Coronavirus latest: FDA adds neurological disorder warning to J&J jab
More than 2.19m people passed through airport security checkpoints on Sunday, a pandemic-era high, as the US travel industry continued to rebound. One year ago on the same day, only 754,545 people were screened, the Transportation Security Administration said.
Thousands of Iranians have rushed to neighbouring Armenia in recent weeks in an attempt to receive free Covid-19 jabs as the Islamic republic grapples with tight vaccine supplies. Officials reported sharp increases in traffic as well as flights into the capital, Yerevan.
Israel will begin offering third doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine this week to adults with serious prior medical conditions, the health ministry said. “Booster” jabs are being debated by US and EU authorities, although Pfizer last week said it would ask regulators to approve them.
Greece will require mandatory vaccinations against Covid-19 for healthcare workers and aged home staff, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, as infections have increased in recent days. “The country is not going to close due to the behaviour of few,” he said.
Ryanair is planning to hire 2,000 pilots over the next three years in one of the aviation industry’s biggest recruitment drives since the start of the pandemic. It is also aiming to increase annual passenger numbers by more than a third within three years over pre-pandemic levels.
London’s Heathrow Airport called on the government to reopen quarantine-free travel to more destinations, as the aviation industry continues to reel from the pandemic. Passenger numbers in June were down by 90 per cent compared with pre-pandemic 2019 figures.
UK-based car insurer Admiral said profits for the first half of the year would be ahead of expectations, due to lockdown restrictions keeping traffic off the road and reducing the number of accidents. Pre-tax profits for the first half would be £450-500m, up from £286m last year.
Moderna signed an agreement with Argentina for 20m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine or its updated variant booster vaccine candidate. Delivery would begin in the first quarter of 2022. About 11 per cent of Argentina’s 45.3m people were fully vaccinated as of July 10.