The Latest: WHO official: Few restrictions accelerates virus

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A health worker takes a nasal swab sample of a woman to test for COVID-19 are reflected in a mirror of a motorcycle in Hyderabad, India, Friday, May 7, 2021. With coronavirus cases surging to record levels, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing growing pressure to impose a harsh nationwide lockdown amid a debate whether restrictions imposed by individual states are enough. (AP Photo /Mahesh Kumar A.)

GENEVA — A top official at the World Health Organization says the explosive number of coronavirus cases is only partly driven by the variants, warning countries that loosening control measures may worsen the pandemic.

WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan says the virus has “huge kinetic energy” in certain countries and leaders who think vaccination alone will stop the epidemic are mistaken.

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“It is being driven both by human behavior, by the emergence of variants and many other factors,” Ryan said. “We’re expecting the virus to slow down and we’re pushing the accelerators.”

He admonished some leaders to acknowledge “the brutal reality” of the situation. India has experienced a surge of cases and deaths.

“Some of you are not in a good place,” Ryan said. “You need to protect your health system. You need to get your oxygen supply sorted out.”

Ryan says while new virus variants may help spread COVID-19, the driver is “proximity between people.” He says crowds and the mixing of people without protection or handwashing are still potentially dangerous, even with the start of vaccination programs.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— UK to ease holiday travel ban yet keeps most quarantines

— WHO panel OKs emergency use of China's Sinopharm vaccine

— Spain relaxes nationwide coronavirus pandemic measures

— India cases hit new record as calls grow for strict lockdown

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Follow more of 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:

NEW YORK — A U.S. health official, who last year shook the nation with her frank assessment of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic, is resigning.

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Dr. Nancy Messonnier announced the decision Friday in an email to her colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Messonnier, who joined the agency in 1995, led the CDC’s work on respiratory diseases for five years and she was an early leader in the agency’s COVID-19 response.

During a briefing with reporters in February 2020, Messonnier contradicted statements by administration officials that the virus was contained. Stocks plunged, and President Donald Trump was enraged.

Soon after, a White House task force moved to center stage and Vice President Mike Pence took control of clearing CDC communications about the coronavirus. Messonnier didn’t make more public appearances.

In her email Friday, Messonnier says she was taking a new job with the California-based Skoll Foundation.

At a White House briefing, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky praised Messonnier as “a true hero.”

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LONDON — British residents can travel to countries including Portugal, Iceland and Israel later this month without having to quarantine on their return.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says a blanket ban on overseas vacations is being replaced by a system classing countries as low, medium or high risk. He says it’s the first “tentative steps towards unlocking international travel.”

The “green list” of 12 low-risk territories also includes Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands and the Falkland Islands -- but not major vacation destinations for Britons such as France, Spain and Greece. Britons traveling to those countries will have to self-isolate for 10 days on their return.

All but essential travel remains barred to countries with severe outbreaks, including India, Turkey and the Maldives.

The changes take effect May 17, the next date on the government’s road map out of lockdown. Pubs and restaurants in England can reopen indoor areas the same day, and venues including theaters and cinemas can open to limited audiences.

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GENEVA -- The head of the World Trade Organization says the U.S. administration’s call to remove patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines could help expand fair access to vaccines but might not be the most “critical issue.”

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s comments Friday came as officials in Europe increasingly insisted that more vaccine exports are the more pressing priority. Activists and humanitarian institutions cheered the American reversal in policy Wednesday and urged others to follow suit to remove the intellectual property protections on the COVID-19 vaccines.

But some world leaders have taken the U.S. to task for not sharing more vaccines.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn says the main issue is not the question of patents but of production capacity. And producing vaccines like the one developed by German firm BioNTech and manufactured with Pfizer is complicated, he says.

Spahn stressed, as has the pharmaceutical industry, that developed countries whose vaccination campaigns are going well should export more shots.

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MADRID — Spain will relax nationwide coronavirus pandemic measures this weekend, including travel restrictions, as the vaccine rollout continues to speed up.

However, some regional chiefs are concerned the six-month national state of emergency will be replaced by a patchwork of conflicting approaches.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has refused to extend the sweeping order that gave legal coverage to curfews, social gathering curbs and travel bans across the country.

Each region was taking a different path, and the response from courts was also varied. Spain’s cases surged sharply in January but slowed in mid-March before mildly picking up again.

Madrid, whose lockdown-skeptic regional chief was re-elected this week, announced there will be no more curfews or travel restrictions in and out of the region starting Sunday. The operation of bars and restaurants can be extended from the current 11 p.m. limit to midnight.

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ATHENS, Greece — Most beaches in Greece will reopen Saturday, a week ahead of the official launch of the tourism season.

Public health officials Friday announced a roadmap of reopening measures aimed at helping Greece’s key industry.

Museums will reopen on May 14, while retail restrictions will be relaxed, and a ban on domestic travel between the country’s 54 administrative regions is expected to be lifted. Open-air cinemas will open on May 21 and open-air theaters on May 28, both with seating restrictions, officials say.

Tourism is expected to be an important driver of Greece’s recovery in 2021 following a steep pandemic-related recession last year that saw output slump by 8.2%.

The number of visitors to Greece fell by 78.2% in 2020 to 7.4 million from 34 million in 2019, according to Bank of Greece data. Tourism-related revenue dropped by 76.2%.

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BUCHAREST, Romania — A three-day “vaccination marathon” started Friday in Romania’s capital of Bucharest as authorities race to inoculate the nation of more than 19 million against COVID-19.

The round-the-clock event is supported by around 1,200 volunteers, including Valeriu Gheorghita, a military doctor and chief of the country’s vaccination committee, who administered Pfizer shots at the launch.

The “marathon” is held at the capital’s Palace Hall, and the National Library, and it will host a series of live musical performances, including one by prominent violinist Alexandru Tomescu on Sunday. Other vaccination marathons have been organized in cities across the country.

On Saturday, all vaccination centers will be appointment-free for everyone after 2 p.m. So far, Romana has administered more than 5.6 million vaccine doses.

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GENEVA — The World Health Organization has given its authorization for emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinopharm.

The decision by a WHO technical advisory group opens the possibility that the Sinopharm vaccine could be included into the U.N.-backed COVAX program in coming weeks or months and distributed through UNICEF and WHO’s regional office for the Americas.

Sinopharm has publicly released little data, aside from efficacy numbers for its two vaccine shots, one developed by its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. The Beijing shot is one that was considered by WHO for an emergency use listing.

A separate group advising the U.N. agency on vaccines said it was “very confident” the Sinopharm vaccine protects the 18-59 age group but had only a “low level of confidence” of efficacy in the age 60-plus.

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PORTO, Portugal — After the United States backed calls for patent waivers, French President Emmanuel Macron says the real issue facing the vaccine shortfall “is not really an intellectual property issue.”

He says: “You can give the intellectual property to laboratories that do not know how to produce it. They won’t produce it tomorrow.”

The key issues are donations and free exports, and Macron says the United States should work on that.

At an EU summit in Porto, he says says “the Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients. Today 100 percent of vaccines produced in the United States of America are for the American market.”

He says it contrasted sharply with the EU situation, where almost half of the doses produced on the continent have been allowed to be exported.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week about 200 million does had been distributed within the EU’s 27-nation bloc while about the same amount had been exported abroad.

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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken in favor of waiving patents for COVID-19 vaccines and vowed to “share” Turkey’s vaccines once they are available.

“Science is the property of all humanity,” Erdogan said Friday. “A logic, an understanding that says, ‘We produced this, and therefore we won’t give it to anyone’ concerning a matter that affects human health, is the wrong approach.”

Four Turkish vaccines are currently undergoing clinical trials. The country is working to develop an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine. Officials have said Turkey hopes its first vaccine is available in September or October.

Erdogan said: “We don’t aim to use these only in our country. We are prepared to share them with the world, wherever there is a demand.”

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NEW YORK — Drugmaker Pfizer has begun the process to earn full U.S. regulatory approval for its COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 16 and older.

That gives Pfizer and German partner BioNTech a shot at winning the first full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The two companies say they’ve started a “rolling submission” of data from their studies of the two-dose vaccine, first giving the FDA data from laboratory and human testing. That includes their latest analysis from a key late-stage study that followed the participations for up to six months after they received their second dose. The companies plan to soon submit data on manufacturing quality controls and the factories making the vaccine.

Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in a statement that the companies are aiming to win full regulatory approval “in the coming months.”

The shot received emergency use authorization from the FDA on Dec. 11. Since then, the companies have delivered more than 170 million doses across the U.S., and many more to other countries that also have authorized emergency use amid the coronavirus pandemic. Such emergency authorizations only last until countries declare an end to the emergency, so the vaccine must undergo a more stringent review by regulators to earn full approval for continued use.

Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, said the submission “is an important cornerstone of achieving long-term herd immunity and containing COVID-19 in the future.”

The partners also applied to the FDA to expand the current emergency authorization to people ages 12 to 15. They plan to seek full approval for that age group once they have the required six months of follow-up data from the volunteers tested in that group. They’re also testing the shot in younger children and pregnant women.

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LONDON — Britain says a coronavirus strain first identified in India has been labelled a “variant of concern” because it appears be more transmissible than some other variants.

Public Health England says the number of cases of the B.1.617.2 variant identified in the U.K. has increased from 202 to 520 in the past week. The majority are in northwest England and London and just over half the cases haven’t been linked to travel to India.

Health authorities say there is “insufficient evidence” so far to say whether the variant causes more severe disease or is resistant to vaccines. But they say it appears more transmissible than the original strain of the virus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says authorities were being “very careful” about the new strain and door-to-door “surge testing” will be carried out in areas where it was spreading.

Strains first identified in South Africa and Brazil have been designated variants of concern. The variant first identified in southeast England last year was the first to be called a “variant of concern.” It is now the dominant variant in the U.K.

However, coronavirus cases in Britain have gone down significantly since a lockdown in January, and restrictions are gradually easing. Schools, hair salons and shops are open, along with restaurants and pubs operating outdoors.

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TOKYO — Japan extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas through May 31.

Japan is showing social and political strains as the coronavirus spreads ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, which start in 11 weeks.

Tokyo logged 907 new cases of coronavirus infections, up sharply from 635 when the state of emergency began in the capital last month. It’s far above the target of 100 that some health experts recommend.

Most Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics during a pandemic, while the government seems determined to hold the event. However, people are growing impatient and less cooperative, which could make the measures less effective.

The president of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, Seiko Hashimoto, says a possible mid-May visit by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has become more difficult because of the extension of the emergency. The postponed Olympics from last year are scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8.

(This item has been corrected to show Seiko Hashimoto is the president of the Tokyo Olympics. She was formerly the minister of the Olympics.)

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LONDON — Britain’s vaccines regulator says people under 40 shouldn’t be given the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine if another shot is available because of a suspected link to very rare blood clots.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization says people ages 30 to 39 without underlying health conditions should receive an alternative vaccine, “where available and only if this does not cause substantial delays in being vaccinated.”

Last month it gave the same advice for people under 30. Two-thirds of U.K. adults have received at least one shot of vaccine, and almost a third have had both doses. A majority have had the AstraZeneca shot, though Britain is also using vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

British health officials say the risk from COVID-19 far exceeds any risk from the AstraZeneca vaccine for the vast majority of people.Up to April 28, Britain’s medicines regulator had received 242 reports of blood clots accompanied by low blood platelet count in people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine, out of 28.5 million doses given. There were 49 deaths.

Most of the cases occurred after the first dose, and the vaccination watchdog says there are no concerns about people getting second AstraZeneca shots.

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LONDON — The European Medicines Agency said the product information for the COVID-19 vaccine made by BioNTech and Pfizer should be modified to make doctors and patients aware that people who have previously had dermal injections could experience facial swelling after getting a dose.

The EU drug regulator says it had reviewed all available evidence and concluded that “there is at least a reasonable possibility of a causal association between the vaccine and the reported cases of facial swelling in people with a history of injections with dermal fillers.” It described dermal injections as “soft, gel-like substances injected under the skin.”

The EMA recommended facial swelling be added as a potential side effect but that its assessment of the vaccine remained unchanged and the benefits outweighed the risks.

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LONDON — The European Medicines Agency says it has begun an accelerated authorization process for an experimental coronavirus treatment made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir BioTechnology.

In a statement on Friday, the EU drug regulator said it had started a rolling review of sotrovimab, based on early results from an ongoing study into whether the treatment can prevent hospitalization or death in people who don’t yet have severe COVID-19. But EMA said it had not yet received the complete data and cautioned that “it is too early to draw any conclusions about the benefit-risk balance of the medication.”

Although the EMA has given the green light to four vaccines, there are few licensed treatments for the coronavirus, especially any that might prevent people with mild COVID-19 from progressing to severe disease.

Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody, a lab-produced antibody that is intended to stimulate the immune system by reducing the ability of the coronavirus’s spike protein to enter the body’s cells.

An emergency use authorization for sotrovimab alsohas been submitted to regulators in the U.S. and Canada.

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