Live Updates: UK Reports Over 23,000 New COVID Cases on Saturday, Government Data Shows

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Bolivia expects to get nearly one million doses of coronavirus vaccines next month, Bolivian President Luis Arce has announced.

"We announce to the Bolivian people that in February almost one million doses of vaccines will arrive in #Bolivia to combat covid19. The steps we have carried out in less than three months place us among the four countries benefiting from the COVAX mechanism promoted by #WHO [World Health Organization]," Arce wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

In late December, Bolivia signed a deal with Russia to secure 5.2 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. Bolivia authorized Sputnik V for emergency use on January 6.

On Friday, Bolivia started its immunization campaign with the Sputnik V vaccine.

Earlier this month, Bolivia signed an agreement with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and its partner Serum Institute of India to import five million COVID-19 vaccine doses.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Cuba will isolate foreign tourists at designated hotels for five days upon arrival and limit the number of inbound flights to the Caribbean island starting February 6, after seeing a coronavirus infections spike, media reported.

Chief epidemiology Francisco Duran was cited as saying by the Prensa Latina news agency that foreigners would be tested on the fifth day of arrival.

There will be fewer flights from the United States, Mexico, Panama, Dominica, Jamaica, Colombia, and the Bahamas starting next weekend, according to air transport chief Mercedes Vazquez.

Cuba confirmed 910 new coronavirus infections in the past 24-hour period, its highest daily number of cases since the epidemic broke out on the island last March.

Argentina has decided to extend mandatory social distancing measures until the end of February to curb the further spread of the coronavirus, according to a decree issued by President Alberto Fernandez on Saturday.

"From February 1-28, the Social, Preventive and Compulsory Distancing [measure] — DISPO — will apply to all people who live in or transit through urban agglomerates, as well as in districts and departments of the Argentine provinces," the decree said.

The measures will remain in force in all provinces across the Latin American country regardless of the epidemiological situation.

Apart from extending restrictions, Argentina started its mass vaccination campaign with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine on December 29 to curb the pandemic.

Zimbabwe's government is engaged in talks with Russia, China and India on deliveries of their vaccines against the novel coronavirus, Zimbabwean Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mthuli Ncube said in an interview with The Anchor broadcaster.

"We have adequate resources, mobilized adequate resources in our budget to be able to meet the cost of the vaccine. All options are on the table, we are negotiating with China, India and Russia," Ncube said on Friday.

According to the minister, the country has allocated $100 million to procure enough vaccine doses to inoculate 10 million citizens — which amount to 60 percent of the population — to achieve herd immunity.

"We are having conversations around the COVAX initiative, around the AU [the African Union] initiative which has already sourced 270 million shots of the vaccines and our share is in there," the official added.

To date, the African country has registered 32,952 cases of the coronavirus, including nearly 24,900 recoveries and 1,178 fatalities. In a bid to curb the further spread of the virus, the authorities earlier this week extended quarantine measures and a curfew until February 15.

Members of the Georgian tourism and restaurant industry have held a protest outside the government chancellery building in Tbilisi on Saturday, demanding the authorities to lift the current coronavirus restrictions, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The protest of several hundred citizens lasted for a couple of hours. The main demands were to allow the functioning of restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels as well as resuming public transportation.

Among the participants were also members of other areas of the economy, such as taxi drivers, actors, and teachers, demanding the immediate removal of restrictions in their respective industries.

Earlier in the week, Georgia announced lifting a ban on regular flights from February 1. On that date, the government will start cancelling some of its other restrictions, but mainly in the regions and not in the capital.

In Tbilisi, malls and grocery stores will reopen from February 1. Schools and municipal transport are said to be resuming their function starting March 1.

Japan has begun working on extending an extension of the state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic in at least eight prefectures, Japanese media reported on Saturday, citing sources.

Earlier in the month, the government imposed a state of emergency in 11 prefectures — Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Tochigi, Aichi, Gifu, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and Hyogo.

According to the Kyodo news agency, the government will consider lifting the state of emergency in Tochigi as the number of new infections has seen a sufficient decrease there. Next week, the government will also consult with health experts about removing the state of emergency in Aichi and Gifu as well. In the other eight prefectures, the extension of the state of emergency for up to another month is said to be inevitable.

Meanwhile, the Nippon Television Network reports that the extension could last until March 7.

The government is expected to meet with a panel of health specialists next Tuesday or Thursday and made its decision based on expert advice, according to media reports.

"They have recognised they have made a mistake and I believe we can now concentrate on making sure that our vaccine programme is successful," Britain's Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told Sky News on Saturday.

Earlier this week, the EU attempted to restrict some exports of the coronavirus vaccines by invoking an emergency Brexit clause. The bloc, however, backtracked on its plan to restrict exports of the vaccines from crossing the Irish border into Great Britain. 

A new variant of COVID-19 originating in the United Kingdom was registered for the first time in Uzbekistan, Deputy Health Minister Bakhodir Yusupaliev said on Saturday.

A mutated variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first reported by London last month. The new strain is reported to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than other strains. Even though many countries around the world suspended travel to the UK, it did not prevent the spread of the new strain across the world.

"Unfortunately, the UK strain of COVID-19 was reported for the first time in our country," Yusupaliev said, as cited by the health ministry on its Telegram channel.

The new variant was detected in a 10-year-old girl, who returned to Tashkent with her family from the UAE on January 23, the minister added.

To date, Uzbekistan has registered 78,672 cases of COVID-19, including 621 fatalities and 77,146 recoveries.

The first two cases of a highly infectious variant of COVID-19 first identified in the United Kingdom have been reported in the Palestinian National Authority, in the province of Bethlehem, governor Kamel Hmeid said on Saturday.

"Lockdown in the province of Bethlehem will be tightened after two new cases of the UK COVID-19 strain were reported," Hmeid said in a statement.

London declared the appearance of a mutated variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is reported to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than other strains, last month. Even though many countries around the world suspended travel to the UK, it did not prevent the spread of the new strain across the world.

Norway has decided to soften some of the lockdown measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 in the Oslo municipality starting next Wednesday, Health Minister Bent Hoie said on Saturday.

Earlier in the month, the country imposed strict restrictions in 25 municipalities, including Oslo, over the spread of the UK strain of the coronavirus. Most of them will remain in place, but schoolchildren and university students will be able to attend classes in person if necessary, and children will be allowed to play sports outside. Small bars, restaurants and cafes will be allowed to open as well, although the sale of alcohol will still be prohibited.

"Norway is seeing a gradual decline in the number of cases. And we [also] have a better understanding regarding the spread of the virus," Hoie said at a press conference broadcast by local media.

The mutant strain was detected by UK health authorities in mid-December, prompting the government to impose a new lockdown and many other countries to close the borders with the United Kingdom. Preliminary data suggests that the new variant is more infectious than the original strain.

US pharmaceutical company Moderna will reduce by 20 percent the volume of COVID-19 vaccine doses set to be delivered to the Netherlands in February, the NL Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing the Dutch Department of Health.

Earlier in January, the pharmaceutical company also announced a cut in the vaccine deliveries to some other countries, including Poland, Switzerland, Italy and Canada next week.

According to the newspaper, the reason for the delay is an adjustment the company needs to make at its facility to scale-up the vaccine production.

Due to the delay, the Netherlands, where the vaccination campaign is one of the slowest in Europe, will receive only 38,400 out of the expected 48,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine from 8-14 February, the newspaper added.

The Netherlands rolled out its mass vaccination campaign on January 6 using the vaccine jointly developed by the US' Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech companies, with the priority given to medical workers and staff of retirement houses. To date, more than 200,000 people have been inoculated.

The first phase of the mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus has been launched in Algeria after the country received the first shipment of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, national media reported on Saturday.

According to the Radion Algerie broadcaster, the first phase began in the country's northern province of Blida under the supervision of Health Minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid.

In late December, Algeria signed a contract with Russia on the supply of Sputnik V and later became the first African nation to register the Russian vaccine. According to the spokesman of the Algerian Coronavirus Monitoring and Follow-up Committee, Jamal Furar, the country expects to receive about 500,000 doses of Sputnik V in January.

The international team of the World Health Organization (WHO), tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19, has visited a hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first COVID-19 patients were treated, WHO team member and virologist Marion Koopmans said on Saturday.

"Just back from visit at Jinyintan hospital, that specialised in infectious diseases and was designated for treatment of the first cases in Wuhan. Stories quite similar to what I have heard from our ICU doctors," Koopmans wrote on Twitter.

The WHO team arrived in Wuhan on 14 January on a mission to investigate the origins of COVID-19, as the Chinese city was the world's first epicenter when a cluster of new cases emerged in December 2019. However, they had to go through a 14-day quarantine in designated hotels after arriving in Wuhan, as all overseas travelers arriving in China were required to comply with such COVID-19 containment measures. ON Thursday, the team completed the quarantine and began the mission.

Russia registered 19,032 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 19,238 the day before, taking the tally to 3,832,080, the coronavirus response centre said on Saturday.

"Over the past day, 19,032 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 regions, including 2,201cases (10.5 percent) that were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 3,832,080, with the rate of increase at 0.5 percent.

St. Petersburg confirmed 2,512 new coronavirus cases over the given period, up from 2,284 the day before. Moscow confirmed 2,430 cases, up from 2,284 the day before, and the Moscow Region confirmed 1,069 new cases, up from 1,044 on Friday.

The response centre reported 512 coronavirus fatalities, down from 534 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 72,697.

Total recoveries count 3,279,964 after 24,502 people were discharged from hospitals over the past day, down from 26,204 the day before.

The first batch of 1 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine produced by the China's Sinopharm will be delivered to Peru on February 9, Peruvian Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez said.

"Today [on Friday] we were informed that the first batch of 1 million doses of the vaccine will be shipped by a KLM flight from Beijing on February 8 and it will arrive in our country on February 9," Bermudez said as aired by TVPeru broadcaster.

The scheme for using the Chinese drug includes two doses of the vaccine, so at the initial stage up to 500,000 people could be immunized.

Peru's President Francisco Sagasti previously said that the government had signed a contract with Sinopharm on deliveries of 38 million doses of the vaccine in 2021. Phase 3 of clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine is currently underway in the South American nation.

Peru also expects to receive 14 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine starting from September.

The Colombian authorities have completed the negotiations with US pharmaceutical company Moderna and Chinese company Sinovac on deliveries of their vaccines against COVID-19 to the South American nation, President Ivan Duque said.

"I want to inform all Colombians that we have completed the new negotiations with pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Sinovac to purchase more vaccines against COVID-19. Thus, we have enough doses for immunization of 35,250,000 our compatriots," Duque said on Twitter.

According to him, thanks to these two bilateral talks and the World Health Organization-led COVAX Facility, Colombia was able to purchase 61.5 million doses of vaccines. The head of state added that mass vaccination campaign will begin in the country on February 20. It is planned to vaccinate one million citizens in the first quarter of the year.

Colombia has confirmed over two million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 53,000 fatalities.

India has confirmed 13,083 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 10,733,131, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The death toll from the disease has reached 154,147 people, with 137 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 10.4 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.

A day earlier, the southern Asian nation recorded 18,855 new coronavirus cases and 163 fatalities.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States, with more than 25.92 million COVID-19 patients.

Vatican City will reopen its museums, closed over the COVID-19 pandemic, for visitors starting from 1 February, the museums said 

"It's official: the #VaticanMuseums reopen their doors to the public. After 88 days of closure, starting from Monday, 1 February  2021 it will finally be possible to return to visit the Vatican Collections every day, from Monday to Saturday, 8:30 am to 6:30 pm [07:30-17:30 GMT], with last admission at 4:30 pm," the museums wrote on the Instagram page.⠀

The museums added that tourists would require reservations for visiting them.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 102 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.2 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Italy has confirmed more than 2.52 million coronavirus cases so far, with over 87,000 fatalities, JHU says.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he expected his country to receive the first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus next week.

"This vaccine [Sputnik V] will arrive in the upcoming days, and I believe that the deliveries will start next week," the president said on late Friday in an address to the nation posted in his Telegram channel.

He added that receiving the vaccines against the coronavirus was currently the main step to prevent the further spread of the disease.

Earlier this week, the Mexican leader said that the country expected the deliveries of 24 million doses of Sputnik V within the next two months.

On 13 January, Mexico started to vaccinate staff of hospitals using the vaccine developed by the Pfizer company.