A woman has her body temperature checked as she waits in line to receive an injection of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination point in a public services office in Moscow, Russia, on Feb 10, 2021. (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)
LONDON / PARIS / LISBON / BRASILIA / ADDIS ABABA / ROME / BUENOS AIRES / BOGOTA / JUBA / RABAT / SANTIAGO / KIEV / PRAGUE / BERLIN / MOSCOW / JOHANNESBURG – The total number of COVID-19 cases in Russia crossed the 4 million mark on Wednesday after officials recorded 14,494 new cases.
That brought the total number of coronavirus infections in Russia since the start of the pandemic to 4,012,710.
The official death toll now stands at 78,134 after 536 people died in the past 24 hours.
Russia has vaccinated 2.2 million people against COVID-19 with its Sputnik V vaccine, of which more than 1.7 million people received both doses, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the shot’s developers.
The country hopes to vaccinate the bulk of its population by mid-summer, reaching a figure of 70 percent immunity, Interfax cited Denis Logunov, deputy director for scientific work at the Gamaleya Institute that developed and tested the vaccine, as saying.
A man wearing face mask enters a shop with face masks on display for sale outside in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on February 1, 2021 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (DAVID GANNON / AFP)
Germany
Germany plans to extend restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus until March 14, a draft agreement for talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of the 16 federal states on Wednesday showed.
The number of new daily infections in Germany has been falling, leading some regional leaders to push for a timetable to ease the lockdown, but concerns are growing about the impact of more infectious strains of the virus on case numbers.
“We have a highly fragile situation,” Winfried Kretschmann, Greens premier of the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, told Spiegel Online. “We can see in other countries, such as Portugal, how quickly the tide can turn.”
The draft document for the talks, which start in the afternoon, says that hairdressers could reopen under strict conditions from March 1. The draft is subject to change.
Merkel has made clear that primary schools and nurseries will take priority in any easing. The draft agreement said that individual states can decide on how to re-start classes.
“If the infection figures continue to fall reliably, the highest priority is clearly on the youngest children,” said Kretschmann.
Germany reported 8,072 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday and a further 813 deaths, bringing the total death toll to 62,969.
Germany will run up against limits on its capacity to inoculate people against COVID-19 by the end of March, health ministry documents showed, as an expected increase in supply puts its network of vaccination centres to the test.
WHO
The World Health Organization will issue its interim recommendations on the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Wednesday at 1500gmt, according to a statement.
The press conference by its panel of experts known as SAGE (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation) was moved up from the original schedule of Thursday mid-day.
South Africa has paused the rollout of the vaccine following data in a small clinical trial that showed it did not protect against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant of the coronavirus now dominant in the country.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca and IDT Biologika signed a letter of intent to raise European vaccine manufacturing and secure long-term supply capacity. The companies said they are “exploring options to accelerate output” of the finished AstraZeneca vaccine in the second quarter of 2021.
In another development, AstraZeneca’s asthma treatment Pulmicort reduced the need for urgent care and hospitalization of COVID-19 patients in a small study, joining a handful of potentially promising treatments for the disease.
Early treatment with the inhaled drug, also known as budesonide, reduced the relative risk of such interventions by 90 percent over the 28-day study period, according to research from the University of Oxford, Astra’s partner in developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Participants also had a quicker resolution of fever and other symptoms.
The findings offer another example of an existing, low-cost medication showing benefits in COVID-19 patients even as more elaborate treatments stumble.
BioNTech
BioNTech started producing messenger RNA, the active ingredient for the COVID-19 vaccine sold with Pfizer, at its new factory in Marburg, Germany, moving closer to being able to boost production in Europe by some 750 million doses a year.
The first vaccine batch produced at the site, enough for 8 million doses, is scheduled for distribution in early April, BioNTech said. Though it takes only a few days to produce mRNA, the test batch made this week will need to be purified, concentrated, mixed with lipids and taken to another site to be put into vials.
In this April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Eli Lilly and Co. corporate headquarters in Indianapolis. (PHOTO / AP)
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly’s combination antibody therapy to fight COVID-19 has been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration, Lilly said on Tuesday.
Lilly’s combination therapy of two antibodies, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, helped cut the risk of hospitalization and death in COVID-19 patients by 70 percent, data from a late-stage trial showed in January.
Lilly said the therapy will be available immediately.
“There are 100,000 doses ready immediately and an additional 150,000 doses will be available throughout the first quarter,” Lilly said in a statement.
The company said that in collaboration with Amgen, it plans to manufacture up to 1 million doses of etesevimab for administration with bamlanivimab by mid-2021.
Lilly said the “therapy is authorized for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients aged 12 and older who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.”
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 106.7 million while the global death toll topped 2.33 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
US
California on Tuesday was poised to surpass New York as the US state with the most coronavirus deaths, a grim reminder of the pandemic’s toll even as the vaccine rollout and a sharp drop in new cases offer hope that life will eventually return to normal.
Facebook is expanding its efforts to remove more COVID-19 conspiracies that discourage vaccination against COVID-19, according to an announcement by the company.
Only about half of US adults surveyed late last year said they were certain or very likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new report from by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States had reported 27.17 million cases and 465,440 deaths by midnight Monday. There were 79,805 COVID-19 patients in US hospitals by midnight Monday, the lowest hospitalization number since Nov. 19 when there were 80,318 COVID-19 patients in hospitals.
READ MORE: UK threatens 10 years' jail term for quarantine rule breakers
UK
British people should expect to receive repeated vaccinations against COVID-19 in future to keep pace with mutations of the virus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.
“I think we will have to get used to the idea of vaccinating and revaccinating in the autumn as we come to face these new variants,” Johnson told parliament.
Britain has already injected over 12.6 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines and is on track to meet a target to vaccinate everyone in the top most vulnerable groups by mid-February.
Britain’s heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla have had their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, his office Clarence House said on Wednesday.
Charles, 72, joins his mother Queen Elizabeth, 94, and her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip, who had the shots in January, in having a first dose of the vaccines which are currently being rolled out to millions across Britain.
One dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offers two-thirds protection against coronavirus, data seen by the UK government suggests.
Early findings from the UK’s vaccination program, due to be released within days, show that the first dose reduced the symptomatic infection risk among patients by 65 percent in younger adults and 64 percent in over-80s, a person familiar with the matter said.
The data, first reported by The Sun newspaper, showed that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine saw protection rise to between 79 percent and 84 percent, depending on age. The AstraZeneca vaccine offers similar protection, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, a UK government advisory panel raised concerns over a further mutation of the so-called Kent variant, while reassuring the public that vaccines should still provide protection.
The British government on Tuesday reported 12,364 new cases and another 1,052 deaths, bringing the cumulative total to 3,972,148 with 113,850 deaths, according to official figures. The toll only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that non-essential travelers entering Canada through the Canada-US border will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test from next week.
"As of February 15th, when you return to Canada through a land border, you'll need to show a 72-hour PCR test, just like air travel," Trudeau said at his press conference in Ottawa.
Should Canadians or permanent residents not be able to provide that test result, they could face severe penalties, including fines of up to 3,000 Canadian dollars per person.
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Belgium
Pfizer Inc. said it has resumed manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine it developed in partnership with BioNTech SE at its plant in Belgium after temporarily reducing production to upgrade the facility’s production lines, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A Pfizer spokeswoman said Tuesday the changes in Puurs, Belgium, have finished, and during the week of Jan. 25 the company resumed its original delivery schedule of doses to the European Union, the Journal said. Pfizer also plans to increase deliveries next week to meet its contractual obligations for the first quarter, the spokeswoman said.
“We are only at the start of this epidemic, unfortunately,” said Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot. “We have to start thinking in terms of society living with Covid.” While vaccines will likely allow a return to a semblance of normalcy, there will be flare ups from time to time, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in an interview with L’Echo newspaper.
“We must also continue the distancing measures for a period long enough for there to be a good suppression of the virus,” said Piot, who helped isolated the Ebola virus in 1976 and now advises European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Serbia
Serbia will receive additional 500,000 Chinese vaccines from Sinopharm on Wednesday, after importing 50,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia on Tuesday, as part of efforts to have total of 2 million shots by the end of February, President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Other deliveries will include a further 50,000 Russian vaccines, expected later this month, along with 88,000 shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and between 125,000 and 150,000 vaccines from AstraZeneca, he said.
Spain
Spain’s health ministry said on Wednesday that under 55-year olds without major health complications who contracted COVID-19 will have to wait six months from their diagnosis before receiving a vaccine.
Justifying the decision, the ministry said cases of reinfection within six months are “exceptional,” in a document defining the national vaccine strategy. So far, the only people under 55 being vaccinated are health-care professionals
The measure will apply to the three vaccines currently being distributed in Spain and is provisional pending any further research, the ministry said.
Spain reported 16,402 new cases of the novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period, bringing the country's tally since the start of the pandemic to 3,005,487, the ministry said Tuesday.
The coronavirus death toll rose by 766 within one day to a total of 63,061, according to the ministry.
Pfizer Inc. facility in Puurs, Belgium. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Greece
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday a full COVID-19 lockdown for the Attica region, where half of Greece's population lives, in order to stem the further spread of the novel coronavirus.
All schools in the region will be closed, students will return to online learning, and all stores will also shut down, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries and gas stations.
Greece has been in a nationwide lockdown since Nov. 7, 2020, which has been extended several times. Additional restrictions have been imposed on areas with a heavy epidemiological load.
France
The mayor of the French city of Perpignan on Tuesday defied the government’s COVID-19 restrictions and reopened four of the city’s museums.
“We cannot stay locked down all our lives,” the mayor, Louis Aliot, said inside Perpignan’s Rigaud museum, where, for the first time in months, members of the public were admiring artwork including a portrait of Marie Antoinette, the queen executed by guillotine in the French Revolution.
The French government has forbidden restaurants, museums, cinemas and theatres from opening to the public as it tries to contain the new coronavirus, which has contributed to the deaths of more than 79,000 people in France since the pandemic began.
More than 80,000 people have died from COVID-19 in France since the start of the pandemic, after 724 new deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours, according to official data released on Tuesday.
The national death toll now stands at 80,147, while the total number of infections rose by 18,870 within a day to 3,360,235.
Albania
Albanian health ministry reported on Tuesday 1,239 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily figure so far, and 16 deaths in the last 24 hours.
According to the report, Albanian medical staff conducted 4,562 tests in the past 24 hours, of which 1,239 were positive, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases in the country to 87,528.
Sixteen patients hospitalized in COVID-19 hospitals lost their lives in the past 24 hours, taking the toll in the country to 1,488.
Hungary
Hungary is set to receive its first shipment of Chinese vaccines by the end of the month, British media Daily Mail has reported.
The country has ordered enough supplies from China's Sinopharm to inoculate 2.5 million people, according to the report published Saturday.
The move came after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticised the EU's rollout for "progressing slowly."
Government leaders in the Czech Republic said they may follow Hungary's lead by also using vaccines yet to be approved by Brussels.
Colombia
Moderna Inc will supply its COVID-19 vaccine to the government Colombia, the company said, providing 10 million doses.
Moderna’s vaccine is not yet approved for use in Colombia and the company said in a statement it will work with regulators to pursue necessary approvals prior to distribution.
Deliveries are expected to begin in mid-2021, the company added.
Mexico
China’s CanSino Biologics Inc said on Wednesday its COVID-19 vaccine was approved in Mexico for emergency use for people of 18 years of age or older.
READ MORE: One-shot CanSino vaccine stands out for being easier to store
Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 10,738 new coronavirus cases and 1,701 more fatalities from COVID-19, bringing the overall total to 1,946,751 cases and 168,432 deaths.
The government said 49 percent of general hospital beds are occupied, and 46 percent of beds with ventilators are occupied.
Healthcare workers administer Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site inside a church in the Bronx borough of New York, on Feb 5. (PHTO / BLOOMBERG)
Brazil
Brazil on Tuesday said it registered 1,350 deaths due to the novel coronavirus disease in the past 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 233,520.
According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 51,486 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the same period, bringing the accumulated number of cases to 9,599,565.
Peru
Peru launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Tuesday with newly arrived doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, as the South American country struggles to control a fierce second wave of infections that has forced a lockdown in the capital, Lima.
Health officials kicked off the program in the intensive care unit of Lima’s Arzobispo Loayza Hospital, authorities said, where medical staff were slated to receive the first of 300,000 doses delivered on Sunday by Sinopharm Group Co Ltd.
Peruvian President Francisco Sagasti was vaccinated later in the day and urged vaccine skeptics to get inoculated. A survey by Ipsos Peru last month showed 48 percent of Peruvians would refuse to be vaccinated, citing fears of side effects.
“Do not be afraid of the vaccine. The vaccine is the best shield,” Sagasti said in a brief speech shortly before receiving his shot at a military hospital.
Chile
Chile on Tuesday reported 2,829 new daily cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, bringing its confirmed caseload to 758,189 since the start of the pandemic in the South American country.
The Ministry of Health also said 28 more people died of the disease in the past day, raising the death toll to 19,084.
Of the confirmed cases, 717,308 patients are said to have recovered from the disease, while 21,418 cases are considered to be active.
Currently, 1,525 COVID-19 sufferers are hospitalized in intensive care units, including 1,297 on ventilators and 70 in critical condition.
Africa tally
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reached 3,682,097 as of Tuesday evening, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
According to its COVID-19 dashboard, the death toll related to the pandemic across the continent stood at 95,589 as of Tuesday evening, and a total of 3,211,491 people infected with the coronavirus have recovered.
The southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of the number of positive cases, followed by the northern Africa region, the African Union Commission's healthcare agency disclosed.
Ghana
Ghanaian Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on Tuesday announced a suspension of sittings of the legislative body for three weeks over the COVID-19 spread.
Ghana has recorded 142 COVID-19 cases in middle and high schools since their reopening last month, Director General of the Ghana Health Service Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said here Tuesday.
A total of 56 cases were confirmed in 23 schools in the Greater Accra Region, 82 cases comprising 73 students and nine staff members in the Eastern Region, three cases in the Upper West Region, and one case in the Western Region, the director general said at a press conference.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia needs up to US$330 million to meet the target of vaccinating 20 percent of the country's population, the health minister has said.
Ethiopia expects to cover the cost from government coffers as well as from international financial partners, Lia Tadesse told journalists on Tuesday.
The country has secured 9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, the minister said.
"Ethiopia is a large country with a large population, so it will not be limited to one set of vaccines for its population," Tadesse said.
Ethiopia registered 572 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 143,566, the country's Ministry of Health said Tuesday.
The death toll from COVID-19 in the country reached 2,158 on Tuesday evening after two new deaths were reported.
The ministry said 248 more recoveries were logged during the same period, taking the national count to 126,004.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has so far reported the highest number of positive COVID-19 cases in the East Africa region.
Algeria
Algeria on Tuesday reported 246 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the North African country to 109,559.
The death toll from the virus in Algeria rose to 2,924 after six new fatalities were added, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.
Meanwhile, 186 more patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 75,117, the ministry statement added.
Morocco
Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 476,125 on Tuesday as 536 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.
The Moroccan Ministry of Health said in a statement that the COVID-19 death toll climbed to 8,424 as 16 more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours.
The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 456,032 after 1,035 new ones were added, while 554 people were in intensive care units, the statement said.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe will receive a donation of 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from China on Feb. 15, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Mozambique and former chief of staff responsible for administration in the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) Douglas Nyikayaramba has died.
His death was confirmed by Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa during the first Cabinet briefing at State House Tuesday.
Nyikayaramba succumbed to COVID-19 Tuesday morning in the capital Harare, Mnangagwa said.
South Africa
South Africa will vaccinate medical workers with Johnson & Johnson's (J&K) COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected to arrive in the country next week, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday.
The announcement came after South Africa paused the rollout of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University following data in a small clinical trial that showed it did not protect against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant of the coronavirus now dominant in the country.
The J&J vaccine wiull be rolled out with an implementation study, which would be in partnership with the Medical Research Council and the National Health Department vaccination sites across the country.
Mkhize said the government may sell or swap its doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, but it would wait for advice from scientists as it prepares to roll out an alternative US shot next week.
He said South Africa is also having discussions with drug manufacturers in China and Russia on COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, Pfizer said it could deliver its vaccine, which needs to be stored and distributed at around -70 degrees Celsius, directly to points of vaccination in South Africa. The company said it had allocated vaccine doses to South Africa and was currently in discussions with the government.
Czech Republic
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Wednesday that the country would wait for European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval before potentially using Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.
The comments marked a partial row-back after Babis said last week that the Czech Republic could consider using Sputnik even without EMA approval, following the path of Hungary which he visited for consultations.
The Czech Republic reported 10,165 new cases on Tuesday, the highest daily tally since Jan.13, and has recorded a total 17,642 deaths since the start of the pandemic, in a total population of 10.7 million.
EU countries have so far relied almost entirely on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine but Hungary’s drug regulator approved Sputnik V for use last month.
The Czech Republic had administered 382,416 shots as of Tuesday, health ministry figures show.
Zambia
Fifty school-going children have tested positive in Zambia following the reopening of schools.
Those infected were among 6,500 students who were screened in the last 24 hours, with most of them coming from the southern part of the country.
Nationwide, the country recorded 963 new cases in the last 24 hours out of 6,747 tests carried out, bringing the overall infection tally to 65,573.
Deaths rose by 20 to 901.
Denmark
The share of people infected with the more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain is on the rise in Denmark, authorities reported on Wednesday, citing preliminary data.
In the first week of February, 27 percent of positive cases analyzed for their genetic material were carrying the B117 variant, up from 20 percent the week before, the State Serum Institute (SSI) said in a report.
The reproductive number for the new variant, which indicates how many one person transmits the virus to, is 0.99 percent, SSI said on Tuesday, meaning the virus is currently on a slight decline.
General infection numbers are falling in Denmark after the government instituted hard lockdown measures in December, with just 470 cases registered in the last 24 hours, down from thousands of daily infections late last year.
A total of 1,690 people have been infected with the new variant first detected in Britain.
Lithuania
Lithuania will relax lockdown rules and allow small shops and beauty salons to reopen from Feb 15. Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said the government is “taking a big risk” and rules could be reversed if the situation deteriorates.
The Baltic nation will keep restrictions on movement between municipalities, while schools, bars and restaurants will stay closed.