30 January 2021: There is progress on the vaccine front…

30 January 2021: In the week to 26 January on average 2,253 people tested positive each day. The figure is up 14% on the week. Despite that the figures don’t bode well there was also some good news yesterday. The EMA gave conditional market approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine for all age groups over 18 years old, despite the recent doubts over its effectiveness for people over 65. Also, yesterday J&J announced that its single-dose Covid-19 vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing moderate and severe disease in a global study. While the shot was 72 percent effective in the U.S. arm of the trial, it fell to just 57 percent in South Africa, where a highly transmissible variant predominates. Overall, the company said the shot was 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease, and that protective effect increased over time. The company added that the vaccine provided complete protection against COVID-related hospitalization and death. J&J is planning to file for emergency use authorization in early February and expects to have product available to ship immediately following authorization. Net-net, all good news. Also, the Belgian vaccination campaign is slowly but surely making progress. 15% of the over 80s have received their first jab and in Flanders 82% of care home residents have been given a first dose. Whether or not the vaccination programme will continue to run to plan and all Belgians that want to be vaccinates will have received their first dose before summer is dependent on the pharmaceutical companies supplying sufficient quantities of their vaccines.  Today’s shot is another vignette of Ghent during this unprecedented crisis. The mural on display was commissioned by the Elderly Care Department of the city to highlight centers where old people can go for services and activities – Ghent, Belgium