Currently, among the most affected nations are the US (26 million infected, 439,000 deaths), India (10.7 million cases, 154,000 fatalities), and Brazil (9.1 million cases, and a death toll of over 223,000).
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TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - The Israeli government is extending the coronavirus lockdown until 5 February, while the Ben Gurion Airport will remain shut down until 7 February, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced early Monday.
The Israeli government convened on Sunday night to approve the extension of the restrictions that were introduced on January 8. Initially, the lockdown measures were expected to be in force until 31 January.
Netanyahu’s office announced in the early hours of Monday that the government had approved the extension of the lockdown, with all current measures remaining in force until Friday.
Meanwhile the Ben Gurion Airport will remain closed for an additional two days, until midnight 7 February. The only exception will be special humanitarian or other urgent flights that will be subject to review by a government commission. Land border crossings will also remain closed.
On Wednesday, the Israeli cabinet will meet again to discuss the possibility of extending the coronavirus restrictions further.
According to Netanyahu, fines for violating the lockdown measures have been doubled.
PRAGUE (Sputnik) - Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus had every chance to be used in his country provided relevant authorization.
"I wouldn’t mind if experts decided to use this vaccine here. Anyway, it is better than letting people die because of vaccine shortages," he told Prague’s Frekvence 1 radio.
Zeman estimated that some 150 people died of COVID-19 in the country every day, which equals the population of a small Czech village.
The president said Sputnik V had been recommended for use by former Health Minister Roman Prymula and was already being administered to people in Hungary.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - AstraZeneca has agreed to deliver 9 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to the European Union by April, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday.
The EU threatened to take legal action against the UK-Swedish drugmaker after it said it would deliver only 31 million of the 80 million doses contracted for the first quarter.
"Step forward on vaccines. AstraZeneca will deliver 9 million additional doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last week’s offer," von der Leyen tweeted.
Step forward on vaccines.@AstraZeneca will deliver 9 million additional doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last week’s offer & will start deliveries one week earlier than scheduled.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 31, 2021
The company will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.
ALGIERS (Sputnik) - Russian experts will visit Algeria to prepare for localization of production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in the Arab country, Ambassador to Algeria Igor Belyaev said Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the ambassador was received by Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad, who expressed his gratitude for Moscow's readiness to supply the vaccine to Algeria. According to a statement, obtained by Sputnik, the sides agreed to build contacts between relevant agencies regarding the production of Sputnik V in Algeria.
"Russian specialists will come to Algeria to inspect pharmaceutical facilities. It will take six to nine months to produce the vaccine in Algeria," Belyaev said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The administration of US President Joe Biden still hopes to reopen schools across the country for in-person learning by April, despite the threat of new variants of COVID-19 spreading in the US, Cedric Richmond, a senior presidential advisor, told the CBS broadcaster on Sunday.
"Well, yes. And the key to it is making sure that we pass the American rescue plan so that we provide the school systems and local municipalities the ability to open schools safely. And we think that if we invest in the resources to make it safe, schools should reopen," Richmond said when asked whether Biden is still planning to push for in-person learning by April.
According to the official, to implement the plan, the authorities are currently making efforts to ramp up the national vaccination campaign, delivering 1.6 million vaccine doses to the states every week.
"But our plan and why we need to pass the American Rescue Plan is to make sure that we give the school systems the ability to buy the masks, the ventilation systems, all of those things that's needed to open up," the politician added.
To date, the United States still has the highest case count in the world — 26,007,663 infections, including 439,587 fatalities. The country has also confirmed both the UK and South African strains of the coronavirus on its territory. According to US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, the UK variant will become more dominant in the United States by the middle of spring.
MINSK (Sputnik) - Belarus is working on an agreement to secure a supply of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease from China, Ambassador to Beijing Yuri Senko said Sunday.
According to the diplomat, the country's health ministry, assisted by the Belarusian embassy, has been actively negotiating with Chinese companies.
"One company with its vaccine has already received registration, and we are working toward signing an agreement with that company on supplying the vaccine to the Republic of Belarus," Senko told the Belarusian broadcaster CTV.
The ambassador noted that keeping in mind a large number of countries that turned to China, Belarus would be among the first to receive the vaccine.
"This was also discussed during a phone conversation between the head of China, Mr. Xi Jinping, and [Belarusian President] Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko," Senko stressed.
The two leaders talked on Tuesday, with the Chinese side said to have confirmed being ready to supply enough vaccines to Belarus. Later in the week, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said that Minsk expected to receive some vaccines free of charge.
— Captain Tom Moore (@captaintommoore) January 31, 2021
Israel has approved the allocation of 5,000 doses of the vaccine against the coronavirus to Palestine, a spokesperson for Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Sputnik.
"The allocation of 5,000 vaccine doses was indeed approved," the spokesperson said.
According to Ynet, vaccines for 2,500 health workers will be delivered to Ramallah at the beginning of the upcoming week. A source told the media outlet that Israel would provide Pfizer vaccine to Palestine.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland previously called on Israel to help Palestine with the vaccination campaign. According to him, this would be critical to the efforts of both governments to contain the pandemic.
The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) on Sunday approved the emergency use of the vaccine against the coronavirus developed by the UK-Swedish AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company along with Oxford University.
Earlier this week, Cairo said that it ordered 20 million doses of the vaccine. Health Minister Hala Zayed said that the country secured a total of 100 million doses of vaccines from different manufacturers.
"The Egyptian Drug Authority has announced the emergency authorization of the Covishield vaccine by AstraZeneca," the EDA said in a statement.
Mass vaccination campaign kicked off in Egypt on Monday, with medical staff given a top priority.
So far, the Arab country has confirmed more than 165,000 cases of the infection, including over 129,000 recoveries and 9,263 fatalities.
Russia registered 18,359 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 19,032 the day before, taking the tally to 3,850,439, the coronavirus response centre said on Sunday.
"Over the past day, 18,359 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 84 regions, including 1,997 cases (10.9 percent) that were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 3,850,439 with the rate of increase at 0.48 percent.
Moscow confirmed 2,284 new coronavirus cases over the given period, down from 2,430 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 2,160 cases, down from 2,284 the day before, and the Moscow Region with 1,082 new cases, up from 1,044 on Saturday.
The response centre reported 485 coronavirus fatalities, down from 512 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 73,182.
Total recoveries count 3,300,004 after 20,040 people were discharged from hospitals over the past day, down from 24,502 the day before.
About 500,000 people have signed up for vaccination against coronavirus in Moscow, while more than 300,000 have already received the vaccine, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
"As for today, about 500,000 people have signed up [for vaccination], and over 300,000 people have already been vaccinated," Sobyanin said as aired by Rossiya 1 broadcaster.
Russia has so far registered two homegrown COVID-19 vaccines — Sputnik V, developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute, and EpiVacCorona, created by Siberian research center Vector. In December, the country launched a large-scale coronavirus vaccination, gradually opening registration to the most vulnerable groups, such as doctors, teachers, social workers, and numerous others.
Earlier in January, Moscow opened coronavirus vaccination to scientists, IT and hospitality industry workers.
Japan’s Ministry of Health has registered five new cases of the UK coronavirus variant, three of them reported among residents of Saitama Prefecture, The Nikkei reports.
All of the Saitama cases are thought to be related, as the three people are believed to have visited the same workplace where they came into contact with another person infected with the British coronavirus strain.
According to Nikkei, the health ministry does not exclude the emergence of the first cluster of the UK coronavirus variant in Japan.
In total, 64 cases of this particular strain have been confirmed in Japan.
Earlier this month, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) announced that it had found a new strain of the coronavirus among four individuals arriving from Brazil. The new strain showed similarities to the variant detected in the UK and South Africa but there is currently no evidence that it is more transmissible or likelier to cause serious symptoms.
Japan has registered over 387,000 coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data, including more than 5,600 deaths. The second wave of COVID-19 in the country is reported to have put national hospitals under severe strain.
