Day: December 29, 2021

 

4 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed yesterday bringing the total number of cases to 15,465. Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Doctor Haji Awang Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar, Minister of Health stated the matter during the Media Conference on the Latest COVID-19 Situation at Dewan Al-Afiah, Ministry of Health. Joining the media conference were Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, Minister of Home Affairs and Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah, Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister of Finance and Economy.

 

Of the number, 3 were local cases while 1 was an import case. The number of new cases is the result of 2,675 lab tests carried out in the past 24 hours. Therefore, the rate of positive cases is 0.1 percent. Among the cases being treated at the National Isolation Centre, there is 1 case in Category 5, requiring assistance of artificial ventilation and an additional heart/lung machine, ECMO at the Intensive Care Unit. 1 case has recovered, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Brunei Darussalam to 15,265 cases, with total active cases at 100. Meanwhile, the bed occupancy rate in isolation centres nationwide is 2.7 percent.

 

 

 

Source: Radio Television Brunei

Israel’s Oramed Pharmaceuticals said on Wednesday its Oravax Medical unit signed a deal with Vietnam’s Tan Thanh Holdings for the pre-order of 10 million doses of its oral COVID-19 vaccine that is in clinical trials, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.

The agreement gives Tan Thanh, a drug distributor, the right to sell Oravax’s oral vaccine in development throughout the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, Oramed said.

“The parties have agreed to negotiate follow-on orders potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” it said, adding the ASEAN region has a prospective patient population of about 660 million.

Nadav Kidron, chief executive of Oramed, said its oral COVID vaccine is undergoing Phase I clinical trials and results should be available in early 2022. The vaccine has been shown to work in animal tests, he said.

As a Communist country, Kidron said, Vietnam could decide on a short Phase II trial and then give emergency authorisation. “Potentially, marketing could be very, very fast,” he told Reuters.

As long as Phase I results are as expected, Kidron believes more countries will be interested since the new technology is not likely to require as many boosters as current vaccines. “The idea is that you take it and that’s going to be your dosing and you’re done,” he said.

Last week, Nikki Fried, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, said that given the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, she was pushing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to accelerate the review of oral vaccines as an alternative to injections.

“Countries like the U.S. and Israel (which uses the Pfizer vaccine) … may end up being behind because if developing countries step up their game they may be having the newest technologies available to them before the Western world,” Kidron said.

 

 

Source: TREND News Agency