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Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) on Wednesday recommended extending the interval between first and second doses of COVID-19 to up to four months to boost inoculation numbers. The panel said taking such action would allow about 80% of Canadians over 16 to receive a single dose by the end of June. (Falconer, 3/4)

An Indian coronavirus vaccine that generated controversy when it was granted emergency approval before finishing its final stage testing has shown to provide strong protection against Covid-19 in an interim analysis of an advanced clinical trial. Covaxin, which was co-developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and the Indian Council of Medical Research, showed an efficacy rate of 81% in those without prior infection after a second dose, the company said in a statement Wednesday. That’s better than Bharat Biotech’s guidance last year of around 60% and the country’s benchmark of 50% for vaccines targeting the novel coronavirus. (Kay, 3/3)

U.K. health regulators said authorized Covid-19 vaccines that are modified for new variants of the disease will be fast-tracked through the approval system. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency issued guidance -- in step with partners in Australia, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland -- that will reduce the time taken for the new vaccines to be ready for use, according to a statement on Thursday. Vaccine manufacturers will need to provide robust evidence that the modified vaccine produces an immune response, but time-consuming clinical trials will not be needed. Instead a small trial will be used to assess the main adverse effects which could take a few weeks rather than months. (Ashton and Ring, 3/4)

The European Medicines Agency said it has started a rolling review of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to test compliance with safety and quality standards, the first major step in gaining approval for use in the European Union. “The rolling review will continue until enough evidence is available for formal marketing authorization application,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. “While EMA cannot predict the overall timelines, it should take less time than normal to evaluate an eventual application because of the work done during the rolling review.” (Fedorinova, 3/4)

After months of political clashes around the world over lockdowns and travel restrictions, Europe is at the forefront of a thorny new COVID-19 controversy: vaccine “passports.” As more and more people are inoculated against the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 2.5 million people across the globe, arguments are flaring over whether government-issued proof of vaccination should serve as permission for a range of coveted activities — mingling with friends, going to concerts, getting on airplanes or crossing borders. (El-Faizy, Kirschbaum and King, 3/3)

When Pope Francis embarks this week on his first trip abroad since the pandemic began, everybody on board, from priests to journalists, will be vaccinated. The plane will be packed. Aside from mask-wearing, it will look like any other papal voyage. But then Francis will arrive in Iraq — where the coronavirus is raging. (Harlan and Loveluck, 3/3)

Organizers for the Tokyo Olympics are asking athletes and teams to install a smartphone app that tracks their movements to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus when they arrive in Japan, but there’s just one problem. “It’s not a good app,” Minister for Digital Transformation Takuya Hirai said last month, following a series of high-profile glitches, including one in which the app didn’t notify users they were exposed to confirmed infections for more than four months. (Reidy, 3/3)