Glaxo, Eli Lilly join forces to test COVID-19 antibody cocktail











Research laboratory at the GlaxoSmithKline Plc Research and Development center in Stevenage, UK. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

LONDON / WASHINGTON / PARIS / BRASILIA / MEXICO CITY / HAVANA / GENEVA / LIMA / LISBON / BANJUL / SANTIAGO / DUBLIN / ROME / MOSCOW / PRAGUE / OTTAWA / ADDIS ABABA / RABAT / QUITO / SANTIAGO / WARSAW – GlaxoSmithKline Plc and partner Vir Biotechnology Inc. have teamed up with Eli Lilly and Co. to test a combination of their COVID-19 antibody treatments to see whether they can better combat the virus and its variants together.

Glaxo and Vir are putting one of two antibodies they’re testing in trials with Lilly’s bamlanivimab to see how the pairing works in low-risk patients with mild to moderate symptoms, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.

Lilly’s neutralizing antibody was granted emergency use approval in the US in November as a treatment for patients at high risk of progressing from a mild to severe case or hospitalization.

The first patient has been dosed with the cocktail in a test, which is being run as a new arm in Lilly’s trials, according to the drugmakers. Glaxo and Vir in August started human trials for their antibody, which is still in middle- and late-stage testing and not yet approved for use. A second antibody is in early-stage testing.

“Variants could emerge that require new therapeutic options, which is why Lilly is studying bamlanivimab together with other neutralizing antibodies,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer, in a statement. We want to “develop therapies to treat current and future strains of COVID-19 until vaccines are widely available and utilized.”

COVAX program

The COVAX vaccine sharing platform expects to have 25 million coronavirus vaccine doses for the Eastern Mediterranean region in March, rising to 355 million doses by December, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Wednesday.

The first doses provided for the region through COVAX will arrive in February, WHO official Yvan Hutin told reporters.

Sanofi 

Sanofi will fill and pack millions of doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine from July in an effort to help meet the huge demand for the US drugmaker's shots.

Sanofi agreed to produce millions of doses of BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine in an unusual collaboration to speed vaccination efforts.

The French drugmaker will give BioNTech access to a production facility in Frankfurt, which will start to deliver doses this summer, Sanofi said in a statement Wednesday. The deal will produce more than 125 million doses of the messenger RNA vaccine for the European Union.

Last month, Sanofi and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline said a COVID-19 vaccine they are jointly developing had showed an insufficient immune response in older people, delaying its launch to late this year.

Sanofi is also working on another COVID-19 vaccine candidate with US firm Translate Bio which uses mRNA technology, similar to the approach of Pfizer/BioNTech. Phase I trials are expected to start this quarter.

CEO Paul Hudson confirmed in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper that Sanofi remains committed to its two vaccines projects.

Global tally

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 100 million on Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, marking another grim milestone in the pandemic.

The global death toll exceeded 2.15 million, according to the data.

The United States reported the most cases and deaths with more than 25.4 million cases and 425,000 deaths, while India has the world's second highest tally with more than 10 million cases, followed by Brazil with over 8.8 million cases and more than 217,000 deaths, the second highest death toll globally.

ALSO READ: WHO chief: Vaccine nationalism could prolong pandemic

WHO

Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should have access to follow-up care if they have persistent, new or changing symptoms, while hospitalized patients should use low-dose anticoagulants to prevent clots from forming in blood vessels, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest recommended on Tuesday.

In a statement, the WHO cited evidence gathered on the post-COVID condition, also known as "long COVID," in which people who have recovered from COVID-19 continue to experience longer-term symptoms like extreme fatigue, persistent cough and exercise intolerance.

For COVID-19 patients in home care, the WHO recommends the use of pulse oximetry to measure their blood oxygen levels. This needs to be coordinated with other aspects of home care, such as education for the patient and the care provider and regular follow-up care.

For hospitalized patients who are taking supplemental oxygen, including high-flow nasal oxygen or non-invasive ventilation, the WHO recommends positioning them on their stomachs to increase oxygen flow (prone positioning).

The WHO also recommends the use of care bundles to systematize care provision for COVID-19 patients, as well as to favor clinical judgment over models in making decisions for the patient's care.

US

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that his administration intends to order 100 million more doses each of Pfizer and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines, and at least temporarily speed up shipments to states to about 10 million doses a week.

The new purchases would increase total US orders for the two approved vaccines by 50 percent, to about 600 million shots, according to a senior administration official – a supply that it expects to have available by the end of the summer, and which would be enough for 300 million people.

Pfizer will be able to supply the US with 200 million vaccine doses two months sooner than previously expected, according to its top executive.

Vice-President Kamala Harris received her second dose of Moderna 's vaccine on Tuesday at the National Institutes of Health near Washington.

Meanwhile, Biden's administration is "actively looking" at expanding mandatory COVID-19 testing to travelers on US domestic flights, a senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official said.

In another development, studies in the US and abroad found little evidence schools were spreading COVID-19 infections, showing a "path forward" to in-person classes, researchers from the CDC said.

A model developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projected that 569,000 people in the United States will have died from COVID-19 by May 1, US media reported Monday.

In this photo Nov 30, 2020 file photo, the logo of French drug maker Sanofi is picture at the company's headquarters in Paris. (THIBAULT CAMUS / AP

UK

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said schools will stay closed until at least March 8 as he tightened U.K. border rules to require all travelers arriving from virus hot spots to quarantine for 10 days.

The premier is drawing up a longer-term blueprint for lifting the national lockdown, in which a return to face-to-face teaching will be prioritized.

The death toll in the United Kingdom from the coronavirus pandemic passed 100,000 people on Tuesday, making it the first country in Europe to surpass the threshold, as the government battled to speed up vaccination delivery and keep variants of the virus at bay.

Many more deaths would follow before a vaccination program began to take effect, England's chief medical officer, Chris Witty, said.

The UK has the world's fifth highest toll from COVID-19 and reported a further 1,631 deaths and 20,089 cases on Tuesday. In total, the UK has recorded 3,689,746 cases, according to official figures.

The 100,162 deaths are more than Britain's civilian toll in World War II and twice the number killed in the 1940-41 Blitz bombing campaign.

“It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a televised press conference on Tuesday evening. “I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost.”

Britain will "learn the lessons and prepare" for any future pandemics, Johnson said

The government will introduce a limited hotel quarantine system for passengers arriving from the highest-risk countries, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Up to Monday, a total of 6,853,327 people had received a first dose and 472,446 a second dose.

Cyprus

Cypriot Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou announced Wednesday government strategy for ending the coronavirus lockdown imposed more than two weeks ago, starting with easing restrictions on Monday.

Ioannou told a televised press conference that starting Monday, Feb. 1, barber shops and hair and beauty salons will reopen, but shopping malls, department stores and retail shops will remain closed for one more week before resuming operation on Feb. 8.

However, a ban on the movement of general public will remain in force until further notice, with people allowed to go out twice a day, after sending an SMS and receiving a permit from authorities.

A bus with a coronavirus advice travels on Oxford Street in London, on Jan 26, 2021. (ALASTAIR GRANT / AP)

France

The French government is delaying an agonizing decision to lock down the country, hoping that a curfew will contain the new variants of Covid-19.

President Emmanuel Macron “has asked for additional analysis” on the spread of the virus before deciding on any new restrictions, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said after a defense cabinet meeting Wednesday.

France will only turn to a lockdown as a “last resort,” according to Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. The government wants to evaluate the impact of the 6 pm curfew implemented earlier this month and the spread of new variants, Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne said.

“We must pay attention to the psychological state of the country before taking a decision,” she said. Borne said French authorities are looking at the unrest in the Netherlands, were three evenings of riots led to hundreds of arrests.

Health authorities reported 22,086 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours on Tuesday, up sharply from Monday's 4,240, bringing the cumlative total to 3,079,943, the sixth highest in the world. The government needs that figure to go below 5,000 to regard the pandemic as being fully under control.

The death toll rose by 612 to 74,106, the world's seventh highest, after an increase of 445 on Monday. 

Despite calls from some doctors and medics for a new lockdown, government minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said earlier there was no need to make a decision on such a measure at this stage.

President Emmanuel Macron will head the weekly Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and a government press conference is scheduled for Thursday.

Some 91,522 people received their first vaccine shot inFrance on Tuesday, bringing the total since vaccinations began on Dec 27 to 1,184,510 in a population of 67 million.

READ MORE: Germany backs EU export curbs on vaccine after supply cuts

Brazil

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he has approved a group of private sector companies to buy 33 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, something the British drugmaker firm said cannot happen "at this moment".

Speaking at a virtual banking conference, Bolsonaro said half of the shots would be for employees of the companies buying them, and the other half would go to the government's national immunization program.

Meanwhile, Brazilian biomedical center Butantan expects supplies for around 8.5 million doses of China's CoronaVac vaccine made by Sinovac Biotech to arrive by Feb 3, its director said on Tuesday.

Brazil registered 61,963 new cases and 1,214 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 8,933,356 cses and the toll to 218,878 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The government aims to airlift 1,500 COVID-19 patients in the hard-hit northern state of Amazonas to other states for medical treatment, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said.

Also on Tuesday, Brazil barred entry for visitors from South Africa to stop the spread of a new coronavirus variant from the country, according to the federal government's gazette.

EU

The European Commission said a crunch call with AstraZeneca over vaccine-delivery delays is going ahead on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the European Union’s executive arm had earlier told reporters in Brussels that Astra had pulled out of the call. The drugmaker’s spokesperson denied this was the case.

The confusion added to the spat over deliveries of life-saving shots, after the bloc and Astra clashed over accounts of the clauses in the vaccine supply contract.

EU governments plan to remove Japan from their list of countries whose residents should be allowed to visit the bloc during the current phase of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an EU official familiar with the matter.

If confirmed, the removal of Japan as a result of increased virus cases in the country leaves just Australia, China, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand as approved places of departure.

Mexico

Mexico's health ministry on Tuesday reported 7,165 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 1,743 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,778,905 cases and 152,016 deaths.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was still experiencing minor symptoms of COVID-19.

Lopez Obrador first felt the onset of COVID-19 on Sunday and was tested after returning to the capital on a commercial flight from an event in central Mexico, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Jesus Ramirez said that passengers on the flight were being contacted, and that journalists traveling with the president were recommended to isolate.

Health officials said they had identified 11 people by Tuesday who may have come into close contact with the president and that local officials from the areas visited by Lopez Obrador at the weekend were also working to identify other contacts.

Meanwhile, Mexico is very close to signing a contract for the Sputnik V vaccine and the first shipment of around 200,000 doses could arrive next week, Juan Ferrer Aguilar, a senior health official, said.

Lopez-Gatell said that emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine should be authorized within days, after a favorable recommendation by a committee within Mexico's health regulator.

Tanzania

Tanzanian President John Magufuli, the only African leader to claim there’s no COVID-19 in his country, publicly cautioned the Health Ministry against vaccines and said it shouldn’t rush into any experiments.

“We should be very careful,” Magufuli said in a speech from his rural home in Chato, near Lake Victoria, broadcast on state TV. “Not everything we receive from outside is in our best interest.”

Tanzania stopped publishing coronavirus data in April last year and is now one of a few countries in the world that doesn’t publish any information on the outbreak. Authorities actively discourage the use of face masks, saying the country is free of the disease.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria is gradually easing measures after it went into partial lockdown at the end of November, when it reached the EU’s highest coronavirus death rate. 

All schools will reopen in the next month, and movie theaters and gyms will reopen from Feb 1 with limited capacity, the health ministry said. 

Bars, restaurants and night clubs will remain closed until March 1. 

Meanwhile, all arrivals will need to present a negative PCR test result upon entering the country.

Cuba

Cuba's death toll from the coronavirus reached 200 on Tuesday, with authorities reporting nearly as many deaths so far in January as in the six previous months combined, due to an unprecedented acceleration in infections.

The situation in Cuba is now much worse than at any other point during the pandemic, and edging closer to that world average. 

The health ministry has reported 54 deaths in January so far compared with 60 in the previous six months, with daily infection numbers hitting new records on a regular basis – 786 on Tuesday – and cases spread throughout the Caribbean island nation.

Peru

President Francisco Sagasti of Peru on Tuesday night announced a total lockdown of the capital and nine other regions following a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, which he said had pushed hospitals close to collapse.

Sagasti said the new measures covering central Peru would remain in effect until at least Feb 14. They include instructions to work from home, the closure of all non-essential shops, the suspension of interregional land and air travel and the extension of a ban on flights coming from Europe to flights from Brazil in a bid to curb new, more contagious strains of the virus.

On Tuesday, Peru reported 4,444 new cases of the coronavirus, taking its total to 1,107,239, and 40,107 deaths.

It is important to stipulate that the death of the participant is not related to the vaccine since she received the placebo …

Cayetano Heredia University, Peru

A volunteer in the local Peruvian trial of a coronavirus vaccine produced by China's Sinopharm has died from COVID-19-related pneumonia, the university carrying out the trial said on Tuesday.

Cayetano Heredia University, which is involved with the study, said on the instructions of the Peruvian health regulator it had unblinded the volunteer's participation in the trial and determined she had received the placebo rather than the vaccine.

"It is important to stipulate that the death of the participant is not related to the vaccine since she received the placebo, and we will therefore report to the relevant regulatory and ethics bodies and maintain the course of this phase three study," the university said in a statement.

German Malaga, chief researcher at the Cayetano Heredia University, told Reuters by phone that the deceased volunteer had suffered from diabetes.

Portugal

Portugal's government was urged to transfer COVID-19 patients abroad on Tuesday as deaths hit a record high and the oxygen supply system of a large hospital near Lisbon partly failed from overuse.

COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours reached a record 291, bringing the total to 653,878 cases and 11,012 deaths. 

A hospital in the Amadora municipality had to transfer 48 of its patients to other health units in the capital late on Tuesday as oxygen pressure was not enough for the large number of patients, it said in a statement.

Across Portugal's health service, 830 intensive care beds have been allocated to COVID-19 patients out of a total of 1,200, the health ministry said. Currently 765 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care units.

The local council in Torres Vedras, a municipality near Lisbon which is facing major coronavirus outbreaks in several care homes, urged the foreign ministry to seek international help.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said at a news conference there was no need to create "alarm" about the idea of international aid but added: "We know there is the availability of friendly countries to help".

The Gambia

Forty people in The Gambia confirmed as coronavirus positive in the past week have refused to self-isolate or escaped treatment centres, the health ministry said on Tuesday, promising to reveal the identities of those flouting health regulations.

It also said large numbers of recent arrivals to the country from COVID-19 hotspots had failed to follow health protocols or report for a mandatory test.

The non-compliance will have strained efforts to contain the virus in the small West African nation, which earlier in January recorded its first two cases of the highly infectious variant first found in Britain.

All those concerned must immediately report to the health authorities, the ministry said, "failure of which will lead to serious consequences, including the publication of names and identifying information of all those at large".

The Gambia, whose fatality rate stands at around 3.2 percent, has recorded more than 4,000 cases and 128 deaths in total.

Chile

The Chilean government announced on Tuesday it will begin the first stage of mass COVID-19 vaccination of its citizens in February.

In the first quarter of 2021, some 5 million people in high-risk groups, including those with chronic illnesses and essential workers, will be vaccinated first, after which vaccination will be extended to another 15 million people in education and basic services, as well as the general population, according to a government statement.

Vaccination will be free, voluntary and provided by the state, according to the statement.

Some 56,000 Chileans, including frontline healthcare workers and residents of care homes, have already been vaccinated.

Chile has so far registered 706,500 confirmed cases and 18,023 deaths in the pandemic.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe plans to buy sufficient coronavirus vaccines to inoculate about two-thirds of its population, amid a surge in infections and deaths.

The shots will be jointly acquired by the government and private companies, according to a proposal presented during a meeting between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and business leaders in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday.

Ireland

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced on Tuesday that his government has decided to extend the current Level-5 restrictions until March 5 in order to bring down the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Martin also said that existing regulations requiring pre-departure COVID-19 tests for international arrivals will also be extended to March 5.

Ireland will introduce a 14-day quarantine in hotels for all people arriving from Brazil and South Africa, and for anyone arriving without evidence of a negative coronavirus test, Martin said.

Visa-free travel from both countries and from all of South America has been suspended until March 5, Martin said.

The Department of Health on Tuesday reported 928 new cases of COVID-19 and 90 more deaths, bringing the tally to 189,851 and the death toll to 3,066.

Earlier on Tuesday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told local media that as of last Sunday, more than 140,000 people in the country had been inoculated.

A box of AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine vials is pictured at the Pontcae Medical Practice in Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales on Jan 4, 2021. (GEOFF CADDICK / AFP)

AstraZeneca

Drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc pushed back against the European Union (EU) on COVID-19 vaccinations, reacting to threats to its business and saying the bloc must take responsibility for delays to the rollout of the shot.

The comments from AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot come as EU governments and company executives prepare to discuss the issue on a call Wednesday evening. The European Commission wants “fundamental” information about delivery plans for the first half of the year, according to an official with knowledge of the situation. The call is due to take place at 6.30 pm Brussels time.

Tensions over the rollout have escalated since Astra warned late last week of delays at a production plant in Belgium. The EU responded with fury, vowing to monitor exports of shots, and Germany signaled support for the idea of imposing limits on sales outside the EU.

AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said that once AstraZeneca gets regulatory approval in Europe – expected within days – it will ship at least 3 million doses immediately, with a target of 17 million by February

But Soriot, in an interview with European newspapers, deflected the blame to the EU. He said the company has a so-called best-effort agreement that doesn’t specify a quantity. That’s because the EU insisted on receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine about the same time as the UK despite putting in its order three months later.

Soriot added that once AstraZeneca gets regulatory approval in Europe – expected within days – it will ship at least 3 million doses immediately, with a target of 17 million by February.

Meanwhile, European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke signaled Pfizer was gearing up to increase deliveries to EU countries of its COVID-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech with production at more sites.

Italy

Italy reported 541 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, up from 420 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 10,593 from 8,561.

In total, Italy has now registered 86,422 deaths linked to COVID-19 and 2.486 million cases.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 21,355 on Tuesday, compared with 21,424 a day earlier.

There were 162 new admissions to intensive care units, against 150 the day before. The total number of intensive care patients stood at 2,372 down from 2,421 on Monday.

Also on Tuesday, Italy asked the European Commission to take action against Pfizer over cuts to its COVID-19 vaccine deliveries, the government's special commissioner said.

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 13,202 to 2,161,279, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.

The reported death toll rose by 982 to 53,972, the tally showed.

Russia

The coronavirus pandemic is "on the decline" in Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Wednesday as he abolished some COVID-19 restrictions, allowing bars, restaurants and nightclubs to open overnight.

New COVID-19 cases in the Russian capital have not exceeded 3,000 in the past week and more than 50 percent of beds in coronavirus hospitals were vacant for the first time since mid-June, Sobyanin wrote on his personal blog.

The mayor lifted a ban on entertainment venues, including restaurants, bars and nightclubs, serving customers between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., a measure that has been in place since Nov 13. He also said that businesses would no longer have to have at least 30 percent of employees working remotely.

Russia on Wednesday reported 17,741 new COVID-19 cases, taking its official tally to 3,774,672.

Authorities also reported 594 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 71,076.

Slovakia

Slovakia's nationwide screening program found 1.18 percent of those tested over the past week had the coronavirus, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Tuesday.

The central European country has seen a dip in infections from peaks around the turn of the year, but its health system is still stretched to the limit with 3,495 coronavirus patients in hospitals as of Monday.

The testing identified 30,556 infections among the nearly 2.6 million who had taken part in the program as of Monday, Matovic said at a news conference.

Stricter lockdown measures will now be imposed and are exepcted to last until Feb 7. Those who cannot show evidence of a negative test will not be allowed commute to work or take walks in nature, activities so far permitted for everybody. The requirement does not apply to children and senior citizens.

Testing will be repeated next week in half of the country's regions that fared worse than the rest.

Slovakia has reported 4,068 coronavirus deaths as of Monday.

Canada

Canada will soon take more steps to restrict foreign travel as part of its campaign to clamp down on the coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday, but did not give details.

While the number of new cases linked to travel remains low, a single case imported from abroad is a case too many and the federal government is actively looking at ways to tighten the border, Trudeau said.

Overall, travel outside Canada has been deemed the primary cause of 1.4 percent of COVID-19 cases in Canada since the start of the pandemic, with contact with a traveler accounting for another 1 percent of cases.

Trudeau also said he did not expect Canada to be affected by shortages of COVID-19 vaccines that are hitting some EU nations.

As of Tuesday night, Canada has reported 757,022 COVID-19 cases with 19,403 deaths, according to CTV.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia on Tuesday logged 437 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 134,569, said the Health Ministry.

The death toll reached 2,075 as of Tuesday evening after four more deaths were reported, the ministry said.

Botswana

Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) has confirmed the presence of the new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa.

The BITRI said on Tuesday that it confirmed the new variant in collaboration with the National Health Laboratory through nanopore whole genome sequencing technology.

Colombia

The Colombian government on Tuesday decreed three days of national mourning following the death of Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo from COVID-19.

The decree was also paid tribute to the more than 51,700 people who lost their lives to COVID-19 amid the pandemic.

According to the Colombian Ministry of Health, the country has recorded 2,027,746 cases with 51,747 deaths.

Denmark

An analysis of positive coronavirus samples showed that Denmark has been experiencing a significant statistical increase in the number of cases involving the more contagious coronavirus variant that was first detected in Britain. 

The Statens Serum Institut (SSI) said on Monday that it had registered a total of 632 cases of the new variant in Denmark.

"According to the SSI, the variant is spreading in Denmark and will soon be the most common version of coronavirus," Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke said on Twitter on Tuesday.

The new strain is the main reason why the Danish government has decided to extend the restrictions by closing down the country's schools and retail stores and limiting social gatherings to five people until Feb 7.

According to the SSI, Denmark registered 652 new COVID-19 infections and 20 deaths in the past 24 hours. In total, the country has logged 195,948 cases and 2,030 deaths.

Gavi

The CEO of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said on Tuesday that they hoped to deliver 145 to 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021, and 500 million doses in the second quarter, followed by 1.5 billion in the second half of the year.

In his remarks at the World Economic Forum 2021, Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, stressed the importance of equitable distribution of the vaccines.

Gavi has estimated that more than 800 million doses and another 1.4 billion doses in options are above what would be required to vaccinate people.

Medical workers care for a patient in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at UW Medical Center – Montlake, in Seattle, the United States, on Jan 26, 2021. (ELAINE THOMPSON / AP)

Malta

Malta's bars and entertainment venues will remain closed for another month as one of the safeguards against the spread of COVID-19, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Tuesday.

Abela said that new measures, which are due to be announced officially by the government in the coming days, would apply throughout the month of February and would then be relaxed in March.

Abela's comments came on the same day health authorities reported 138 new cases and two more deaths. So far, 225 people in total have died of COVID-19 in the country.  of another two patients. The number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the country now stands at 255.

Albania

The number of new coronavirus cases in Albania hit a record high on Tuesday as the Health Ministry reported 879 infections were logged in the past 24 hours.

The new cases took Albania's tally to 73,691.

The ministry also reported eight additional deaths, bringing the death toll to 1,332. 

Morocco

Morocco received on Wednesday half a million doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine as it prepares to be the first African country to roll out a national immunization campaign.

The consignment is the second batch to arrive in Morocco after 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by India’s Serum Institute.

The government has announced that it will first start vaccinating health, security, and teaching staff this week and has launched a website for other people to register for the vaccine. It plans to vaccinate 25 million people, or 80 percent of its population, within three months.

Morocco reported on Tuesday 867 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 467,493.

The number of recoveries went by by 1,351 to 444,823 while the death toll rose by 15 to 8,187, the health ministry said in a statement.

Algeria

Algeria on Tuesday reported 243 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the North African country to 106,097.

The death toll rose to 2,871 after five more fatalities were recorded, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Tunisia

The Tunisian Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 2,026 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 200,662.

The death toll went up by 83 to 6,370, the ministry said in a statement.

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached 2,183, including 420 in intensive care units, while the total number of recoveries reached 148,995, it added.

Chile

Chile registered 3,322 new COVID-19 cases 24 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's caseload to 706,500 and death toll to 18,023, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, there were currentlt 25,659 active cases while 662,460 people have recovered.

A total of 1,287 patients were in intensive care units, including 1,089 on ventilators and 75 in critical condition.

Ecuador

Ecuador's COVID-19 death toll on Tuesday surpassed 10,000 after 26 more deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.

The death toll now stands at 10,007.

The Ministry of Public Health reported three more cases of "probable deaths" from the virus, bringing the total to 4,661.

Meanwhile, 579 new cases were also reported, bringing the cumulative caseload to 242,146, according to the ministry.

Bill Gates

Poorer countries face a best-case scenario of a 6-8 month lag behind richer nations in getting access to COVID-19 vaccines to protect their populations against the pandemic disease, the philanthropist Bill Gates said on Wednesday.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has so far committed some US$1.75 billion to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including via funds for the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative, and via direct support for some vaccine makers.

"The total number of doses that GAVI (and COVAX) will have in the first half of the year is still very modest. Yes, they will get some doses out, but if you compare when they will reach the same percentage of coverage as the rich countries – that's where I'd say it's six to eight months, best case," Gates said in an interview with Reuters.

Meanwhile, Gates said that he was taken aback by the volume of "crazy" and "evil" conspiracy theories about him spreading on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, but said he would like to explore what is behind them.

Poland

Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski will recommend maintaining restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus, he said on Wednesday, despite a recent fall in new infections.

As the number of new infections and deaths has fallen, government officials have suggested that some restrictions might be eased at the end of the month. A government announcement is expected this week.

Poland has reported 1.48 million coronavirus cases and 35,665 related deaths since March. On Tuesday, the country of 38 million reported 4,604 new cases.

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