J&J Vaccines Made in Africa Will Stay in Africa

The African Union's COVID-19 envoy says vaccine doses produced by a plant in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe after the intervention of South Africa's government.

Strive Masiyiwa told reporters Thursday that South African drug manufacturer Aspen, which has a contract with Johnson & Johnson to assemble the ingredients of its COVID-19 vaccine, will no longer ship vaccine doses out of the continent and that millions of doses warehoused in Europe will be returned to the continent.

"That arrangement has been suspended," he said, adding that J&J doses produced in South Africa "will stay in Africa and will be distributed in Africa."

He said the issue had been "corrected in a positive way," with Aspen's arrangement with Johnson & Johnson changing from a contract deal to "a licensed arrangement" similar to the production in India of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Masiyiwa said the Aspen product will be "African branded."

Johnson & Johnson was criticized heavily for shipping doses to countries in Europe, which have already immunized large numbers of their people and have even donated vaccines to more needy countries.

Africa has fully vaccinated under 3% of its 1.3 billion people. Vaccine production within the continent is seen as key to meeting the stated target of vaccinating 60% of the people.

The continent has reported more than 7.8 million cases, including 197,150 deaths.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— Indian schools cautiously reopen even as COVID warnings grow

— WHO launches hub in Berlin to help prevent future pandemics

— Vaccinations in rural India increase amid supply concerns

— Sound bite 'pandemic of the unvaccinated' captures part of story

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— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronvirus-vaccine

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HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

SOFIA, Bulgaria – Bulgaria's health minister says that due to a steep rise in new COVID-19 infections, the country will introduce stricter control measures for the coming two months.

Stoycho Katsarov said at a news briefing on Thursday that the situation is serious but still not out of control.

Katsarov said that the school year will start on Sept. 15 with in-person classes but might switch to online learning if the coronavirus situation deteriorates.

He said that remote work is recommended where possible. Language centers, as well as dance and art schools remain open, but with limited attendance.

Restaurants and cafes will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Only six people per table can be seated and the staff must wear masks. Nightclubs and discos will be closed.

Cinemas, theaters and indoor concerts will be limited to 50 percent of the seating capacity.

Capacity restrictions will be waived for all establishments where both the staff and the visitors are fully vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19, or have a PCR test from the past 72 hours.

Indoor sports competitions will be held without an audience, and professional competitions outdoors can be watched at 30 per cent capacity.

Bulgaria has seen a surge of daily virus cases over the past month, while only 17 percent of the Balkan country's 7 million people have been fully vaccinated, placing it last in the European Union.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Thursday called the situation in her country "challenging" and said they had "miscalculated and therefore now were addressing the situation" after the Scandinavian country in recent days has seen a spike in new cases, chiefly among those aged between 13 and 19.

"There is now a lot of infection among children and young people," Solberg said, adding school children aged between 12 and 15 would be offered one shot of a vaccine.

"The vaccine will help to ensure that this group also has a more normal everyday life," Solberg told a news conference.

She added that the infection was unevenly distributed across Norway and "we believe it is right to meet local outbreaks with local measures."

A further opening of Norway is being put on hold. "We will not take that risk when there is so little time left before all adults have been given the opportunity to protect themselves with a vaccine," Solberg said.

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A man in New Zealand who had tested positive for the coronavirus faces criminal charges after he escaped from an Auckland quarantine hotel and returned home, according to authorities.

In New Zealand, people who test positive for the virus are routinely required to isolate in hotels run by the military. Authorities believe the man escaped early Thursday and was on the run for about 12 hours before police — dressed in full protective gear — arrested him about 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters it wasn't yet clear how the man escaped the hotel, although closed circuit cameras showed a man hiding in a bush when a security guard walked past.

Under a new COVID-19 law passed last year, the man could face a fine or up to six months in jail if found guilty of failing to comply with a health order. New Zealand is currently battling an outbreak of the delta variant in Auckland.

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KATHMANDU, Nepal — Authorities have ended many of the restrictions imposed in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, and surrounding districts, allowing movie theaters, gymnasiums and sporting venues to open up for the first time since the pandemic hit last year.

The notice by Kathmandu District Administration Thursday said schools and colleges would, however, remain closed until further notice.

Restaurants will be allowed to have guests dining in and stores can now open late. There will also be no restriction on the movement of vehicles.

The latest lockdown was imposed in April when cases of COVID-19 spiked to a record high, causing shortages of hospital spaces, medicine, oxygen and medicines. There are still thousands of new cases reported daily and only about 15 percent of the population of have been fully vaccinated even though the inoculation campaign began in January.

The health ministry said there are so far 848,209 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nepal and 10,770 people have died.

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BRUSSELS — Belgium's king and queen are partially confining themselves after a member of the royal family tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Royal Palace said Thursday that King Philippe and Queen Mathilde "decided, as a precautionary measure, to limit their contacts in the days to come, in line with the health regulations in force."

The palace statement provided no details about exactly who might have tested positive.

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TOKYO — Moderna Inc. and its Japanese partner are recalling more than 1 million doses of the U.S. drug maker's coronavirus vaccine after confirming that contamination reported last week was tiny particles of stainless steel.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. is in charge of sale and distribution in Japan of the Moderna vaccine. The two companies said an investigation at a Spanish factory that produced the vials in question concluded the contamination occurred in the process of putting stops on the vials.

The companies on Aug. 26 announced suspension of 1.63 million doses produced at the line after reports of contamination. Japanese officials said about a half million people had received shots from the Moderna vials before the problem surfaced.

The trouble comes at a time Japan is pushing to accelerate vaccinations amid rising infections that are straining the Japanese health care system.

Pharmaceutical and health ministry officials say they do not believe the high-grade stainless steel poses health risks.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan has received its first Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine after a prolonged purchasing process that gave rise to a political blame game with China.

Taiwan had been unable to buy the vaccine itself directly from BioNTech, the German company that partnered with U.S.-based Pfizer to develop the vaccine.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen accused China of blocking the deal while China denied any interference.

Two private companies and a Buddhist organization stepped in to buy the vaccine doses and donate them to Taiwan. The doses that arrived Thursday will be given to 12- to 17-year-olds.

Taiwan has been using AstraZeneca, Moderna and the domestically made Medigen vaccine to give 43% of its population at least one dose.

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TORONTO — Ontario is the fourth Canadian province to announce residents will have to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus to enter restaurants, theaters, gyms and other indoor public venues.

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that the vaccination certificate program will take effect Sept. 22.

Initially, residents will show a PDF or printout of the vaccination receipt they received when they got the irshots, along with a government-issued piece of ID such as a photo health card or driver's license.

The province is expected to launch a system in late October that will send everyone a QR code to accompany their vaccination receipt. It will also launch an app that will allow service providers to scan the QR codes as proof of vaccination.

British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba have also implemented some form of vaccine certificate program.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma judge on Wednesday said she will temporarily block a state law banning public school mask mandates, but students or their parents can opt-out of the requirement if they choose.

Judge Natalie Mai said she will issue a temporary injunction that will go into effect next week when she issues a written order detailing her ruling.

Mai said she is blocking the law because it applies only to public, not private, schools and that schools adopting a mask mandate must provide an option for parents or students to opt out of the requirement.

The ruling drew praise from Gov. Kevin Stitt, who signed the law and opposes mask mandates without exemptions, and Dr. Mary Clarke, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, which joined the lawsuit brought by four parents who oppose the law.

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BERLIN — The head of the World Health Organization says he opposes "widespread use of boosters" for healthy people for now, underscoring the need to get doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to poorer countries.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke in Berlin on Wednesday. He says the U.N. health agency last week witnessed the first decline in new global cases in more than two months.

He says that "this is obviously very welcome but it doesn't mean much," since many countries are still seeing steep increases and "shocking inequities" in access to vaccines.

Tedros says he is calling for a moratorium on booster shots at least until the end of September "to allow those countries that are furthest behind to catch up."

He says "third doses may be necessary for the most at-risk populations, where there is evidence of waning immunity against severe disease and death."