian via AP)
In this July 6, 2020, file photo, blanket is pulled to cover the body of a patient after medical personnel were unable to to save her life inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 500,000 — a number so staggering that a top health researchers says it is hard to imagine an American who hasn't lost a relative or doesn't know someone who died. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
Heavy fog covers the landscape near around the Castle of Salgo near Salgotarjan, Hungary, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. (Peter Komka/MTI via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson centre, looks on in the gym, which is being used as a makeshift coronavirus testing centre for students, during a visit to Sedgehill School in Lewisham, south east London, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, to see preparations for students returning to school. Johnson has announced a gradual easing of one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns on, saying children will return to class and people will be able to meet a friend for coffee in a park in two weeks’ time. But people longing for a haircut, a restaurant meal or a pint in a pub have almost two months to wait, and people won’t be able to hug loved ones that they don’t live with until May at the earliest. (Jack Hill/Pool Photo via AP)
A health worker holds up a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 to be administered to members of the Italian Army at a vaccination center set up at the military barracks of Cecchignola, in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2020. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)
A member of the Italian Army is administered a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 at a vaccination center set up at the military barracks of Cecchignola, in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2020. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)
Palestinians line up to receive coronavirus vaccinations from an Israeli medical team at the Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. While moving aggressively to vaccinate its adult population, including Arab citizens, Israel has not shared significant quantities of vaccines with the Palestinians in the West Bank. Tuesday's vaccinations were offered to Palestinians who have Israeli residency rights but live in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
WASHINGTON — The top developers of U.S. COVID-19 vaccines are facing questions from Congress about limited supplies of the shots needed to end the pandemic.
The pace of vaccinations is picking up nationwide, but demand for the shots continues to outpace limited supplies distributed by the U.S. government. The Energy and Commerce Committee panel began hearing testimony from the five companies with contracts to supply COVID-19 shots to the U.S. — Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax.
Johnson & Johnson revealed ahead of the hearing that initial supplies of its one-shot vaccine will be limited to 20 million doses by the end of March. The company plans to tell lawmakers it faces “significant challenges” in scaling up production.
However, federal health officials say a total of 700 million doses is still slated for delivery by late July. That would be enough to reach the goal of providing enough shots for every American adult.
The pandemic has killed more than 500,000 Americans.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
Drug executives face questions f rom Congress at hearing on vaccine supply. Some British rush to book holiday plans amid plans to gradually end lockdown. What happens when COVID-19 causes a person to lose their sense of smell? Russia’s vaccine rollout picks up speed but experts say it's still moving slowly. “One Good Thing” keeps on giving to those in need, helpers.
— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
LONDON — Britons rushed to book overseas vacations after Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled plans to slowly ease a national lockdown.
That boosted optimism that travel restrictions will be removed in time for the summer holiday season. TUI, the U.K.’s largest tour operator said bookings increased six-fold Monday, the company’s busiest day in more than a month.
Discount airline easyJet said demand for flights more than tripled, and package holiday company Thomas Cook said traffic on its website increased 75%.
Still many business leaders were disappointed at the slow pace of re-opening of some sectors, with some restrictions expected to remain in place until June 21.
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ATHENS, Greece — Greek health authorities have reported a spike in new coronavirus cases, about half of which were in the greater Athens region.
A total 2,147 new infections were recorded Tuesday, up from 880 a day earlier despite the ongoing lockdown. It brings the total to just over 180,000.
Authorities also recorded 22 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total to 6,343 confirmed deaths.
A total 357 people are intubated in intensive care units.
Greece remains in lockdown until the end of February. It’s unclear whether the restrictions will be extended. So far, about 750,000 people have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
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JERUSALEM — Israel says it has decided to share a small quantity of its coronavirus vaccines with the Palestinians and other unidentified countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says although Israel has purchased vaccines for its own population, it has accumulated a small surplus of unused COVID-19 vaccines. “Therefore, it has been decided to assist Palestinian Authority medical teams and several of the countries that contacted Israel with a symbolic quantity of vaccines,” it said.
Early this month, Israel transferred 2,000 doses of Moderna vaccines to the Palestinians for West Bank medical workers. In all, it has pledged to share 5,000 doses.
Israel has come under some international criticism for not sharing significant quantities of vaccines with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel says under interim peace accords from the 1990s, it is not responsible for providing health care to Palestinians in those areas.
Israel has already given at least one dose of the vaccine to roughly half of its 9.3 million people, one of the highest per capita rates in the world.
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LISBON, Portugal — A second team of Germany army medics has arrived in Portugal to help with intensive care patients during the pandemic.
A COVID-19 surge in January made Portugal the worst-hit country in the world by size of population. The surge has ebbed, but hospitals are still under pressure.
The eight German doctors and 18 nurses arrived Tuesday to relieve a previous team that flew to Portugal at the start of February.
A handful of medics from France and Luxembourg are also helping at Portuguese hospitals.
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STOCKHOLM — Authorities in Sweden’s capital of Stockholm urged people to use face masks when on public transportation, shops and workplaces.
“We want people to use face masks in public transport around the clock, especially during rush hour,” says the city’s infection control doctor Maria Rotzen Ostlund. Stockholm has had a 27% infection increase in recent weeks.
Swedish chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says Sweden “unfortunately is seeing an upswing again,” adding the variant first reported in Britain “has increased at a very fast pace.”
Sweden has reported 12,713 confirmed deaths. It’s totaled 642,099 confirmed cases, an increase of 10,933 cases since Friday.
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BUCHAREST, Romania — Hundreds of Romanian policemen have marched in protest of planned austerity measures that may freeze salaries in the public sector.
The Romanian government has announced a strict budget this year to counter the fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s economy. The austerity package is yet to be approved in Romania’s parliament.
The measure has angered workers’ unions in the public sector, particularly the medical workers who have carried much of the burden of the outbreak while treating COVID-19 patients.
Other public staff unions also have announced protests. They are demanding annual salary increases remain intact and bonuses be introduced in some cases, particularly for the health staff in COVID-19 wards or the families of medical workers who died in the pandemic.
Romania has registered nearly 800,000 coronavirus cases and more than 20,000 confirmed deaths in the country of 19 million.
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BUDAPEST — Officials in Hungary are urging people to trust in the vaccines already approved by the country ahead of a planned rollout Wednesday of a COVID-19 vaccine developed in China.
General practitioners around the country will receive 55 doses each of the Sinopharm vaccine and have been instructed to give them to their oldest patients, state secretary Dr. Istvan Gyorgy says.
He says 275,000 people will receive the Chinese shot this week. Hungary will be the first country in the European Union to administer a Chinese vaccine despite polling that shows trust in the Sinopharm vaccine is low among Hungarians.
“Every vaccine available in Hungary is safe and able to provide protection against virus infection,” says Gyorgy of the country, which also uses Pfizer, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.
Hungarian officials expect the Sinopharm vaccine, which received final approval last week, will provide a sharp increase in the country’s vaccination rate. Gyorgy says as many as 368,000 people could be inoculated this week, compared with 457,000 receiving a shot since vaccinations started in December.
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BEIRUT — The World Bank threatened to suspend financing for coronavirus vaccines in Lebanon over what it said were violations by members of Parliament who were inoculated without registering in advance.
The World Bank said last month it approved $34 million to help pay for vaccines for Lebanon that will inoculate over 2 million people. The vaccination campaign in the country began on Feb. 14 and Lebanon has so far received nearly 60,000 shots of Pfizer-BioNTech.
Parliament’s secretary general Adnan Daher was quoted by state media denying that the 16 legislators had jumped the line, which prioritizes medical workers and residents at least 75 years old. Daher said all the legislators who received in inoculation had registered and were properly in line. In January, Lebanon’s government launched a digital coronavirus vaccination registration platform.
Lebanon has registered more than 356,000 total coronavirus cases and 4,387 confirmed deaths
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BERLIN — Germany is extending strict checks on its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol province until March 3.
The checks were introduced on Feb. 14 in a bid to reduce the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants that have taken hold in those areas. Germany is limiting entry to its own citizens and residents, truck drivers, health workers and a few others including cross-border commuters working in “systemically relevant sectors.” All have to show a negative coronavirus test.
German border police have turned back thousands of people since the checks started.
The restrictions initially were imposed for a 10-day period. The Interior Ministry told news agency dpa Tuesday that they are being extended.
Germany has rejected criticism from the European Union’s executive Commission about the measures. Its minister for Europe, Michael Roth, on Tuesday rejected suggestions that Germany’s wasn’t keeping to EU law and said its actions are “in keeping with Schengen,” the rules of Europe’s passport-free travel zone.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is expected to extend the country’s coronavirus curfew and lightly relax other lockdown measures as he attempts to balance fears of a surge in infections with growing lockdown fatigue in the Netherlands.
Rutte is holding a press conference Tuesday evening amid reports that he will extend the curfew that had been due to expire March 3 amid concerns about the spread of more transmissible variants of the coronavirus. The government rushed legislation through parliament last week to underpin the curfew after a group skeptical of the lockdown measures won a court case challenging the legality of the measure.
New infections have been dropping for weeks in the Netherlands, which has been in a tough lockdown since mid-December, but have edged slightly higher in recent days.
Even so, Rutte is expected ease the lockdown by allowing high schools to reopen for a limited number of hours.
Dutch media also report that Rutte likely will allow hairdressers to reopen next week. That has angered nonessential shops, restaurants and bars, which remain closed for all but takeaways.
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CAIRO — Egypt’s health ministry says the country has received a 300,000-dose shipment of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine donated by China.
It was the third vaccine shipment received by Egypt. In December, it received a 50,000 doses of Sinopharm and last month it got another 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Tuesday’s shipment arrived hours after President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi called Chinese President Xi Jinping, hailing the “mutual support” during the pandemic.
Hala Zayed, the health minister, said the government has reserved 100 million vaccine doses including 40 million doses from COVAX, an international initiative to distribute vaccines to countries worldwide.
Egypt has seen a decrease in new coronavirus cases in the past two weeks. It has reported more than 178,774 confirmed cases, including 10,404 deaths, but experts say all confirmed numbers worldwide are low due to limited testing.
Egypt last month started vaccinating healthcare workers.
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WARSAW, Poland — New COVID-19 regulations took effect Tuesday in Poland that lift quarantine requirements for people entering the country who have certificates of having been inoculated against the virus with an European Union-approved vaccine.
Also, kindergarten children, elementary pupils and persons taking care of them, as well as researchers studying in Poland or in a neighbouring country, are exempt from the 10-day quarantine.
The government regulations published Monday night also allow people to visit health spas if they test negative no more than 6 days before arrival.
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LONDON — The U.K. unemployment rate rose for a six straight month in December as renewed coronavirus restrictions shut down most businesses across the country.
The Office for National Statistics said Tuesday that unemployment rose to 5.1% in December, up 0.1% from the previous month and 1.3% from a year earlier. The number of people on company payrolls has dropped by 726,000 since the pandemic began last February, with 58.5% of the decline coming among people under 25.
The figures don’t show the full impact of COVID-19 restrictions on employment because some 1.9 million workers remain on furlough. A government program covers 80% of their wages.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced plans to slowly end a national lockdown in England in hopes of safely reopening the economy and social life as infection rates drop and widespread vaccinations reduce the threat from COVID-19.
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NICE, France — A year into the coronavirus pandemic, doctors and researchers are still striving to better understand and treat the epidemic of COVID-19-related anosmia — loss of smell — draining much of the joy of life from an increasing number of long-term sufferers.
One doctor slid a miniature camera into a patient’s right nostril, making her whole nose glow red with its bright miniature light.
“Tickles a bit, eh?” he asked as tears welled in her eyes.
But the patient, Gabriella Forgione, wasn’t complaining. The 25-year-old pharmacy worker was happy to be examined at the hospital in Nice, in southern France, to advance her increasingly pressing quest to recover her sense of smell. Along with her sense of taste, it suddenly vanished when she fell ill with COVID-19 in November and neither has returned.
Being deprived of the pleasures of food and the scents of things that she loves are proving tough on her body and mind, causing her to lose weight and self-confidence.
“Sometimes I ask myself, ’Do I stink?’” she confessed. “Not being able to smell bothers me greatly.”
Some doctors are concerned that growing numbers of smell-deprived patients, many of them young, could be more prone to depression, cognitive issues and other difficulties.
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KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan has begun administering a COVID-19 vaccine with a ceremony at the presidential palace.
Afghanistan received 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the government of India earlier this month. After the vaccine’s approval by the World Health Organization, it has begun immunizing front-line personnel including health workers, reporters and security forces.
Afghanistan has recorded 55,646 coronavirus cases, including 2,435 deaths.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's government says it plans to vaccinate 14 million of the country's 22 million people.
The government “will immunize 14 million people, for which we need 28 million doses, and the government is ready to purchase that,” government spokesman Ramesh Pathirana said Tuesday.
It plans to purchase 10 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for $52.5 million from the Serum Institute in India, he said. It will also buy 3.5 million doses directly from the AstraZeneca Institute in Britain. The vaccine is the only one that has been approved in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is currently administering 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that were donated by India.
Sri Lanka is witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases, mostly in the capital, Colombo. It has recorded 80,516 cases, including 450 deaths.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers have cleared the way for 5.7 million people to get at least $600 in one-time payments, part of a state-sized coronavirus relief package aimed at helping lower-income people weather what they hope is the last legs of the pandemic.
The state Legislature passed the bill by a wide margin on Monday, moving faster than their counterparts in Congress who are also considering another round of stimulus checks.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will sign it into law on Tuesday.
People with low to moderate incomes will be eligible. That includes people who claim the California earned income tax credit on their tax returns and, in general, people making $30,000 or less per year.
Immigrants who pay taxes using an individual taxpayer identification number and make $75,000 a year or less after deductions would also get the money.
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MEXICO CITY — Mexico has received its first shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
Some 200,000 doses arrived to Mexico City’s international airport late Monday night aboard a British Airways flight from Moscow. Officials plan to use the doses to begin vaccinating seniors in the capital’s most marginalized boroughs on Wednesday.
Mexico received its first shipment of vaccines from Pfizer in mid-December, but turned to Sputnik V in January when other expected vaccine shipments were delayed. Sputnik too arrives later than initially expected. Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke with Russia President Vladimir Putin in late January.
In early February, Mexican regulators gave Sputnik V emergency approval and the government signed a contract to bring 400,000 doses to Mexico in February.
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Companies Mentioned in This Article
Compare These Stocks Add These Stocks to My Watchlist 7 Stocks to Sell Before the New Year
We’re officially in the holiday season, which means it’s time to get our portfolios set for the new year. And for many investors, 2021 can’t get here fast enough. Don’t get me wrong. Overall, being invested in stocks has been a wise move. But it hasn’t been without its ups and downs. For investors to profit in this market, they have had to have conviction.
But having conviction also means knowing when it’s time to sell. One of the hardest things to do in life, as well as in investing, is to let go of an idea that simply isn’t working. There are a lot of story stocks out there. And while those stories may turn out to be more than fairy tales, in the long run, it doesn’t mean you have to pay tomorrow’s prices today.
Or, it could simply be a good time to take some profits. A new administration in Washington D.C. will bring a different, and most likely less favorable, tax policy regarding capital gains. It may be advantageous to take some of your gains now.
Whatever your motivation may be, we’ve put together a list of seven stocks that you should consider selling before the new year.
View the "7 Stocks to Sell Before the New Year".
