Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2.88 million, over 132.7 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 20:30 GMT Wednesday, the number of cases globally is 132,768,361, including 2,880,566 fatalities.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 30,904,409, including 558,931 fatalities.

Russia is ready to supply vaccines against COVID-19 to countries that need them on a transparent basis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Pakistani newspaper The News International.

As many as 94 percent of senior citizens develop antibodies against the coronavirus after being inoculated with Russia's EpiVacCorona vaccine, the head of the Yekaterinburg department of the vaccine's developer, Russia's Vector research institute, said.

The executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Emer Cooke, confirmed that the regulator's experts were planning on-site visits in Russia as part of its review of Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.

The developers of Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V dismissed the Financial Times' report that the European regulator would allegedly check the vaccine's compliance with ethical and scientific standards during the testing of the Russian vaccine amid some "fears" as fake news, the vaccine's Twitter account says. Earlier, FT reported that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) intended to begin checking the standards for conducting clinical trials of the Russian vaccine over fears that the trials in Russia were non-compliant with ethical standards.

Austria could register Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V on the national level if the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) approval process drags on, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

Tunisia is ready to participate in the production of Russia's Sputnik V since the coronavirus vaccine is in demand in the North African country, Director of the Tunisian National Observatory for New and Emergent Diseases Nissaf Ben Alaya said.

Pakistan is interested in purchasing 5 million doses of Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V and also wants to discuss potential local production, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

Brazilian officials intend to visit a Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine plant in Russia, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil.

Experts at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have recommended listing blood clot events as a very rare side effect of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine has proven to be "highly effective" and is "saving lives," EMA head Emer Cooke said. AstraZeneca was asked to continue research of the link between its coronavirus vaccine and blood clotting, Sabine Straus, EMA committee chair, said.

Benefits of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine still outweigh risks, June Raine, the chief executive of UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's (MHRA), said. The UK government's joint committee on vaccination recommended that people under 30 be offered an alternative to AstraZeneca amid concerns that the anti-coronavirus vaccine may cause rare blood clots in younger people.

AstraZeneca said it was working to establish the causes of blood clots after vaccination against coronavirus with its drug, but emphasized that these were very rare cases.

The immunity against the novel coronavirus produced by the Moderna vaccine remained active at least six months after the second dose, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said.

The University of Oxford said it had suspended administering doses of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) it developed with AstraZeneca in a UK study on children and teenagers aged 6-17, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

Germany may not receive a batch of almost 900,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine from the US manufacturer Moderna, business Insider reported, citing government sources.

Belgium's federal and regional health authorities have agreed to suspend the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine among people aged 56 and younger for four weeks over side effect concerns, the RTL broadcaster reported citing sources.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that it was conducting a study of the possible allergic reactions to the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines.

Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunizations (NACI) upheld the health regulator's decision to allow up to four months between two coronavirus vaccination shots amid an enduring shortage of available doses.

Health Canada is aware of a report by European health regulators that links the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to a string of blood clot events following inoculation, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo said.

The Mexican Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risk (Cofepris) has granted emergency use authorization to India's first domestically-produced COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied accusing the European Union of blocking vaccine shipments to the country and urged the bloc to grant AstraZeneca the license to export the full amount of 3.8 million doses that had been contracted in September.

The South Korean Ministry of food and Drug Safety approved the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Belgian firm Janssen Pharmaceuticals, part of Johnson & Johnson, for emergency use among those aged over 18.

The Japanese government is weighing whether to move Olympic athletes to the front of the COVID-19 vaccination line, the Kyodo news agency cited an official in the know as saying.

Haitian authorities have turned down offer of coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, which it was eligible to receive through the WHO-led COVAX mechanism, over widespread concerns about adverse effects from the drug, the Efe news agency reported, citing a government source.

Russia registered 8,294 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 8,328 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,606,162 , the coronavirus response center said.

The number of new cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has risen by 5 percent, and the death toll has increased by 11 percent in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a weekly report.

New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, and Michigan accounted for about 45 percent of all reported coronavirus cases in the United States in the past seven-day period , according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil's coronavirus death toll has risen by a record 4,195 over the past day, the health ministry said in a statement.

California will fully reopen by June 15 if its residents continue to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus and the rate of hospitalizations stays stable, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

The Canadian province of Ontario is declaring a state of emergency and introducing a stay-at-home order effective Thursday amid an increase in coronavirus variant cases, Premier Doug Ford announced.

Ecuador will introduce a mandatory 10-day quarantine for those arriving from Brazil starting from April 8 in light of the spread of new coronavirus variants, Ecuador's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

The Gaza Strip's authorities have decided to toughen coronavirus-related restrictions and close all educational institutions starting from April 7 due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bozom said.

An outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease that first emerged in China a little over a year ago, swept across the world in 2020, leaving devastated economies, deepening global inequality and worsening the already dire situation with migrants and refugees trapped in packed camps with poor sanitation conditions, Amnesty International said in a fresh report.

A six-month neurological and psychiatric study released by The Lancet Psychiatry found that 33.62 percent of ex-COVID-19 patients were estimated to have a neurological or psychological disorder in the following six months after COVID-19.

People aged over 80 have grave complications after the coronavirus in 30 percent of the cases, therefore it is vitally important for them to be inoculated, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik.

The European Commission announced its plans to allocate 123 million Euros (about $146 million) for research and innovation to combat the threat of coronavirus variants.

US President Joe Biden told reporters that he had not discussed with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping China's alleged responsibility for the spread of novel coronavirus across the world.