Health department employees prepare for a mass testing of Radeberg residents in the gymnasium of the Radeberg vocational school center, Germany, March 2, 2021. (SEBASTIAN KAHNERT / DPA VIA AP)
LONDON / WINDHOEK / KAMPALA / WASHINGTON / ALGIERS / MADRID / OTTAWA / HAVANA / QUITO / BUENOS AIRES / RIO DE JANEIRO / HARARE / ACCRA / ADDIS ABABA / SANTIAGO / MOSCOW – Germany will impose fresh restrictions on travelers from the UK starting on Sunday due to the rapid spread in Britain of the coronavirus strain first identified in India.
Travelers from the UK will have to spend two weeks in quarantine upon arrival in Germany even if they test negative for the virus, according to the foreign ministry. In addition, transport companies will only be allowed to bring German citizens back into the country.
Germany now classifies Britain as a “virus variant area,” the country’s highest risk category, following a recommendation from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), according to the foreign ministry.
European Union
Supplies of COVID-19 vaccines are beginning to outstrip demand in the European Union’s east – a phenomenon that may concern western member states whose citizens are wary of inoculation.
Some parts of the region are hitting a wall at a relatively early stage in their campaigns amid safety fears over AstraZeneca’s shot, longstanding distrust of the authorities, fake news stories, and a lack of education on the benefits of the injection and the dangers of the virus itself.
But with bigger western nations among the EU’s top skeptics, the developments call into question whether vaccination can deliver the herd immunity that the continent wants.
Romania provides a stark example. With just a fifth of its 19 million people having received a shot, waiting lists have disappeared and walk-in services are open to all. Government ministers will show up at vaccination centers in person on Saturday in a bid to lure the less enthusiastic.
As well as this weekend’s appearances by ministers, the government is sending doctors and nurses door-to-door, particularly in rural areas, to make inoculation more accessible. There’ll also be vaccination “marathons” – including one at an airport to remind Romanians of the travel benefits of the shot.
United States
California will lift most remaining crowd-capacity limits and physical distancing requirements related to COVID-19 on June 15, proceeding to fully reopen its economy as the pandemic abates and vaccination rates rise, health officials said on Friday.
California gradually eased restrictions again as infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths markedly declined. Last month Governor Gavin Newsom set the goal of fully reopening commerce in mid-June, as long as hospital admissions remained low, with enough vaccine available for everyone over age 16 who wants one.
Public health officials said those targets are being met, allowing all businesses still subject to restrictions to "return to usual operations with no capacity limits or physical distancing requirements," except for "mega events."
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said Friday that the US could produce up to 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by as early as the end of the year.
The “hope and expectation” is for the remainder of 2021, the US will “be able to vaccinate every American,” Biden said after a day of meetings and ceremonies at the White House with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The White House announced this week that it planned to raise global exports of vaccines by the end of June.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 166.17 million while the global death toll topped 3.44 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday proposed US$50 billion to speed up vaccinations, boost testing and tracing, and maintain adequate stocks of therapeutics, urging coordinated global action to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite stepped-up global efforts, more than a year into the COVID-19 crisis, "new cases worldwide are higher than ever," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, chief economist Gita Gopinath and economist Ruchir Agarwal, wrote in a blog.
The 50-billion-dollar proposal aims to vaccinate at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and at least 60 percent by the first half of 2022, according to the blog.
It also aims to track and insure against downside risks, ensure widespread testing and tracing, maintain adequate stocks of therapeutics, and enforce public health measures in places where vaccine coverage is low.
Britain
London's Heathrow Airport will devote a terminal to arrivals from countries with high levels of COVID-19 infection amid concern that having them share a building with other passengers risks spreading the virus.
A dedicated facility for flights from so-called red list nations will open in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 from June 1, the airport said in a statement Friday. The hub had been in protracted talks over government funding for the plan, which it said will be very challenging logistically.
Red-list passengers are currently met from the plane, guided down special immigration channels and taken straight to an approved quarantine hotel.
Meanwhile, another 2,829 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,457,923, according to official figures released Friday.
The country also reported another nine coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,710. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
G20
Group of 20 leaders including China and the US called for greater global cooperation to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and prevent future outbreaks, seeking to turn the page on damaging tensions over how to tackle the disease.
China pledged an additional US$3 billion in aid over the next three years to help developing countries recover, while Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will boost its contribution to COVAX, the international vaccine initiative, to more than 1 billion euros (US$1.2 billion).
Vice President Kamala Harris said the US will continue to donate excess vaccine doses to countries in need. France will share at least 30 million doses by the end of the year and contribute 500 million euros to the G-20’s Act-A initiative.
G-20 leaders met to sign off on the Declaration of Rome, a set of guiding principles ranging from ensuring fair distribution of vaccines to ramping up production and possibly using compulsory licenses. Several participants suggested the world may need a document that’s more binding, said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, whose country holds the G-20 presidency.
The push for more partnership in tackling health emergencies follows cracks in the multilateral approach, with countries divided over measures to contain COVID-19, distribute medical supplies and handle vaccine patents.
Namibia
Namibia is pushing ahead with the COVID-19 vaccination drive to meet the required 60 percent herd immunity in a move to lower the country's infection rate as well as reduce the number of hospitalized persons, the country's Vice President Nangolo Mbumba said Friday.
Mbumba said this following his successful inoculation at Namibia's Windhoek Central Hospital, accompanied by his wife Sustjie Mbumba.
The Vice President who received his first COVID-19 jab of Sinopharm donated to Namibia by the Chinese government said Namibians must get vaccinated as the southwestern African country pushes to avoid rising numbers and being attacked by the mutating virus.
Uganda
Uganda's ministry of health on Friday warned that the country's isolation facilities and intensive care units are filling up due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
Ruth Aceng, minister of health told reporters here that the situation is worrying and the public needs to take great precaution.
She said the isolation facilities and intensive care units, especially at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala are currently full, following the daily increase of the COVID-19 cases.
Uganda on Friday registered 147 news cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 43,370, with 42,429 recoveries and 350 deaths.
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Algeria
Algeria on Friday reported 278 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 126,434.
The death toll from the virus rose to 3,405 after four new fatalities were added, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.
Algeria received on Friday 758,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX project, the official APS news agency reported.
Spain
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday that his country will reopen to travelers from ten countries, including China and the United Kingdom (UK), "without restrictions or sanitary requirements" from May 24.
The other countries are Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Israel, South Korea, Thailand, Rwanda and Japan.
As of June 7, Spain will reopen to all international travelers without restrictions as long as they are able to provide proof that they have been fully vaccinated using a vaccine recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Canada
Canada reported 3,346 new cases of COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon, bringing the cumulative total to 1,350,785, including 25,152 deaths, according to CTV.
The COVID-19 activity is steadily declining in Canada. Compared to last week, there has been a 10 percent decrease in the number of people with COVID-19 being treated in hospitals each day, for a daily average of under 3,500, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on Friday.
Meanwhile, Canada announced on Friday to extend the restrictions against foreigners and flights from India and Pakistan into the country another month to June 21.
Canada also extends the requirement for air passengers who depart India or Pakistan to Canada, via an indirect route, to obtain a COVID-19 pre-departure test from a third country before continuing their journey to Canada and continues the mandatory pre-arrival, on-arrival, and post-arrival testing requirements; mandatory hotel stopover for air travellers; and mandatory 14-day quarantine for travellers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government also began to sketch out necessary conditions to ease travel restrictions at the Canada-US border. The world’s longest international border has been closed to non-essential traffic for more than a year.
“We recognize that in the coming weeks, when the number of vaccinated people grows and if we continue to see a reduction in COVID(-19) cases and hospitalizations, that we may be in a position to progressively loosen these measures,” Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc told reporters.
ALSO READ: US, Canada boats at Niagara Falls show contrast in virus approach
Cuba
Cuba reported on Friday 1,197 new COVID-19 infections and 9 more deaths in one day, for a total of 130,543 cases and 849 deaths, the Ministry of Public Health said.
Of the total number of new cases, 1,129 were from community transmission, the ministry's director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran reported.
Ecuador
Ecuador's first patient diagnosed with the South African variant of the novel coronavirus died early Friday at the Luis Davila Provincial General Hospital in Tulcan, a city in northern Carchi province, the Ministry of Public Health said.
The patient, a resident of Tulcan, had no history of traveling abroad, and neither did her family
Ecuador's first case of the South African variant was identified by the Institute of Microbiology at the San Francisco University of Quito through genomic sequencing based on a sample taken from the patient.
As a result of this case, health authorities are "carrying out genomic monitoring of this variant" and trying to isolate other potential carriers through "community surveillance and an active search for cases," the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Ecuador reported on Friday 1,366 new COVID-19 infections and 55 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the caseload to 416,621 and death toll to 14,693, the ministry said.
Another 5,414 deaths are considered to be COVID-19 related, but not verified, according to the ministry.
Argentina
Argentina on Friday reported 695 more deaths from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 24 hours, raising its pandemic death toll to 73,391.
According to the Ministry of Health, in the same 24 hours, tests detected 35,468 new cases of COVID-19, meaning 3,482,512 people have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the outbreak here on March 3, 2020.
Brazil
Brazil on Friday reported 2,215 more deaths from COVID-19, raising the national count to 446,309, the Ministry of Health said.
The ministry said that 76,855 more infections were detected, raising the nationwide tally to 15,970,949.
Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwean government has decided to lock down the central city of Kwekwe for two weeks starting from Friday after the detection of a coronavirus variant first identified in India.
Various measures have been implemented in the city to curb the spread of the variant, including a curfew, closure of bars and a ban on all public gatherings, Vice President and Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga said in a statement Friday.
The government identified the COVID-19 variant B.1.617.2 on Wednesday in samples taken from a Kwekwe man who died last week after contact with a relative who had returned from India and tested positive.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe on Friday launched a nationwide campaign to introduce the typhoid conjugate vaccine into routine childhood immunization as part of a broader strategy to eliminate epidemic-prone diseases.
The campaign will run from May 24 to June 4 this year and will target over 6 million children aged nine months to below 15 years, said Vice President and Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga while launching the campaign in Harare.
He said all children in Zimbabwe will begin to receive the vaccine through routine immunization at nine months.
Ghana
Ghana has been selected as a possible manufacturing hub for COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, said a statement issued on Friday by the Jubilee House, Ghana's presidential palace.
"At a meeting with the Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission indicated the selection of Ghana as a possible manufacturing hub for COVID-19 vaccines in Africa," the statement said.
The statement followed a recent meeting in Belgium between Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dombrovskis.
Taskforce teams from the European Union and Ghana will meet in due course to discuss ways of realizing the initiative, the statement said.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 485 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 268,520 as of Friday evening, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
The ministry reported 12 new deaths, bringing the death toll to 4,060, along with 1,487 more recoveries, taking its total number of recoveries to 225,480.
Colombia
Colombia has barred non-resident arrivals from India through the end of June in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 variant B.1.617, the health ministry said on Friday.
The restrictions came into force on Thursday, although travelers who were already in the air or on their journey to Colombia are exempt.
The variant's potentially higher rates of transmission motivated Colombia's decision, the ministry in a statement.
Colombia's restrictions apply to travelers who have been in India within the last 14 days or who had a connecting flight there, the statement said.
France
French COVID-19 indicators improved further on Friday, with the health ministry reporting 3,631 people in intensive care units with COVID-19, down by 138 from Thursday, while the overall number of COVID patients also fell again to just over 20,000.
France also reported 109 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals, compared with 173 on Friday last week, and 305 on Friday three weeks ago. The total number of deaths stands at 108,437.
The ministry also reported 12,800 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total to 5.58 million, after revising the cumulative total down by 348,846 on Thursday to elimate the double-counting of people who have been tested several times.
France reported 123 new coronavirus deaths on Friday, and the seven-day moving average of daily deaths fell below 150 for the first time since mid-October.
Meanwhile, youngsters in France between the age of 16 and 18 years old could start to be inoculated in June, vaccination czar Alain Fischer said in an interview on BFM TV on Friday.
Latin America and the Caribbean
The death toll from COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean passed 1 million people on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, with the pandemic worsening in the part of the world with the highest per capita death rate.
From the dusty highlands of Bolivia to the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, the pandemic has swamped underfunded healthcare systems after spreading fast across nations where many people survive hand-to-mouth and have been unable to enter lockdown.
On average in May, 31 percent of the COVID-19 deaths in the world have been in Latin America and the Caribbean – home to just 8.4 percent of the global population.
Doctors and epidemiologists say the coronavirus pandemic took unprepared governments by surprise last year and its impact has been worsened by leaders who downplayed its gravity and failed to secure timely vaccine supplies.
Chile
Chile registered more than 7,000 new daily cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row on Friday, after tests detected 7,614 infections in 24 hours, Health Minister Enrique Paris said.
According to the Health Ministry's daily pandemic report, the new cases brought the country's confirmed caseload to 1,315,913 since the onset of the outbreak here in March 2020.
Of the new cases, 1,943 presented no symptoms, said Paris, adding only four regions in the country saw a decline in cases over the last seven days, while nine regions saw a decline over the last 14 days.
Chile also registered 121 more deaths from causes associated with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the pandemic death toll to 28,290.
Russia
Russia confirmed 8,709 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 4,992,554, the official monitoring and response center said Saturday.
The national COVID-19 death toll rose by 386 to 118,125 in the past day, while the number of the country's recoveries grew by 9,345 to 4,610,465.
