This photo shows groups of people enjoying the warm temperature in a park in downtown Milan, Italy, March 13, 2021. From Monday, most of Northern Italy will be marked as "red zones" with stricter rules aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. (CLAUDIO FURLAN / LAPRESSE VIA AP)
SAO PAULO / ALGIERS / TIRANA / BRUSSELS / SANTIAGO / BOGOTA / PARIS / BUDAPEST / AMSTERDAM / LISBON / LONDON / ADDIS ABABA / ROME / TRIPOLI / RABAT / TUNIS / BERLIN / TBILISI / MEXICO CITY / HAVANA / MOSCOW / DUBLIN – Italy is seeing a steady rise in coronavirus infections but a national vaccination campaign and tougher restrictions mean numbers should start improving in late spring, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said.
Italy saw infections rise by 10 percent last week compared with the week earlier, and officials have warned that the situation is deteriorating as highly contagious variants gain ground.
The UK variant represented 54 percent of cases in the latest study by Italy’s Superior Health Institute, ISS, but the percentage was expected to be higher now, Speranza said.
Meanwhile, Speranza said vaccines in Italy and Europe were “effective and safe”, with all checks being carried out, answering a question on Italy’s ban of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Italy said on Saturday it aimed to vaccinate at least 80 percent of its population by the end of September, following criticism about the slow pace of the rollout of a coronavirus vaccination campaign in one of worst-hit nations in Europe.
Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, an army general and new special commissioner for coronavirus, released a national plan to administer 500,000 doses a day at full capacity, according to a cabinet office document.
So far, 6.6 million Italians have received at least one vaccine dose, with just under 2 million of them having received the required 2 doses, health ministry data showed.
Italy reported 26,062 new coronavirus cases and another 317 related deaths on Saturday. To date, Italy has registered 101,881 deaths linked to COVID-19 and 3.2 million cases.
Global tally
The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide surpassed 119.51 million while the global death toll topped 2.64 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Africa
The number of COVID-19 cases recorded in Africa reached 4,017,016 as of Saturday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The death toll stood at 107,271 while a total of 3,601,186 people in Africa have recovered from COVID-19, according to the Africa CDC.
The most affected countries in terms of caseload are South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, the agency noted.
South Africa has reported 51,179 deaths from the disease, the highest among African countries, it said.
Albania
Vaccination against COVID-19 kicked off Saturday in the Albanian capital city of Tirana for teachers and academic staff working in schools and universities.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu, visited a school in Tirana, where the medical staff started the immunization with 250 teachers.
According to the Health Ministry, teachers and academic staff in Albania will be inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Rama told local media that starting Monday, the immunization process will be extended to teachers and academic staff across the country.
Also on Saturday, the Health Ministry reported 698 new coronavirus cases and 12 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the totals to 116,821 confirmed cases and 2,030 fatalities.
Algeria
Algeria on Saturday reported 135 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 124,143.
The death toll rose to 3,034 after three more fatalities were added, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Another 111 patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 79,843, according to the statement.
Argentina
Argentina suspended a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Mercosur trade bloc to be held this month, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
President Alberto Fernandez and his counterparts from Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia were all due to attend the event. The ceremony will now be conducted online.
The in-person ceremony was due to take place on March 26, and the change was made because of the “sanitary situation affecting countries of the region,” the ministry said in a statement.
This March 13, 2021 photo captures people wearing face masks walking on a shopping street in Brussels, Belgium. (ZHANG CHENG / XINHUA)
Belgium
Belgium has so far confirmed a total of 801,723 coronavirus cases, according to figures released on Saturday by the Public Health Institute Sciensano.
The death toll stood at 22,397.
New cases have been on the rise, albeit at a slower rate. From March 3 to 9, an average of 2,522 new infections was reported per day by Sciensano.
To date, some 721,826 people have received their first dose of the vaccine while 365,808 have received both jabs.
Two suspected cases of blood clots were reported on Saturday after vaccination using the AstraZeneca shot, according to Belgian newspapers Sudpresse.
Brazil
Brazil registered 76,178 new cases of coronavirus and 1,997 new COVID-19 deaths, the Health ministry said on Saturday.
Brazil’s weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths soared to records, Health Ministry data showed, a day after the nation retook the post of the second hardest-hit in the world.
READ MORE: Brazil becomes country with 2nd highest number of virus cases
A new outbreak driven in part by a coronavirus variant pushed new cases up for the fourth consecutive week to 500,722. That is about 180,000 more weekly cases than the peak of the nation’s surge last summer. Total infections are almost 11.44 million.
Deaths have surged, this week to a record 12,777, or about 5,000 higher than the peak number of fatalities last summer. Total deaths are 277,102.
On Saturday, police broke up an illegal party with nearly 600 people in a windowless Sao Paulo nightclub in the early hours, highlighting defiance of social distancing rules that has made the country’s outbreak the world’s deadliest at the moment.
In another development, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Saturday.
Chile
More than 1.7 million people in Chile have received both doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 amid an upward trend in infections, the Ministry of Health reported Saturday.
According to health authorities, 1,761,367 people have received both shots.
Minister of Health Enrique Paris said a total of 4,789,553 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, including 17,418 who got their shots on Saturday.
On the same day, the health ministry reported 5,928 new cases and 123 more deaths, bringing the overall tally and toll to 885,379 and 21,574, respectively.
The ministry said that 830,698 patients had recovered from the disease while the number of active cases stood at 32,705.
There were1,960 patients in intensive care units, including 1,640 patients on ventilators.
Colombia
Colombia confirmed its first death from the P1, or Brazilian, variant of coronavirus, the government said, adding the victim who died in January was older and had various comorbidities.
“A new case of the P1 variant was detected in an older adult in Bogota with multiple comorbidities who had not traveled. They were hospitalized and died Jan. 28, 2021,” the National Health Institute said in a statement late on Friday.
The World Health Organization has warned Brazil’s outbreak puts neighboring countries such as Colombia at risk.
Colombia has reported 2.29 million infections and nearly 61,000 deaths.
Croatia
Croatia is in talks to buy Chinese or Russian vaccines after delays in getting expected quantities from EU-approved manufacturers, Jutarnji List reported.
Potential suppliers are CanSinoBio, Sinopharm and Sinovac, as well as Russian makers of Sputnik V shots, the newspaper reported.
Croatia has joined some other EU states in asking for fair distribution of vaccines among the bloc’s members.
Cuba
Cuba's Ministry of Public Health reported on Saturday that the country's COVID-19 surpassed 60,000 after 639 new infections were registered in the last 24 hours.
The cumulative tally now stands at 60,558.
One newly reported death lifted the toll to 366.
"The number of infections is the lowest in the last two weeks," said Francisco Duran, the national director of hygiene and epidemiology at the ministry.
As only six of the new cases were imported, Duran said it would not be necessary to close international airports, though all travelers must still undergo quarantine upon arrival and visitors from some countries are still banned from entering from the country.
Havana continues to be the epicenter in the country, posting 317 new cases and an infection rate of 269 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the country. Thus, the capital remains under restrictive health measures.
A patient receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Berlin, Germany, on March 11, 2021. (HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)
EU
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his colleagues from the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Croatia are demanding a European Union (EU) summit on what they claim is uneven distribution of vaccines in the bloc.
Their demand, set out in a letter to EU Council President Charles Michel, comes after Kurz complained Friday that some countries get more than others and that there’s an opaque “bazaar” for doses.
The EU and countries including Germany rebuffed Kurz and said the distribution is running as designed among member states to increase the inoculation rate and to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The European Commission said in a statement Saturday that it “has followed a transparent process” in determining the allocation of vaccines, but EU nations departed from its proposal by adding flexibility to allow a different distribution
An EU official confirmed Michel had received the letter from the leaders of the six nations. Michel, who chairs EU leaders’ meetings, has already convened a summit for March 25 and 26, during which COVID-19 coordination will also be discussed, the official said.
ALSO READ: AstraZeneca's EU vaccine woes deepen on clots, nationalism
The European Commission said in a statement Saturday that it “has followed a transparent process” in determining the allocation of vaccines, but EU nations departed from its proposal by adding flexibility to allow a different distribution.
It added that it agrees with recent statements by several EU member-nations that the most equitable solution for the allocation of doses is proportionately based on the population of each country.
“It is a fair solution as the virus strikes equally everywhere, in all parts of the EU.”
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 1,483 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 174,054, the Ministry of Health said.
Another 30 newly reported took the toll to 2,540, the ministry said.
Also on Saturday, Ethiopia officially began its COVID-19 vaccination rollout, a week after receiving the batch of 2.2 million COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX.
Empty vaccine vials are placed in a tray after being used during a vaccination drive against COVID-19 at the Gymnase Le Moulin in Cergy, a northwestern suburb in Paris, France, on March 13, 2021. (MARTIN BUREAU / AFP)
France
The number of new coronavirus cases in France neared 30,000 on Saturday while the number of people to receive their first vaccine injection topped 5 million, health ministry data showed.
With the government struggling to contain the spread, France reported 29,759 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, up from 25,229 the previous day, the data showed. Another 174 deaths were also logged, according to the data.
To date, France has reported 4,045,319 confirmed cases and 90,315 deaths.
The number of people in intensive care units edged higher by 37 to 4,070, as pressure grows on French hospitals amid rising case numbers.
The health ministry said 241,814 people had received a first vaccination shot on Saturday, bringing the total to 5,061,738 or 7.6 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 2,236,066 had received two injections.
Georgia
Georgia on Saturday received its first batch of 43,200 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine via the COVAX initiative.
The vaccines will be given to priority groups including medical workers from Monday, which will mark the beginning of a nationwide vaccination campaign in Georgia, Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze said at a news briefing in Tbilisi.
Georgia on Saturday reported 344 new COVID-19 cases, taking its tally to 274,721, according to the country's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).
The death toll went up by nine to 3,643 while the total recoveries increase by 240 to 268,004, according to the NCDC.
Germany
German health experts warned on Saturday against any further easing of coronavirus lockdown measures as the number of cases jumped again, raising the possibility that infections could again reach peaks seen around Christmas by mid-April.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases predicted that the number of daily reported cases could exceed 30,000 in the 14th week of the year starting April 12.
“An extrapolation of the trends shows that case numbers can be expected above the Christmas level from week 14 onwards,” the RKI said in its current situation report.
On Sunday, the number of COVID-19 cases rose by 10,790 and the death toll was up 70, bringing the overall tally and toll to 2,569,245 and 73,371, respectively, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.
The RKI said Saturday in its report the rapid spread in Germany of a more infectious virus variant first detected in Britain could mean that the number of cases per 100,000 reaches levels of between 200 and 500 by mid-April.
Leaders are due to meet again on March 22 to discuss whether any further relaxation of the rules is possible.
Hungary
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care reached a record high 1,005 people, data released Sunday showed.
It’s impossible to say when Hungary will be able to ease lockdown measures and may need another pandemic plan if a new virus strain appears, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on state radio station Kossuth.
Hungary on Saturday reported a new high of 9,444 COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, raising the cumulative tally to 507,627.
Another 163 deaths were logged in the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 16,790.
As of Saturday, 1,293,414 people have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine while 377,343 have received both jabs, according to official data.
Ireland
Ireland’s National Immunisation Advisory Committee recommended the temporary deferral of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday following new information received from the Norwegian Medicines Agency, the country’s health ministry said.
Three health workers in Norway who had recently received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are being treated in hospital for bleeding, blood clots and a low count of blood platelets, its health authorities said on Saturday.
AstraZeneca vaccinations make up almost 20 percent of the 570,000 shots administered in Ireland, mainly to healthcare workers after its use was not initially recommended for those over 70. The advisory committee said it acted as a precaution, pending the receipt of more information and would meet later on Sunday.
J&J
Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Janssen vaccine will start being distributed in Europe from late April, with 200 million doses reaching the EU by the end of summer, Scientific Director Paul Stoffels told Le Journal du Dimanche.
The company is teaming with other laboratories to produce its vaccine, including Sanofi Pasteur in France, he said.
Libya
Libya's newly-appointed Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah stressed on Saturday the need to initiate a vaccination campaign against COVID-19.
Dbeibah made his remarks during the National Conference on Coronavirus Pandemic, which kicked off Saturday with the aim of gathering medical and scientific experts that have been working against the pandemic in the country to discuss efforts against the pandemic.
Dbeibah called for more efforts to rise awareness against COVID-19.
According to the National Center for Disease Control, Libya has so far reported 143,643 confirmed cases, including 130,625 recoveries and 2,348 deaths.
Staff members unload a cargo containig COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac at Mexico City's international airport on March 13, 2021. (FRANCISCO CANEDO / XINHUA)
Mexico
The third shipment of COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac arrived Saturday at the international airport in Mexico City, as the country reported 6,104 new cases and 639 additional fatalities.
To date, Mexico has reported 2,163,875 confirmed cases and 194,490 deaths.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said earlier in the week that Mexico was upping its orders from China to make up for a vaccine shortfall and would request 22 million more doses.
Mexico ordered an additional 10 million doses of Sinovac, in addition to the previously ordered 10 million doses, which are due to arrive between March and May. The new order will get to Mexico between May and July, Ebrard said.
Mexico will also order 12 million vaccine doses made by the state-backed China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) once it has been approved by its health regulator, Ebrard said.
Morocco
Morocco registered 451 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking the tally in the North African country to 488,632, the health ministry said in a statement.
The total number of recoveries increased by 519 to 475,457 while the death toll rose by two to 8,718.
So far, 4,210,770 people have received one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine while 1,471,738 people have received both jabs.
Netherlands
New coronavirus cases in the Netherlands reached their highest level since mid-January, with more than 6,396 cases in 24 hours, data released on Saturday showed.
The figures published by the National Institute for Health (RIVM) follow several weeks of stability. The RIVM has said it expects a third wave of infections driven by variant strains of the coronavirus.
The rise in cases comes as the country prepares to go to the polls next week for parliamentary elections spread out over three days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because of coronavirus safety measures.
So far, the country has registered a total of 1,151,218 cases and 16,046 deaths in the pandemic.
North Macedonia
North Macedonia's health ministry on Saturday reported that 1,031 fresh infections were logged in the past 24 hours.
This is the first time in three months that the daily tally exceeded 1,000. The last time authorities reported more than 1,000 new cases was on Dec 11, 2020, when the ministry reported 1,161 new cases.
To date, the country has reported 112,107 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the ministry on Saturday also reported 20 more deaths, bringing the overall toll to 3,300.
Norway
Norway, among the countries that have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, said three people who received its shot are being treated for severe blood clots and cerebral hemorrhages but that it’s too soon to say if there was a connection.
The people, who were all “of younger age,” had a reduced number of platelets in their blood, the Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a statement on Saturday.
Health authorities in Norway are telling people under the age of 50 who’ve received the AstraZeneca shot in the last 14 days to see a doctor if they feel ill or detect skin hemorrhages more than three days after vaccination.
READ MORE: Europe divided on AstraZeneca shot over safety fears
Portugal
The small, lush green Portuguese island of Corvo, home to around 400 people, has vaccinated most of its population against COVID-19 and will soon reach herd immunity, according to its only doctor.
He said the vast majority of the island’s residents were likely to become immune by the end of the month, adding: “From now on, we will feel safe.”
Authorities in Corvo, the smallest island of the Azores archipelago, on Friday finished vaccinating 322 people with a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That is about 85 percent of the island’s population and 95 percent of those eligible to receive shots.
Russia
Russia reported 10,083 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours on Sunday, the first time the number of daily infections has crossed the 10,000 mark since Monday.
It brought the total case tally to 4,390,608.
The number of confirmed cases in the capital Moscow topped 1 million after 1,905 new cases were logged in the past 24 hours, the country's COVID-19 response center said on Sunday.
The center said 395 more coronavirus patients in the country had died in the last 24 hours, taking the national death toll to 92,090.
A woman gives a thumbs up as she receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Tunis, Tunisia, on March 13, 2021. (ADEL EZZINE / XINHUA)
Tunisia
Tunisia on Saturday kicked off its national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 across the country.
Tunisia aims to vaccinate 50 percent of the population under the campaign, according to a statement by the health ministry.
Also on Saturday, the ministry reported 640 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 241,257.
The death toll rose by 30 to 8,359, the ministry said.
UK
Another 5,534 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,253,820, according to official figures released Saturday.
The country also reported another 121 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 125,464. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
More than 23.6 million people in Britain have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
US
Fifteen of 20 US urban areas with populations between 250,000 and more than 1 million showed a decrease in COVID-19 during the week ended Thursday, according to the the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Meanwhile, California reported Saturday 217 more deaths from COVID-19, for a total of 55,095, according to the health department’s website. There were 3,230 new cases reported, as the outbreak eased enough for the state to relax restrictions in 13 counties including Los Angeles, starting Sunday.
Overall, the US has so far reported 29.39 million confirmed cases and more than 534,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The country has administered 105,703,501 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 135,846,665 doses as of Saturday, the CDC said.
In another development, US air travel reached 1.35 million people on Friday, a record since the pandemic descended in mid-March a year ago, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration. Air travel is still down more than 40 percent compared with the equivalent Friday in 2019.
Meanwhile, the US International Development Finance Corp. will help fund Indian manufacturer Biological E Ltd.’s efforts to manufacture at least one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022.
The vaccines will be manufactured with “Stringent Regulatory Authorization and/or World Health Organization Emergency Use Listing, including Johnson & Johnson vaccines,” the US agency said in a release Friday.
WTO
The World Trade Organization’s new leader, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged vaccine manufacturers to extend licenses to other companies to aid the rollout in poorer nations.
There are more than 130 nations without a single dose, she told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
She also called for the abolition of export restrictions on medical goods, such as those imposed in the EU.
