Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2.348 million, over 107.1 million cases of infection were detected, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from Federal and local authorities, media and other sources.

As of 20:20 GMT Wednesday, the number of cases globally is 107,166,785, including 2,348,421 fatalities.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 27,239,037, including 469,833 fatalities.

Some 2.2 million people have been administered the first dose and over 1.7 million people both doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 to date, Denis Logunov, the deputy director of the Gamaleya Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that it had not received an application from the developers of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for market authorization in the European Union.

Meanwhile, some European lawmakers slammed the EU authorities for its handling of the coronavirus vaccination campaign, as well as accused them of refusing to purchase Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for ideological reasons.

Tehran and Moscow have reached an agreement to jointly produce the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Iran's ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, said.

The first doses of Russian vaccine Sputnik V will arrive in Venezuela next week, the Latin American country's president, Nicolas Maduro, said.

Chile has secured an agreement on shipments of the Russian-made coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, Health Minister Enrique Paris said.

Bahrain approved Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V for use in the country under the emergency procedure, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal signed a decree banning registration of Russian-made COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac has applied for the state registration of its coronavirus vaccine in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said.

The European Union has underestimated challenges in mass production of coronavirus vaccines, which has yet to match "ground-breaking pace of science," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Only about 0.14 percent of all people vaccinated in Spain against COVID-19 have side effects, the Spanish Agency for Medicine and Health Products (AEMPS) said.

The Czech Republic will not administer Russia's Sputnik V vaccine until it is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but may start building up stocks in advance, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said.

The Greek government has issued fines for non-compliance with the coronavirus-related measures for a total amount of 45.7 million Euros ($55,45 million) from November 2020 - January 2021, Angelos Binis, the head of the National Transparency Authority (NTA), said at a briefing.

Bulgaria plans to procure over 3 million additional doses of the coronavirus vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to make up for a possible shortage of supplies of the one by AstraZeneca, Bulgarian Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said.

The US food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an emergency use authorization to a monoclonal antibody cocktail made by Indiana-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly for treating coronavirus patients at high risk of developing severe COVID-19.

Chile has already vaccinated over 1 million people against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the country's health ministry said.

Brazil is exempting coronavirus vaccines supplied via the international COVAX facility from routine processes of registration and emergency use authorization, health regulator Anvisa announced.

The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced authorizing the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for all citizens over 18 while advising caution when giving it to those aged 65 and older.

Cambodia has launched a nation-wide COVID-19 inoculation campaign on Wednesday using the first batch of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by China, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.

The Qatari Health Ministry has issued an emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by US pharma company Moderna.

South Africa will proceed with the planned coronavirus immunization campaign using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine instead of the one by Oxford/AstraZeneca, which was deemed ineffective against the South African COVID-19 variant, the country's health minister, Zwelini Mkhize, said.

With Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine proving to be less effective in protecting against infections caused by the coronavirus variant found in South Africa, wider vaccination among the general population might be needed to build up herd immunity, public health experts told Sputnik.

The World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) said that the benefits of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the potential risks.

AstraZeneca and contract development and manufacturing firm IDT Biologika intend to increase the production of the coronavirus vaccine in Europe over delivery delays to the bloc and problems at production sites.

The number of global new COVID-19 cases is decreasing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.

Russia's single-day increase in COVID-19 cases fell below 15,000 for the first time since October 17, as 14,494 new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours (down from 15,019 the day before), the response center said.

The German government has extended the coronavirus-related lockdown until March 7, according to a document prepared following Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with regional governors.

The Chechen Republic became the second Russian region to scrap a mask mandate and replace it with just a recommendation amid declining coronavirus cases.

Peter Daszak, an expert of the WHO fact finding mission to China's Wuhan, called on Wednesday for not relying "too much" on US intelligence related to COVID-19, citing its questionable credibility.

Peruvian Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti on Wednesday called on businesses with relevant skills to help the government replenish the shortage of medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients.

Canada will forgive some of the erroneous stimulus payments made to self-employed recipients, Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough said.

All countries had excess mortality due to the coronavirus, Russia is not the only one, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Slovakia's GDP decreased by 5.8 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, this indicator is better than projected by analysts, Slovak Finance Minister Eduard Heger said.