COVID-19 media surveillance - 18 March 2021

This media surveillance collects articles reported through publicly available web sites.

It is created with the Europe Media Monitor (EMM).

The selection and placement of stories are determined automatically by a computer program.

Headlines

• The USA are on track to pass 100 million vaccinations by Friday; millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be sent to Mexico and Canada
• EU: EMA advises to continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday
• Brazil has reported its highest daily increase of infections since beginning of pandemic
• Spain’s incidence rate rises for the first time since end of January
• France will impose new Covid-19 restrictions starting Friday
• Germany reports highest daily cases for two months with B.1.1.7 variant accounting for 72 percent of all cases
• Danish medicines agency had 10 reports of blood clots after AstraZeneca shot
• Belgium average daily COVID-19 infections have risen by almost 30%
• Italy mourns its 100,000 dead as third wave builds
• Poland reports 27,278 new coronavirus cases, highest daily total in 2021
• Luxembourg will resume using AstraZeneca vaccine from Friday
• Israel: cases plummet as nearly half of Israelis are fully vaccinated
• India: 400 cases of the UK, South African and Brazilian strains have been detected in India so far
• New Zealand reports no new cases as local transmission has subsided
• South Korea: foreign residents protested against the Seoul city government’s decision to mandate coronavirus tests for all foreign workers
• China will ease restrictions for visitors inoculated with Chinese vaccines; China reports first confirmed local COVID-19 case since February
• Japan: despite warnings of virus rebound, end to state of emergency nears

Twitter

The following news were found among the most mentioned/retweeted items:

• "Three Feet or Six? Distancing guideline for schools stirs debate. Some public health officials say it’s time for the C.D.C. to loosen its social distancing guidelines for classrooms, but the idea has detractors." (nytimes)
• "Drosten: Third wave cannot be controlled without vaccination" (ndr)
• "New French coronavirus variant appears to bypass standard tests" (politico)
• "New Philippines-linked coronavirus variant investigated in England after two cases found. The P3 variant has come from the Philippines, which currently has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in South East Asia." (sky)

The most mentioned English sources were the New York Times, the Guardian and AP News.

El Diario, RT (Spanish version), Latinus and El País, and Francetvinfo and 20minutes were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Misinformation

570 articles from unverified sources were selected forming 9 supernarratives over the last week:

Fact Check

• Fact checkers address claims that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine causes blood clots, reporting that while the matter is still under review, as of now there is no evidence in support of such claims (snopes).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that Marvin Hagler's death was caused by COVID-19 vaccination, reporting that the boxing champion’s death occurred nearly three weeks after he received his vaccination and has not been ruled vaccine-related (usatoday).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that there is a tracking chip inside the COVID-19 vaccine, reporting that while there is a radio-frequency identification chip on the outside of some syringes, it is there to track vaccine doses, not people (poynter).

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