Latest On Coronavirus

Latest on Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 1.487 million, over 64.2 million cases of infection were detected, and over 41.2 million of those patients were cured, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from Federal and local authorities, media and other sources.

As of 20:00 GMT Wednesday, the number of cases globally is 64,237,007, including 1,487,875 fatalities.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 13,805,573, including 272,052 fatalities and 5,226,581 recoveries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday asked Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova to start mass vaccination against the coronavirus next week.

Russia will supply its Sputnik V vaccine coronavirus to other countries at the same price of below $10, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev said. Additional data on the efficacy of Sputnik V will be published in a top peer-reviewed magazine, Dmitriev also said. Russia will be able to produce more than 60 million doses of Sputnik V per month starting in March, he said.

More than 100,000 people have already received the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Russia's Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said. Russia is working to increase the production of its Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus both domestically and abroad, he said.

Russian vaccines against coronavirus for foreign countries will be manufactured abroad, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia and UN Secretariat are discussing President Vladimir Putin's offer to supply UN staff with Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said.

Russia is in contact with international initiatives on the coronavirus vaccine development and is looking forward to deepening this cooperation, given that Global Vaccine Alliance has a goal of more than 2 billion doses, an official with the Russian Health Ministry said.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that a facility for the production of the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus disease would be built in Kazakhstan in the near future.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is reviewing the applications of German BioNTech biopharmaceutical company and its US partner Pfizer as well as Moderna company to register their vaccines against coronavirus in the European Union and expects the first vaccines to be delivered to the European Union within weeks, EMA executive director Emer Cooke said.

Germany may receive 7 million doses of vaccines from BioNTech and Moderna in the first quarter of 2021, but the prospects for the supply of vaccines from AstraZeneca are not yet clear, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Italians will receive coronavirus vaccine shots free of charge, with the shipments of the first doses expected in January, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said.

The United Kingdom will receive 800,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus next week, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the COVID-19 vaccine, which will begin to be rolled out in the United Kingdom as soon as next week, will not be mandatory, but said that his government was working to tackle online disinformation campaigns promoted by anti-vax groups.

The chief executive of the UK drug regulator said Wednesday that the newly approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus was safe for use in patients over 65 years old.

The United Kingdom will overcome the pandemic by the spring, but for now people should abide by current coronavirus restrictions, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky news after the national regulator authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Mexico has signed an agreement with Pfizer on producing and purchasing its vaccine against the coronavirus disease developed together with BioNTech, the country's secretariat of health said.

Uruguay plans to start vaccinations against the coronavirus disease in April 2021, President Luis Lacalle Pou has said, adding that the vaccination will not be obligatory.

Poland is expected to spend somewhere between five to 10 billion zlotys ($1.35-$2.7 billion) on the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.

Vaccination against COVID-19 in Italy may begin on January 29, 2021, la Repubblica newspaper reported.

Mass vaccination against coronavirus is expected to start in France in the period between April and June 2021, President Emmanuel Macron said.

Mass vaccination against the coronavirus in Belgium is scheduled to start on January 5, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in light of reports that vaccines are expected in several weeks.

The Greek authorities are planning to vaccinate 2.

1 million people against the coronavirus disease every month, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said in an interview with the Mega broadcaster.

The United States expects the first shipments of coronavirus vaccines of pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Moderna on December 15 and December 22, respectively, CNN reported, citing a document of task force Operation Warp Speed.

New York will receive 170,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in less than two weeks, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The Japanese parliament passed a bill to make vaccination against the coronavirus free for residents, obligating the government to cover all costs.

The Japanese authorities are planning to allow foreigners to attend the 2021 Tokyo Olympics without a mandatory coronavirus vaccination or quarantine, if visitors submit negative COVID-19 tests and agree to use a contact tracking application, media reported.

People with COVID-19 may have antibodies for at least six months after contracting the virus, Japan's NHK broadcaster reported, citing a fresh study of Yokohama City University.

There is no data yet on how long a person who gets a COVID-19 vaccination will remain immune from the virus, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said.

Russia has registered 25,345 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 26,402 the day before, bringing the total to 2,347,401, the federal response center said.

The Russian city of St. Petersburg will suspend the work of its catering industry, with some exceptions, from December 30 to January 3 in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease, the city governor's office announced.

The governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, said that the authorities would further tighten restrictive measures if the situation with the coronavirus in the city worsens and the burden on healthcare system increases. St. Petersburg also sees shortage of antiviral drugs, including for the treatment of coronavirus, Beglov said.

Austria's strict coronavirus lockdown, allowing people to leave homes only for essential reasons, has proven effective, it will be abandoned as scheduled, with gradual lifting of restrictions set to start on December 7, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn has expressed optimism over Austria's plans for containing the epidemic after it allowed individual skiing over the Christmas season but kept hotels closed.

The French government will establish random borders checks and a week-long quarantine to prevent citizens from traveling to ski abroad, thereby increasing the risk of being infected with the coronavirus, French Prime Minister Jean Castex told the BFMTV broadcaster.

The Turkish government is not currently looking into potential closure of borders to restrict tourist flow amid a surge in coronavirus incidence in the country, a diplomatic source in Ankara told Sputnik.

The emergency situation regime has been extended in Latvia until January 11 as part of the coronavirus response, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said.

European and global aviation groups want quarantine rules for airline travelers ended based on new series of studies showing restrictions do little to prevent contracting the novel coronavirus, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Wednesday that it had suspended flights of two Russian airlines to China due to passengers infected with COVID-19.

A medical secretary at a physician's office in Oslo was sentenced to 24 days in prison for multiple violations of coronavirus quarantine rules, Norwegian media reported.

The Canadian economy rebounded in the third quarter of 2020, but remains below the level observed prior to the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Statistics Canada said in a report.

The coronavirus pandemic has aggravated the situation with human rights around the world, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, commenting on the government's 14th report on the country's human rights policy adopted earlier in the day.

An index measuring consumer's confidence in the US economy continued a slow recovery from an April crash due to the coronavirus pandemic measures to match levels just prior to the November 2016 presidential election, a new Gallup poll revealed.

The closure of North Korea's borders over fears of the spread of the coronavirus disease could result in hunger and riots in the country, media reported, citing South Korean intelligence.

The COVID-19 epidemic was spreading in the United States long before the first officially recorded infection cases were reported in the country, a fresh study revealed.

Sri Lanka has created the State Ministry for Primary Health Services, Pandemics and COVID Prevention, Colombo Page reported.