A visitor views sculptures on Jan 21, 2021 on the reopening of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Tuscany. (VINCENZO PINTO / AFP)
MEXICO CITY / ADDIS ABABA / ALGIERS / SAO PAULO / OTTAWA / SANTIAGO / BOGOTA / HAVANA / QUITO / ISMAILIA / PARIS / ATHENS / MILAN / RABAT / AMSTERDAM / BELGRADE / LJUBLJANA / TUNIS / LONDON – Trial results from Merck’s V590 and V591 were “disappointing, and a bit of a surprise,” said Nick Kartsonis, senior vice president of clinical research for infectious diseases and vaccine.
Both shots generated fewer neutralizing antibodies to halt infection than other COVID-19 vaccines, and produced inferior immune responses compared with people who had naturally contracted the coronavirus. Neither of Merck’s candidates were ultimately among the six primary vaccines in the US government’s Operation Warp Speed portfolio, though its leadership watched them closely.
Both were laggards in the vaccine-development race. Merck finished recruiting the first participants for early-stage safety studies near the end of 2020, when front-runners Pfizer and Moderna were preparing to report late-stage data on their shots’ effectiveness. Merck received interim results from its trials this month.
The results were “disappointing, and a bit of a surprise,” said Nick Kartsonis, senior vice president of clinical research for infectious diseases and vaccines at Merck Research Laboratories. Both shots generated fewer neutralizing antibodies to halt infection than other COVID-19 vaccines, and produced inferior immune responses compared with people who had naturally contracted the coronavirus.
“We didn’t have what we needed to be able to move forward,” Kartsonis said in an interview Sunday. After evaluating the data, Merck’s senior leadership decided to discontinue the programs and divert resources to the company’s efforts to develop COVID-19 treatments.
ALSO READ: Vaccines may work less well on variants, UK's Hancock says
Africa
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reached 3,418,514 as of Sunday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
According to the continental disease control and prevention agency's dashboard, the death toll related to the pandemic in Africa stood at 84,637 as of Sunday.
A total of 2,878,234 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far, the African Union (AU) Commission's healthcare agency disclosed.
The Southern Africa region is the most affected area in Africa in terms of the number of confirmed positive cases, followed by the Northern Africa region, according to the agency.
Algeria
Algeria on Sunday reported 227 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the North African country to 105,596.
The death toll from the virus in Algeria rose to 2,863 after two new fatalities were recorded, said the Algerian Ministry of Health in a statement.
Meanwhile, 190 patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 72,005, the ministry statement added.
Belarus
Belarus reported 1,024 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking its total to 238,635, according to the country's health ministry.
There have been 618 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 224,171, the ministry added.
So far, 1,658 people have died from the disease in the country, including nine over the past 24 hours, it said.
Nearly 4.4 million tests for the coronavirus have been conducted across the country as of Monday, including 9,694 over the past day, according to official figures.
Brazil
Brazil registered 592 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 217,037, the Ministry of Health said Sunday.
Another 28,323 COVID-19 cases were reported over the past day, bringing the national count to 8,844,577, the ministry said.
Canada
Canada is in a critical stage against the COVID-19 pandemic and Canadians should not to let up, said Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, on Sunday.
"We are at a critical point in the race. We are part-way through, but with the current momentum of the epidemic and continued high rates of infection in many areas of the country, now is the time to strengthen our resolve, regroup and make sure that we have the stamina to keep our pace and make it across the finish line," said Tam in a statement.
Tam said it appears local health measures may be starting to pay off, but it's not clear whether they're strong and broad enough to continue to sustain progress.
She said it's still too soon to know whether the recent downward trend in new COVID-19 cases will continue although there's been an improvement in the COVID-19 numbers in some provinces including British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec while the pandemic is regaining steam elsewhere in the country.
As of Sunday afternoon, Canada reported a total of 746,920 COVID-19 cases and 19,070 deaths, according to CTV.
Chile
Chile reported 4,498 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, for a total of 699,110 cases, as well as 79 more deaths, bringing the death toll to 17,933, reported the Ministry of Health.
According to the ministry, the country has registered a 37 percent increase in cases over the last two weeks. So far, 654,101 people have recovered from the disease while 26,682 are in the active stage.
Colombia
Colombia registered 12,516 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the country's total caseload to 2,013,014, said the Ministry of Health and Social Protection on Sunday.
The country reported 392 more deaths, raising the country's death toll to 51,374, said the ministry.
A woman wearing a face mask walks near a poster depicting Cuban late leader Fidel Castro reading "Revolution is changing everything that needs to be changed" in Havana, on Jan 21, 2021. (YAMIL LAGE / AFP)
Cuba
The Cuban Ministry of Public Health reported on Sunday three more deaths and 634 new cases of COVID-19.
Francisco Duran, the national director of hygiene and epidemiology at the ministry, said that with the three deaths, the death toll from the disease in the country rose to 194, while the number of cases went up to 21,261.
Duran pointed out that of the 634 new cases, 591 occurred through local community transmission and were detected in all 15 provinces of the country.
Another 43 cases arrived from Russia, the United States, Panama, Haiti, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Spain, Ecuador, Croatia, Colombia and Canada.
Duran added that between 70 percent and 80 percent of cases can be traced back to people who have come from abroad or their contacts.
Cuba currently has a contagion rate of 59.09 per 100,000 inhabitants.
EU
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke with AstraZeneca Plc Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot about announced delays in the company’s delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to EU countries.
“She made it clear that she expects AstraZeneca to deliver on the contractual arrangements foreseen,” commission spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters in Brussels. The commission, the EU’s executive arm, last year signed an advance purchase agreement with Astra in behalf of member countries for as many as 400 million doses of its vaccine.
Ecuador
Ecuador once again recorded more than 3,000 cases of COVID-19 in one day, with 3,060 cases reported in the last 24 hours for a total of 241,292, the Ministry of Public Health said on Sunday.
According to the ministry, another 25 deaths were also registered, bringing the death toll to 9,968.
The ministry stated that all 24 provinces of the country had reported an increase in infections, and authorities said this was largely due to citizens not complying with health protocols.
Egypt
Egypt started on Sunday vaccinating medical staff with Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in the northeastern province of Ismailia, according to a vaccination program by the Egyptian Health Ministry.
"Today, I announce launching the national campaign of COVID-19 vaccination from Abu Khalifa Hospital, starting with the medical staff," Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed told a news conference at Abu Khalifa Emergency Hospital in Ismailia.
The minister explained that clinical trials have proved Sinopharm vaccine is safe and highly effective in COVID-19 prevention, especially "in prevention of COVID-19 infection with severe symptoms."
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 469 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 133,767, said the country's Ministry of Health on Sunday.
The death toll from COVID-19 in the country has reached 2,066 as of Sunday evening, after three new deaths were reported, the ministry said.
Migrants occupy an old school assisted by volunteers of housing rights associations on Jan 24, 2021 in Paris, to call for a shelter "against the cold and the virus". (BERTRAND GUAY / AFP)
France
The COVID-19 situation in France is worrying, the head of the country’s Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) health regulator told France Inter radio on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government considers a new lockdown.
France on Sunday registered 18,436 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, pushing the total count to 3,053,617, while prospect rises for a third nationwide confinement to curb the spread of more infectious new variants.
Since France reported its first COVID-19 cases in late January 2020, a total of 73,049 people have died from the disease, figures released by health authorities showed.
Hospital admissions increased by 493 to 26,393, while the number of patients in intensive care units (ICUs) was up by 69 to 2,965.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, warned that faster-spreading mutations of the coronavirus will inevitably “get the upper hand” and “make problems” in Germany.
“We’re seeing that multiple hospitals are having to deal with the mutation,” Braun, who runs Merkel’s office, said late Sunday on ARD television. “That means it has arrived in the country and at some it will get the upper hand and make problems, I am very sure of that,” he added. “That’s why it’s very important that we stay the course and bring the numbers down very significantly.”
Ghana
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Ghana has risen to 3,286, with 679 new infections confirmed, Ghana Health Service (GHS) said early Monday.
Six more people died of COVID-19, bringing the toll related to the novel coronavirus to 367 in the west African country, according to the GHS.
The total number of confirmed infections in Ghana increased to 60,794, the health service said.
The country has conducted 735,234 tests, with a positivity rate of 8.3 percent, since the first confirmed case was reported last March.
Greece
A total of 32 cases of the mutated strain of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Greece after further analysis of samples going back to Nov. 11, Greece's National Public Health Organization (EODY) announced on Sunday.
The first positive case of the new variant of the virus – first detected in Britain – dates back to a sample taken on Dec. 23 in Athens, according to an e-mailed EODY press release.
Greek experts analyzed 235 samples taken in the Nov 11-Jan 18 period and found 17 cases of the mutated strain of the novel coronavirus in Attica region, 8 on Crete island, 3 at entry points and the rest concern close contacts of the positive cases, it was announced.
Ireland
Ireland’s government will decide in coming days if arrivalS should face mandatory quarantine if they don’t have proof of a negative test, while South Africa and Brazil travelers may also be required to isolate amid new virus variants.
Police are increasing checks close to airports to prevent non-essential travel out of the state. Schools are also set to remain closed beyond Jan. 30.
This handout picture released by Mexico's Presidency press office shows Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivering a speech during the inauguration of the new facilities for the National Guard in San Luis Potosi, Mexico on Jan 24, 2021. (HANDOUT / MEXICAN PRESIDENCY / AFP)
Italy
Italy will take legal action and step up pressure in Brussels against Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca over delays in deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines with a view to securing agreed supplies, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.
The aim was to get the companies to meet the vaccine volumes they had promised and not to seek compensation, Di Maio said on RAI state television.
“This is a European contract that Pfizer and AstraZeneca are not respecting and so for this reason we will take legal action… We are working so our vaccine plan programme does not change,” he said.
Pfizer said last week it was temporarily slowing supplies to Europe to make manufacturing changes that would boost output. On Friday, AstraZeneca said initial deliveries to the region will fall short because of a production problem.
Asked why he thought the pharmaceutical companies had been forced to announce reductions, Di Maio said he believed they had simply bitten off more than they could chew.
“We are activating all channels so the EU Commission does all it can to make these gentlemen respect their contracts,” he said.
Italy was the first Western country to be hit by the virus last March and has registered 85,461 deaths so far, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the sixth-highest in the world.
Mexico
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday he had tested positive for COVID-19, adding that his symptoms were light and he was receiving medical treatment.
“As always, I am optimistic,” said Lopez Obrador, 67, who has resisted wearing a face mask.
Mexico is in the grip of a second wave of the pandemic and has the fourth-highest death toll worldwide.
The health ministry on Sunday reported 10,872 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 530 fatalities, bringing its totals to 1,763,219 infections and 149,614 deaths.
Hospitals are overwhelmed by the surge in cases. The real number of infected people and deaths is likely significantly higher than the official count, the health ministry has said.
Lopez Obrador said on Twitter that his interior minister would run his regular morning news conference in his absence.
Morocco
Morocco on Sunday reported 520 new COVID-19 cases, taking the number of infections in the country to 466,289.
The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco hit 442,441 after 748 new ones were added, the ministry of health said in a statement.
The death toll rose to 8,150 with 22 new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 767 people are in intensive care units.
The COVID-19 fatality rate in Morocco stands at 1.7 percent while the recovery rate is 94.9 percent.
In this image made from video, a COVID-19 testing center is seen after being set on fire in Urk, 80 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam, Jan 23, 2021. (PHOTO / PRO NEWS VIA AP)
Netherlands
Rioters looted stores, set fires and clashed with police in several Dutch cities on Sunday, resulting in more than 240 arrests, police and Dutch media reported.
The unrest came on the second day of new, tougher coronavirus restrictions, including a night curfew, which had prompted demonstrations.
Police used water cannon, dogs and mounted officers to disperse a protest in central Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon, witnesses said. Nearly 200 people, some of them throwing stones and fireworks, were detained in the city, police said.
National broadcaster NOS said riot police had been deployed in at least 10 cities and towns after a curfew went into effect at 9 pm (2000 GMT). Vehicles were set alight, police were pelted with stones and public property was destroyed, it reported.
Images on Dutch television showed bands of youths looting shops, throwing bicycles and setting fires in the southern city of Eindhoven. At least 55 people were arrested in Eindhoven, the city said in a statement.
The demonstration in the city’s Museum Square, which violated a ban on public gatherings, came the day after the government introduced a nightly curfew for the first time since World War Two.
There have been 13,540 deaths in the Netherlands from COVID-19 and 944,000 infections.
Poland
Moderna canceled its planned vaccine delivery to Poland scheduled for Tuesday, Michal Dworczyk, chief of staff to country’s prime minister, said. Supplies are now expected to arrive over the weekend at the earliest, he told reporters.
Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that some restrictions could be lifted if the COVID-19 situation in the country stabilizes.
During an online meeting with students and university representatives, Putin said that daily recoveries have outnumbered new infections in the country, with the number of daily new cases dropping below 20,000.
Should the number of new cases stabilize, Russia could "cautiously remove imposed restrictions" and schools could return to normal, he said.
Russia registered 19,290 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, bringing its caseload to 3,738,690, the country's COVID-19 response center reported on Monday.
Serbia
Serbian authorities said on Sunday that the country has found the first case of the mutant coronavirus strain which was first detected in Britain.
The information was confirmed by President Aleksandar Vucic in a statement on TV Prva, a Serbian commercial television network, after he was informed about it by the Health Ministry.
The president said that the new strain of the virus was found in a traveler from London.
Serbia so far has registered 382,285 cases of the coronavirus, while 3,868 people died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Slovenia
The new variant of coronavirus first identified in Britain has been officially confirmed in Slovenia, Prime Minister Janez Jansa announced on Sunday.
The new strain was detected in a person from Serbia's region of Kosovo who was in Belgium on company business. He arrived in Slovenia on Saturday and had tested twice, with one coming back positive and one negative, Jansa told a press conference.
In addition to the first confirmed case, another two cases of the coronavirus variant are suspected as a result of the testing of 80 Slovenian samples, Jansa said, adding that it was possible the variant has been in circulation in Slovenia for a while.
Slovenia on Sunday registered 537 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national tally of confirmed cases to 157,838, Thirty-one new deaths took the death toll to 3,360, according to official figures.
South Africa
Moderna plans to begin human studies of a booster shot for its vaccine to help protect against a more-transmissible South Africa virus variant, after a test showed it may be less potent against that strain.
Even with the lower antibody levels, the existing vaccine should offer protect against the South Africa strain, Moderna said. But study results may indicate that immunity will wane faster, the company said.
South Africa’s death toll from COVID-19 is likely to be far higher than the official number of 40,874 reported so far, with the country struggling to contain a new, more transmittable variant of the virus that’s caused alarm globally.
There were 112,280 more deaths from natural causes than would have been expected between May 6 and Jan. 16, the South African Medical Research Council said in its latest excess death report published on Sunday. Weekly excess deaths, a measure of mortality exceeding historical averages, reached a record 16,093 by Jan. 10, the highest since the epidemic struck in March.
The Netherlands
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday condemned riots across the country this weekend in which demonstrators attacked police and set fires to protest against a night-time curfew to slow the spread of the coronavirus, calling them “criminal violence”.
The police said hundreds of people had been detained after incidents that began on Saturday evening and lasted until the early hours of Monday, including some in which rioters threw rocks and in one case knives at police and burned down a COVID-19 testing station.
Protests against coronavirus measures, which included a curfew that started Saturday evening, continued for a second on Sunday across cities in the Netherlands.
Protests in Amsterdam led to 190 arrests after people threw rocks and fireworks at police officers. The curfew runs between 9 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. and is on top of other measures, including the shuttering of non-essential shops and restaurants, that will last until at least Feb. 9.
Tunisia
Tunisian Health Ministry on Sunday night reported 2,059 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 197,373.
The death toll from the virus rose by 80 to 6,234 in the North African country, the ministry said in a statement.
People wearing protective face coverings to combat the spread of the coronavirus, walk in the snow on Primrose Hill in London on Jan 24, 2021. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
UK
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that the government is mulling measures to require arrivals into Britain to quarantine in hotels amid concerns over new coronavirus variants from abroad.
"We have to realize there is at least the theoretical risk of a new variant that is a vaccine-busting variant coming in, we've got to be able to keep that under control," Johnson said at a vaccination site in north London.
"We want to make sure that we protect our population, protect this country against reinfection from abroad. That idea of looking at hotels is certainly one thing we're actively now working on," he said.
As the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll approaches 100,000, grief-stricken relatives of the dead expressed anger at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the worst public health crisis in a century.
When the novel coronavirus, which first emerged in 2019, slid silently across the United Kingdom in March, Johnson initially said he was confident it could be sent packing in weeks.
READ MORE: AstraZeneca to cut deliveries of its virus vaccine to EU 'by 60%'
Earlier Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said "early evidence" shows the lockdown restrictions in Britain are starting to bring the number of new infections down.
However, it is still a "long, long, long way" before coronavirus cases are low enough for lockdown to be lifted, he told Sky News, adding that the National Health Service (NHS) remains under "enormous" strain.
Ukraine
Ukraine reopens schools, restaurants and gyms on Monday, ending a tough lockdown introduced on Jan. 8 to prevent a new wave of coronavirus infections, Ukrainian authorities said.
The number of new cases of coronavirus infection in Ukraine has significantly decreased from 6,000 to 9,000 cases a day at the beginning of January to 2,516 new cases on January 25, the fewest since early September.
US
Officials in President Joe Biden’s administration tried to head off Republican concerns that his US$1.9 trillion pandemic relief proposal was too expensive on a Sunday call with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, some of whom pushed for a smaller plan targeting vaccine distribution.
The US passed another milestone in the year-long struggle against COVID-19, as total infections exceeded 25 million, or about 8 percent of the population, according to data reported Sunday by Johns Hopkins University.
While daily case counts have declined after spiking to records of almost 300,000 after the Christmas holiday, the weekly average of about 175,000 new infections every day remains high.
The US death toll surpassed 417,000 as another 3,390 people died of COVID-19 nationwide.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping up its efforts to track coronavirus mutations to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines and treatments stay ahead of new variants of the disease until collective immunity is achieved, the CDC chief said on Sunday.
A person living in Placer County of the US state of California died hours after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, local authorities said Saturday, adding that an investigation is underway.
As of Sunday, the authorities gave no more information about the fatal case, including the deceased's age and gender, and the brand of vaccine the individual had received.
US President Joe Biden on Monday will ban most non-US citizens traveling from South Africa from entering the United States, multiple media outlets reported Sunday.
Biden would also reinstate travel restriction on the Schengen area of Europe, Britain, Ireland, and Brazil, which his predecessor Donald Trump had planned to rescind effective on Jan 26, according to the reports.
US media said that the United States has not yet detected any cases of the COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa, but several states have detected the variant discovered in Britain.
Zimbabwe
Russia and China have approached Zimbabwe about supplying vaccines to tackle its escalating COVID-19 outbreak amid concern about Harare’s ability to afford the shots, with plans for meetings with business leaders who have offered to pay for them.
Authorities in the impoverished southern African nation are scrambling to contain the accelerating spread of the coronavirus. Infections have doubled in just the past few weeks and three government ministers have died in the last 10 days.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana on Monday revealed that the administration of COVID-19 vaccine will start with frontline workers once available.
Masisi made the revelation when addressing some frontline workers in Francistown, Botswana's second largest city which is situated 430 km northeast of the southern African country's capital, Gaborone.
"Once available, administration of the vaccine will start with frontline workers since they are the first line of defense in treating and curbing the spread and transmission of COVID-19," Masisi said when motivating nurses, doctors, police officers and other frontline workers in Francistown.
Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 deaths have passed 1,000 as the country scrambles to contain a spike in infections of the virus that has claimed the lives of three government ministers in the last 10 days.
There are fears the more infectious South African variant of the virus came to the country when thousands of Zimbabweans living in the neighbouring countries returned home for the December holiday.
Zimbabwe has recorded a total 31,320 coronavirus cases and 1,005 deaths. More than half of these have been reported since the beginning of this year, data released late on Sunday showed.
