Germany to mourn COVID-19 victims as toll passes 50,000 mark













People walk past the square in front of the Old Opera in Frankfurt, Germany, on a rainy morning, Jan 22, 2021. (MICHAEL PROBST/AP)

MEXICO CITY / GENEVA / BAMAKO / PARIS / BRUSSELS / BOGOTA / RIO DE JANEIRO / NAIROBI / ADDIS ABABA / WASHINGTON / LISBON / LONDON / SARAJEVO / BUDAPEST / COPENHAGEN / BUENOS AIRES / KIEV / DUBLIN / MADRID / OSLO / ROME / WARSAW / MOSCOW / TRIPOLI / LIMA / QUITO / RABAT / HARARE / ALGIERS / TUNIS / STOCKHOLM – A national memorial event would be held here in the German capital in April after Easter for those who lost their lives to COVID-19, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced on Friday.

Together with other constitutional bodies in Germany, Steinmeier would like to "set an example that we as a society mourn together, that we do not forget the dead and the suffering of the bereaved," according to a statement.

The announcement was made as the number of COVID-19 deaths in Germany passed the 50,000 mark on Friday, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal government agency for disease control and prevention.

The people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic were "not just statistics for us," stressed Steinmeier. "Even if we do not know their names, their families — we know: Each number represents a loved one who we miss immeasurably."

Chancellor Angela’s Merkel’s chief of staff said Germany’s shortage of COVID-19 vaccine will last for the next six to eight weeks until more shots receive approval and companies can ramp up production.

This Jan 10, 2021, photo shows vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine against the novel coronavirus at the vaccination center in Pfaffenhofen, southern Germany. (Christof STACHE / AFP)

WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it sees no evidence that Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine contributed to the deaths of elderly people and urged that the shot still be used.

Reports of deaths “are in line with the expected, all-cause mortality rates and causes of death in the sub-population of frail, elderly individuals, and the available information does not confirm a contributory role for the vaccine in the reported fatal events,” the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety said in a statement on Friday. The risk-benefit balance of the vaccine “remains favorable in the elderly.”

The panel met on Tuesday to review reports that some very sick older people had died after getting the vaccine. Initial cases reported last week in Norway had raised alarm, with authorities saying it was possible that vaccine side-effects could aggravate underlying illnesses even as they expected some nursing-home residents to die shortly after being vaccinated due to their frail underlying health.

Norway moved to calm that anxiety on Monday, with the Norwegian Medicines Agency saying that COVID-19 is more dangerous to most patients than vaccination.

Pfizer and BioNTech have agreed to supply their COVID-19 vaccine to the WHO co-led COVAX vaccine access scheme, two sources familiar with the deal said, the latest in a series of shots to be included in the project aimed at lower-income countries.

The deal is expected to be announced on Friday, according to the sources, who declined to be named due to the confidentiality of the agreement.

Global caseload

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief said on Thursday that the global COVID-19 caseload is expected to hit 100 million by the end of January, but vaccines have the potential to bring the pandemic under control.

In his address to the extraordinary meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more than two million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide, and by the end of this month, "we expect to reach 100 million reported cases".

However, COVID-19 vaccines have the potential to bring the pandemic under control. And the development and approval of safe and effective vaccines less than a year after the emergence of a new virus is a "stunning scientific achievement, and a much-needed source of hope," he noted.

COVID-19 vaccination is now underway in more than 50 countries, Tedros said, yet all but two of them are high- or upper-middle income countries.

"We must work together as one global family to ensure the urgent and equitable rollout of vaccines," he said.

According to the latest WHO data, as of 17:29 CET (1629 GMT) on Thursday, 95,612,831 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,066,176 deaths had been reported worldwide.

This photo shows European Council President Charles Michel, top, and European leaders on screens during a EU summit held via video conference at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Jan 21, 2021. (OLIVIER HOSLET / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)

EU

The European Commission proposed to EU leaders on Thursday identifying “dark red” coronavirus hot spots from which all but essential travel would be discouraged after a meeting to discuss the mounting challenge from more infectious virus variants.

EU leaders also agreed during a video conference that it should be possible to agree on common standards for vaccine certificates for medical purposes. However, they left for later a debate on whether they could be used to enable travel, as Greece and Spain want.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the health situation in Europe was “very serious”, with new variants and an increase in infections

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a news conference after the meeting that the health situation in Europe was “very serious”, with new variants and an increase in infections.

Three mutant variants of the coronavirus that emerged in Britain, South Africa and Brazil pose a high risk in Europe and will lead to more COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned in a risk assessment.

The ECDC advised against all but essential travel, and urged European governments to accelerate the pace of vaccinations for high-risk groups such as the elderly and healthcare workers.

Von der Leyen, however, stressed that countries should not close their borders, to ensure the functioning of the single market, including the flow of goods and travel for cross-border workers.

She said the Commission would add a new “dark red” category to its traffic light indications of risk, for regions where the virus was circulating at a very high rate. Today, almost all of Europe is red.

“Persons travelling from dark red areas could be required to do a test before departure, as well as to undergo quarantine after arrival,” she said, adding all non-essential travel should be discouraged from these areas.

French President Emmanuel Macron told his EU counterparts that France would make PCR tests compulsory for all travellers into France from Sunday, including from fellow EU countries, his office said on Thursday.

Hungary

Hungary has signed a deal to buy Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the first European Union country to do so, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said at a briefing during talks in Moscow on Friday.

The agreement comes only days after Hungary's drug regulator gave approval for use of Britain's AstraZeneca and Russia's Sputnik V vaccines against the coronavirus, as Budapest strives to lift coronavirus lockdown measures to boost its economy.

"I am very happy to announce that we have signed an agreement today under which Hungary can purchase a large quantity of Russia's vaccine in three tranches," Szijjarto said in a live video posted on his Facebook page.

He said that could allow Hungary to lift lockdown restrictions sooner.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary cannot lift restrictions until it can carry out a mass inoculation. He said the best approach was to authorize the use of several vaccines as competition would force manufacturers to speed up shipments.

Farm workers receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, California, on Jan 21, 2021. (JAE C. HONG / AP)

Africa

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded on the African continent reached 3,337,028 as of Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The death toll stood at 81,861, the Africa CDC said.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa said that COVID-19 vaccines' buying frenzy by rich economies might limit access in Africa and undermine efforts to contain the pandemic.

ALSO READ: COVAX says to provide 1.8b vaccines to poor countries

WHO statistics indicate that 40 million vaccine doses have so far been administered in 50 mostly high-income countries, whereas in Africa, Guinea is the only country that has inoculated 25 people against COVID-19.

At the same time, Seychelles, which is considered a high-income country, is the only nation in Africa that has started a national vaccination campaign.

Moeti said that Africa is yet to buffer itself fully from the risk of COVID-19, hence there is a need for the international community and pharmaceutical giants to address imbalances in vaccine access.

US

US President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled his national strategy for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic as the country endures record levels of infections and deaths.

Biden's plan starts with a national vaccination campaign which is to meet his goal of administering 100 million doses of two-stage coronavirus vaccines in his first 100 days. 

Biden signed several orders, including improving supply chains for the pandemic, keeping workers safe, ensuring equitable response, promoting safe travel, and expanding treatment for COVID-19.

"We didn't get into this mess overnight and it's going to take months for us to turn things around. But let me be equally clear – we will get through this," he said.

Anthony Fauci, Biden's top medical adviser on the pandemic, told reporters that the US would soon see one million vaccine doses administered each day. He also said that coronavirus infections may be about to hit a plateau in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been at the top of Biden's agenda since his first day in office. His inauguration on Wednesday came at a time when the country recorded more than 24 million COVID-19 cases and over 400,000 deaths.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that the country could face as many as 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths in less than a month.

READ MORE: Biden to mend US ties with World Health Organization

The nation registered a record high of 4,383 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, and  currently the country averages about 194,000 daily increase of cases and 3,000 deaths, according to the data updated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

Mexico

Mexico's health ministry confirmed 1,803 coronavirus deaths on Thursday, marking a record high since the pandemic began last year, as fatalities continue to tick up in the country with the world's fourth-highest death toll.

The previous record was set earlier this week at over 1,500 deaths caused by the fast-spreading respiratory disease.

The additional fatalities bring the total number of deaths to 146,174, according to the government's official count.

Another 22,339 new infections were also confirmed on Thursday by the ministry, bringing the tally to 1,711,283.

Mali

Mali plans to buy over 8.4 million doses of coronavirus vaccine and expects to start a vaccination campaign in April, the council of ministers said in a statement on Thursday.

It said the vaccines would cost over 31 billion CFA francs (US$57 million). This will be covered with financial assistance from global vaccine alliance GAVI, which co-runs the COVAX alliance to secure fair access to COVID-19 vaccines for developing countries.

It did not specify which vaccines it planned to buy.

The West African nation has so far recorded 7,911 COVID-19 cases and 320 deaths.

France

The French government is now recommending that people wear surgical masks in public because they offer better protection from COVID-19 transmission than fabric face coverings, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday.

Veran said that the government could not rule out a tightening of coronavirus restrictions if the situation with virus transmission deteriorates.

The health ministry reported 22,848 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, pushing the tally to almost 3 million, the sixth-highest in the world.

The death toll rose by 346 to 71,998, the world's seventh-highest.

READ MORE: EU leaders to convene amid vaccine delays, virus variant fears

Colombia

Deaths from COVID-19 in Colombia have surpassed 50,000, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday, as reported coronavirus infections approached 2 million.

The Andean country has reported over 1.97 million cases of coronavirus, as well as 50,187 deaths from COVID-19.

The government has reached agreements to secure vaccine doses for 29 million people. 

While Colombia expects delivery of its first vaccine doses – produced by Pfizer – in the first week of February, the government has not given dates for expected vaccine deliveries.

Brazil

Brazil on Thursday registered 1,316 deaths due to the coronavirus, the health ministry said, the third day in a row with more than 1,000 deaths. Deaths now total 214,147.

Brazil also registered 59,119 new cases of coronavirus, which now total 8,697,368.

Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva disclosed on Thursday that he tested positive for the coronavirus weeks ago on a trip to Cuba for a documentary directed by American film maker Oliver Stone.

All but one of his 10-member party tested positive and remained in quarantine in Cuba, and only one of them spent two weeks in hospital with serious symptoms from the virus.

Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes announced that this year's carnival, slated to be held in the middle of year after it was postponed from the originally scheduled date from Feb 13-16, will be canceld due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spain

Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa will resign next week to campaign in the regional election in Catalonia, an official from his party said on Thursday, while national authorities reported a record 44,357 new daily coronavirus cases.

Spain has been routinely reporting record daily coronavirus infections since the end of December, but Fernando Simon, the country's health emergency chief, said the recent surge appeared to be stabilizing.

Despite that optimism, the nationwide incidence of the virus as measured over the past 14 days climbed to a new high of 796 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday from 736 cases the previous day.

Simon warned that pressure on hospitals would likely continue into at least the next week.

The latest figures brought the cumulative total of coronavirus cases in Spain to 2,456,675, while the death toll increased by 404 to 55,041.

Pfizer

Pfizer has slashed in half the volume of COVID-19 vaccines it will deliver to some EU countries this week, government officials said on Thursday, as frustration over the US drugmaker's unexpected cut in supplies grows.

Romania got only 50 percent of its planned volume for this week, the other half being allocated gradually by the end of March, with deliveries returning to normal starting next week, Deputy Health Minister Andrei Baciu told Reuters.

It was a similar situation in Poland which on Monday received 176,000 doses, a drop of around 50 percent from what was expected, authorities said.

"We have to expect that there will be a reduction in the number of open vaccination appointments in the following three weeks," Czech Health Minister Jan Blatny told reporters, with Pfizer deliveries falling by about 15 percent this week and as much as 30 percent for the following two weeks.

The US drugmaker has told Bulgaria and Poland it will replace missing doses, top officials said.  But Denmark's Serum Institute said its 50 percent loss of shots this week would lead to a 10 percent shortfall for the first quarter.

Norway

Norway anticipates reduced supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine until the second week of February, but has an emergency stockpile and will continue administering doses as planned, the government's public health body said.

"Pfizer has informed us of adjustments to the weekly deliveries over the coming weeks, and up to the second week of February. These adjustments of weekly shipping vary in size, and lie between 1 percent and 15 percent per week," Camilla Stoltenberg, head of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, told Reuters.

The country of 5.4 million has given first vaccine doses to nearly 55,000 people, mainly residents of care homes, and primarily the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Poland

Poland could take legal action against Pfizer next month if the US drugmaker does not deliver all scheduled doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, a government spokesman said on Friday.

On Monday, Poland received 176,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a drop of around 50 percent from what was expected, authorities said.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said Thursday the missing doses would be delivered from mid-February.

The Polish Press Agency (PAP) quoted Niedzielski as saying that he reckoned 2.5 million Poles will be vaccinated by the end of the first quarter, down from 3 million that was predicted at the start of the Pfizer vaccine distribution.

Also on Thursday, the Health Ministry confirmed that Poland has detected a case of a more contagious coronavirus variant that was first discovered in Britain. The case was detected in a COVID-19 patient in the southern Lesser Poland province, a ministry spokesperson told Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Canada

Canada is expected to receive 4 million vaccine doses from Pfizer by the end of March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet after speaking with company CEO Albert Bourla.

Canada is among the countries hit by a reduction in vaccine deliveries by Pfizer as the US drugmaker renovates a factory in Belgium to boost capacity.

Canada has administered about 684,000 doses, enough to give first shots to about 1.8 percent of the population, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, though some people have already received two. 

J&J

Johnson & Johnson could significantly expand the amount of vaccines for the US in coming weeks, aiming to have 100 million vaccines available by April, board member Dr Mark McLellan told CNBC.

Earlier, Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease doctor, said the company has enough data from its late-stage vaccine trial to begin analysis, possibly in a week or two. 

J&J previously had said it would have a first chance to review data from its late-stage trial of 45,000 volunteers in the last week of January or the first week of February, consistent with Fauci’s timeline.

Portugal

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Thursday that all flights to and from Britain would be suspended from Saturday onwards as Portugal scrambles to tackle the rapid spread of the new variant of the coronavirus.

Only repatriation flights will be allowed between both countries, Costa said at a news conference. He described the measure as a move to reduce the "risk of contagion" due to the new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus discovered in Britain, which is spreading across Portugal.

In addition, Portugal's schools and universities will close doors for at least 15 days amid fears of a more transmissible virus variant that was first detected in the UK, Costa said.

Portugal's daily COVID deaths reached a record of 221 on Thursday, bringing the overall toll to 9,686. Daily infections fell to 13,544 from Wednesday's record of 14,647.

A man wearing a face mask walks by a sculpture of red telephone boxes titled "Out of Order" in Kingston upon Thames, London, on Jan 21, 2021. (HAN YAN / XINHUA)

UK

The British government took no decision on whether to pay US$683 to everyone in England who tests positive for COVID-19, environment minister George Eustice said on Friday.

Newspapers cited a policy paper which they said showed the government was considering such a move to encourage more people to take tests for the new coronavirus though it would cost 453 million pounds a week.

Studies show many people ignore instructions to self-isolate when they have contact with someone who has the virus because of the financial impact of being unable to work while quarantining for 10 days.

Some low-paid people already receive a 500-pound payment if they self-isolate. The newspaper reports said the government was considering a universal payment.

It is too early to say when the national coronavirus lockdown in England will end, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, as daily deaths from COVID-19 reach new highs and hospitals become increasingly stretched.

A prevalence survey, known as REACT-1, suggested infections had not fallen in the first days of lockdown, though the government has said that the impact of national restrictions introduced on Jan 5 was not yet reflected in the numbers.

The United Kingdom recorded a further 1,290 deaths on Thursday from COVID-19, down from a record 1,820 the day before, and a further 37,892 cases of the disease, official data showed.

The new figures took the cumulative caseload to 3,543,646 and the death toll to 94,580, the data showed

Almost 5 million people have been given a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine with a total of 363,508 first vaccinations being administered Wednesday, the highest daily figure to date.

Meanwhile, the British region of Northern Ireland on Thursday extended its lockdown for an additional four weeks to March 5 and its deputy first minister said the measures might have to be extended again.

Italy

Italy’s coronavirus vaccination campaign could come to a near standstill next week amid rising anger across Europe over a slowdown in vaccine deliveries.

“We received 29 percent fewer doses this week, and there will be a further 20 percent decline next week” from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, the country’s virus emergency czar Domenico Arcuri said in a press conference on Thursday. Since Saturday the pace of vaccinations has slowed to 28,000 a day from about 80,000, with shots halted altogether in some areas like Rome and the surrounding Lazio region.

So far, Italy has vaccinated 1.3 million people, or 2.1 percent of the population.

On Thursday, Italy reported 521 coronavirus-related deaths, against 524 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 14,078 from 13,571.

Italy has registered 84,202 COVID-19 deaths so far, the second-highest toll in Europe and the sixth-highest in the world. The country has also reported 2.428 million cases to date.

Denmark

Denmark has halted all flights arriving from the United Arab Emirates for five days due to potentially unreliable coronavirus tests in Dubai, Denmark's transport ministry said on Friday.

The travel restrictions follow suspicions that coronavirus tests that can be obtained in Dubai before departure are not reliable, the ministry said, adding it had taken the decision after a detailed tip-off, without elaborating.

Bosnia

Bosnia plans to order Russian and Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines fearing that deliveries ordered under the COVAX scheme for poor countries and from the European Union will be too little too late, officials said on Thursday.

Bosnia has ordered 1.2 million vaccines under the COVAX scheme and nearly 900,000 vaccines from the EU for its two autonomous regions, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic, and expects the first batch to arrive soon, Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija said. 

Bosnia's central government, over which Tegeltija presides, does not have the authority to order vaccines directly from producers. The two regions also can only make orders through authorized agencies.

Under strong public pressure, the two otherwise rival regions and the central government agreed on Thursday to work together to order directly from Pfizer and the Russian and Chinese producers, Tegeltija said at a news conference.

As of Thursday, Bosnia, with a population of about 3.5 million, had recorded a total of 119,206 coronavirus infections, including 18,123 active cases and 4,536 deaths.

Ukraine

The European Union has promised to help Ukraine obtain coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said on

Thursday evening. 

Zelenskiy received assurances of support in a letter from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, Zelenskiy's office said in a statement.

The first batches of COVID-19 vaccine under the COVAX scheme could arrive in Ukraine in the first half of February, television channel Ukraine-24 quoted a senior Ukrainian lawmaker as saying earlier on Thursday.

Ukraine, which has registered around 1.2 million coronavirus cases and 21,499 deaths, has already agreed to buy some vaccines from China.

In this photo released by Argentina's presidential press office, Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez gets a shot of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at the Posadas Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jan 21, 2021. (ESTEBAN COLLAZO / ARGENTINE PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE VIA AP)

Argentina

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez received an injection of the Sputnik V vaccine on Thursday, a day after the country's health regulator approved the Russian-made vaccine for use among those aged 60 and older.

Argentina has recorded more than 1.8 million cases of COVID-19 and over 45,000 deaths from the disease.

It has taken delivery of 600,000 doses of Sputnik V so far, a first batch shortly before Christmas and a second last weekend, which it has said will allow it to provide a second dose to frontline health workers.

More doses are expected to arrive in Argentina later this month and in February. 

Argentina has also approved for emergency use the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and has a contract to buy 22.4 million doses of that vaccine, which is expected to come online in the coming months.

Ireland

Ireland's COVID-19 death rate is at its highest level since the start of the pandemic with an average of 44 deaths per day in the past week, a senior health official said on Thursday.

The infection rate, however, has fallen sharply from a pandemic high registered earlier in January. There were an average of 2,430 new cases over the past five days, down from a five-day average of 4,473 reported a week ago.

The January spike followed an easing of public health restrictions in December.

The growth was also fuelled by a new more transmissible variant of the virus that first emerged in Britain. The variant now accounts for around 60 percent of transmission in Ireland, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan told journalists.

Ireland on Thursday reported 2,608 new cases of COVID-19 and 51 deaths. A total of 2,818 have died from the disease in Ireland. 

Czech Republic

The lower house of the Czech parliament on Thursday extended the country's state of emergency until Feb 14, a week less than the government had wanted as it seeks to keep in place measures to tamp down coronavirus infections.

The extension provides the government with a legal basis for some measures such as limits on assembly and movement, or temporarily shuttering businesses.

The country of 10.7 million has been one of the worst-hit globally with 14,973 deaths so far and over 150 deaths most days this month as many hospitals are filled to capacity.

Nigeria

Nigeria's president has approved the release of 6.45 billion naira (US$16.94 million) to set up oxygen production plants in 38 sites to help treat COVID-19 patients as authorities contend with a sharp rise in cases, the government said on Thursday.

The release of funds for the production of oxygen was "necessitated by the increased number of patients who need oxygen due to the surge in COVID-19 infections in the country", according to a statement issued by the vice-president's office.

The office said in the statement that a further 255 million naira (US$670,000) had been approved for repairs of oxygen plants in five hospitals.

Nigeria has recorded 114,691 COVID-19 cases and 1,478 deaths, as of Thursday.

Russia

Russia on Friday reported 21,513 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, including 3,104 in St Petersburg, taking the national tally to 3,677,352 since the pandemic began.

Authorities reported 580 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 68,412.

Russia plans to produce a form of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine that can be transported and stored at normal fridge temperatures as opposed to -18 degrees Celsius, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Thursday.

Murashko said one of six of its manufacturers had developed a form of the vaccine that was stable at a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius in liquid form, though he gave no timeline for its production.

Alexei Kuznetsov, an aide at the health ministry, said the new form of the Sputnik V can currently be stored for three months, while the frozen vaccine that is kept at -18 degrees Celsius has a six-month storage life.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia registered 292 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 132,326, the Ministry of Health said Thursday.

The death toll rose to 2,057 after 13 more deaths were logged, Health Minister Lia Tadesse said on Twitter.

Libya

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Thursday reported 622 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 111,746.

A total of 89,909 recoveries and 1,716 fatalities have so far been reported, the center said.

The UN-backed government on Thursday approved new precautionary measures against COVID-19, including temporarily closing schools and closing all restaurants and coffee shops.

The government also advised citizens to avoid travelling to countries that are seeing a high number of infections.

Ecuador

Ecuador registered 1,874 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total caseload to 236,189, the Ministry of Public Health reported Thursday.

The ministry also said that 73 more deaths were recorded, raising the death toll to 9,883.

Ecuador started its pilot vaccination program against COVID-19 on Thursday. The first doses were given to healthcare personnel in critical areas in several hospitals and 20 seniors living in nursing homes.

Peru

Peru's general election will be held despite a second wave of COVID-19 infections, President Francisco Sagasti said on Thursday.

The April 11 election, which will choose his successor, are within an established legal framework and the government is working on implementing health protocols to protect voters, the president said.

As of Wednesday, the country had reported 1,078,675 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 39,157 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

Algeria

Algeria on Thursday reported 246 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 104,852.

The death toll rose to 2,853 after four more fatalities were recorded, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Tunisia

The Tunisian Health Ministry on Thursday night reported 2,511 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 190,884.

The death toll rose by 68 to 5,989, the ministry said in a statement.

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached 2,049, including 410 in intensive care units. A total of 137,460 people have recovered from the disease, the ministry said.

Sweden

The Swedish Public Health Agency said on Thursday that the number of COVID-19 infections is slightly decreasing in Sweden, but at the same cautioned that there was a risk of an increase again if compliance with regulations was not sustained, the Swedish Television (SVT) reported.

Irene Nilsson Carlsson from the National Board of Health and Welfare was quoted by SVT as saying that the occupancy rate in intensive care units (ICU) was also declining, with 54 fewer patients in ICU than last week. 

On Thursday, Sweden's Public Health Agency said that 4,985 new cases were reported since Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections to 542,952. Deaths rose by 124 to 10,921. 

Morocco

Morocco reported on Thursday 1,164 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 463,706.

The number of recoveries increased by 1,346 to 439,301 while the death toll rose by 33 to 8,076, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s government scaled down operations amid the second wave of coronavirus infections, with only 10 percent of its workers available in offices until Feb 5.

Essential services will be offered by staff exempted from the southern African country’s 30-day lockdown, government spokesman Nick Mangwana said in an interview on Thursday. The remainder who have online access will work from home, he said.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa imposed restrictions, including a dawn-to-dusk curfew, and closed all non-essential businesses on Jan 3 after a spike in virus-related deaths since December. Officials attribute the increase to citizens visiting from neighboring countries over the festive season. More than 3 million Zimbabweans are estimated to be based in South Africa.

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