Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 4.977 million, almost 245.3 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 20:10 GMT Thursday, the number of cases globally is 245,377,854, including 4,977,538 fatalities. As many as 6.94 billion of vaccine doses have been administered to date.

Russian authorities have not yet decided to introduce mandatory vaccination of the population against COVID-19, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Immunization with Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine and then revaccination with a nasal vaccine is likely to ensure full protection against COVID-19 infection, but this has yet to be studied in clinical trials, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, told Sputnik.

The Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine forms good post-vaccination cellular immunity in children, the first stage of trials shows, the Moscow mayor's office said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates to have final recommendation on Indian vaccine Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech, next week, WHO Assistant Director General Mariangela Simao said.

The European Union expects 3.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to be produced in the block next year and the majority will be exported, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

As many as 72% of unvaccinated American workers are ready to quit their job if their employers mandate vaccination against the coronavirus without an option to get tested weekly instead, according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Russia registered a new single-day record of 40,096 COVID-19 cases, up from 36,582 the day before, bringing the cumulative total to 8,392,697, the federal response center said. The response center reported a new single-day record of 1,159 deaths linked to the coronavirus, up from 1,123 the day before, bringing the country's death toll to 235,057.

The elderly are most at risk of contracting the coronavirus in Russia today, Tatyana Ruzhentsova, deputy director of the G.N. Gabrichevsky Center at Rospotrebnadzor, told Sputnik.

The seven-day average in coronavirus cases shows a 16 percent decrease compared to last week, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CD) Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters.

Syria is facing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases as less than 2% of the population have been vaccinated, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said.

New COVID-19 cases and deaths worldwide are rising again for the first time in two months on account of renewed spread in Europe, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said.

The European Union recognized COVID-19 vaccination certificates issued by Armenia and the United Kingdom, the European Commission said.

Nearly half of US voters say National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci lied about funding gain-of-function virus research such as that at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a new Rasmussen Reports poll revealed.