Live Updates: Trump Signs Executive Order to Ensure American Citizens Get Vaccines First

The death toll from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Argentina has topped 40,000, the country's Health Ministry said in a statement.

"Over the past 24 hours, 121 new deaths have been registered. So far, 40,009 people have died," the ministry said.

A total of 3,610 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the past day.

The country's overall coronavirus case tally stands at 1,469,919, with 1,305,587 recoveries.

The Gaza Strip's authorities will impose a complete weekend curfew in the enclave due to the rise of coronavirus cases, Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bozom said at a press conference.

According to him, the curfew will take effect on Thursday evening and would last until Sunday morning.

"Traffic (between provinces) will be banned, and all service facilities, including bakeries and drinking water vehicles, will be suspended," al-Bozom said.

"The sea will also be closed to fishermen. Police and security services will enforce the closure regime and curfew," he said.

The Gaza Strip has seen a steady rise in COVID-19 infection cases in recent weeks. The enclave's authorities last week introduced stricter measures to combat the coronavirus, including the closure of universities, schools and mosques and a ban on mass events.

The Israeli government is studying measures alternative to curfew to prevent crowding for the coming holidays due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the cabinet told Sputnik.

A day earlier, reports said the coronavirus response center had decided to impose a night curfew in Israel from Wednesday, then the decision was to be submitted to the government for approval.

"Due to legal difficulties in approving the night curfew to prevent total quarantine, alternative measures are currently being explored to prevent crowding during Hanukkah and the New Year holidays," the cabinet said.

The Canadian province of Alberta is introducing a ban on outdoor gatherings in concurrence with other measures to stem the tide of COVID-19 cases in the province, Premier Jason Kenney said during a press briefing.

"As of today, we are banning outdoor gatherings," Kenney said on Tuesday, expanding on the provision prohibiting outdoor gatherings instituted two weeks ago.

The province’s health minister, Tyler Shandro, clarified that those living alone will continue to be allowed to gather with two close contacts.

Other measures introduced by the province, include mandatory telecommuting where possible, and enforcing mandatory masking in all indoor public spaces effective immediately as well as the closure of libraries, museums, casinos and other reactional facilities beginning December 13, according to Kenney.

Dining establishments will be limited to offering take out also starting on December 13, Kenney said.

The measures will be in effect province-wide and remain in force for a minimum of four weeks, Kenney added. Albertans will be limited to congregating with immediate members of a household for Christmas or with two other close contacts who live alone, the premier said.

Kenney noted that the province had been taking a regional approach but a 371 percent spike in hospitalizations and a 300 percent rise in ICU patients in little more than a month and growing virus transmission in all parts of the province indicated to officials that such an approach had run its course.

The province of Alberta, which has been the nation’s hotspot for new infections, logged 1,727 new infections on Tuesday bring the province’s total to 72,028, according to provincial data, has asked the federal government and the Canadian Red Cross for field hospitals amid a shortage of hospital beds.

The virus is also pushing other provinces to the brink, with Manitoba extending its ban on indoor gatherings through the holiday season.

As of Tuesday, Canadian authorities have reported nearly 430,000 coronavirus cases and more than 12,800 virus-related fatalities.

Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Chicu has contracted the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but will continue to fulfill his duties remotely, the cabinet said in a statement.

"Prime Minister Ion Chicu developed symptoms characteristic of the COVID-19 virus, he took a test and the result was positive," the Moldovan cabinet said on Facebook.

"The prime minister will continue to carry out his official duties remotely," it said.

Earlier, the Moldovan authorities reported 119,204 registered cases of coronavirus, with 2,460 deaths.

Moscow has registered 75 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 9,571, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Another 75 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the center said.

In the previous day, 71 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to prioritize domestic distribution of COVID-19 vaccines over their shipments to foreign countries.

"I sign the executive order to ensure that American citizens have first priority to receive American vaccines. And then we are going to be working with other countries all over the world," Trump said during the Vaccine Summit at the White House.

The president added that exports are also likely to start almost immediately, because "we have millions of doses coming in."

The US administration is expected to approve two vaccine candidates in the coming days to administer tens of millions of doses in December with hundreds of millions more in subsequent months. The plan is to vaccinate almost all US citizens by the end of the second quarter of 2021.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party thinks that Germany requires a vaccine against the coronavirus disease and it does not matter where it originates, Armin-Paulus Hampel, the party spokesman in the German lower house's committee on foreign affairs, told Sputnik in an interview.

The EU has signed contracts for the supply of some 2 billion doses of vaccines using emergency clause that allows vaccine to be used prior to clinical trial completion. Both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have already applied for their vaccines to be approved by the European Medicines Agency for emergency use. Hungary has sought Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, but was warned by the EU to not let any doses outside its borders into other EU countries.

"I believe what people want is a working vaccine. And I do not care where it comes from," Hampel said.

The politician added that a Russia-made vaccine could be used in Germany and Europe.

"If Russia has established an efficient vaccine against corona, then it is proper to use it in Europe, in Germany, as well," Hampel stated.

On Tuesday, an AfD delegation visited Moscow and held a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia has emerged as a leader in vaccine development as two of its products, Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, and EpiVacCorona, developed by the Siberian research center Vector, are already in the Phase 3 trials. Another vaccine, by the Chumakov research center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will begin Phase 3 trials early in 2021.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States has exceeded 15 million, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) showed on Tuesday.

The exact number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States stood at 15,019,092 as of Tuesday afternoon. More than 284,887 people have died of the disease in the country since the start of the pandemic. More than 2 million cases have been confirmed since November 28.

Russia expects to produce at least 6 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine per month starting in January, director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg, said.

"I can tell you today that this technology has been transferred to four platforms, let's call it Russian 'big pharma,' which means that we can not just hope but be certain that Russia will produce at least six million doses of the vaccine a month, starting in January. At least that, and possibly more," Gintsburg said.

The Gamaleya centre developed Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, the first one in the world to be approved by a national health authority.

Mexico plans to begin the COVID-19 vaccination process for 125,000 people in December, Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell said on Tuesday.

The second phase of the country's vaccination program is scheduled to begin in February, he added.

Clinical trials involving approximately 38,000 participants suggest that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has a positive safety profile and poses no concerns that would prevent emergency use authorization, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday.

“Safety data from approximately 38,000 participants ≥16 years of age randomized 1:1 to vaccine or placebo with a median of 2 months of follow up after the second dose suggest a favorable safety profile, with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA,” the FDA said in a briefing document.

The briefing document, released ahead of a scheduled meeting on Thursday to discuss emergency use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine, concludes that the clinical study "met the prespecified success criteria," an indication that the FDA will likely grant approval for the drug.

The FDA document revealed, however, that two patients who received Pfizer-Biontech's coronavirus vaccine during the trials died after receiving the injections.

“A total of six (2 vaccine, 4 placebo) of 43,448 enrolled participants (0.01%) died during the reporting period from April 29, 2020 (first participant, first visit) to November 14, 2020 (cutoff date),” the FDA said in briefing documents released ahead of a scheduled Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday to discuss emergency use authorization for the vaccine.

Both of the vaccine recipients were over the age of 55 years old, the documents said. One patient experienced a cardiac arrest 60 days after receiving a second dose of the vaccine and died three days later. The other patient with baseline obseity and pre-existing atherosclerosis died from arteriosclerosis three days after receiving a first vaccination.

However, the FDA document largely praised the safety results of the trial and said vaccination could even benefit individuals previously infected with COVID-19.

“Only 3% of participants had evidence of prior infection at study enrollment, and additional analyses showed that very few COVID-19 cases occurred in these participants over the course of the entire study,” according to the documente.

Data, according to FDA, suggest that “previously infected individuals can be at risk of COVID-19 and could benefit from vaccination.”

Last week, the UK became the first country in the world to grant emergency use approval to the candidate vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech.

In mid-November, Pfizer announced that their candidate vaccine concluded phase 3 clinical trials, with a declared efficacy level of 95 percent.

At Guy's Hospital in central London on Tuesday it was business as usual despite being one of the 70 hospitals chosen for "V Day," as UK Health Minister Matt Hancock has dubbed the day the UK became the first Western country, and the second in the world after Russia, to start a massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19.

But when asked by Sputnik about the room where people where given the vaccine developed by US pharma company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, staff immediately became wary and redirected all questions regarding the vaccine to the security office, which, in turn, referred the inquiry to the National Health Service press office.

Only a woman in her 40´s agreed to respond on condition of anonymity that she was very glad that her hospital had been chosen for the first rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the first doses going to people over 80 who are either hospitalized or already have outpatient appointments scheduled, and care home workers and health staff administering the injection.

"I'm hopeful that we are seeing today the beginning of the end of this terrible pandemic," she said.

The apparent secrecy at Guy's Hospital contrasted with the official fanfare after the UK media reported that Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old UK citizen had become the first person in the world to receive a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine out of a clinical trial.

Speaking at the Guy's Hospital earlier in the day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was amazing to see the vaccination begin in the UK. Johnson said it was "a momentous step in our fight against COVID-19", while a tearful Hancock said on television that "it makes you so proud of being British."

Johnson and his chief medical and scientific advisers, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, respectively, also took good care in warning people that the immunization campaign will be a gradual process, and that the pandemic is not over yet, so it will be necessary for people to follow the COVID-19 rules for a while.

The United Kingdom, which became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, has already received 800,000 vaccine doses out of 40 million it had ordered, which would be enough to vaccinate 20 million people as each person requires two doses to be immunized.

The UK regulator is also assessing the efficacy of the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford and the UK-Swedish company AstraZeneca and according to Johnson, the greenlight for its massive rollout could come before Christmas.

France's tourism industry has lost about 60 billion euros ($72.7 billion) due to the situation with coronavirus and relevant quarantine restrictions, French Secretary of State for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told Le Figaron newspaper.

According to the official, the cancellation of 2021 Paris Air Show, one of the world's largest aircraft and spacecraft events traditionally held at Le Bourget, will, in particular, severely hit business tourism. The organizers reported its cancellation over coronavirus restrictions on Monday.

"As for the entire tourism industry, not only business tourism ... the losses have so far amounted to [approximately] 60 billion euros. This means that 30-40 percent of income has disappeared," Lemoyne said.

France imposed its first stay-at-home regime from March-May, hitting hard the eurozone's second largest economy. The second lockdown came into force on 30 October amid the second coronavirus outbreak, with another closure of stores, businesses and public facilities. On 28 November, some quarantine rules were softened allowing clothing stores, bookstores, beauty salons and hairdressers to open.

The authorities plan to lift the nationwide lockdown effective on December 15, given the daily average of new infections falls below 5,000.

Two patients who received Pfizer-Biontech's coronavirus vaccine during safety trials died after receiving the injections, documents released by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed on Tuesday.

“A total of six (2 vaccine, 4 placebo) of 43,448 enrolled participants (0.01%) died during the reporting period from April 29, 2020 (first participant, first visit) to November 14, 2020 (cutoff date),” the FDA said in briefing documents released ahead of a scheduled Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday to discuss emergency use authorization for the vaccine.

Both of the vaccine recipients were over the age of 55 years old, the documents said. One patient experienced a cardiac arrest 60 days after receiving a second dose of the vaccine and died three days later. The other patient with baseline obseity and pre-existing atherosclerosis died from arteriosclerosis three days after receiving a first vaccination. 

Germany's states of Bavaria and Saxony are tightening their lockdown measures amid an increase in COVID-19 cases, the country's media reported on Tuesday.

Dresden is said to be introducing emergency measures on 14 December, while Munich will do so on Wednesday.

According to the MDR broadcaster, Saxony will close all shops except those selling food, as well as schools kindergartens, as many of the state's regions have reported a several-fold excess in the incidence rate and a five-time increase in fatalities in comparison to the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, Bavaria will declare an emergency on Wednesday, stopping small border traffic, limiting the visitation of hospitals and nursing homes, as well as banning alcohol sales and leaving home without pressing reasons, reports the ZDF TV channel. The state will also impose a curfew starting at 9 p.m. local time (20:00 GMT)

Earlier in the month, Germany's federal and regional authorities agreed to extend the country's lockdown measures until 10 January.

The German Bild tabloid newspaper reports that the government is considering imposing more severe measures starting 27 December.

The Greek government has set maximum prices for COVID-19 tests with a maximum cost of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at 40 euros ($48) and express test at 10 euros, according to a statement published by the official gazette.

According to the statement, taking samples for PCR tests in private diagnostic laboratories and private clinics should cost no more than 20 euros.

Companies offering the above mentioned services and products are required to provide publicly available price lists and also post them on their websites.

In case of non-compliance with the requirements, an administrative fine of 5,000 euros will be imposed.

Recently, the cost of a COVID-10 test in Greek hospitals was 70-80 euros, and jumped to 170 euros in summer.

Polish citizens vaccinated against the novel coronavirus will enjoy a number of benefits, such as no requirement to go to quarantine after traveling to other countries, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Tuesday.

Poland has ordered more than 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by six leading manufacturers, including Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's statement on Tuesday. The vaccination will be voluntary and free.

"We envisage a system of benefits to spark interest [in vaccination]," Niedzielski said at a briefing.

The minister explained that those who receive a vaccine would not be quarantined after coming into contact with those infected, as well as upon the arrival from a country experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases.

In addition, vaccinated citizens will not be included in the limited number of people allowed at family meetings. Currently, these meetings can be attended by up to five people, not counting the hosts.

The coronavirus-related quarantine in Azerbaijan was extended to 31 January, the cabinet's response center announced on Tuesday amid a surge in new cases, also noting that entry to and exit from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku will be banned between 14 December and 18 January.

"The quarantine regime in Azerbaijan was extended to 31 January," the response center said in a statement.

"Entry to and exit from the territory of Baku ... will be banned, with exceptions for special and cargo vehicles," the statement read on.

The response center added that the nationwide restrictions would be tightened for the period between 14 December and 18 January.

Thus, operation of shops and restaurants will be restricted to deliveries and online services, and restrictions on movement in five cities and 12 regions will be introduced.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News that the government will start lifting COVID-19 restrictions in spring 2021 after enough vulnerable people are vaccinated.

"When enough people, who are vulnerable to COVID-19, have been vaccinated, then, of course, we can lift the restrictions," Hancock said adding that the government expects this to happen in spring 2021.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Tuesday that the United Kingdom was starting vaccination against coronavirus, expressing gratitude to the National Health Service (NHS), volunteers and all those following safety rules.

Last week, the UK became the first country in the world to grant emergency use approval to a candidate vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech.

Russia has registered 26,097 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 28,142 the day before, bringing the total to 2,515,009, the federal response centre said on Tuesday.

"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 26,097 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 5,090 (19.5 percent) were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 2,515,009.

Moscow has confirmed 5,232 new coronavirus cases over the given period, down from 7,279 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 3,734 cases, down from 3,741 the day before, and the Moscow region with 1,341 new cases, up from 1,315 the day before.

The response center reported 562 coronavirus fatalities, up from 456 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 44,159.

As many as 24,938 coronavirus patients were confirmed to have recovered, up from 18,850 the day before, bringing the total to 1,981,526.

According to the national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, over 80 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic, and 540,831 suspected carriers remain under medical monitoring.

Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor warned media outlets and social networks on Tuesday of the inadmissibility of spreading fake information regarding the need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, and safety of the vaccines.

"In light of the start of mass vaccination, we ask media outlets, social networks and other popular online resources to take note of the fact that it is inadmissible to spread unconfirmed information on the need for vaccination, and the safety of vaccination and the vaccines against COVID-19 that are used," Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

The spreading of unreliable information may contribute to a distorted public opinion about the need to get vaccinated, while it also discredits activities of health authorities and causes distrust in government's response to the pandemic. All this can result in a spike in new cases, jeopardizing Russian citizens' lives and health, the watchdog warned.

"We remind you that media outlets are obligated to check the accuracy of published information (under Article 49 of the law 'On mass media')," Roskomnadzor went on to say.

Local authorities in Chengdu, located in China’s western Sichuan province, identified three new COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, and the local police launched an investigation after the identity of one of the newly detected patients was leaked online.

After an elderly couple was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 on Monday, three more infected patients were identified on Tuesday as close contacts of the infected couple were being tested, the local government said in a statement on its official Weibo account on Tuesday.

According to the statement, two of the newly detected patients were elderly neighbors of the infected couple and the third patient was the 20-year-old granddaughter of the couple.

However, shortly after local authorities revealed the three new COVID-19 cases, the young female patient’s real name and personal details began to be circulated on Chinese social media.

According to the widely circulated social media posts, the 20-year-old female patient visited her grandparents on December 2 and had dinner with them for 30 minutes. Afterward, she never met with her grandparents who were confirmed to be infected on Monday.

Commentators on Weibo expressed anger over the leaked information, alleging the girl had visited movie theaters and went to bars for two nights in a row on Saturday and Sunday, when she knew her grandparents were being tested for COVID-19.

In response to the new COVID-19 outbreak, local authorities in Chengdu locked down the neighborhood where the old couple lived and initiated mass testing of possible contacts of the confirmed patients, including customers of the restaurants, movie theaters and bars that the 20-year-old patient reportedly visited.

The local police in Chengdu has launched investigation after the young girl’s personal details were leaked online, the Paper, a Shanghai-based newspaper, reported on Tuesday.

Local authorities dismissed rumors that a number of universities in the city were under lockdown because of possible contacts with the infected patients.

Today the first vaccinations in the UK against COVID-19 begin. Thank you to our NHS, to all of the scientists who worked so hard to develop this vaccine, to all the volunteers - and to everyone who has been following the rules to protect others. We will beat this together. https://t.co/poOYG1vHQe

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 8, 2020

The Pakistani authorities are negotiating the issue of procuring coronavirus vaccines with China and Russia, among other vaccine developing nations, Faisal Sultan, special assistant to the Pakistani prime minister on health, told the Anadolu news agency.

"We are in talks with China, Russia and some other countries for procurement of the [COVID-19] vaccine after narrowing down our priority list," Sultan said.

According to the official, the vaccine will be available in Pakistan between January-March 2021, and health workers and senior citizens will get it during the first phase of the vaccination.

"There is nothing final yet; however, I can tell you that we have to rely on more than one source ... We will procure the vaccine only after its efficacy and safety is proven," Sultan said.

In August, Russia became the first country to register a COVID-19 vaccine, which was named Sputnik V. The clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya research institute, have demonstrated that its efficacy rate is over 90 percent. Dozens of countries have already expressed interest in procuring the Russian vaccine.

Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac started developing its vaccine back in January immediately after the outbreak of then-unknown pneumonia disease, later named COVID-19, had been officially confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The vaccine has been approved for Phase 3 clinical trials in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and Chile, while the Phase 1 and 2 trials' results in China have shown that the vaccine is capable of inducing antibodies in over 90 percent of volunteers who received two doses.

Both China and Russia have been engaged in developing other coronavirus vaccines.

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old UK citizen was the first person in the world to receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by US pharma company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, outside a clinical trial, the Sky News media outlet reported on Tuesday, the day the UK government launched a vaccination campaign in the country.

The vaccine pioneer received her inoculation at a hospital in the UK city of Coventry.

"My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it - if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too," Keenan said, as cited by the news outlet.

Tuesday's launch of the inoculation campaign was dubbed V-Day by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock. The United Kingdom, which became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, has already received 800,000 vaccine doses out of 40 million it had ordered.

The vaccine is being administered first to older residents in care homes and their staff, followed by people over 80 and front-line healthcare personnel.

As of Tuesday, the UK national health authorities have confirmed 1,742,525 COVID-19 infections, the world's seventh total, with a death toll of 61,531.  

 All the 672 adult volunteers who received the first dose of Russia's EpiVacCorona vaccine against COVID-19 in the post-registration clinical trials feel fine, with no undesirable effects recorded, the federal public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said on Tuesday.

"As many as 672 volunteers aged over 18 and 96 volunteers aged over 60 have received the first dose of the vaccine within the post-registration placebo-controlled clinical trials of the EpiVacCorona vaccine by Rospotrebnadzor's scientific center Vector. All the volunteers feel fine, no undesirable effects have been detected," Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement.

The EpiVacCorona vaccine is absolutely safe for the volunteers and can be easily stored and transported at a temperature of +2 to +8 degrees Celsius (35.6-46.4 Fahrenheit degrees), the watchdog added

The South Korean government has reached an agreement with four pharmaceutical companies on supplies of coronavirus vaccines for 44 million people, the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a statement.

According to the Tuesday release, the ministry has already pre-ordered 64 million doses that will be enough to vaccinate up to 34 million people.

Under the agreement with the South Korean government, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna will supply 20 million doses each (with 2 shots required per person for complete vaccination), while Johnson & Johnson's Janssen will deliver 4 million doses (only one shot required).

In addition, as part of the World Health Organization's (WHO) COVAX vaccine project, shots for 10 million people will be supplied to South Korea by AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sanopi.

The start of vaccine deliveries is expected at the beginning of February.

South Korean Health Minister Park Neunghoo said at a Tuesday press briefing that the government was not holding any discussions on the possible deliveries of the Russian coronavirus vaccine.

The minister did say, however, that South Korea will be actively monitoring the global development of coronavirus vaccines and could change its procurement plans, if necessary.

Japan's AnGes biopharmaceutical company said on Tuesday that it had started phase 2 clinical trials of its DNA vaccine against the coronavirus.

"The trials involve 500 people. A group of 250 people will be vaccinated twice with an interval of two weeks; the second group of 250 people — twice with an interval of four weeks. In both groups, 50 people will be vaccinated with a placebo. Vaccination will take place before March 2021 at eight medical facilities," the company said in a statement.

AnGes launched clinical trials in two groups of 30 volunteers in June. Back then, AnGes researchers told Sputnik that the second part of the studies, involving from 400 to 500 people, was scheduled for fall, and the company was expected to enter the stage of industrial production of the vaccine by spring.

According to the company, the main advantage of the DNA vaccine is its safety, as it does not use pathogens. Instead, the body creates antibodies in response to DNA information about the virus. The ability to produce a vaccine quickly and practically in unlimited quantities is an added advantage. Another important feature of the new vaccine is flexibility of the creation process, as even if the virus mutates, a new vaccine can be developed in two weeks.

Hong Kong decided to toughen restrictive measures in the city due to the new wave of COVID-19, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a briefing.

Lam said the current wave was more complex and serious than the previous one.

She said that as part of the new measures, restaurants would be banned from accepting visitors after 6 p.m., beauty salons, gyms and sports facilities would be forced to temporarily close. The chief executive did not specify when the new restrictions would take effect.

At the end of November, the fourth wave of the epidemic began in Hong Kong, at the beginning of which most cases were in one way or another associated with one of the city's dance clubs. Over the past day, 78 new cases of infection were registered in the city, in total 6,975 COVID-19 cases have been registered in Hong Kong during the epidemic, with 112 deaths.

The Indian Health Ministry has confirmed 26,567 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, which has become the lowest daily incidence rate in the country over the past five months.

According to the ministry, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has exceeded 9.7 million and nearly 141,000 patients have died from the disease. A total of 385 coronavirus-related fatalities have been recorded over the past day, which is also the lowest daily rate of fatalities in India over the past several months.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States with more nearly 15 million COVID-19 patients.

More than 9.1 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak. The number of people in hospitals and medical centers continues to decline and over the past 24 hours it decreased by 12,863 with over 383,000 patients still receiving treatment at hospitals.

On Monday, Indian biotechnology company Bharat Biotech asked the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use authorization of its coronavirus vaccine Covaxin. Similar applications have already been filed with the Indian drugs watchdog by Pfizer/BioNTech for their BNT162b2 vaccine and the Serum Institute of India for its Covishield, developed by the University of Oxford.

Covaxin is currently going through phase 3 clinical trials in India, involving 26,000 people. In total, trials for eight COVID-19 candidate vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V, are currently underway in India.