Live Updates: Global COVID-19 Case Total Surpasses 80 Million

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - People in the United Kingdom will likely be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in conjunction with the University of Oxford next month, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

According to the newspaper, the Oxford vaccine will be rolled out starting from January 4. The British government wants two million people to get their first shots of either the Oxford or the Pfizer vaccine within a fortnight.

The Sunday Telegraph said the Oxford vaccine is easier to store than the Pfizer one and it is less expensive, so it is likely that people living in secluded areas will benefit from it more.

The Oxford vaccine still needs to get approval from British regulators, which could happen as early as Monday, according to the newspaper. After it is approved, mass vaccination centers will open at stadiums and conference venues, likely as early as in the second week of January.

HELSINKI (Sputnik) - Estonia will begin the process of vaccinating its population against COVID-19 on Sunday, having received the first batches of coronavirus vaccines, the Ministry of Social Affairs said.

On Saturday, Estonia received the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, consisting of 9,750 doses (enough for nearly 5,000 people). The country expects more deliveries in January.

Vaccination will begin on Sunday. According to Estonia’s Minister of Social Affairs Tanel Kiik, medical workers will get vaccinated first. In total, about 30,000 healthcare workers are expected to get shots in the coming days, as well as over 25,000 people working and living in care homes and 260,000 people over 70 and those with chronic health conditions.

Vaccination is voluntary in Estonia. According to government estimates, about 50-60 percent of the country’s population plan to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the world should get prepared for future pandemics that are inevitable.

"In the past 12 months our world has been turned upside-down," Ghebreyesus said in a video address marking Sunday's first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.

He added that prior to the start of the coronavirus pandemic this past spring there have been many reviews and reports saying that the world was not ready for such a crisis.

"All countries must invest in preparedness capacities," the WHO chief stressed, adding that "true preparedness is not just a job for the health sector" and requires "an all-of-government and all-of-society approach."

"History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life," Ghebreyesus cautioned, saying that we must learn lessons from the current pandemic.

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The global COVID-19 case total has surpassed 80 million, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from federal and local authorities, media outlets, and other sources.

As of 17:25 GMT on Saturday, 80,027,056 positive tests for the coronavirus disease have been registered by the higher education institute. The global death toll currently sits at 1.75 million.

The global case count crossed the 70 million mark on December 12.

BERLIN, (Sputnik) - A 101-year-old female resident of a care home in Saxony-Anhalt state has become the first person in Germany to receive a coronavirus vaccine shot, the Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the European Union announced that first vaccine doses had been delivered to all member states.

Along with the centenarian woman, other residents of the care home and staff were administered the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine.

Germany is set to launch a vaccination campaign on December 27. The first vaccine shipments will be equally distributed among all the 16 federal states. Those aged over 80, residents and staff of care homes and frontline medical personnel are the first in line to receive COVID-19 shots.

ANKARA, (Sputnik) - Turkey's health ministry has registered 15,118 new positive tests for COVID-19 on Saturday, the lowest single-day increase since mid-November.

The latest increase to the case total is a significant decrease from the 17,543 new positive tests registered on Friday and continues a downward trend in new infections after a record 33,198 new cases were confirmed on December 8.

Since the start of the pandemic, Turkish public health officials have reported more than 2.1 million cases of COVID-19. The country's death toll currently stands at 19,624, after 253 new fatalities were registered on Saturday.

Earlier in December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a four-day lockdown over the New Year holidays as part of efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. The curfew is expected to begin on the evening of December 31 and run until the morning of January 4.

The governor of Istanbul, Ali Yerlikaya, said this past Tuesday that Turkey's largest city had already passed the peak of its second COVID-19 wave.

TOKYO, (Sputnik) - The number of COVID-19 cases in Japan has increased by a record 3,881 infections over the past 24 hours, with the overall number surpassing 200,000, the Health Ministry reported on Saturday.

According to the ministry, the highest spike in infections was registered in the Japanese prefectures of Tokyo, Shiga, Kyoto, Miyagi and Tochigi.

The ministry added that 3,247 people died due to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, with 654 COVID-19 patients being in critical condition.

On Friday, Japan registered the first cases of the new strain of the coronavirus that was recently discovered in the United Kingdom. The mutant variant is believed to be 70 percent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, there is no evidence that it is more pathogenic.  

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday has agreed to extend the current ban on all flights from the UK for another 2 weeks from December 31.

An initial one-week travel ban came into force on December 24 following the emergence of a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 in the United Kingdom that is believed to be more transmissible.

"Okay, I accept that. It’s good. So it’s amended accordingly," Duterte was quoted by the state-run Philippine News Agency as saying when asked by presidential spokesman Harry Roque to extend the ban for an additional two weeks.

Earlier on Saturday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque announced that one individual who recently arrived in the Philippines from the United Kingdom had tested positive for the coronavirus disease, the ABS-CBN broadcaster reported, adding that it was not yet known if the person was infected with the new variant.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock on December 15 told the country's parliament that a new strain of COVID-19, which could be up to 70 percent more transmissible, had been discovered in southeast England.

Following the announcement and a resulting surge in new coronavirus disease cases in the United Kingdom, dozens of countries across Europe and the rest of the world imposed temporary bans on flights to and from the United Kingdom.

MURMANSK, Russia, (Sputnik) - Sweden has registered the first case of the new strain of the coronavirus that was recently discovered in the United Kingdom, the head of the Sweden Public Health Agency department, Sara Byfors, said on Saturday.

"It has been confirmed that one person from Sodermanland contracted the mutant strain of COVID-19 discovered in the United Kingdom," Byfors said at a press conference.

The official added that the infected person had arrived from the UK and self-isolated upon returning home. The patient's family did not contract the infection.

Byfors stressed that Sweden had started large-scale research to find out if the new strain of the infection was spreading in the country.

"Since the information emerged, we have intensified monitoring. Today, we analyze the tests on everyone who returned from the United Kingdom starting from October. On Monday, we issued a recommendation for everyone who travels to pass tests, so we could monitor the infection and guarantee that this variant of the virus is not spreading within Sweden," Byfors said.

Last week, the UK announced that a new coronavirus strain was detected in the country, with the new variant 70 percent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. After the news emerged, many countries suspended travel to and from the UK. However, there is no evidence that the new strain is more pathogenic. The cases of the new variant of the virus have been reported by a number of countries, including Denmark, Japan, Singapore and Spain.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Sweden has confirmed no new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number remaining 396,048. The country registered 28,928 new COVID-19 infections over the past week.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - At least four cases of a new COVID-19 variant that recently emerged in the United Kingdom have been confirmed in Spain's Madrid, Antonio Zapatero, a prominent official in the Spanish capital's administration, said on Saturday, adding that there are a further three suspected cases of the new strain.

"We have confirmed four cases of this new British variant in our community to date, and there are now three more suspected cases", Zapatero, who serves as deputy health chief for Madrid's regional government, said at a press conference.

Zapatero, who said that the new variant was first identified in a traveler who had arrived from the United Kingdom, added that those who have been infected with the new strain of the virus are currently not experiencing more severe symptoms than other COVID-19 patients.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will let everybody know of his vaccination against the coronavirus disease himself, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik on Saturday.

"He [Putin] will announce himself," Peskov said.

"Russia's Ministry of Health approved Sputnik V for the 60+ population following clinical trials that showed complete safety and efficacy over 90% in this age group. #SputnikV also fully protected from any severe cases in this and other age groups", the vaccine developer wrote on Twitter.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - Vaccinations against COVID-19 have been delivered to all European Union member states a day before the first doses are scheduled to be administered, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday.

“We are starting to turn the page on a difficult year. Today is delivery day and tomorrow, vaccination against COVID-19 is beginning across the European Union,” von der Leyen said in a video statement.

The president stressed that the rollout will take place simultaneously across the entirety of the bloc in what she deemed “a touching moment of unity and a European success story.”

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A number of European countries on Saturday received the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech.

On Thursday, the European Commission announced it had begun dispatching batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 to its member nations. On the same day, French Health Minister Oliver Veran said the country's national health body, Haute Autorite de Sante, had approved the use of the vaccine in the upcoming mass immunisation campaign.

France received its first shipments and stored them in a Paris suburb, Europe 1 reported, without specifying the precise location.

The first batches of the COVID-19 jab were also delivered to Norway and Denmark. Images of vaccine delivery vehicles are on the front pages of both kingdoms' media outlets. According to the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, the first doses will be delivered to the seven most affected communes, including Oslo.

In Poland, the first Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines will be distributed to 72 hospitals across the country, Michal Kuczmierowski, the president of the Material Reserves Agency, told reporters earlier in the day.

Estonia was also among other EU countries to receive the vaccine in the early hours of Saturday. The first batch delivered to Tallinn consisted of 9,750 doses, according to the newspaper Postimees.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has registered 29,258 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to over 3 million, the federal response centre said on Saturday.

"Over the past 24 hours, 29,258 coronavirus cases were confirmed in 85 regions, including 4,571 cases (15.6 percent) without clinical symptoms", the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 3,021,964, with the rate of increase at 1 percent.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A US doctor developed an acute allergic reaction after receiving Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, the first such case reported, The New York Times reported.

Geriatric oncologist at the Boston Medical Centre, Hossein Sadrzadeh, received the shot on Thursday and immediately developed allergic symptoms, the newspaper reported.

Sadrzadeh, who has an acute allergy to shellfish, administered his own handy epinephrine autoinjector and was treated at the medical centre’s emergency facility, the NYT quoted a hospital spokesman as saying. The physician has since been discharged and is feeling well, the spokesman said.

Moderna spokesman Ray Jordan said the company could not comment on the individual case but that an investigation would be carried out, according to The New York Times.