Coronavirus live: South Africa regulator approves J&J shot for pregnant women; Spain to extend gap between AZ doses

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine approved for pregnant women in South Africa; Spain to extend gap between AstraZeneca doses to 16 weeks in under-60s

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A single dose of Pfizer’s vaccine may not generate a sufficient immune response to protect against dominant new variants, except in people who have already been infected with Covid-19, Reuters reports a UK study as having found.

The Imperial College-led study, which looked at immune responses in British healthcare workers after their first dose of the Pfizer shot, found that people who had previously had mild or asymptomatic infection had enhanced protection against more infectious mutated variants that emerged in Britain and South Africa.

But the immune response after a first dose of the shot was weaker in people who had not previously been infected, potentially leaving them at risk from such variants, researchers leading the work said on Friday.

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The eurozone fell back into recession in the first three months of the year, as a slow vaccination drive and tougher restrictions to stem a third coronavirus wave damaged the region’s economies.

GDP in the 19 economies sharing the euro shrank by 0.6% between January and March compared with the previous quarter, according to figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

Related: Eurozone driven into double-dip recession as Covid takes toll

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Source: The Guardian