Live Updates: Israel Detects Cases of New COVID-19 Strain That Emerged in Britain

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The first case of the new strain of the coronavirus, which was firstly discovered in the United Kingdom, has been registered in Singapore, media reported on Thursday.

The infected person is a 17-year-old female student, who had returned from the United Kingdom on December 6, The Strait Times newspaper reported.

All the people, who had contacts with the patient, were reportedly quarantined and tested negative for the disease.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - The Israeli government's special coronavirus commission is imposing special restrictions on the number of participants in prayers and worship services to contain the spread of COVID-19 during the Christmas holidays, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

"Tonight, the ministerial commission on coronavirus approved special conditions for the Christmas holidays, which will operate from 17:00 on December 24 to 20:00 on December 25, from 17:00 on January 6 and until 20:00 on January 7 and from 17:00 on January 18 and until 20:00 on January 19," the ministry said.

On these days, meetings of no more than 100 people in the open air and no more than 10 indoors are allowed, it said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Netherlands has decided to tighten requirements for everyone arriving in the country by plane, demanding a negative COVID-19 test from air passengers starting from December 29, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said.

The test made within 72 hours before the arrival must be presented by any air passenger, including Dutch citizens, the NL Times newspaper reported.

“If passengers do not have a negative PCR test result that meets the requirements, they are not allowed to board the aircraft,” de Jonge wrote in a letter to the national parliament on Wednesday, as quoted by the newspaper.

The arriving passengers will also be told to undergo a 10-day quarantine.

“The Cabinet emphasizes once again that foreign travel at this time is only intended for those who have to travel for necessary reasons and that the current quarantine rules will continue to apply with this measure,” de Jonge added.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – Argentina will close its borders for tourists and tighten requirements for those coming to the country starting from December 25 over the rising number of new coronavirus cases, Argentine media reported.

In November, the Argentine government allowed tourists, who tested negative for COVID-19, from neighboring countries to visit the country.

Tourists are now banned from arriving in Argentina, while other people coming to the country will have to present negative coronavirus tests and undergo a mandatory 7-day quarantine, the TN broadcaster reported on Wednesday.

The measures will be in place until January 8.

Argentina also canceled flights from Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia over the spread of the new strain of the coronavirus firstly discovered in the United Kingdom.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - People from the United Kingdom will be allowed to travel to Sweden if they live or work in Sweden, as well as due to emergency family circumstances, the Swedish Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Sweden barred all arrivals from the United Kingdom and Denmark. The UK ban was due to the discovery of a mutated coronavirus strain there, while the Danish ban was to avoid traditional Christmas time crowding in malls and cafes.

"Today, the Government decided to make certain changes to the entry ban into Sweden from the United Kingdom and Denmark. Regarding travel from the United Kingdom, exemptions will be made for people who live or work in Sweden. Regarding travel from Denmark, exemptions will be made to make it easier for Bornholm and those who live there. In addition to this, people with imperative family reasons will also be exempted," the ministry said in a press release.

Bornholm is a Danish island that is located much closer to Sweden than Denmark.

The new entry regulations will take effect Wednesday midnight (23:00 GMT) and remain in force until January 21.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow has registered 76 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 10,689, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Another 76 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the center said.

ROME, (Sputnik) - Pope Francis has been tested for the coronavirus disease, the Ansa news agency reported Wednesday, citing sources at the Vatican.

According to the news outlet, the pontiff had a swab for COVID-19 on Monday ahead of Christmas audiences with cardinals and the Roman Curia.

The test was considered necessary after two cardinals, Papal Almoner Konrad Krajewski and Giuseppe Bertello, the president of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, tested positive for the virus.

BEIJING (Sputnik) - Two students who recently returned from the United Kingdom to Hong Kong were confirmed as having been infected with the new variant of the coronavirus detected in the European country, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, health care workers established that the genetic sequence of the virus strain of the two imported cases matched with the virus strain identified by the UK authorities.

The students returned on December 7 and on December 13. One of them has already recovered from the disease.

TORONTO (Sputnik) - The Canadian government has bought a quarter of a million doses of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus and expects to have them all delivered before the end of next month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We will be receiving 250,000 doses [of the new vaccine] from Pfizer next month," Trudeau told reporters. "We are on track to have 1.5 million doses from both [the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines] delivered by January 31.

Earlier on Wednesday, Health Canada announced that the Canadian government had approved the Moderna vaccine as safe to be administered, Trudeau noted.

"Health Canada has approved the vaccine ...[and] the first doses of our guaranteed 40 million dose order from Moderna will arrive in the coming days. ..."Between the early doses we have already received, and the shipments now scheduled, we're on track to have at least 1.2 million doses from both Pfizer and Moderna delivered by January 31," he said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Canada is extending its ban on all passenger flights from the United Kingdom for another two weeks to prevent the spread of a new strand of COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an Ottawa press conference on Wednesday.

"We will extend this temporary suspension of passenger flights from the United Kingdom to Canada for another two weeks to January 6," Trudeau said.

On Saturday, UK health officials announced that the country had identified a new variant of the coronavirus that is 70 percent more transmissible than previous strains.

Trudeau said the situation is "serious" and called on all Canadians to abstain from overseas travel over the Christmas and New Year holidays because of the continuing pandemic.

Norway has decided to extend the ban on flights from the United Kingdom until the second day of Christmas, December 26, due to the spread of the mutated coronavirus in the UK, Norway's Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

On Monday, Norway banned all direct flights from the UK for a period of 48 hours, but with a possible further extension.

"Norway extends the termination of direct flights with the UK until the second day of Christmas (26 December). The ban may be extended after New Year," the ministry of health said in a message.

Health Minister Bent Hoie said that more information about the new strain of coronavirus was needed to prevent its spread in Norway.

Hoie added that at the moment, Norway was working on creating an electronic registration system for all travellers in addition to the measures that were already in force – a negative test for coronavirus and a 10-day quarantine.

Sweden, meanwhile, has extended its ban on flights from the UK until the new year, Aftonbladet newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing airline SAS.

"We have just received oral information from the Ministry of Transport that the ban on flights from the UK is being extended until the new year," SAS spokesman John Eckhoff said as quoted by the newspaper.

The Swedish government has yet to comment on the information. The current ban, introduced on Monday, expires at 4 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

On Saturday, UK health officials announced that the country had identified a new variant of the coronavirus that is 70 percent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 virus strains. The new strain of the coronavirus is said to infect more easily, but does not appear to be more deadly or pose any threats to vaccines.

Many countries have suspended passenger travel to and from the United Kingdom in a bid to prevent the import of the new virus strain.

The health ministries of Israel and Malaysia confirmed on Wednesday detecting cases of infection with the new coronavirus strain that was recently discovered in the United Kingdom.

"Tests at the Health Ministry's central lab found four cases of the mutated coronavirus strain that was recently discovered in England. Three of the carriers recently returned from England and are currently quarantined in a designated facility. The fourth case was detected in the Israeli territory and is being probed at the moment," the Israeli Ministry of Health said in a press release.

The Malaysian Ministry of Health reported detecting the UK strain of the coronavirus, which it referred to as A701V, among 60 samples garnered in the northern state of Sabah.

"The A701V and a spike protein mutations, have also been reported in other countries including South America, Australia, the Netherlands and Singapore. But we have yet to know the clinical impact of this variant, its infectivity rate or aggressiveness," Noor Hisham Abdullah, the director general at the ministry said, as quoted in a report by Malaysian e-newspaper New Straits Times.

The new strain was detected earlier this month in England's southeast and dubbed VUI-202012/01, as announced by UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock on December 14. UK experts believe it can transmit up to 70 percent faster than the original coronavirus, albeit the data is lacking on whether or not it is more deadly.

Despite earlier public pledges not to restrict movements on Christmas, the UK government increased the level of restrictions to the highest — Tier 4 — equivalent to a lockdown, in most parts of the country, including London. As UK citizens rushed out of the locked down areas, many countries chose to close borders with the whole of the United Kingdom in a bid to prevent the import of the new strain.

An Argentine plane that will deliver the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus disease to the Latin American country has landed in Moscow, the Aerolineas Argentinas airline said.

"The plane has landed in Moscow," the airline's spokesperson said.

The plane left Argentina at 04:30 GMT, and will depart Moscow as soon as the vaccine batch is loaded. The entire delivery operation is expected to take approximately 40 hours.

The vaccine will be packed in thermoboxes with a temperature of -0.4 Fahrenheit.

Mexico received first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by US pharma company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said.

"From today until January 31, 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Mexico," the ministry said.

It also published a video of Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard personally meeting the plane carrying the vaccine.

The Latin American country authorized emergency use of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in mid-December.

Members of New York City's Sheriff's office will start paying home visits to enforce a quarantine order for travellers from the UK in an effort to stop the spread of a new COVID-19 variant, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, as quoted by Reuters. 

"We're going to provide them with that commissioner's order, but then there's going to be a follow-up, direct home visit or hotel visit from the sheriff's deputy to confirm that they are following the quarantine," de Blasio said.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) welcomes the decision of the Russian Health Ministry to stop enrolling volunteers in clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, the fund said Wednesday.

The ministry will no longer add new participants to the post-registration trials. More than 31,000 of people have already been enrolled. This number of participants helps study the vaccine for efficacy and safety during a long period of time, the ministry said.

"RDIF welcomes the Health Ministry's decision to stop enrolling volunteers in the clinical trials of Sputnik V because of the proven efficacy of the vaccine being more than 90 percent," the head of the fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said.

Israel has detected four cases of the new coronavirus strain that emerged in Britain earlier this month, the health ministry's spokesman said.

The Canadian government has made a final decision to approve Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, the nation’s health agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Today, Health Canada authorized the second COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, manufactured by Moderna," the statement said.

The determination was made after a thorough review that lasted more than two months, the statement also said.

Health Canada explained in the statement the authorization represents a critical step in ensuring additional vaccines are available to all Canadians in all parts of the country.

"The different storage and handling requirements of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine mean that it can be distributed to isolated and remote communities, including the territories," the statement added.

Polish citizens who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to register for vaccination from January 15, Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski said on Wednesday.

The first batch of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be delivered to Poland on December 26. Doctors, teachers, pensioners, police officers and people from risk groups will be vaccinated first starting December 27.

"We will start on January 15. We have already prepared a hotline with the number 989, where you can make an appointment. But you can also register through other channels: in a clinic or through an electronic form, which will also be available on websites. All these methods will be launched on January 15," Niedzielski said on Polskie Radio.

According to the minister, the first batch of 10,000 doses of the vaccine will be distributed among 72 hospitals.

The total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic in Poland is at 1,226,883 and more than 26,000 patients have died.

Vaccination against COVID-19 is necessary to protect the population, especially the elderly, and may change the course of the global pandemic, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday.

According to the chancellor, the vaccination campaign in Austria will be launched on Sunday at 09:00 a.m. local time (08:00 GMT). The country will use a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, recently approved by the European Union’s medical regulator.

"Among people over 75, the [COVID-19] mortality rate is about 10 percent, among people over 85, the mortality rate is extremely high — one in four dies. This shows the importance of the fact that with vaccination we will finally radically change the situation, we can protect all of us, and the elderly are in priority," Kurz said at a press conference.

The chancellor added that risk groups — people over 80 years old, especially residents of retirement homes, and health workers — will receive vaccines first. Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt, the chairwoman of the vaccine commission, and Thomas Szekeres, the chairman of the Austrian Medical Chamber, will lead the campaign.

Meanwhile, Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said that the country aims to vaccinate all residents of retirement homes by the end of January. Moreover, the minister wished that the EU would soon allow the distribution of vaccines developed by other companies, namely Moderna and AstraZeneca.

In addition, Anschober said that five volunteers who are over 80 years old will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Austria.

The authorities of Denmark have imposed a number of restrictions for arrivals from the United Kingdom due to risks associated with the discovery of a new coronavirus strain, the country's Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.

"Denmark is tightening entry rules for those who permanently reside in the UK due to the spread of the mutated croornavirus ... This means that permanent residents of the UK may be denied entry to Denmark," the statement said.

It is noted that family members of seriously ill people and those accompanying minors have the right to enter Denmark, but they are required to take a coronavirus test no more than 72 hours before the trip.

Danish citizens returning from the UK are also strongly recommended to take the test and are also required to comply with a 10-day quarantine upon their return.

In addition, the ban on flights from the UK will be temporarily extended until December 24, 2020. Stricter travel restrictions will apply from 25 December to 3 January.

Bahrain will launch a free vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for all its citizens and foreign residents starting 25 December, the BNA state news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the country's health ministry.

Individuals aged 18 and over can receive the vaccine at any of the medical centers, without prior registration.

Last week, King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa became one of the first persons in the kingdom to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Earlier in December, Bahrain become the second country after the United Kingdom to authorize the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The country has also approved the Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine for use across the nation.

Other Persian Gulf monarchies, namely Qatar and Kuwait, have also received the first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The vaccine was delivered to Kuwait on Wednesday, and the nationwide vaccination is due to start there at the end of this week.

The vaccination campaign has already been launched in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Wednesday that they would deliver extra 100 millions doses of their vaccine against COVID-19 to the United States

"Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE today announced a second agreement with the U.S. government to supply an additional 100 million doses of the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine from production facilities in the U.S. This agreement brings the total number of doses to be delivered to the U.S. to 200 million. The companies expect to deliver the full 200 million doses to Operation Warp Speed by 31 July, 2021," the statement, released on BioNTech website, read.

According to the statement, the US government will pay $1.95 billion for the extra 100 million doses.

The Czech Republic will shut down all shops except essential ones on 27 December and impose curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. amid the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Jan Blatny said Wednesday.

According to Blatny, only food stores, pharmacies and shops for essential goods will be open.

People's movement will be severely restricted — they may gather in groups of no more than two.

The shooting of Rajinikanth's latest movie "Annaatthe" has been halted after eight crew members tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The shooting of the film restarted after the lockdown on December 14 in Ramoji Film City in the Indian state of Hyderabad.

Rajinikanth and the rest of the cast and crew of the movie will be in quarantine for about two weeks.

Norway has decided to extend the ban on flights from the United Kingdom until the second day of Christmas, December 26, due to the spread of the mutated coronavirus in the UK, Norway's Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

On Monday, Norway banned all direct flights from the UK for a period of 48 hours, but with a possible further extension.

"Norway extends the termination of direct flights with the UK until the second day of Christmas (26 December). The ban may be extended after New Year," the ministry of health said in a message.

Health Minister Bent Hoie said that more information about the new strain of coronavirus was needed to prevent its spread in Norway.

Hoei added that at the moment, Norway was working on creating an electronic registration system for all travelers in addition to the measures that were already in force – a negative test for coronavirus and a 10-day quarantine.

Russia has registered 27,250 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 28,776 the day before, bringing the total to 2,933,753, the federal response centre said on Wednesday.

"Over the past 24 hours, 27,250 coronavirus cases were confirmed in 85 regions, including 4,058 cases (14.9 percent) without clinical symptoms," the center said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 2,933,753, with the rate of increase falling to 0.9 percent.

Moscow has confirmed 5,652 new coronavirus cases over the given period, down from 7,237 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 3,749 cases, down from 3,760 the day before, and the Moscow region with 1,540 new cases, up from 1,498 the day before.

The response center reported 549 coronavirus fatalities, down from 561 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 52,461.

Total recoveries count 2,343,967 after 24,447 people were discharged from hospitals over the past day, up from 24,158 the day before.

According to the national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, over 87 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic, and 641,563 suspected carriers remain under medical monitoring.

The 12th century shrine shut its doors on 25 March, when the Indian government imposed a lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Tunisian authorities have decided to extend the curfew imposed over the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak until 15 January 2021, the country's Health Ministry said.

Earlier, Tunisia announced the suspension of flights with the UK, South Africa and Australia due to the detection of a new strain of coronavirus in these countries.

The curfew, which runs from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time, will be extended until 15 January, according to a statement posted on the ministry's Facebook page. In addition, there will be a ban on holding mass events, including parties on the occasion of the New Year.

According to the ministry, 212,718 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in the country, with 4,199 deaths and more than 95,000 recoveries.