Weekly Covid Speed Round

💉 French drugmaker Sanofi and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are seeking FDA and EU approval for their Covid vaccine, which has shown to be 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations according to early data from its Phase 3 trial.

• The data also show a 57.9% efficacy at preventing any symptomatic disease. Sanofi and GSK are looking to have their shot approved both as a booster and an original two-dose regimen.
• “No other global Phase 3 efficacy study has been undertaken during this period with so many variants of concern, including Omicron,” said Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president of Sanofi Vaccines.

🌎 Other news:

• New York state suspended its booster-shot mandate for health care workers since not enough of them had received one yet (62%), though its original vaccine mandate is still in effect.
• Australia reopened its borders to all foreigners this week for the first time in two years.
• Hong Kong is requiring all citizens to undergo three mandatory tests next month; the country has seen its total cases over the past 2+ years increase five-fold since January.