Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2.503 million, over 112.8 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 Thursday, the number of cases globally is 112,841,807, including 2,503,055 fatalities.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 28,383,517, including 507,146 fatalities.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova has tasked the health ministry and the health protection watchdog with studying coronavirus vaccination efficacy for HIV-positive people, according to the protocol of a meeting of the governmental council for guardianship in the social sphere.

The first shipment of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Montenegro on Thursday, the country's government said.

The first batch of Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V arrived in Nicaragua, the latter's vice president Rosario Murillo Zambrana said.

Guatemala became the third Central American country to register Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced.

The expert committee of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is set to review Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the coming days and make a statement regarding its use on the continent, Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong said at a briefing.

India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), which is reviewing an emergency use authorization application for the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, has requested Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, the Indian manufacturer of the shots, to provide additional immunogenicity and safety data, the PTI news agency reported, citing a source.

The publication of interim results of clinical trials of Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V by the producers was welcomed in the United Kingdom as bolstering "transparency and access," UK Ambassador to Russia Deborah Bronnert said.

Sergey Kazakevich, the director general of state-owned enterprise Belfarmprom, said talks were underway with a Russian company to organize a full cycle production of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus in Belarus.

The heads of state and government of the European Union, following the summit via video conference on Thursday, agreed to speed up the authorization, production and distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus, the summit's final statement says.

The leaders of EU countries agreed on the need to introduce electronic vaccination certificates, they will be ready within three months, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after online EU summit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Poland would provide the country with 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine.

An outbreak of the coronavirus has been registered in one of Lithuania's retirement homes despite the vaccination of its residents, the facility said.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has delayed a shipment of coronavirus vaccines to Estonia by a week, Estonian Minster of Health and Labor Tanel Kiik said.

Paris will supply 100,000 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at the request of the Czech government by mid-March, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters.

US diplomats working in other countries are disappointed with having to wait long for COVID-19 vaccination, The New York Times reported.

About 780 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will join the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at five community-based coronavirus vaccination centers in the US states of Florida and Pennsylvania, the Northern Command (NORTHCOM) said.

The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine showed 94 percent efficacy in a study involving more than one million Israelis, half receiving the inoculation and the other half remaining unvaccinated, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said.

Moderna, Inc. said it had sent its vaccine against the South African strain of the coronavirus to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Indians with underlying health conditions will be required to provide medical certificates to receive a coronavirus vaccine, N.K. Arora, a member of the COVID-19 task force, said.

India's domestically-produced COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin is largely unpopular within the Indian health care sector as only 11 percent of vaccinated workers were inoculated with it, Hindustan Times reported.

The African Union has authorized the AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, Dr. John Nkengasong, the chief of the bloc's health agency, announced.

The Syrian Health Ministry will start providing medical workers in several provinces with COVID-19 vaccines beginning next week, state-run news agency SANA reported, citing Health Minister Hassan Ghobash.

All countries in the World Health Organization's (WHO) European Region are "sovereign" to decide which coronavirus vaccines they choose to approve, Siddhartha Datta, WHO Europe's program manager for vaccine-preventable disease and immunization, said.

Russia's coronavirus incidence keeps falling, as the single-day increase slashed to the lowest level since October 7 with 11,198 new cases confirmed (down from 11,749 the day before), the coronavirus response center said.

Europe is registering less than 1 million new COVID-19 cases for a second week in a row, but the transmission rate is still high, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said.

Italy has averaged around 100,000 vaccinations daily this week but new variants of the coronavirus continue to drive up transmission numbers in several regions, media reported.

UK Chief Medical Officers decided that it was possible to downgrade the COVID-19 threat level one step to Level 4, the government said.

Europe may lift social distancing regulations by the beginning of the next year although the coronavirus will still likely be spreading, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said.

The Czech government, amid rising COVID-19 cases in the country, will ask parliament members to extend the emergency situation regime until March 31, First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek told reporters shortly after a cabinet meeting.

Jordan is re-imposing a curfew on Fridays and at night due to the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the kingdom, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson Ali Al-Ayed said.

The Brazilian state of Sao Paulo is imposing a night curfew from February 26 to March 14 amid rising incidence of the new coronavirus, Governor Joao Doria said.

Peruvian Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez announced the extension of the night ban on movement of citizens in 24 provinces with the highest risk of COVID-19 infection from March 1 to March 14, whereas a total lockdown in these regions is canceled.

Russian diplomats resorted to an unconventional means of travel to cross the border from North Korea after the reclusive Communist state shut borders to stop the coronavirus slipping in. The Russian Foreign Ministry said eight embassy staffers used a handcar to ferry their children and luggage across the Tumen River that separates the two neighbor countries.

The number of calls to the hotline from young people and parents of teens with eating disorders in France has doubled due to coronavirus-related lockdown restrictions, Danielle Castellotti, the head of the National Federation of Associations related to Eating Disorders (FNA-TCA), told Sputnik.

The Tokyo Olympics' organizing committee published a guidance for spectators of the upcoming Olympic torch relay, which bans cheering and crowding over coronavirus concerns.

The coronavirus pandemic's consequences such as numerous crises and inequalities will lead to a boost in efforts of the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia) to recruit fighters, Jordan's King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein said.

President Joe Biden has renewed the US Declaration of National Emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House announced.