The generic versions of molnupiravir will be evaluated by the World Health Organization and receive prequalification, the global body's stamp of approval, which would allow countries to fast track purchases.

Still, that process will take months, said Prashant Yadav, a supply chain expert with the Center for Global Development. There are only a few suppliers of the drug's components (called the active pharmaceutical ingredient, or A.P.I.), and its manufacturers will have to be persuaded to ramp up their at-risk production, as well.

The Gates Foundation's efforts could make a meaningful difference, he said. "The foundation investing in a volume guarantee creates a more guaranteed supply of high quality A.P.I. for whosoever wants to make the finished formulation for the drug," he said.

Our goal is to help low- and middle-income countries gain an equal footing with high-income countries in this ongoing fight against the virus. Putting funding on the table early helps lay the groundwork for that. The standard rollout for global health products can be 12 months or more, but we hope to reduce that lag time significantly.

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New Zealand has set a 90% vaccination target for scrapping lockdowns as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled a plan to open up despite the stubborn grip of the Delta variant.

Ms Ardern said her goal had shifted from eliminating Covid-19 to minimising its spread in the community by ramping up vaccinations.

She said the change meant New Zealanders would not be subject to stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns, provided they were fully inoculated.

"We cannot ask vaccinated people to stay home forever," she told reporters.

Around 86% of eligible New Zealanders have had their first vaccine dose and 68% are double jabbed.
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"If you want summer, if you want to go to bars and restaurants, get vaccinated," she said.

"If you're vaccinated, you'll get to enjoy the things you love, secure in the knowledge that the people around you and the environment you're in are as safe as possible in the Covid world."

A fresh outbreak of Covid has been recorded in China. One new infected person has been found in Beijing, while the most recent cases, in an Inner Mongolia city, led authorities to impose a lockdown on its 76,000 residents.

Beijing has become the latest city to report a fresh coronavirus case. On Tuesday, officials there said they had identified one new Covid-19 infection in the capital.

Meanwhile, as of Tuesday, authorities in Erenhot city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have registered a total of four Covid-19 cases since October 13; two cases were recorded on Monday. To contain the spread, citizens have been ordered not to leave their residential compounds unless it is absolutely necessary.
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On Monday, five cases were reported in the north-western city of Xian in Shaanxi province. Those entering the city from outside the province must show proof of negative test results within 48 hours if they wish to visit tourist sites or stay at hotels. Some tourist amenities have been temporarily closed to allow officials to carry out disinfection.

Residents in north-western Yinchuan in the Ningxia region have been told not to leave town unless necessary, while public venues were closed in two areas deemed at highest risk. This came after one case was reported on October 18, according to National Health Commission data.

The southern city of Changsha in Hunan province also registered one case on Monday.

Our analysis has discovered that over 10 million people are missing from the PHE/ONS analysis and 1,236 deaths that occurred during week 26 are also missing. The vaccination status of this group is unknown. Furthermore, by reverse engineering the estimates from other ONS sources we have discovered that the PHE/ONS mortality report is underestimating the number of vaccinated people, from an approximate total of 39 million, by over 2 million people. Similarly, we believe the ONS may be underestimating the number of single dose vaccinated people by just over four hundred thousand. Given this, there is the possibility that as many as 22 million people, in week 26, were unvaccinated rather than the 9.5 million reported.

Our analysis clearly suggests that, when compared to ONS death figures from week 26, all-cause mortality (UMR) for vaccinated people, compared to unvaccinated people, is certainly higher in single dosed individuals and slightly higher in those who are double dosed.

Any analysis that relied solely on the PHE/ONS mortality data would be systematically biased by the fact that it would be conditioned on the available data, and how it is queried from available databases, rather than on the prevailing vaccination status of the population at large. In attempting to reverse engineer estimates of mortality by age category and vaccination status from the various relevant ONS datasets we found numerous discrepancies and inconsistencies which indicate that the PHE/ONS reports on vaccine effectiveness are grossly underestimating the number of unvaccinated people.