A medical worker processes a swab sample using a rapid antigen test for the novel coronavirus at a nursing home for seniors in Froendenberg, western Germany, on Jan 22, 2021. (INA FASSBENDER / AFP)
GENEVA / SAO PAULO / MADRID / DUBLIN / ABUJA / MEXICO CITY / LONDON / PARIS / ADDIS ABABA / OTTAWA / SANTIAGO / LISBON / HAVANA / TUNIS / BERLIN / WARSAW / ALGIERS / FREETOWN / MAPUTO / ZAGREB / VILNIUS / LJUBLJANA / JOHANNESBURG / MOSCOW / STOCKHOLM / BOGOTA –
German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Tuesday backed European Union (EU) proposals to introduce restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines leaving the bloc, saying Europe should have its “fair share”.
The EU has proposed setting up a register of vaccine exports amid frustration over delays in deliveries of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot and other supply problems.
Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkevics told local radio on Tuesday morning that EU member states are considering taking AstraZeneca to court for a breach of supply contracts if the company does not honor the vaccine delivery schedule.
On Monday, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said that AstraZeneca's move to cut deliveries of its vaccine was unacceptable to the EU.
READ MORE: AstraZeneca to cut deliveries of its virus vaccine to EU 'by 60%'
The commissioner wrote a letter to the company over the weekend following AstraZeneca's announcement on Friday that it would reduce the initial supply to the EU.
During a phone call with AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot on Monday morning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted that the company had to deliver on its contractual arrangements.
Meanwhile, Kyriakides confirmed that AstraZeneca's vaccine could possibly be given a conditional marketing recommendation by the European Medicines Agency by the end of this week.
Belarus
Belarus reported 847 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking its total to 239,482, according to the country's health ministry.
The ministry said 754 more recoveries were registered, bringing the national count to 224,925.
So far, 1,668 people have died of the disease in the country with 10 deaths logged over the past 24 hours, it said.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan has allowed concert halls to resume their work and comply with sanitary and epidemiological requirements from Jan. 28, the country's special commission to fight against coronavirus said Tuesday.
The occupancy of concert halls should be no more than 50 percent of their capacity, and visitors and staff must wear masks, it said, adding that the decision was made amid the relatively stabilized epidemiological situation in the country.
Germany
Germany has embarked on a push to find out how prevalent the more contagious COVID-19 strains are among those infected, relying on a new test that promises quicker results than genome sequencing.
About two-dozen laboratories in Europe’s biggest economy will re-test thousands of confirmed coronavirus samples this week to scour for the variants that have caused surging infections in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.
They’re using some 100,000 specially designed PCR tests donated by TIB Molbiol Syntheselabor GmbH, a Berlin-based biotech firm that last year was among the first worldwide to develop kits to detect the coronavirus.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 6,408 to 2,148,077, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. The reported death toll rose by 903 to 52,990, the tally showed.
Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues that Germany’s management of the coronavirus pandemic has “slipped out of control” and stricter curbs are needed to prevent a new wave of the disease, Bild newspaper reported.
ALSO READ: Germany to mourn COVID-19 victims as toll passes 50,000 mark
Meanwhile, stationary care facilities and institutions providing integration assistance in Germany should receive additional staff for COVID-19 testing, the federal government announced on Monday. For a period of about three weeks, soldiers of the German armed forces would provide staff support to the care facilities within the framework of administrative assistance, according to the government. After that, volunteers would be deployed to test visitors, staff and service providers at care facilities across the country.
WHO
A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official on Monday warned of the risk of continued transmission of the novel coronavirus even after large-scale vaccinations in the foreseeable future.
Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said at a virtual press conference that he did not believe the world should start setting elimination or eradication of this virus as the bar for success.
"That is not the bar for success. The bar for success is reducing the capacity of this virus to kill, to put people in hospital, to destroy our economic and social lives," Ryan said.
Asked whether COVID-19 will become an endemic, he emphasized that "for the foreseeable future, the coverage of vaccines will not reach a point where it will stop transmission. So we're likely to have continued transmission".
Noting that countries should probably not expect to get rid of the virus by 2021, Ryan said that so far in human history, "we've only ever eradicated one disease on this planet: smallpox".
"We have to reach a point where we're in control of the virus," he said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide is expected to reach 100 million within this week.
ALSO READ: Merck shuts down vaccine program after lackluster data
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 99.7 million while the global death tol exceed 2.14 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Norway
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said her country may fine-tune the vaccination of its oldest, sickest citizens as it tries to make sense of a recent spate of deaths. Norway revealed this month that more than 30 people — all over 70 and all already sick — died not long after being vaccinated. Intense global interest in the news was “exaggerated,” Solberg said.
“We don’t believe there’s any problem with the safety of the vaccines,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg Live.
Georgia
Georgia on Tuesday reported 1,006 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total to 254,822, said the country's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).
Data from the NCDC showed that 1,050 more patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 244,446.
Meanwhile, 25 people died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 3,096.
Brazil
Brazil on Monday registered 627 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 217,664, the Ministry of Health said.
Tests detected 26,816 new infections, bringing the national caseload to 8,871,393, it added.
Sao Paulo, the most populous state in the country, is the hardest hit with 1,702,294 cases and 51,556 deaths, followed by neighboring Rio de Janeiro with 501,436 cases and 28,856 deaths.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski has approved an investigation into Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the northern city of Manaus, according to a court document released on Monday.
Meanwhile, Brazilian pharmaceutical company União Química met with health regulator Anvisa on Monday seeking approval to conduct Phase III clinical trials of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, which it plans to make in Brazil for national immunization and for export.
Spain
Spain reported a record 93,822 new coronavirus infections over the weekend, while the two-week average jumped to a new high of 885 cases per 100,000 people on Monday as regional authorities scrambled to ramp up restrictions.
Infections now total 2,593,382 while the death toll increased by 767 to 56,208, health ministry data showed.
"Spain is not doing well and we have to be aware of it," Health Emergency Coordinator Fernando Simon said at a news briefing.
Simon said the highly contagious variant of the virus first detected in Britain was not responsible for the surge and only accounted for around 5 percent of current infections, although it could become the dominant variant by March.
The region of Galicia imposed limited people to socializing only with members of their own household and ordered non-essential businesses to close at 6 pm for three weeks. Regional leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo urged citizens to stay at home from 8 pm.
Valencia and Murcia banned gatherings of more than two people. Madrid will bring forward a curfew by an hour to 10 pm and deploy drones and extra police to ensure compliance.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Salvador Illa confirmed he would step aside to run for election in Catalonia after leading Spain's response to the pandemic.
Moderna
Moderna’s COVID19 vaccine should be given in two doses with an interval of 28 days, the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization said in an interim recommendation. In exceptional circumstances, the interval may be extended to 42 days, though the evidence for this isn’t strong, it said. SAGE doesn’t recommend halving the dose.
Separately, France decided not to delay second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, shunning the advice of its health authority and citing risks and uncertainties in the face of new variants.
Moderna Inc said on Monday it believes its COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants found in Britain and South Africa, although it will test a new booster shot aimed at the South African variant after concluding the antibody response could be diminished.
The company said in a news release it found no reduction in the antibody response against the variant found in Britain. Against the South African variant, it found a reduced response but still believed its two-dose regimen would provide protection.
Moderna said it expects its current vaccine will remain protective for at least a year after completing the two-dose course. It does not expect to test a third dose until at least six months after that course is finished.
Ireland
Ireland is set to extend a shutdown of the economy until March 5 and will ease restrictions very gradually similar to its exit from an initial lockdown last year if it can suppress COVID-19 again, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Monday.
With 766 COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people still recorded in the past 14 days, Varadkar and senior ministers will advise the Cabinet on Tuesday to keep most shops, building sites and all hospitality closed until March 5.
Schools will also remain shut for now ahead of a possible phased reopening during February and March if the total number of new cases continues to halve every 10 days, said Varadkar, who was previously prime minister.
The Cabinet will also sign off on tougher travel curbs, Varadkar said, including "a travel ban" on arrivals from Brazil and South Africa, where other variants have been detected. Mandatory hotel quarantine will be introduced for the first time in Ireland for anyone who "somehow" arrives from those two countries, as well as travelers from anywhere else who fail to present a negative test for COVID-19, he added.
Ireland reported 1,372 newly confirmed cases Monday, the lowest level since Dec 28, with seven deaths. While Ireland has been dealing with one of the worst outbreaks in the world in recent weeks, hospitalizations are now plateauing and may be starting to fall, Health Ministry adviser Philip Nolan told reporters.
US
The first case of COVID-19 caused by an emerging Brazilian variant of the virus has been identified in the United States, in a Minnesota resident who recently returned from a trip to Brazil, the Minnesota Department of Health said Monday.
The announcement came as President Joe Biden signed an order extending a travel ban barring nearly all non-US citizens who have recently been to Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 other European countries from entering the United States.
Biden said he anticipates that vaccines will be available to anyone in the nation by spring – a target requiring an increases in the current pace of inoculations.
READ MORE: US running low on supply of vaccines
The US is currently administering about 1.2 million shots per day, data compiled by Bloomberg show, and Biden said Monday he expects that will soon reach 1.5 million doses.
COVID-19 cases in the US rose to 25.2 million with more than 420,000 deaths as of Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Hospitalizations for the coronavirus tumbled to the lowest since mid-December, new data from the Department of Health and Human Services show. There were 114,281 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the country as of Monday – a 13 percent decline from 131,637 on Jan 15.
Meanwhile, California lifted all regional stay-at-home orders in the most populous state in the US, public health officials announced on Monday.
A doctor (center) gives a man the first of two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a one-day vaccination clinic set up in an Amazon.com facility in Seattle, the United States, on Jan 24, 2021. (TED S. WARREN / AP
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe recorded 70 more COVID-19 deaths over the past 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 1,075 as the nation reels under a second wave of the pandemic that has spawned a spike in deaths and infections.
In a statement Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said 326 new COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the country's total caseload to 31,646.
Italy
Italy registered 8,562 new virus cases on Monday, the lowest daily increase since Oct 14, from 11,629 the day before, as well as 420 deaths, up from 299 on Sunday.
In total, Italy has registered 85,881 deaths linked to COVID-19 and 2.475 million cases.
The country reported a first case of the new Brazilian virus strain in Varese, Northern Italy, on Monday, according to Ansa newswire.
Meanwhile, the Italian government on Monday sent a letter of formal notice to Pfizer calling on the drug company to respect its contractual commitments over its COVID-19 vaccine deliveries, the government special commissioner said.
Mexico
Mexico's official death toll from the coronavirus passed 150,000 on Monday following a surge in infections in recent weeks that has stretched the health system in the capital to the limit and led to the president contracting COVID-19.
The Health Ministry on Monday reported 659 additional deaths, bringing the death toll to 150,273. There were 8,521 new cases on Monday for a total of 1,771,740 confirmed infections.
The high rate of positive COVID-19 tests in Mexico likely means the nation has been screening too few people, WHO's top emergencies official Mike Ryan warned.
Russia will supply Mexico with 24 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine over the next two months, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said after a phone call on Monday with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
On Sunday, Lopez Obrador, 67, who has a history of heart problems and high blood pressure, said he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was being treated for mild symptoms.
The president's announcement just a few hours after taking a commercial flight unleashed renewed criticism of his handling of the pandemic.
Government officials close to Lopez Obrador said on Monday they would undergo testing. Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, who has spearheaded Mexico's response to the outbreak, said in a video call during a regular government news conference that he was self-isolating due to potential exposure.
South Africa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday urged wealthy countries to stop hoarding excess COVID-19 vaccines that they had ordered but did not immediately need, saying the world needed to act together to fight the pandemic.
“We need those who have hoarded the vaccines to release the vaccines so that other countries can have them,” Ramaphosa said at a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Ramaphosa, who currently chairs the African Union, said African countries wanted access to vaccines as quickly as other nations.
South Africa’s COVID outbreak is the worst in Africa, and the continent as a whole is struggling to secure sufficient vaccines to start countrywide inoculation programs for its 1.3 billion people.
“We are all not safe if some countries are vaccinating their people and other countries are not vaccinating,” Ramaphosa said. “We all must act together in combating the coronavirus.”
READ MORE: COVAX says to provide 1.8b vaccines to poor countries
Ukraine
Ukraine expects to receive 100,000 to 200,000 doses of vaccines from Pfizer under the COVAX scheme in February and vaccinate the first 367,000 people against the coronavirus in first stage, Ukrainain Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Tuesday.
Shmygal told the parliament the country also expected to receive 700,000 doses of China's Sinovac vaccine in three-four weeks.
He said the government had worked out a detailed vaccination plan within which 2.54 million people would get vaccine at the second stage of the vaccination and 7.2 million people at the third stage.
Shmygal said Ukraine expected to receive up to 16 million doses of vaccine from COVAX this year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday Ukraine would start coronavirus vaccinations in February.
Ukraine has registered around 1.2 million coronavirus cases so far, including 22,057 deaths.
Nigeria
Nigeria has recorded four cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant that was first reported in Britain while expecting vaccines against the virus, the Nigerian government said on Monday.
Three cases were found in Nigerians who had traveled out of the country and one was found in a local resident, said Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, at a daily news conference.
Meanwhile, 1,430 new COVID-19 cases were reported late Monday, bringing the total number of infections in the most populous African country to 122,996, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control.
The death toll rose by three to 1,507.
Nigeria is expected to receive 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines early next month, with the efforts to deploy them underway, Mustapha said.
UK
The British public should not book any overseas summer vacation yet, Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday, ahead of an expected announcement on tougher border measures.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet with senior ministers and officials later Tuesday to decide whether to use hotels to quarantine travelers arriving in the UK to stop the spread of new virus variants from overseas.
Supplies of COVID-19 vaccine in Britain remain tight, Zahawi told BBC TV, adding that he was confident Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna would meet supply commitments.
Earlier Tuesday, the health ministry said that Britain will share its genomic sequencing capabilities with other countries to help quicker identify new variants of the coronavirus in places with less ability to do so.
Britain said it had carried out more than half the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences submitted to a global database, and would launch a New Variant Assessment Platform which could be used for coronavirus variants and also future pandemics.
The United Kingdom reported the lowest number of new cases since the middle of December on Monday. The government reported 22,195 new cases and 592 deaths, bringing the cumulative caseload to 3,669,658 and the death toll to 98,531, according to official data.
Johnson said his government would start considering which measures could be relaxed from the beginning of next month.
France
The number of people hospitalized in France for COVID-19 rose by more than a 1,000 over the last two days, a trend unseen since Nov 16, and the number of patients in intensive care units for the disease exceeded 3,000 for the first time since Dec 9.
The daily tally of new COVID infections was 4,240 on Monday, higher than last Monday's 3,736. France's cumulative total of cases now stands at 3,057,857, the sixth-highest in the world.
The death toll was up by 445, at 73,494, the world's seventh highest.
At 3,041, the ICU total is less than half its all time high of 7,148 on April 4, but has grown almost every day since Jan 7.
As of Monday, France had vaccinated 1,092,958 people.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Bloomberg Television that a new lockdown would make it very difficult for the country to reach its 2021 target of 6 percent economic growth.
Portugal
Portugal's Health Minister Marta Temido said on Monday that the country has "fully complied" with its COVID-19 vaccination plan.
"Up to 7 pm on Jan 24, around 255,700 vaccine inoculations had been carried out," she said, after meeting with the vaccination task force and Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
She said that, as planned, vaccination will be completed by the end of this week in nursing homes and long-term care units.
Firefighters, police, and people over 50 with pre-existing conditions will start getting vaccinations from next week, as will lawmakers and government ministers Temido said.
Portugal reported 252 deaths related to COVID-19 and 6,923 new cases on Monday, bringing the death toll to 10,721 and the tally to 643,113.
Russia
Russia on Tuesday reported 18,241 new COVID-19 cases, taking its official national tally to 3,756,931.
Authorities also confirmed 564 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 70,482.
The head of Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Tuesday the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine would be approved for domestic use by 25 countries within the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Russia has lifted a travel ban for Finland, Vietnam, India and Qatar that was imposed last year to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the Russian government said on Monday.
It said the citizens of these countries would be able to travel to Russia by plane. Russians would also be allowed to fly to these countries.
UN chief
If the rich world doesn’t act urgently to help developing countries get their populations vaccinated, more virus mutations could render the current shots ineffective, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
“If we believe it’s possible to vaccinate the Global North and forget about the Global South, if we let the virus spread like wildfire in the Global South, it will mutate,” Guterres told the Davos Agenda event on Monday. “And when it mutates, it will come back in a way that vaccines will no longer be relevant.”
Guterres said that many developed countries have bought more vaccines than they need and should put “those that will not be necessary at the disposal of developing countries.” He added that licensing should be made available for developing countries like Brazil and India, which have a “huge capacity of generics,” in order to scale up production of vaccines.
Cuba
Cuba's Ministry of Public Health on Monday reported that 567 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths more from the disease were registered in the previous 24 hours, raising its caseload to 21,828 and the death toll to 197.
Of the new cases, 25 were imported while the rest were transmitted within the community.
Cuba's capital Havana continues to be the region hit hardest by the outbreak, registering 2,452 COVID-19 infections in the last 15 days, more than half of the total number of active cases nationwide.
Africa tally
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded on the African continent reached 3,438,133 as of Monday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The death toll stood at 85,278, the Africa CDC said.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia's Ministry of Health on Monday reported 365 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 134,132.
The death toll reached 2,071 as of Monday evening, after five more deaths were reported, the ministry said.
Canada
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday that the government was looking at tougher travel measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including mandatory hotel quarantines for air travelers returning from non-essential trips abroad.
Canada's COVID-19 cases have surpassed 750,000, standing at 750,925 with 19,187 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to CTV.
Canada has seen a recent downward trend in daily case counts over the past 10 days, with a seven-day average of 6,079 new cases daily recorded during Jan 15-21, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
"While this suggests that community-based measures may be starting to take effect, it is too soon to be sure that current measures are strong enough and broad enough to maintain a steady downward trend," said Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam in a statement.
Chile
The number of confirmed COVID-19 recorded in Chile rose to 703,178 on Monday after tests detected 4,068 new infections.
According to the Ministry of Health, there were 26,475 active cases while a total of 658,324 people have recovered.
In the previous 24 hours, 66 more COVID-19 patients have died, bringing the death toll to 17,999, the ministry said.
Currently, 1,272 patients are hospitalized in intensive care units (ICU), including 1,078 on ventilators and 92 in critical condition.
Algeria
Algeria on Monday reported 258 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the North African country to 105,854.
The death toll rose to 2,866 after three more fatalities were recorded, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Tunisia
The Tunisian health ministry announced on Monday new measures for arrivals coming from abroad in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
Starting from Feb 1, all arrivals must present a negative PCR test result taken within 72 hours before take-off, and undergo a compulsory quarantine for seven days in one of the designated centers, it said. Another PCR test will be requested on the seventh day of the quarantine. If the result comes back negative, the person may leave the center.
The ministry also decided to maintain the ban on flights to and from the countries where new strains of COVID-19 are highly prevalent.
The announcement came as the ministry reported 1,263 new cases and 53 more deaths, taking the tally to 198,636 and the toll to 6,287.
Poland
The delay in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine delivery is slowing the costly fight against the pandemic, Polish President Andrzej Duda told The Financial Times in an interview published on Monday.
Duda said that Pfizer's limitations to deliveries is a problem for all countries that have signed on to the vaccine, especially financially. He estimated the daily cost for Poland's efforts to contain the coronavirus at one billion Polish zloty (US$267.4 million).
Netherlands
The Netherlands faced its worst civil unrest in four decades after a third night of rioting against a government curfew aimed at curbing the pandemic, just weeks before a national election.
Police arrested 184 people after incidents in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and smaller Dutch cities on Monday evening, news agency ANP reported. Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday described the disturbances as “criminal violence.”
It’s not yet clear what impact the unrest will have on elections scheduled for March 17. Rutte’s government resigned on Jan. 15 over a scathing report on childcare benefits, making him the head of a caretaker cabinet until a new government is formed. That process could take months.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier on Monday condemned the unrest, labeling it “criminal violence.”
The curfew runs between 9 pm and 4:30 am in coming weeks and is on top of existing lockdown measures in place until at least Feb 9.
There have been 13,579 deaths in the Netherlands from COVID-19 and 952,950 infections to date.
Morocco
Morocco's health ministry has started distributing COVID-19 vaccines across the country as it prepares to become the first African state to roll out a mass immunization program this week.
Appointments have been made for health workers and citizens are registering online to receive the vaccine in 3,000 locations, said Ben Azouz Mohammed, head of the ministry's vaccination program.
Morocco on Friday received 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by India's Serum Institute and it expects to get 500,000 doses of vaccine from China's Sinopharm on Wednesday.
Morocco has reported 466,626 confirmed cases and 8,172 deaths. On Monday, the country reported 337 new cases and 22 COVID-19 deaths .
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone reintroduced a package of tough measures on Monday, including a curfew and ban on nightclub activities, to combat the second wave of COVID-19, authorities confirmed.
Kellie Hassan Conteh, interim national coordinator of the National Coronavirus Response Center, said that the capital Freetown to be badly hit by the virus, which has promoted the re-introduction of the prevention measures.
The country imposed travel restrictions in the country's western area, as well as a national curfew from 10 pm-5 am. All restaurants and bars will be banned from operating during weekends.
Conteh said spectators are not allowed to watch sport activities and a mandatory use of face masks in all public spaces is currently in force.
The country has recorded more than 3,000 positive cases so far.
Mozambique
Mozambique expects to acquire at least 70,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for frontline health professionals between February and March, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said on Monday, without providing details of the origin of the shot.
Tiago said the government currently has two kinds of mechanisms to acquire the vaccines, including the COVAX initiative, according to which the vaccines will arrive in the country between May and June.
"But we believe and think that the government should double the efforts in order to guarantee vaccines earlier than that, which means, for the months between February and March we need to guarantee the protection of the risk groups and those that have the priority to receive the vaccine," said the minister.
A total of 1,215 health professionals have tested positive for COVID-19 in Mozambique.
Croatia
Vaccine diplomacy has turned into vaccine hijacking, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told reporters on Monday, commenting on delays of COVID-19 vaccine delivery in the European Union (EU).
"(The) EU invested enormous funds as support to the research and pharmaceutical companies. We will insist that they meet contract obligations," Plenkovic said.
He said that the problem happened after some countries started paying more for the vaccine than what the EU has negotiated with the companies.
In Croatia, more than 70,000 people have been vaccinated so far, and around 11,907 have received the second dose. Due to the delivery delay, the second phase of the vaccination will be postponed.
However, Plenkovic on Monday said that "there will be no danger that someone who received the first shot doesn't receive the second one in time".
Croatia recorded 134 new cases and 32 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 229,054 and the toll to 4,859, the Croatian Institute of Public Health reported on Monday.
Teachers wait in line to receive COVID-19 tests at the Exhibition and Convention Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Jan 25, 2021. Slovenia conducted mass testing for all teachers who are returning to in-person teaching that day. (ZELJKO STEVANIC / XINHUA)
Slovenia
Kindergartens and the first three grades of primary school will reopen as planned on Tuesday in nine of Slovenia's 12 regions, the prime minister's office confirmed on Monday.
Slovenia conducted mass testing of all teachers who will return to in-person teaching on the same day. Around 53,000 primary school pupils and almost 75,000 kindergarten children are expected to return to classrooms.
Also on Monday, the government adopted a new stimulus bill on Monday, with the extension of the furlough scheme and minimum wage subsidies as key measures to help companies weather through the epidemic.
Lithuania
Travelers from some 200 countries and regions are required to present negative COVID-19 test results and undergo a 14-day self-quarantine upon arrival in Lithuania as of Monday.
The tests must be taken within 48 hours before arrival in Lithuania or within 24 hours after arrival, according to the country's health ministry.
On Friday, the health ministry updated the list of affected countries and regions, with Ireland, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Israel and South Africa listed as those with fast-spreading virus mutations.
From Monday onwards, travelers from those countries will be subjected to different quarantine requirements from other affected countries, said the ministry.
Lithuania reported on Monday 541 new cases, bringing the overall tally 177,166, including 2,664 deaths and 119,254 recoveries, the Department of Statistics said.
UK trial
A UK trial found that commonly used antibiotics azithromycin and doxycycline were generally not effective as a treatment for early stages of COVID-19 in order to prevent hospitalization or further intervention, Oxford University said on Monday.
The trial, dubbed PRINCIPLE, found that there was no beneficial effect in patients over the age of 50 who were treated with either of the antibiotics at home, the university said on its website, adding that further details will be published in a peer-reviewed journal soon.
AstraZeneca
There is no data that would suggest efficacy of only 8 percent among older people for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, the German health ministry said on Tuesday in response to corresponding media reports.
German daily papers Handelsblatt and Bild reported separately on Monday that the vaccine – co-developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University – had an efficacy of 8 percent or less than 10 percent, respectively, in those over 65 and the German government did not expect the European regulator to approve the product for that age group.
AstraZeneca on Monday described those reports as "completely incorrect".
Sweden
Sweden's Health Agency has paused COVID-19 vaccine payments to Pfizer and is seeking clarification over the amount of doses available in each vial, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported on Tuesday.
Sweden is seeking clarification on the number of doses it has been billed after Pfizer charged for six doses in each vial.
It originally was thought only five doses could be extracted from each vial and Sweden now want the EU Commission and Pfizer to reach an agreement on how many doses there are in each vial.
Meanwhile, Sweden has decided to extend its advice against non-essential travel to all countries outside the Europe until April 15, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Colombia
Colombia's Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo has died from viral pneumonia related to COVID-19, the government said on Tuesday.
Trujillo was reported infected with coronavirus earlier this month and was later transferred to an intensive care unit.
The Andean country has reported more than 2 million coronavirus infections, as well as close to 52,000 deaths due to COVID-19.
