Vaccine for Omicron! Pfizer`s new jab likely to be ready by March

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Monday that moving toward a redesigned COVID-19 vaccine that is specifically targeted to combat the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is the "most likely scenario", reported Reuters. 

Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Bourla said Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE are working on both an Omicron-targeted vaccine variant as well as a shot that would include both the previous vaccine as well as vaccine targeted at the Omicron variant.

Bourla said the company could be ready to file for approval for a redesigned vaccine and start producing it as soon as March.

Meanwhile, South African doctors see signs omicron is milder than delta. "At the moment, virtually everything points toward it being milder disease," Willem Hanekom, director of the Africa Health Research Institute, said, citing the national institute's figures and other reports. But he added, "It's early days, and we need to get the final data. Often hospitalisations and deaths happen later, and we are only two weeks into this wave."

European nations, meanwhile, are suffering immediate staff shortages in essential services as Omicron drives a surge in positive tests. In France, the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 rose by 767, the biggest increase since last April 2021, although the total number, at 22,749 was still around two-thirds of the peak, set in November 2020.

Britain began using military personnel to support healthcare and alerted its biggest private health company that it might be required to deliver treatments including cancer surgery.

Spain was bringing back retired medics. In Italy, the challenge of nearly 13,000 health workers being absent with positive COVID-19 tests was compounded by suspensions for non-vaccination. Britain, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium have all slashed quarantine periods and eased conditions for staff to return to work.

(With Reuters inputs)