Live Updates: US COVID-19 Deaths in January Could Top December Figures, Fauci Says

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said that the government is planning to purchase at least 426 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine next year, to vaccinate 181 million of the country's 267 million citizens with the goal of establishing herd immunity in the country, the Jakarta Globe newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"There are 188 million citizens of the age of 18 years and above. If we exclude those with serious comorbidity, pregnant mothers and Covid-19 survivors, the number will be reduced to 181 million", Sadikin said as quoted by the media.

The minister stressed that the country had to adhere to the rules established by the World Health Organization that obliged governments to purchase extra 15 percent of COVID-19 vaccines, stressing that Indonesia would need at least 426 million doses, since each person required two doses.

"This is a very huge number and the government is working hard to make sure we can secure supplies of that amount", Sadikin said.

The minister noted that Indonesia has reserved 125 million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine and reached an agreement with US-based Novavax company to procure 130 million doses of its vaccine.

Sadikin added that the Indonesian government was also seeking to acquire 100 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Furthermore, Jakarta was negotiating with US-based Pfizer and German BioNTech to buy 50 million doses of their vaccine.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Indonesia has confirmed 5,854 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of reported cases at 719,219. The country registered 47,441 new COVID-19 infections over the past week.

A female elderly worker at a German care home who was mistakenly injected with five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine is still in the hospital, the Ostsee-Zeitung newspaper reported on Tuesday.

On Sunday, eight elderly workers of a care home, located in the northeastern city of Stralsund, were mistakenly injected with five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine. The mishap occurred on the same day when the German national vaccination campaign took off, prioritising the staff of care homes.

Four people engaged in the incident were also hospitalised after they developed flu-like symptoms, but were already back home.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Germany has confirmed 14,004 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of 1,672,643. The country registered 138,425 new COVID-19 infections over the past week.

Russian vaccines against the coronavirus should face no restrictions in Estonia if they are approved on the European Union level, prominent Estonian physician Arkadi Popov said Tuesday.

"If the vaccine passes registration in the EU and is approved for use by the European Medicines Agency, there should be no restrictions", Popov told Postimees.

The doctor did not rule out that the vaccine that would emerge as a result of the announced cooperation between AstraZeneca and Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, which created the Sputnik V vaccine, would be effective.

"Since the documents on cooperation have been signed. Why not? .... During a pandemic, the availability of drugs must be ensured and if a drug has proved its safety and effectiveness, then it would be a great misdeed to not use it", Popov said.

Estonia began its vaccination campaign on 27 December after a shipment of 9,750 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech variety arrived in the country a day prior. The vaccines are allocated to health care workers at the highest risk of exposure. Estonia has secured pledges to receive over 600,000 doses altogether from Pfizer and 1.3 million doses from AstraZeneca while continuing to negotiate with other producers.

Most Germans do not believe that the coronavirus disease will be defeated next year, the dpa news agency has reported, citing a poll commissioned to UK polling company YouGov.

According to the survey, only 26 percent of Germans think that the pandemic will be overcome in 2021, with two-thirds thinking that the virus will continue having an effect on people's lives in Germany throughout the year. Meanwhile, 22 percent expect the situation to get worse.

Eighty-four percent of respondents think that masks will remain mandatory in public spaces at least until 2021, while 54 percent do not believe that Bundesliga football games will be played with fans present during the next 12 months. Some 35 percent think that their financial situation will get worse.

The country has confirmed a total of over 1.6 million cases, including 30,978 fatalities.

On Sunday, Germany started its vaccination companion using the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

Today I got the COVID-19 vaccine. I am incredibly grateful to our frontline health care workers, scientists, and researchers who made this moment possible.

When you’re able to take the vaccine, get it. This is about saving lives. pic.twitter.com/T5G14LtFJs

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 29, 2020

"As a first step, older Muscovites, students over 18 years old and citizens suffering from chronic diseases will be able to again enjoy the right of free and low-fare public transport. Their social cards will be automatically unlocked 14 days after receiving the second vaccine component", Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in his blog.

TBILISI (Sputnik) - Amiran Gamkrelidze, the head of the Georgian National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), has been infected with the coronavirus, the country's media reported Tuesday, citing the Centre.

Gamkrelidze is not the first high-profile medical official to be infected with the disease. In November, one of the country's leading epidemiologists, Tengiz Tsertsvadze, the director general of Tbilisi-based Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Centre, was diagnosed with COVID-19 and later recovered.

According to the First Channel broadcaster, Gamkrelidze had had contact with an infected person and is said to be feeling well.

Georgia has confirmed a total of 224,155 cases, including 2,443 fatalities.

Venezuela has signed a contract with Russia to vaccinate 10 million people with Sputnik V vaccine and expects to start vaccinating the population as soon as possible, Vice President Delsy Rodriguez told reporters.

"Venezuela has just signed a contract to purchase the Sputnik V vaccine, we are in the first stage, a contract has been signed to vaccinate 10 million people", she said. "This is a safe vaccine, this is a step forward for us. We are ready to start vaccination of the population as soon as possible".

The United States could see yet another surge of COVID-19 deaths in January after witnessing its deadliest month yet since the start of the pandemic this December, top US health official Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday.

The current month, according to data from Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 tracker, has already set a record with more than 68,600 confirmed virus-related deaths out of 335,000 reported in the US since the beginning of the pandemic.

“That is what we're concerned about — that in addition to the surge, we're going to have an increase superimposed upon that surge, which could make January even worse than December”, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, told CNN. “The surge has gotten out of control in many respects.”

With numbers that high “it really is very difficult“ to do effective identification, isolation and contact tracing, forcing to rely on general public health recommendations instead, he said.

Fauci urged Americans to limit their social activities for the ongoing Christmas and New Year season.

“We try to get people to just tone down the travel. Those who have already done the travel the thing to do now is to try not to congregate with large numbers of people in social settings like dinners, try to keep it restricted to the immediate family and the immediate household”, he said.

Fauci also added that the goal of having 20 million US citizens be inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine by the end of December is unlikely to be achieved.

Despite experts’ warnings not to travel during the holidays, more than 1.28  million people were screened at airports across the country on Sunday, setting a record unseen since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The Bavarian company GNA Biosolutions on Tuesday presented a COVID-19 express testing system that is able to provide results in 40 minutes, Hubert Aiwanger, the economy minister of Germany’s largest state, said.

"The new test is faster than the ones that were before, they are affordable compared to other rapid tests, and they are mobile. All equipment is placed on the table, it is easy to transport it from one point to another", Aiwanger said at a press conference.

Testing requires 20 minutes to prepare equipment and another 20 minutes to analyse a throat swab, according to the minister.

Aiwanger also noted that the GNA Biosolutions’ test can be used in combination with other similar systems and mentioned that antigenic tests are not as reliable as PCR testing.

The minister added that the Bavarian government has pre-ordered a thousand devices from the company that are able to carry out a million tests.

In Estonia, 516 health workers were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first two days since the beginning of the vaccination process, the health department said on Tuesday.

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign began in Estonia on Sunday. The first batch of Pfizer/BioNtech vaccines is intended primarily for healthcare workers, as they are at higher risk of getting infected due to close contact with coronavirus-infected patients.

"As of Tuesday, 516 people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in Estonia. Most of the vaccinations were made at East Tallinn Central Hospital, the North Estonia Regional Hospital and Ida-Virumaa Central Hospital," the health department said in a statement.

On Saturday, the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNtech coronavirus vaccine was delivered to Tallinn, consisting of 9,750 doses, with the help of which around 5,000 people could be vaccinated. More batches of the vaccine will be delivered weekly starting at the beginning of January next year.

According to preliminary agreements, Estonia has booked the supply of several vaccines against coronavirus: Pfizer/BioNtech (603,876 doses), AstraZeneca (1.33 million doses) and Jannsen Pharmaceutica NV (300,000 vaccine courses). Estonia is also continuing negotiations with other vaccine manufacturers.

According to Estonia’s Minister of Social Affairs Tanel Kiik, under the agreements with Pfizer/BioNtech, it will be possible to vaccinate almost 5,000 people a week.

Egypt's Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Gomaa ordered the closure of a Cairo mosque for two weeks for violating precautionary measures put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the press service of the ministry reported on Tuesday.

"Minister Mohamed Gomaa, after praying at the Al-Nour mosque in the Abbassia district, decided to close it for two weeks from Tuesday due to the fact that worshipers in the mosque did not comply with the requirements of the ministry on the mandatory wearing of masks and availability of a personal prayer mat," the ministry said.

The ministry added that any mosque that failed to comply with safety precautions, including the requirement of social distancing, would be closed.

Mosques in Egypt have resumed work on 27 June after the end of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday prayers were allowed to resume in late August provided prayer institutions open only ten minutes before the start of prayer and close immediately after it ends with the sermon limited to 10 minutes. It is still forbidden to hold funeral services for the dead and any mass events in mosques.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that the easing of some restrictions aimed at curbing COVID-19 is possible from the beginning of February.

"The real easing of restrictions can be considered from 1 February," Gakharia said on Tuesday.

The prime minister said that lifting restrictions before February might affect the epidemiological situation in the country.

In November, new nationwide measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic entered into force in Georgia, amid the increase in COVID-19 cases. Under the new restrictions, operation of restaurants, public transport, shopping malls, markets and gyms will be suspended until 15 January. Only grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, hospitals and beauty salons will work.

Some restrictions will be relaxed during Christmas holidays. In particular, on New Year's Eve, the night curfew, which was introduced in largest cities on 9 November, will be lifted. In addition, all shopping centers and markets will operate throughout Georgia from 24 December to 2 January, and the work of urban and intercity public transport will be restored.

To date, the country has confirmed 224,155 COVID-19 cases, with a death toll of 2,443, according to the national coronavirus prevention center.

Hoy es el principio del fin de la pandemia en la Argentina.

Orgulloso de haber puesto el hombro. pic.twitter.com/MR4ctsELn4

— Axel Kicillof (@Kicillofok) December 29, 2020

Argentina started a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine on Tuesday.

The vaccination process began at 9 a.m. (12:00 GMT) in the entire country.

One of the first people to receive the Russian vaccine was Governor of Buenos Aires Province Axel Kicillof, according to a live stream by the TN channel.

Last week Argentina received the first batch of 300,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. Health workers will be the first to get shots of the vaccine.

The first large supply of the coronavirus vaccine by the Pfizer/BioNTech duo has been flown to Greece on Tuesday, Greek public television channel ERT reported.

The batch included 83,850 doses flown aboard a special flight to the Athens International Airport, according to the report.

This adds up to the 9,750 doses that Greece received on Sunday.

The country expects to receive a total of 1,250,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by the end of March, with the largest supplies expected in January, February and March. Another 240,000 vaccine doses are expected from US pharmaceutical company Moderna in the first quarter of 2021 once it gets approved by the European Medicines Agency.

Greece's vaccine stockpile will be distributed among five central storage facilities from where it will be transferred to the regional vaccination centers.

Since the Greek mass vaccination campaign began on Sunday, 471 people were administered shots.

The large batch of over 350,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 arrived in Spain on Tuesday, the Spanish government said, as the vaccination campaign in the country is underway.

On Saturday, Spain received the first 9,750 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and on Sunday, the government started a vaccination campaign against COVID-19. The first larger batch of the vaccine was expected on Monday, but the delivery was delayed due to logistic issues in the company's warehouses in Belgium.

"The batch of 350,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has already arrived in Spain," the government said on Twitter.

The deliveries of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived in five Spanish airports located in Madrid, Barcelona, Vitoria, Valencia and Seville, media have reported.

The Spanish army will be responsible for vaccine distribution to the Canary and Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, as was the case over the weekend.

During the next 12 weeks, Spain plans to receive 4.6 million vaccine doses. The Spanish vaccination campaign includes three main phases, where elder people who live in nursing homes, workers of such facilities and medical personnel are to be vaccinated first.

Russia and Turkey are successfully cooperating on the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, as they discuss both export of the Russian vaccine and its joint production, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

"As for the Sputnik V vaccine ... Yesterday, the health minister said at a session of the council of ministers that cooperation is progressing normally, we are in talks not only about vaccine supplies, but also on joint production of the vaccine," Cavusoglu said at a press conference, held after his negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Chinese capital city of Beijing will increase the quarantine period for travelers arriving from overseas from two to three weeks as the city battles a new local COVID-19 outbreak, the local government's spokesman said on Tuesday.

"[We will] strictly enforce the '14+7' [quarantine] measures for people traveling from overseas, while stepping up control and health surveillance of people who entered Beijing from overseas in the past 21 days," Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing government said during a press conference on the epidemiological situation in the city.

Beijing identified seven new confirmed COVID-19 patients on Monday and five of the new patients were colleagues of a patient previously detected on Saturday, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center of Disease Control, said during the press conference.

The other two new COVID-19 patients were both drivers of local ride-sharing companies, Pang added.

At the same time, local authorities announced earlier that food and package delivery services would be banned from entering residential areas in the city's Shunyi District, where a cluster of new COVID-19 cases was detected.

Local transmission of COVID-19 reemerged in Beijing last week, when a 34-year-old man tested positive after traveling to Ningbo, a city in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on December 23 and subsequent tests of his close contacts detected more infected patients.

More than 115,000 people were administered a COVID-19 vaccine in Israel over the past day, taking the total number of the vaccinated to over 495,000, the Israeli Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

Israel's mass vaccination campaign began on 20 December. The priority groups to get inoculated include medical workers, students of medical schools, geriatric medical workers and government officials.

"More than 115,000 citizens were vaccinated yesterday. As of today, around 495,000 people were vaccinated. In the nine days since the vaccination campaign's start, more people were vaccinated than infected since the epidemic's start," the ministry said in a press release.

Despite the vaccination campaign being in full swing and a lockdown in effect, the daily increase in COVID-19 cases in Israel continues to grow. As of Tuesday, the Israeli toll has reached 408,990 cases, including over 5,400 cases confirmed over the past day.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Philippines has approved the holding of phase 3 clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson corporation, FDA Director General Enrique Domingo said on Tuesday.

"Yesterday [Monday] we already approved one, this is the clinical trial application of Janssen. This has been given the go-signal by FDA," Domingo said at a briefing, as quoted by the Rappler news outlet.

The FDA chief added that the process may start in the "next few weeks" after the country’s Department of Science hires volunteers and assigns areas for trials.

Three firms have made applications to conduct phase 3 clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines, but China’s Sinovac and Clover Biopharmaceuticals still require the approval of the regulator.

Janssen Pharmaceutica has completed the recruitment of approximately 45,000 participants for the phase 3 trials, which will be held in several countries. The interim results of the trials are expected in late January.

Breaking: India says it has successfully conducted dry run for covid vaccine in 4 states-- four states Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab & Gujarat from 28th to 29th December. pic.twitter.com/24Mk4FHu3S

— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) December 29, 2020

The number of coronavirus cases linked to an outbreak in the Dongbu Detention Center in Seoul, which is directly managed by the government, has reached 762 and one infected inmate has died, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Tuesday, citing authorities.

The cluster in the Dongbu prison was discovered in mid-December and has since contributed to South Korea's daily increase in cases surpassing triple-digit figures.

The news agency quoted Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun apologizing for the outbreak and saying that "the possibility of additional community transmission is low, as most patients are inmates."

According to the report, 233 more cases were detected at Dongbu throughout this week, including inmates, employees, family members and acquaintances. One inmate reportedly died on Sunday while receiving treatment.

The South Korean government transferred 345 infected inmates with mild or no symptoms, excluding seniors and those with underlying health conditions, to another correctional facility not far from Seoul. Citing Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, the news agency said the government would undertake additional measures to contain the outbreak.

As of Tuesday, health authorities in South Korea have confirmed a cumulative total of 58,725 cases, including 859 deaths.

The first Iranian volunteers on Tuesday received a domestic vaccine against COVID-19 as part of trials, media reported.

According to the Tasnim news agency, two volunteers were injected. The beginning of human trials was attended by Health Minister Saeed Namaki and Sourena Sattari, the vice president for science and technology.

Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur has told Sputnik that the country expects the first domestically-developed vaccine to be ready by spring, and another two or three candidates to be available by summer.

In November, Namaki said that Iran was planning to secure at least 41 million coronavirus vaccine doses to inoculate about 20 million people via the international COVAX Facility, joint production with other countries and direct procurement from foreign manufacturers.

The authorities of Uzbekistan in 2021 will allocate 3 trillion soums (about $300 million) for vaccination and the fight against COVID-19, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Tuesday.

"The fight against coronavirus remains among our priorities for the next year. For this work, a reserve of 3 trillion soums has been formed in the state budget for 2021," Mirziyoyev said, adding that these funds would also be used to vaccinate the population against the coronavirus infection.

Mirziyoyev said that $200 million would be spent on improving the quality of work and the material and technical base of the sanitary-epidemiological service, and the creation of modern laboratories.

Earlier in the day, Mirziyoyev delivered an annual message in Tashkent to both chambers of parliament. Traditionally, the message is dedicated to the results of work in the current year and the highest-priority areas of the country's development in the coming year.

In November, the republic's authorities announced that they planned to test COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, China and Turkey to vaccinate up to 60 percent of the population against COVID-19 by June 2021. The population of Uzbekistan exceeds 34 million people.

Earlier in December, Russian Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov delivered 100 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus to Tashkent. The samples were transferred to the Uzbek side for further testing necessary for the registration and launch of industrial production of the vaccine in the republic.

"I foresee a slight extension of the temporary suspension. I don't expect that extension to be a long or indefinite extension," Hardeep Singh Puri said.

The South Korean drug safety agency has started a review of CT-P59 anti-coronavirus monoclonal antibody treatment developed by the Incheon-based biopharmaceutical giant, Celltrion, the Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to the media outlet, if deemed successful, the review could lead to the drug's mass production.

Celltrion, which has completed phase 2 clinical trials of the CT-P59 antibody treatment, filed earlier in the day for the medication's conditional approval with the country's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

According to the company, the drug reportedly reduces the recovery time of COVID-19 patients and has no recorded side effects.

The CT-P59 is said to kill the virus within 4-5 days, preventing the patient from developing severe symptoms, the news agency reported, citing Celltrion.

The Food and Drug Safety Ministry, on its part, is ready to approve the use of the antibody COVID-19 treatment on the condition that the company submits results of phase 3 clinical trials to assess the drug's safety and efficacy.

Ecuador will take part in clinical trials for the Chinese vaccine against COVID-19 in January, Ecuadorian Minister of Public Health Juan Carlos Zevallos said.

"We have received a proposal for a Chinese vaccine to be used at the country level for volunteers who wants to participate in phase 3," Zevallos said at an online press conference on Monday.

From 5,000 to 8,000 Ecuadorians will take part in the trials.

Zevallos added that Ecuador will receive 50,000 doses of the US Pfizer vaccine to start the first phase of the vaccination campaign in the country in January without announcing the exact date.

Ecuador is also taking part in the COVAX Facility, the global COVID-19 vaccine initiative led by the World Health Organization, and holds negotiations with other developers, such as Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

Rio de Janeiro, the largest Brazilian city, has decided to block access to beaches on New Year's Eve to avoid crowding amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian media G1 said.

The Rio de Janeiro authorities decided to extend the restrictions from 31 December to 1 January by closing beaches of the South zone of the city.

The measures will include a ban on the movement of all the vehicles from 8 p.m. (23:00 GMT) on 31 December and the block of access to all touristic buses. The authorities will also prohibit parking near the sea, holding parties and fireworks.

During New Year's Eve, only residents of these zones will be able to enter.

Last week, Rio's city hall banned access to the district of Copacabana and its famous beach.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Brazil has registered over 7.5 positive COVID-19 cases, where the death toll amounts to 191,570 people.

Russia has registered 27,002 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 27,787 the day before, bringing the total to 3,105,037, the federal response centre said on Tuesday.

"Over the past 24 hours, 27,002 coronavirus cases were confirmed in 85 regions, including 3,915 cases (14.5 percent) without clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 3,105,037, with the rate of increase at 0.9 percent.

Moscow confirmed 5,641 new coronavirus cases over the given period, down from 6,253 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 3,757 cases, up from 3,748 the day before, and the Moscow region with 1,547 new cases, down from 1,606 the day before.

The response centre reported 562 coronavirus fatalities, up from 487 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 55,827.

Total recoveries count 2,496,183 after 24,874 people were discharged from hospitals over the past day, up from 20,480 the day before.

According to the national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, over 89.8 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic, and 662,615 suspected carriers remain under medical monitoring.

All the 150 volunteers aged over 60 have received the first dose of Russia's EpiVacCorona vaccine against COVID-19, while 89 volunteers have already got the second injection, the national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said on Tuesday.

The first five volunteers aged over 60 received the vaccine on 21 November. They were under medical monitoring for 24 hours after the injection.

"As of 27 December 2020, all the 150 volunteers have been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine, while 89 volunteers have received the second dose of the EpiVacCorona vaccine," Rospotrebnadzor said.

A report on vaccine trials involving senior volunteers will be submitted to the health ministry in early February, the watchdog added.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that he was going to sign an executive order to penalize healthcare providers for violating COVID-19 vaccination prioritization protocols.

"Anyone who engages in fraud is going to be held accountable. The Executive Order I'm going to sign today says a provider could be fined up to $1 million and revocation of all State licenses which frankly may be more of a deterrent than the $1 million and that will apply to a provider, a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, any licensed health care professional," Cuomo said.

In addition, the certification of vaccine recipients will become mandatory as part of New York State's immunization campaign.

The decision to penalize healthcare providers comes a day after Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said that there had been an investigation launched into the ParCare Community Health Network's alleged violation of state guidelines by fraudulently obtaining and distributing a COVID-19 vaccine.

In the meantime, the US Department of Treasury's bureau of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, has issued a notice to "alert financial institutions about the potential for fraud, ransomware attacks, or similar types of criminal activity related to COVID-19 vaccines and their distribution."

According to FinCEN, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far issued two emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines in the country. Earlier this month, the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee recommended Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine candidate for emergency use authorization. The Moderna vaccine is the second coronavirus vaccine greenlighted by the advisory committee, after the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

India on Tuesday confirmed the lowest daily increase of COVID-19 cases since June, approximately 16,400, the country's health ministry said.

The country's total number of confirmed cases is over 10.2 million.

"The daily new cases have touched a new low today. Less than 16,500 daily new cases (16,432) were added to the national tally in the last 24 hours after 187 days. The daily new cases were 16,922 on 25th June, 2020," the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, some 9.8 million people have recovered, including 24,900 over the last 24 hours. The number of fatalities is currently at 148,153.

India is currently among the countries that have been hardest-hit by the pandemic, having the second-largest number of confirmed cases after the United States.