SYDNEY/CANBERRA: Australia will recommend only people over 60 receive AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, the country’s Minister for Health Greg Hunt said on Thursday, following a spate of blood clots in those who have received the inoculation.
Australia has administered 3.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and it has been linked to 60 cases of blood clots, the government has said. So far, two people have died, which Hunt said has driven the policy shift.
“The government places safety above all else,” Hunt told reporters in Canberra.
“This updated advice received today is based on new evidence demonstrating a higher risk for the very rare (thrombocytopenia syndrome) condition in the 50-59 year-old age group.”
Australia in April moved to limit the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 50 years old.
Several European Union member states have stopped administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to people below a certain age, usually ranging from 50 to 65, restricting its use to older people, due to very rare cases of blood clotting, mainly among young people.
Hunt said the recommendation would not delay its inoculation timetable, which has a target of giving at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose to every Australian before the end of 2021.
Australia in April expanded its order of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to 40 million doses, while it has also ordered 25 million shots from Moderna .
Australia’s amended vaccine policy comes as the country’s most populous state battles to contain a cluster of COVID-19 cases.
New South Wales said it now recorded four local cases of COVID-19, with the source of the outbreak still unclear.
“At this stage, we are all on high alert,” NSW state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
A man in his 60s, who works as a driver for international airline crews, was detected with the virus on Wednesday, the state’s first case in more than a month, and his wife has since tested positive. Genetic tests found the man has the Delta virus strain, officials said.
The Delta variant, which has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as among the four COVID-19 variants of concern due to evidence that they spread more easily, likely caused the latest devastating outbreak in India.
Nearly a dozen venues in Sydney including a cinema in a shopping center in the popular tourist spot of Bondi and a supermarket have been listed as virus hotspots.
Australia has successfully suppressed past outbreaks through snap lockdowns, swift contact tracing and tough social distancing rules. It has reported just under 30,300 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began.
Australia limits use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people over 60
https://arab.news/5gxfn
Australia limits use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people over 60
- Several European Union member states have stopped administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to people below a certain age, usually ranging from 50 to 65
8 in 10 British Muslims face ‘financial faith penalty’ when seeking home finance, survey finds
- Restricted choices plague potential buyers
LONDON: Eight in 10 British Muslims say their home finance choices are restricted because of their faith, according to a new national survey that highlighted what researchers describe as a growing “financial faith penalty” in the UK housing market.
The report, published by Islamic home finance fintech firm Offa, found that 80 percent of Muslim respondents believe their religious beliefs limit their access to suitable home finance, while those who do use Islamic products often face slower decisions, heavier paperwork and poorer customer experiences than in the conventional mortgage market.
Based on surveys of 1,000 British Muslims conducted by Muslim Census, and 2,000 non-Muslims carried out by OnePoll, the research calls on providers, brokers and policymakers to modernize Islamic home finance and improve access to Sharia-compliant products.
Among the 24.3 percent of British Muslims who have used Islamic home finance, just 5 percent said they had received a same-day decision.
Some 62 percent waited up to two weeks, while 33 percent waited more than 15 days, including 16 percent who waited over a month.
Long decision times were cited as the biggest challenge by 28 percent of respondents, followed by excessive paperwork (22.6 percent) and poor customer service (18.9 percent).
Islamic home finance differs from conventional mortgages by avoiding interest and steering investment away from sectors considered harmful to society, including gambling, alcohol, tobacco, arms trading and animal testing.
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer and managing director of home finance at Offa, said the findings showed British Muslims were being underserved by outdated systems.
Malik said: “Property is the asset class of choice for many of the UK’s 3.87 million Muslims, both as a route to generational wealth and as a long-term financial foundation, yet our insightful research report reveals that British Muslims are being underserved and deterred by slow, outdated and opaque Islamic home finance provision.
“This is not a niche concern. It goes to the heart of financial fairness and inclusion in modern Britain.”
He added that Muslims deserved Sharia-compliant products that matched mainstream standards on “price, speed and simplicity.”
Despite strong demand, uptake remains low.
Only 12.8 percent of British Muslims surveyed said they currently use Islamic home finance, with a further 11.5 percent having done so in the past. More than three quarters (75.7 percent) have never used it.
Faith plays a central role in financial decisions, with 94.2 percent saying it is important that their financial products align with their ethical or religious beliefs. Yet more than half of those using conventional mortgages said they felt unhappy or uneasy about doing so because of their faith.
The study also found that British Muslims share similar home ownership aspirations to the wider population, with 79.1 percent citing the desire to provide a stable home for their family, while 18.6 percent said building generational wealth was their main motivation. Only 2.2 percent said they did not want to own a home.
The report suggests Islamic finance could appeal beyond Muslim communities. While 64 percent of non-Muslim respondents had never heard of Islamic home finance, 63 percent said they favored its ethical principles once explained.
Younger generations were the most receptive, with 43 percent of Generation Z and 37 percent of millennials saying they would consider using Islamic home finance, compared with just 7 percent of baby boomers. More than three quarters of Gen Z and 72 percent of millennials also said it was important that their finance provider avoided investing in ethically harmful sectors.
Offa said the findings pointed to an opportunity to expand ethical finance in the UK, provided the industry can deliver faster, simpler and more transparent services.
