An Egyptian medical worker administers a dose of the Oxford-AstraZenec vaccine on March 4, 2021 in Cairo on the first day of vaccination in Egypt. (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
COPENHAGEN / VALLETTA / HAVANA / BELGRADE / LONDON / ALGIERS / OTTAWA / RABAT / BERLIN / TUNIS / SANTIAGO / QUITO / JOHANNESBURG / RIO DE JANEIRO / ADDIS ABABA / SOFIA – The African Union’s health agency urged countries on the continent to increase testing for the coronavirus as more states report different variants of the disease.
Testing dropped 21 percent last week, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an online briefing Thursday.
Six African nations including South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Uganda and Kenya have reported the B.1.617 strain that is devastating India and which initial studies show spreads more easily. That’s in addition to the 24 African nations that reported cases of the B.1.1.7 mutation found last year in the UK, with the same number of countries reporting the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa in 2020.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 4,660,304 as of Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic stood at 125,404 while 4,219,117 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease.
EU
Vaccine hesitancy increased in the European Union after the suspension of AstraZeneca Plc’s vaccine, with more than a third of adults in the bloc indicating they were unlikely to get immunized from COVID-19.
After several EU countries suspended use of Astra’s shot in mid March, 34 percent of respondents to an online survey by Eurofound said they were hesitant to take the vaccine. Before the pause, 25 percent said they were “rather unlikely” or “very unlikely” to get it.
“These findings reflect a failure to deliver persuasive and clear communication regarding the efficacy and safety of vaccines,” Daphne Ahrendt, senior research manager at Eurofound, said in a statement Thursday. “Trust in vaccines is related to trust in institutions, and this is an issue primarily for policymakers, but we also all have a collective responsibility, across society, to ensure that we communicate and publish accurate and sound information on the safety and importance of vaccines.”
The European Union’s executive on Wednesday called on countries of the bloc to temporarily halt non-essential travel from India, to limit the spread of a COVID-19 variant.
The European Commission said its proposal followed the World Health Organisation's proposal on Monday to reclassify the B.1.617.2 variant of COVID-19 found in India as a "variant of concern", raising the alert from a "variant of interest".
EU countries should apply an "emergency brake" on non-essential travel from India, it said in a statement.
"It is important to limit to the strict minimum the categories of travellers that can travel from India for essential reasons and to subject those who may still travel from India to strict testing and quarantine arrangements," it added.
Serbia
The Serbian government’s pledge to pay 3,000 dinars ($31) to those receiving vaccines helped speed up inoculation to almost 24,000 people a day from around 8,000 before the offer was announced on May 5, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday.
Among the first on the continent to launch mass vaccination in January with shots from China, Russia and western drugmakers, Serbia faced a slowdown amid skepticism toward vaccines, even as it offered its citizens the choice of four different jabs.
Angola
Angola’s Ministry of Health approved the use of Russia’s single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine against the coronavirus, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
The Sputnik Light is the first component of the Sputnik two-dose vaccine, which Angola approved in March, the fund said in a statement. Russia’s state-run wealth fund backed the vaccine’s development and is in charge of the inoculation’s international rollout.
UK
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an inquiry next year into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that is likely to focus on why the United Kingdom suffered Europe's worst death toll and one of the world's deepest economic slumps.
In the face of accusations he was slow to impose lockdowns, Johnson and his ministers have admitted there are lessons to be learned from the crisis, but point to the United Kingdom's swift vaccine rollout as evidence that there were also successes.
Johnson, who had earlier resisted calls to begin an inquiry while the government was still handling the crisis, said it would start in spring 2022 once some of the worst pressures had subsided, warning of the risk infections could surge again.
Johnson also said on Thursday that Britain is "anxious" about the coronavirus variant first detected in India and his government is "ruling nothing out" to tackle its spread in the country.
"We want to make sure that we take all the prudential, all the cautious steps now that we could take," he told Sky News.
"So there are meetings going on today (Thursday) to consider exactly what we need to do," he said.
Georgia
Georgia on Thursday reported 776 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total to 326,441, according to the country's center for disease control.
Data from the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health showed that 1,329 more patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 306,264.
Meanwhile, 16 people have died over the past day, raising the death toll to 4,379.
Russia
Russia's consumer health watchdog on Thursday denied a report that the country had recorded its first cases of the COVID-19 variant first found in India, which some preliminary studies show spreads easily.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper earlier reported that the country recorded its first cases of the Indian variant of COVID-19.
Russia confirmed 8,380 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 4,913,439, the official monitoring and response center said Thursday.
The national COVID-19 death toll rose by 392 to 114,723 in the past day, while the number of the country's recoveries grew by 9,349 to 4,527,878.
Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported 2,787 new cases, taking the city's total to 1,127,417.
Greece
Greece will lift most remaining restriction measures from May 14 including the need for citizens to send a text message with a specific code in order to leave home, Deputy Minister for Coordination of Government Work Akis Skertsos said.
The current ban on inter-regional travel on the mainland will end. Trips to islands will be allowed on presentation of a vaccination certificate or negative test. Shoppers will be allowed to freely visit stores without pre-booking appointments with number dependent on the size of the store.
While a nighttime curfew will continue, it will begin at 30 minutes after midnight in order to give restaurants and bars more time to operate. The move comes ahead of Greece opening to international tourism from May 15.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 160.49 million while the global death toll topped 3.33 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
US
US states are set to begin using the vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE to inoculate young adolescents against COVID-19 after advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) backed the plan in a unanimous vote on Wednesday.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday authorized the vaccine for children aged 12 to 15, offering relief to parents eager to get their children back to schools and summer camps. The action by the CDC group is an important, but not required, final seal of federal regulatory approval.
The youngest age previously approved for the Pfizer vaccine was 16 years old.
Some states, including Georgia, Delaware and Arkansas, began offering the vaccine to young teens on Tuesday. California’s main COVID-19 website said families could start making appointments for the younger group on Thursday.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which provides recommendations to the CDC, voted 14-0 to back the vaccine after reviewing trial evidence. That showed no one in the 12-to-15 age group who received the vaccine got COVID-19. There were no severe allergic reactions.
Moreover, the vaccine produced robust antibody responses in the age group and showed 100 percent efficacy in the trial, with no cases of symptomatic COVID-19 among the fully vaccinated adolescents.
Seychelles
Seychelles, which has vaccinated a greater proportion of its population against Covid-19 than any other nation, said a surge in cases of the disease is easing.
While the number of active cases has risen to 2,739, from 2,486 on May 10, the seven-day rolling average of infections has fallen to 178 from 322 about a week ago, the health ministry said.
Malta
Malta has become the first European Union (EU) member state to offer COVID-19 vaccines to youngsters from the age of 16, Health Minister Chris Fearne announced on Wednesday.
Addressing the press on the occasion of International Nursing Day, Fearne said that as from May 17, those aged between 16 and 30 can register to receive the jab protecting them from adverse effects of the coronavirus.
Malta is among the top tiers in the world in terms of vaccine rollout speed and is on track to have vaccinated at least 70 percent of the population eligible for vaccination by the end of the month, he said.
The country is currently vaccinating those in the 30 to 40 age cohort after having previously opened vaccination to those aged over 40 and 50. Older people have already been vaccinated, just after the medical frontliners. As of Monday, 56 percent of those in their 30s had been vaccinated or have registered for the vaccine, Fearne said.
He said that although a decision at the European level has not yet been taken on whether vaccine boosters will be required, Malta is preparing for the eventuality by holding talks to receive an additional 500,000 doses in 2022 and another 500,000 in 2023 in case boosters are needed.
He added that the country will also have enough vaccines for teenagers and children by the end of the year if the European Medicines Agency advises it.
Cuba
Cuba's Ministry of Public Health began on Wednesday a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 with the country's vaccine candidate Abdala in Havana, the capital and epicenter of the pandemic on the island.
A meeting of Provincial Defense Council in Havana on Tuesday detailed the immunization process with Abdala that will cover health workers and students.
The plan will include four of Havana's 15 municipalities and some 400,000 people, and will cover a similar number of people in several other provinces later in the month.
Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal said a few days ago that immunization will be extended to the rest of Havana's municipalities in the near future, but with Soberana-02, another vaccine candidate developed on the island.
The minister also explained that the decision was made to carry out the immunization on a temporary basis until the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CEDMED) can issue the authorization for the mass use of the Cuban vaccine candidates.
CEDMED could grant the authorization by June, Portal said, as the ministry expects to immunize 70 percent of the Cuban population by August.
In addition, the island has three other vaccine candidates, Soberana-01 and Plus, as well as Mambisa, in different stages of clinical trials.
Meanwhile, Cuba reported on Wednesday 1,207 new COVID-19 infections in one day, bringing the total to 119,375, with 768 deaths, the ministry said.
Montenegro
Montenegro relaxed its COVID-19 epidemiological measures on Wednesday as the country registered a record low number of new cases since last September on Tuesday.
According to the government decision, a ban on movement which was valid from midnight to 5 a.m. was lifted countrywide, and the intercity traffic was once again reopened.
The new measures will remain valid till May 20. The government warned that in case of "worsening of the epidemiological situation," the measures will be updated again.
Authorities confirmed 84 new infections for the previous 24-hours on Tuesday, the lowest number since last September. Currently, the country has a total of 1,634 active cases, a major decrease from mid-March when the figure was above 9,500, according to the data of the Institute of Public Health on Wednesday.
As the tourism season approaches, the Ministry of Health announced that from Thursday, PCR tests will be performed free of charge for tourists who need them to return to their home countries.
Algeria
Algeria on Wednesday reported 199 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 124,682.
The death toll from the virus rose to 3,350 after seven new fatalities were added, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.
Mohamed Belhocine, a member of the Algerian Scientific Committee monitoring the spread of COVID-19, asked people not to travel or hold home gathering during the festival of Eid al-Fitr, local TSA news website reported on Wednesday.
He also stressed that Algeria should continue the policy of closing the borders, which has played an important role to contain COVID-19 spread.
Canada
Ontario, Canada's most populous province, reported 2,320 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the country's cumulative total to 1,302,637 cases, including 24,756 deaths.
Wednesday's report brings the province's total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 499,412, including 100,746 variants.
The province's seven-day average for the number of reported COVID-19 cases is 2,826, down from last week's 3,432. Now, there are 776 patients in an intensive care unit with COVID-19.
Among the 100,746 variants, 2,949 B.1.1.7 cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours, pushing the case total to 98,495 while 91 new cases of P.1 brought the total to 1,683 and another 38 new infections of B.1.351 raised the total to 568 in Ontario.
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Morocco
A total of 268 people were tested positive for COVID-19 in Morocco on Wednesday, raising the national tally to 514,432, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
In the past 24 hours, five people have died from the disease, taking the death toll to 9,088 in the country, while 220 people are in intensive care units.
The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased by 288 to 501,692.
Germany
Germany’s new infections keep decreasing with 6,590 cases on Thursday. German authorities have become increasingly optimistic that Europe’s largest economy can loosen restrictions like on outdoor dining and domestic tourism.
On Wednesday, the government eased entry restrictions for travelers, allowing people who have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from the coronavirus to enter the country without any quarantine obligation.
From now on, vaccinated and/or recovered travelers will be "treated the same way as those who have been tested," according to the government.
With the exception of those entering Germany from "virus variant areas," such as India or Brazil, travelers who hold appropriate proof of recovery or vaccination will no longer be required to present a negative COVID-19 test result upon arrival.
The quarantine requirement for those entering the country from high incidence areas remains in force but could be lifted earlier with a negative test result, at the earliest after five days. Excluded are those who stayed in a "virus variant area" for at least ten days before their entry into Germany.
Tunisia
The Tunisian government on Wednesday decided to ease a series of COVID-19 restrictions from May 14 until June 6.
Speaking at a press conference held at the government's headquarters, Hasna Ben Slimane, spokeswoman of the government, said travel between all Tunisian governorates will resume without authorization from May 14 at 5 a.m. local time, while places of worship and malls will reopen from May 16.
"Classes in primary and secondary schools will resume on May 17, while classes in universities will resume on May 19," she added.
Mandatory quarantine will be applied to incoming passengers and high-risk areas will be cordoned off, the spokeswoman noted.
Chile
Chile's Health Ministry reported on Wednesday 3,920 new COVID-19 infections and 28 more deaths in one day, for a cumulative total of 1,260,448 cases and 27,384 deaths.
In a statement, the ministry noted that 10 of the country's 16 regions have seen a decline in infections in the last seven days.
Meanwhile, more than 16 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Chile since its immunization campaign began on Feb. 3, the ministry reported.
Up to 16,059,122 doses of vaccines have been administered, Health Minister Enrique Paris said in a press release, adding that 8,765,052 people have received their first dose and 7,294,070 their second.
Photo taken on March 12, 2021 shows AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines at a hospital in Caceres province in Spain. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Spain
Spain will have 33 million people vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-August, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday. The vaccination rollout has sped up in Spain over the past weeks and the country is due to receive 13 million doses of Pfizer vaccine next month, Sanchez said.
Norway
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines will cease to be part of Norway's mass vaccination program, Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a press conference on Wednesday evening.
The controversial vaccine had been under suspension in Norway since March 11 after reports of blood clots in vaccinated people.
However, the government has decided that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, despite producing side effects similar to those of AstraZeneca, will be made available.
The government's decision only partially follows the advice of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and a committee of experts set up by the government, which on Monday recommended both vaccines should be totally removed from the vaccination program.
The Norwegian government also plans to create a scheme to donate unused doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to other countries, the prime minister revealed during the press conference.
The Norwegian government's decision came after Denmark became the first country to remove both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines from its COVID-19 vaccination program on April 15.
Ecuador
Ecuador reported a slight decline in hospital congestion, after the implementation of a state of emergency in most of the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
The waiting list for hospital beds dropped to 282 people nationwide, after registering a sustained upward trend before the state of emergency, the ministry's National Director of Epidemiological Surveillance Esteban Arce said during a press conference.
Portugal
Portugal's government said on Wednesday it was investigatinghow a mass gathering of thousands of Sporting fans celebrating their club being crowned Portuguese champions got out of hand.
On Tuesday evening, thousands of elated soccer fans spread across Lisbon, including in the city's main square, Marques do Pombal, to celebrate their club winning the title for first time in nearly two decades.
Many of the supporters ditched face masks and maintaining social-distancing became close to impossible as more people showed up. Other became aggressive, breaking down metal barriers and throwing glass bottles and smoke bombs towards police and journalists.
Lawmakers have criticised the government, led by Prime Minister Antonio Costa, and health authorities for not putting together an adequate plan to reduce the risk of contagion during the celebrations.
Italy
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Wednesday that the United States and Britain should lift their block on the export of COVID-19 vaccines.
Draghi told the lower house of parliament he shared the aim behind US President Joe Biden's call for a waiver of patents on coronavirus vaccines, adding that a temporary suspension would probably not discourage pharmaceutical research.
However, Draghi said the situation was complex and there were more simple steps that could be taken to ensure wider vaccine distribution to poorer countries, before any patent waiver could be agreed.
Pfizer Inc
US pharmaceutical maker Pfizer Inc will seek authorization from Mexico's health regulator for use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 12-15, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Wednesday.
"Pfizer will submit the request for authorization from Cofepris for the vaccine, applicable to minors between 12 and 15 years old, in the next few days," Ebrard said in a tweet.
He shared a letter from Maria Constanza Losada, president of Pfizer in Mexico, dated May 7, stating the company's intent to submit its vaccine for approval for minors.
Mexico said it received 250,380 doses of Pfizer's vaccine on Wednesday, for a total of 11.5 million doses from the company. Mexico has so far received more than 28 million doses of vaccines in total, including AstraZeneca, China's Sinovac and Cansino, and Russia's Sputnik V.
A healthcare worker receives a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus as South Africa proceeds with its inoculation campaign at the Klerksdorp Hospital on Feb 18, 2021. (PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP)
South Africa
A South African report into excess deaths over the past year suggests more than 133,000 people in the country have died from COVID-19, far more than the official tally of nearly 55,000.
The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has been monitoring excess deaths since May 2020.
In its latest report, published on Wednesday, the SAMRC said South Africa had seen 157,000 excess deaths in the past 12 months and estimated that 85 percent of them were caused by COVID-19, which means just over 133,000 people have died from the disease.
This compares to an official death toll of 54,968 since the start of the pandemic.
South Africa’s Department of Health said that while COVID-19 infections climbed 46 percent in the past week the country hasn’t yet reached a “resurgence threshold.”
Cases are rising fastest in the Northern Cape and Gauteng provinces, the department said in a statement on Wednesday. While deaths rose 18 percent in the week, the number of hospitalizations hasn’t increased, it said.“We have not yet hit the third wave; however we are at risk,” the department said.
Meanwhile, nurses in the country were among the hardest by the coronavirus, said the Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa (DENOSA) on Wednesday.
DENOSA's spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo said this as nurses across the globe marked International Nurses Day on May 12.
"The majority of medical workers who got infected by the virus and who died were nurses. It's been hard on them," he told Xinhua.
Last month, South Africa Health Department said over 800 medical workers had died due to COVID-19 which has killed over 54,000 people across the country.
He said as the country was preparing for the third wave of the virus, nurses should be supported.
UN
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Wednesday for the need to double the capacity of COVID-19 vaccine production and for fairer redistribution of the shots in the developing world, which faces new waves of the coronavirus.
Many countries are experiencing shortages of the vaccine, especially India, worsening a dire second wave of infections that has left hospitals and morgues overflowing while families scramble for increasingly scarce medicines and oxygen.
At the same time, the European Union has reserved a surplus of the vaccines.
"It is totally unacceptable to live in the world, in which developed countries can vaccinate most of its population, while many developing countries have not access to one single dose," Guterres told a briefing after meeting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
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France
France reported 21,498 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, pushing total cases to 5.82 million, 2.02 percent more than a week ago and the slowest week-on-week increase since late June 2020.
Two weeks after the French government started gradually unwinding its third nationwide lockdown, the seven-day moving average of daily new cases has fallen to about 16,500, from more than 42,000 mid-April, when week-on-week increases in new cases were still over 6 percent.
The country reported 184 new deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday and the gliding seven-day average of new deaths fell further to 213, from a 2021 high of 450 in early February.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Tuesday there was a clear downtrend in the evolution of the epidemic and France remained on track to lift the last anti-COVID-19 measures at the start of July.
Switzerland
Switzerland plans to ease restrictions on indoor dining at restaurants and public gatherings after a decline in coronavirus infections.
Restaurants will be able to welcome guests indoors again starting May 31, while theaters will be able to accommodate more guests, the government said on Wednesday. A final decision will be made on May 26, following input from the cantons, or states, and will depend on how the COVID-19 case load develops.
Brazil
Brazil registered 2,494 more deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 428,034, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The ministry said that tests detected 76,692 new cases, raising the national count to 15,359,397.
According to media reports, as of Monday, Brazil had vaccinated 54.8 million people against COVID-19 with 36.5 million, or 17.24 percent of the population, having received the first dose and 18.3 million, or 8.68 percent, both doses.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 695 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 264,367 as of Wednesday evening, the country's Ministry of Health said.
A total of 27 new deaths were reported, bringing the national death toll to 3,938, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Ethiopia has 45,619 active COVID-19 cases, of which 659 are under serious health conditions.
Bulgaria
As many as 36,477 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Bulgaria in the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 1,035,763, official data showed Thursday.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections rose by 657 to 412,814, and 3,530 more recovered from the disease, raising Bulgaria's total recoveries to 357,149, according to the country's COVID-19 information portal.
Bulgaria's COVID-19 death toll has risen to 17,150 after 46 new deaths were reported in the past day, the information portal showed.
