A medical worker prepares a dose of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Rabat, Morocco, Jan 29, 2021. (CHADI / XINHUA)
BRUSSELS / LONDON / PARIS / GENEVA / BOGOTA / ADDIS ABABA / RIO DE JANEIRO / BUCHAREST / OTTAWA / MEXICO CITY / NAIROBI / ROME / ALGIERS / SANTIAGO / SOFIA / MOSCOW / BUDAPEST – The World Bank has committed US$12 billion to African countries to support vaccination programs, the South African Presidency said in a statement on its website on Saturday.
The World Bank money will be in the form of grants or on “highly concessional terms,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in the statement.
The statement follows a Jan 27 virtual meeting on the Africa Covid-19 vaccine financing and deployment strategy, which was attended by David Malpass, president of the World Bank.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded on the African continent stood at 3,515,047 as of Friday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said, while the death toll stood at 89,993.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 102.1 million cases while the global death toll topped 2.2 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
France
France decided against imposing a third coronavirus nationwide lockdown on Friday and instead ordered tighter controls at its borders, increased police action against curfew breakers and a greater adherence to working from home.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said the public health crisis remained of great concern as France’s death toll jumped above 75,000, the seventh-highest in the world. The government reported 820 additional deaths, taking the cumulative total to 75,620.
READ MORE: For locked-down Parisians, taxis are a ticket to freedom
Speaking shortly after President Emmanuel Macron conferred with senior ministers about the crisis, Castex said that from Sunday all arrivals into France from outside the European Union would be banned, except for essential travel.
All visitors from EU nations would need to show a negative PCR test except cross-border workers and truckers.
The prime minister also said non-food shopping centres with a surface area of more than 20,000 square metres would be closed, home-working rules would be reinforced and that police would crack down on secret parties and illegal openings of restaurants.
France recorded 22,858 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total to 3.15 million.
The health ministry said in a statement that 1.45 million people had been vaccinated so far.
WHO
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that vaccines are now giving a window of opportunity to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, but they may also exacerbate the inequalities in distribution across the globe.
Rich countries squabbling over vaccine supplies must consider the situation in poorer parts of the world, Tedros said, warning that hoarding of shots “keeps the pandemic burning”.
“If we hoard vaccines and we are not sharing, there will be three major problems. One, I have said it, it will be a catastrophic moral failure and two it keeps the pandemic burning and three very slow global economy recovery,” Tedros said at a press briefing.
READ MORE: WHO chief: Bilateral vaccine deals putting COVAX at risk
The WHO said the world needed to diversify the supply chain for making COVID-19 vaccines and that it was looking at other suppliers.
It hopes to give emergency-use listing for the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine within two weeks, Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, said.
Brazil
Brazil reported on Friday 1,119 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 222,666, the Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, 59,826 new cases of COVID-19 were detected, bringing the country's cumulative total to 9,118,513.
The state of Sao Paulo, the most populated in the country, is the hardest hit with 1,759,957 cases and 52,722 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 516,868 cases and 29,563 deaths.
Bolivia
Bolivia on Friday began its immunization against COVID-19 with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, targetting healthcare personnel in the country's first stage of national vaccination plan.
President Luis Arce participated in a vaccination event in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, the region most affected by the pandemic.
Arce expressed satisfaction with the initial process and emphasized that his government was meeting the health needs of the Bolivian people through its national strategic plan to fight COVID-19.
According to the Ministry of Health, Bolivia has reported 210,726 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 10,226 deaths as of Thursday.
Hungary
Hungary has signed a deal to buy China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, enough to vaccinate 2.5 million people, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Friday.
Szijjarto made the announcement on his Facebook page following a phone call with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
"The delivery will take place in four stages over four months," said Szijjarto, adding that a contract was already signed earlier Friday.
"This deal will speed up vaccination, which could save the lives of thousands of people and contribute to lifting restrictions sooner," he added.
Earlier Friday, Hungarian Chief Medical Officer Cecilia Muller announced that Hungary has authorized the use of Sinopharm's vaccine.
READ MORE: Hungary first in EU to approve China's Sinopharm vaccine
In this Jan 2, 2021 file photo, boxes containing vials of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine are seen at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, England. (GARETH FULLER / POOL VIA AP)
EU
The European Union (EU) on Friday abruptly reversed a plan to use emergency Brexit measures to restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines from crossing the Irish border into the United Kingdom after it sent shockwaves through Northern Ireland, London and Dublin.
It warned, however, that should vaccines and active substances move toward third countries and out of the bloc, it would use “all the instruments at its disposal”.
The reversal came hours after the bloc’s executive arm announced that vaccine makers, including AstraZeneca, must obtain prior authorization before sending shots manufactured in the bloc to other countries. The escalation follows a very public dispute with the company triggered by production delays at a Belgian plant.
Also on Friday, the EU's drug regulator cleared the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for all adults
In a tweet late on Friday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she had spoken to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: “We agreed on the principle that there should not be restrictions on the export of vaccines by companies where they are fulfilling contractual responsibilities.”
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on Friday defended the restrictions, which will run until the end of March and allow EU states to block exports if a set of pre-defined criteria haven’t been met.
ALSO READ: AstraZeneca stands firm over EU vaccine complaints
The move – on the same day the EU’s drug regulator cleared the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for all adults – comes as pressure mounts on top EU officials for lagging far behind the UK and US in the race to inoculate citizens. The EU had administered just 2.5 doses per 100 people in the bloc, compared with 8.3 in the US and 11.9 in the UK, according to Bloomberg data.
Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it found no safety concerns with the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, following concerns over the reported deaths of elderly people in Norway.
Colombia
Colombia has reached agreements for doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and China's Sinovac and plans to begin a mass vaccination campaign on Feb 20, President Ivan Duque said on Friday.
The Andean country’s government aims have at least 1 million people vaccinated against the novel coronavirus by the end of March, Duque added. Colombia, a country of about 50 million people, hopes to vaccinate some 34 million people in a bid to achieve what is known as herd immunity, when a large part of a given population becomes immune to an infectious disease like COVID-19.
While previous agreements secured enough vaccine doses to inoculate 29 million Colombians, the new agreements secure a further 10 million doses and 2.5 million doses, respectively, taking Colombia’s total to more than 35 million doses.
Colombia registered 371 additional deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 53,284, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection said on Friday.
Up to 10,058 new COVID-19 cases were registered in the same period, taking the country's total caseload to 2,077,633.
Germany
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 12,321 to 2,205,171, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.
The death toll rose by 794 to 56,546, the tally showed.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged citizens to remain cautious so as to make a future easing of lockdown measures possible.
“Thanks to our joint efforts, the infection figures have been declining again for some time, the direction is right,” Merkel said in her weekly podcast. “But at the same time, there is the very real danger from highly contagious viral mutations. That’s why we have to be careful and cautious as we move through the next few weeks.”
Germany isn’t ready yet to reopen daycare centers and schools, she added.
Meanwhile, Germany will impose restrictions on travel from Brazil, Britain, Portugal and South Africa, the countries in which more infectious variants of the coronavirus are in wide circulation, according to a draft government regulation seen by Reuters.
“In addition to existing test and quarantine rules … a temporary limitation shall be imposed on carriage of travellers from countries designated as regions with variants,” reads the regulation.
Poland
Poland registered 5,864 new coronavirus cases and 303 deaths from the virus over the past 24 hours. The government said this week that the pandemic situation has stabilized enough for it to reopen shopping centers from Feb 1.
Norway
Norway extended national measures until mid-February and for Oslo to Feb 10, Health Minister Bent Hoie said.
It plans to ease curbs for schools and pre-schools in the Oslo area. Restaurants and individual stores will be allowed to reopen in Oslo.
Stricter measures were introduced Jan 23 to contain more contagious variants of the virus.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic banned all non-essential travel to the country for all foreigners as of today as the pandemic situation worsens, the foreign ministry said.
The move does not apply to work trips, visits to relatives, or weddings and funerals. There will be random checks on the country’s borders.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 771 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 136,365, the Ministry of Health said Friday.
The death toll reached 2,087 after two more deaths were reported, the ministry said.
Romania
The Romanian vaccination coordination authority decided on Friday to postpone vaccination for more than 60,000 people by half a month to ensure that those who need the booster during that period would have enough vaccines amid a shortage of vaccine doses.
The decision was taken "as a safety measure," said the the National Committee for Coordination of Vaccination Activities against COVID-19 (CNCAV), explaining that the vaccination plan has been affected partly due to a decrease in the quantities of vaccine doses previously delivered by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as the lack of predictability regarding the vaccine tranches delivered by Moderna for the months of February and March.
Romania started its first phase of the vaccination campaign on Dec 27, and so far 554,924 people have been vaccinated. Of them, 462,848 have gotten their first doses while 92,076 have also received their second doses.
Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday announced new measures against COVID-19, including the suspension of Canadian flights to all Caribbean destinations and Mexico.
Trudeau said that Canada's main airlines, including Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat, will cancel their air services to all Caribbean destinations and Mexico starting from Sunday until April 30.
All airline passengers arriving from abroad will also be required to take a mandatory COVID-19 test at the airport and wait in a hotel for up to three days at their own expense until the results arrive, Trudeau said.
Trudeau also said Moderna Inc’s next delivery would be almost a quarter smaller than expected.
Trudeau said he spoke to Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla for the second time in a week and was assured Canada would still receive the promised 4 million doses in the first quarter.
Also on Friday, Health Canada said it would complete its review of AstraZeneca Plc’s vaccine in the coming days.
As of Friday afternoon, Canada has reported 769,408 COVID-19 cases, including 19,775 deaths and 694,201 recoveries, according to CTV.
A woman wearing a face mask walks her dog down a sidewalk in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, the United States, Jan 28, 2021. (KEITH SRAKOCIC / AP)
US
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping order late Friday requiring the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation Monday as the country continues to report thousands of daily COVID-19 deaths.
The order requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares and at transportation hubs like airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations and seaports.
Biden's administration has increased monitoring for new variants of the coronavirus that spread more easily, including one that could become the dominant strain in the US by March
The administration of US President Joe Biden has increased monitoring for new variants of the coronavirus that spread more easily, including one that could become the dominant strain in the US by March.
The US is asking each state to send at least 750 samples a week to be sequenced to determine what mutations are spreading, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walenksy said in a briefing with reporters Friday.
Meanwhile, a coalition of airline, travel and aerospace industries and union and airport groups on Friday urged Biden not to impose new COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers on domestic flights.
In other developments, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said indoor dining in the city can reopen at 25 percent capacity on Feb 14, while Colorado Governor Jared Polis said the state plans to vaccinate all private and public school teachers over the next two to three weeks.
The CDC said it had administered 27,884,661 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 49,216,500 doses.
US Rep. Stephen Lynch tested positive for COVID-19 after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, at least the second lawmaker to contract the virus after getting both shots.
The US has reported over 25.9 million confirmed cases and more than 436,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Recent hot spots including Webb County, Texas and Maricopa County, Arizona have seen cases trend downward in the past week, according to USAFacts, a nonprofit statistics aggregator used by the CDC.
Belgium
The number of new coronavirus cases has more than doubled among children under the age of 10 in a week in Belgium, said Yves Van Laethem, inter-federal COVID-19 spokesman, on Friday.
The actual rate of increase was 128 percent. The increase in infections among teenagers was 41 percent, he said.
"Currently in Belgium, three-quarters of the new cases detected are linked to children or teenagers," he said.
Nationwide, Belgium has reported a total of 702,437 confirmed cases, according to figures published on Friday by the public health institute Sciensano.
Since the country launched its vaccination campaign on Dec 28, a total of 243,412 people had received their first vaccine doses, of which 3,458 had gotten their second doses as well.
Up to Jan 26, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products had reported 262 adverse side effects linked to the Pfizer vaccine, 37 of which were considered serious. According to Laethem, 14 people have died after receiving the shot.
Mexico
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that he still has COVID-19, but that doctors have told him he has now passed the critical phase of infection.
Lopez Obrador, who has not attended any public events since announcing he had COVID-19 on Sunday evening, was speaking in a video which was shared on his Twitter account.
Mexico plans to import about 870,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine from India in February, as well as producing it locally, Lopez Obrador said.
Meanwhile, deliveries of Pfizer’s vaccine to Mexico would “very probably” resume on Feb 10, Lopez Obrador said, after global delivery delays by the US company. Mexico was expecting about 1.5 million doses from Pfizer, he noted.
Mexico would also receive 870,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in February, he said. Additionally, Lopez Obrador said 1.8 million vaccine doses would arrive next month through a UN-backed mechanism, an apparent reference to the global COVAX facility.
Six million doses of China's CanSino Biologics vaccine, which is due to share its clinical trial results soon, should arrive in Mexico in February, Lopez Obrador said.
Mexico’s health ministry on Friday reported 16,374 new cases of coronavirus infections and 1,434 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,841,893 cases and 156,579 deaths.
Mexico City remains at the highest phase of COVID-19 alert for now, the city government said on Friday.
Rows of oxygen concentrators for COVID-19 patients sit in the main plaza of the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City on Jan 29, 2021. (MARCO UGARTE / AP)
J&J
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Friday that its single-dose vaccine was 66 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 in a large global trial against multiple variants, giving health officials another weapon to tackle the pandemic.
In the trial of nearly 44,000 volunteers, the level of protection against moderate and severe COVID-19 varied from 72 percent in the United States, to 66 percent in Latin America and just 57 percent in South Africa, from where a worrying variant has spread.
The data showed that the vaccine’s effect on the South Africa variant was diminished compared to the unaltered virus, but infectious disease and public health experts said it can still help contain the virus spread and prevent deaths.
J&J’s main goal was the prevention of moderate to severe COVID-19, and the vaccine was 85 percent effective in stopping severe disease and preventing hospitalization across all geographies and against multiple variants 28 days after immunization.
J&J plans to seek emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration next week and will soon follow up with the EU and the rest of the world. It has said it plans to deliver 1 billion doses of the vaccine, which it will make in the United States, Europe, South Africa and India, in 2021.
UK
The United Kingdom reported another 1,245 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total death toll in the country to 104,371, according to official figures released Friday.
The figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
Official data showed that another 29,079 people have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the tally to 3,772,813.
More than 7.8 million people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to latest official figures.
Italy
Italy said on Friday it would ease coronavirus restrictions across much of the country from Monday, despite warnings from health experts that the move was risky given concern over the spread of more contagious variants.
After a review of latest COVID-19 data, the health ministry said it was shifting 11 regions from orange to so-called yellow zones, giving inhabitants there greater freedom to travel and allowing bars and restaurants to reopen during the day.
In all, 16 regions will be in the lowest-risk yellow zone, and just four regions – Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily and Umbria – in the orange zone, together with the northern Bolzano province. Nowhere in Italy will be classified as a red zone, which brings with it stringent curbs on travel and business.
The health ministry said that the closely watched virus reproduction rate has fallen beneath 1 across most of the country.
Italy reported 477 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, down from 492 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 13,574 from 14,372.
Italy has now registered 87,858 deaths linked to COVID-19 and 2.529 million cases.
Up to Thursday, Italy registered over 2.5 million coronavirus cases, Health Ministry's data showed. This total included 474,617 active infections, some 87,381 deaths, and over 1.9 million recoveries.
Italy's emergency commissioner said that the country will have 300,000 less vaccine doses than expected due to delays in deliveries.
Kenya
Kenya's Ministry of Health said on Friday that 1.25 million people will be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the end of June.
"The people to be covered in this period include frontline health workers and all staff working in health facilities both in public and private sector," said Mercy Mwangangi, chief administrative secretary in the ministry.
She added that workers undertaking essential services in priority sectors like security and immigration will also be vaccinated during the period.
The official also said that 9.7 million Kenyans, including persons above 18 years of age with underlying health conditions, will be vaccinated from July to June 2022.
Kenya has registered 100,563 confirmed cases with 1,753 deaths and 83,821 recoveries.
Algeria
Algeria on Friday reported 277 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the North African country to 106,887.
The death toll rose to 2,884 after three more fatalities were added, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The official APS news agency on Friday quoted the government spokesman, Ammar Belhimer, as saying that Algeria received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from Russia on the same day.
He stressed that vaccinations will begin in the province of Blida on Saturday and will be carried out nationwide on Sunday.
Albania
Albania saw a record rise in new COVID-19 cases on Friday as health authorities reported 896 fresh infections were registered in the past 24 hours.
For four consecutive days, health authorities have reported nearly 900 new cases.
In total, Albania has logged 76,350 confirmed cases.
Deaths rose by eight to 1,358.
Chile
Chile's Ministry of Health on Friday said that 4,606 COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative caseload to 718,749 and the death toll to 18,257.
Health Minister Enrique Paris said in a press release that the number of COVID-19 cases has increased by 18 percent in two weeks.
A national vaccination campaign will begin next week for 5 million people who are in high risk groups, followed by the general population later in the year.
Chile has vaccinated 56,764 people, of which 10,347 have received their first and second doses, according to the ministry.
Tunisia
The Tunisian Health Ministry on Friday reported 1,679 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 206,030.
The death toll rose by 91 to 6,599, the ministry said in a statement.
Morocco
Morocco on Friday reported 851 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 469,990.
The total number of recoveries increased to 447,866 after 790 new ones were added, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The death toll went up by 22 to 8,246.
A health workers waits for her turn outside a vaccination booth on the first day of the vaccination campaign in Rabat, Morocco, Jan 29, 2021. (MOSA'AB ELSHAMY / AP)
Botswana
Botswana announced a further extension of a nighttime curfew to Feb 28 to curb the spread of COVID-19.
A curfew from 8 pm to 4 am will continue to be in force, President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced Friday.
During this curfew period, one will be required to carry a movement permit when movement is restricted. The sale and consumption of liquor in public places will continue to be suspended, said Masisi.
Greece
Greece will shut its shops on Saturday less than two weeks after they were allowed to reopen, and has indefinitely postponed plans to reopen secondary schools, after a surge in coronavirus infections forced it to reverse early steps out of lockdown.
“The horizontal spread of infections in the most densely populated area of the country is worrisome,” Vana Papaevangelou, a member of the committee of experts advising the government, told a press briefing on Friday.
She said the attention of epidemiologists had shifted from northern Greece to the wider Athens metropolitan area, “where there was a clear rise of infections in most neighborhoods”.
The occupancy of COVID-19 intensive care units in hospitals in Athens, where nearly half of Greece’s population lives, had reached 61 percent.
Under the newly tightened restrictions announced on Friday, shops in high infection areas would again have to close, though customers can pick up orders made online or by phone. Secondary schools will continue teaching remotely for the time being.
The restrictions will last at least until Feb 8.
On Friday, health authorities reported 941 new coronavirus cases and 22 deaths, bringing total infections to 155,678 and the death toll to 5,764.
Russia
Russia on Saturday reported 19,032 new COVID-19 cases, taking its official national tally to 3,832,080.
Authorities also confirmed 512 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 72,697.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria's COVID-19 death toll has risen to 9,008 after 35 more deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, official figures showed on Saturday.
The number of confirmed infections rose by 695 to 218,269, according to data published on the national COVID-19 information portal.
The data also showed that another 1,324 have recovered, raising the country's total recoveries to 184,249.
Moderna
Shortfalls in COVID-19 vaccine deliveries from US drugmaker Moderna have spread across Europe, as Italy joined France and Switzerland in announcing the company’s shipments for February would miss expectations.
Moderna told Reuters it had revised short-term delivery guidance for Europe and elsewhere outside the United States based on the “ramp-up trajectory” at its drug substance supplier, which is Swiss contract drug manufacturer Lonza. The company said in normal circumstances the industrial launch of a vaccine could take three to four years to prepare.
“Moderna confirms that, as it scales manufacturing, it is on track to supply the next three months of deliveries and meet its Q1 and subsequent contractual commitments,” Moderna said.
Italy now expects Moderna to deliver 20 percent fewer vaccine doses than promised in the week starting on Feb 7, Italy’s special commissioner for COVID-19 said on Friday, a day after neighboring France and Switzerland announced similar shortfalls.
Guinea
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said on Friday that Guinea had approved the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for domestic use, becoming the second African country to do so.
The shot was approved by the National Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicine of the Republic of Guinea, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, said in a statement.
