Live Updates: France’s COVID-19 Death Toll Rises by 43 to 31,459, Health Ministry Says

BERLIN (Sputnik) - German Economy and Energy Minister Peter Altmaier said that he had gone on quarantine after one of the participants of the recent trade ministers meeting in Berlin had tested positive for COVID-19.

Altmaier became thus the second German minister, who had self-isolated within the past 24 hours. On Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas quarantined himself after a member of his security team had tested positive for the coronavirus.

"Today in the afternoon, I have gained information that a person accompanying one of the EU ministers at the meeting of trade ministers in Berlin had tested positive for the coronavirus. I went to a home quarantine as a precaution. On Friday, I tested negative [for COVID-19], I feel very good," Altmaier wrote on his Twitter page on late Wednesday.

Germany has registered about 280,000 COVID-19 coronavirus cases so far, with more than 9,000 fatalities.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump in a press briefing said his administration is providing $200 million to all US states to prepare for the distribution of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine to high-risk people as soon as it is available.

"Today my administration announced that we are awarding $200 million of CARES Act funding to all 50 states to prepare to distribute the vaccine to high-risk residents," Trump said on Wednesday.

Trump also said a fourth vaccine candidate has entered the final phase of clinical trials in the United States.

Trump has promised that 100 million doses of a vaccine will be distributed throughout the United States by the end of the year. He said a vaccine could be available for distribution as early as mid-October.

The United States has reported nearly 7 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 201,000 deaths caused by the disease as of Wednesday evening, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) – The Israeli government is going to tighten the coronavirus-linked quarantine for two weeks starting from Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address.

"Within the past several days, we have listened to experts who said that we would face great problems if no serious steps were taken. To save the lives of Israeli citizens, it is necessary to impose a strict two-week quarantine starting from Friday to the Sukkot holiday (late October 9). After that, we will have two more weeks of the quarantine, hopefully, with softer restrictions. But I stress that will depend on the incidence rate," Netanyahu said on late Wednesday.

The statement was made after the meeting of the special governmental commission on fighting the coronavirus.

Last week, Israel became the first country that introduced a second coronavirus-related lockdown. The restrictions are being tightened amid the ongoing rise in the number of COVID-19 cases: within the past 24 hours, the country has registered about 7,000 new patients marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak.

The United Kingdom will host the world’s first human challenge trials, in which volunteers are deliberately infected with COVID-19, to speed up the testing of vaccines, Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the newspaper, the project will be announced next week and will be vital to select the best candidates out of a wide range of promising vaccines, which are set to undergo clinical testing in early 2021.

The studies, funded by the UK government, are supposed to be launched in January at a quarantine facility in east London. Volunteers will first be given a vaccine and then receive a dose of SARS-Cov-2 around a month later.

Some 2,000 potential volunteers have applied for challenge studies in the UK through campaign group 1Day Sooner, the newspaper noted.

"We need a ‘people’s vaccine’ that is affordable and available to all."

-- @antonioguterres at @WHO #UNGA event on promoting healthy behaviours and addressing misinformation amid #COVID19. https://t.co/kOVNEJfhYr pic.twitter.com/zbob9A7tsQ

— United Nations (@UN) September 23, 2020

Biomed Lublin said Wednesday it had developed an effective medication for the treatment of the coronavirus.

The company said in a statement it had completed the first stage of producing the Polish coronavirus drug, which is based on plasma of the recovered patients.

The drug, which has not been named yet, will enter clinical trials in the near future, the company said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian research center Vector plans to launch the third stage of clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine in late October, the press service of the Russian consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said Wednesday.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, 5,000 volunteers will take part in the trials, with 2,000 of them set to receive placebo.

The third stage is being planned now, the watchdog said. The first two stages aimed to ensure that the vaccine was safe, while the upcoming phase will help find out more about efficiency and safety of the vaccine.

BERLIN (Sputnik) - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has gone on quarantine after a member of his security team tested positive for the coronavirus, although the minister himself initially tested negative, the ministry representative said Wednesday.

"In accordance with the law on infection safety, the foreign minister went on quarantine today because a member of his personal security team has COVID-19. The first test for COVID [the minister] had today was negative", the spokeswoman told reporters.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia will soon register its second vaccine against COVID-19, President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday, praising the country's ability to efficiently counter the virus.

"By the way, the second vaccine against coronavirus will be registered soon", Putin told Russian upper house lawmakers.

"During the pandemic, we have perceived the value of every human life, the value of the heroic effort of healthcare workers, and of course, the enormous role that healthcare system's efficiency plays for the society and the country. Over the past months, its capabilities have increased significantly. The healthcare system is now ready to efficiently counter the coronavirus infection and the seasonal surge in cold-related diseases", the president added.

In August, Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya research institute and dubbed Sputnik V. On Tuesday, the national consumer health watchdog said that another vaccine, developed by the Vector research center and dubbed EpiVacCorona, would be registered by 15 October.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the testing capacity in the country is at a record high level, as Britain is facing new wave of the coronavirus.

He thanked Dido Harding, the head of the NHS Test and Trace programme, saying that her team has done an "outstanding job", and noted that the government is doing its best to get children with symptoms tested.

"One of the great advantages of NHS (National Health Service) Test and Trace ... is that we now have the ability to see in granular detail where the epidemic is breaking out," he noted.

"That's why we've been able to deliver the local lockdowns and that's why we're able to tell now at this stage it is necessary to take the decisive action that we are," he said, referring to the recent restrictions imposed in the country to stop the pandemic.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has registered 6,431 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours (6,215 yesterday), which brings the cumulative total to 1,122,241, the country's coronavirus response centre said on Wednesday.

"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 6,431 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 1,557 (24.2 percent) have been detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms", the response centre said in a statement, specifying that the cumulative toll has reached 1,122,241.

Of all the newly detected cases, 970 were confirmed in Moscow, 215 in Moscow region and 208 in St. Petersburg.