Live Updates: Number of Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Brazil Surpasses 10 Million

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has no samples of Brazilian and South African coronavirus strains as of today, Anna Popova, the head of public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Thursday.

"As of today, there are no samples [of these strains] in Russia. And we are doing everything to ensure that they appear, to study them," Popova told the Rossiya 1 broadcaster.

The public health chief added that Russia’s "shield" against new viruses is effective.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Pfizer and BioNTech launched a new clinical trial in nine countries including the United States, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK) and Brazil to test their COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.

"Phase 2/3 trial will enroll approximately 4,000 healthy pregnant women in the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mozambique, South Africa, UK, and Spain," the release said. "Women enrolled in the trial will be unblinded shortly after giving birth to allow those women who originally received placebo to be vaccinated while staying in the study."

The study will further evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2) in preventing COVID-19 in healthy pregnant women 18 years of age and older, the release said.

“Pregnant women have an increased risk of complications and developing severe COVID-19, which is why it is critical that we develop a vaccine that is safe and effective for this population,” Pfizer Senior Vice President of Vaccine Clinical Research and Development William Gruber said in the release.

Scientists in the United States and other nations tried and failed to find any credible evidence that the novel coronavirus is transmitted by handling food or food packaging, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday.

“Consumers should be reassured that we continue to believe, based on our understanding of currently available reliable scientific information, and supported by overwhelming international scientific consensus, that the foods they eat and food packaging they touch are highly unlikely to spread SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19],” the FDA said in a  press release.

The FDA emphasized that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that is spread from person to person, unlike foodborne or gastrointestinal viruses, such as norovirus and hepatitis A, which often make people ill through contaminated food.

As for food packaging, the FDA said the number of virus particles that could theoretically be picked up by touching a surface would be far too small to reach a threshold needed for inhalation.

The FDA said it published the release based on the best available information from scientists across the globe and an international consensus of an exceedingly low risk of human transmission.

US President Joe Biden will focus on the efforts to defeat the novel coronavirus pandemic and rebuild the global economy during the virtual G7 gathering on Friday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

“This virtual engagement with leaders of the world’s leading democratic market economies will provide an opportunity for President Biden to discuss plans to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild the global economy,” Psaki said. “President Biden will focus on a global response to the pandemic, including coordination on vaccine production, distribution of supplies, as well as continued effort to mobilize and cooperate against the threat of emerging infectious diseases.”

Psaki said the US president will also discuss the global economic recovery, including the importance of industrialized countries maintaining economic support for the recovery. Among other issues, Biden is expected to address the global climate crisis and economic challenges posed by China, she added.

The February 19 virtual engagement will be hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of the United Kingdom's G7 presidency ahead of the planned summit in June. The engagement will be the first gathering of G7 leaders since April 2020.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the United States and the European nations to allocate up to 5 percent of their coronavirus vaccine dose reserves to the developing states in Africa, according to his interview with the Financial Times newspaper published on Thursday.

The French leader noted that the African states purchased vaccines developed by Western manufacturers at a much higher price than the EU did, and alas were seeking to fill the gap by buying Russian and Chinese vaccines which he said were not proven to be effective against the new coronavirus mutations. In this regard, he went on, despite the shortages and other setbacks in the bloc's vaccination campaign, it would hardly be hampered if the EU states decided to send a small share of their vaccine supplies to the African states.

"We’re not talking about billions of doses immediately, or billions and billions of euros. It’s about much more rapidly allocating 4-5 per cent of the doses we have," Macron said, adding that he hoped to persuade Washington to join the initiative, as its vaccine dose supplies were ampler.

He noted that this move would prevent a war of influence over vaccines and the issue of "global inequality" arising amid the ongoing vaccination campaigns in "rich countries" and scarcely progressing or non-existing immunization programs in developing nations.

Macron stressed that his call to allocate doses to African countries was linked to a matter of public health rather than "vaccine diplomacy" and "power game," adding that he was in favour of Russian and Chinese vaccines global rollouts provided they are proven to be effective against the virus and its variants.

Additionally, the president said that the initiative was of interest to European nations in terms of reopening with other states, including those suffering from vaccine shots insufficiency.

The EU began a blocwide vaccination campaign in late December 2020, but it was significantly impeded by vaccine delivery cuts from Pfizer/BioNTeach, Moderna, and AstraZeneca drugmakers due to production capacity issues.

Greece is poised to reopen borders to arrivals from Russia and several other countries, with the announcement of details and timetables expected within the next two weeks, Tez Tour Greece CEO Dimitris Charitidis said on Thursday.

"According to the information from the Ministry of Tourism and the Greek National Tourism Organisation, the [Greek authorities] will announce the reopening of borders in the next 10 to 14 days. Naturally, Russia will be among the countries for which Greece will be open," Charitidis said.

With regard to arrivals from Russia, Charitidis said that "all the restrictions will likely be lifted before Easter, which is celebrated on 2 May this year."

When borders reopen, Greece will be letting in 500 Russian visitors per week, making the entry conditional upon either proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test, according to the executive.

Greece does not want to wait until the reopening decision goes through at the European level, which is why it is discussing the lift of travel restrictions with Russia and other countries, such as Israel and the United Kingdom, bilaterally, Charitidis said.

In 2019, around 800,000 Russians visited Greece. Charitidis' expectation is that this number will reach at least 450,000 this year.

VATICAN CITY (Sputnik) - The Vatican plans to take disciplinary measures, up to outright dismissal, against those among its personnel who refuse to receive a coronavirus vaccine, Giuseppe Bertello, President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, has said in a special decree.

The Holy See began its vaccine rollout on January 13. On the next day, the Vatican announced that both Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had received their first shots.

The city-state's immunization campaign is being conducted on a voluntarily and free-of-charge basis. At the same time, Bertello's decree states a possibility of strict measures against those refusing inoculation. For example, those, who will not get vaccinated due to health reasons will be transferred to other jobs along with demotion. Those who refuse to get vaccinated for other reasons will face even harsher responses, including termination of employment.

The decree also mandates strict adherence to the guidelines adopted to halt the spread of the disease, including social distancing, prohibition on gatherings, obligatory masks and quarantine when warranted. Violators will be fined 25 to 1,500 euros ($30 to $1810).

The COVID-19 trend of transmission is curving downwards in the "first wave" countries of Africa that have logged the largest tallies since the start of the pandemic, but it is still upward in Zambia, South Sudan, Senegal and Ghana, the World Health Organization (WHO) regional director said on Thursday.

Speaking at a virtual briefing, Matshidiso Moeti said that Africa has registered over 3.7 million COVID-19 cases, including more than 99,000 deaths. Some 77,000 new cases have been recorded in the past week.

"In the past two months, we've seen a downward trend in some of the most affected countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Tunisia. However, in several countries including Zambia, Togo, South Sudan, Senegal and Ghana, the epidemic curve is still trending upwards," she said.

In this regard, the official welcomed the WHO's approval of the AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine for emergency use this week.

"This is a significant step towards the deployment of 90 million doses of this vaccine that have been allocated to African countries through the COVAX Facility, as well as doses procured through other sources," Moeti stated.

The WHO, she noted, held a briefing with African health ministers on February 17 to discuss the next steps, so that vaccine manufacturers could schedule their shipments to the countries.

"Countries now need to work their operational planning in detail to strengthen their readiness at every delivery level to anticipate bottlenecks and to mobilize all the capacity needed for the vaccine rollout," the regional director for Africa added.

The WHO-led COVAX initiative is a global pooled procurement mechanism meant to ensure equitable access to safe and effective vaccines by financially aiding low- and middle-income countries.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Secretary General Antonio Guterres criticized "wildly uneven and unfair" progress on coronavirus vaccinations, noting that just 10 countries had administered 75 percent of all the shots. Over 130 countries have not yet received a single dose.

 Air France-KLM Group released its annual financial report on Thursday, reflecting a huge yearly loss amounting to 7.1 billion euros ($8.5 billion) as a result of the pandemic's "severe" impact.

"Net income amounted to -7.1 billion euros in the Full Year 2020, a decrease of 7.4 billion euros compared to last year," the company said, specifying that the "exceptional accounting items due to Covid-19" included 822 million euros in restructuring provision, 595 million euros in fuel overhedging, and 672 million euros in fleet impairment.

Additionally, the French-Dutch airline group said it paid 2.3 billion euros in refunds throughout the year, pointing to the 69-percent decrease in annual passenger traffic as a result of the COVID-19-related travel restrictions.

Total revenues in 2020 dropped 59 percent year-on-year to 11.1 billion euros, according to the financial report.

CEO Benjamin Smith said that the airline was faced with the "most severe crisis ever experienced by the air transport industry."

The company reported 9.8 billion euros of solid liquidity and access to credit lines, as of 31 December, 2020, expecting a gradual boost of capacity and recovery toward the summer in tandem with the progress of Europe's vaccination campaign.

Last year, Air France-KLM received 7 billion euros from France and 3.4 billion euros from the Netherlands in state assistance to recover from the COVID-19 shocks.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) said on Thursday that it had authorized the use and import of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and UK-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Two other vaccines authorized for use in Saudi Arabia until now included those developed by US company Moderna and US-German duo Pfizer-BioNTech.

"Today, the SFDA approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The SFDA authorized the vaccine's use and import after a detailed review of the provided data according to an accurate scientific methodology," the official statement read.

The SFDA said it would probe vaccine samples from each shipment before use, while the rollout would be carried out in line with the approved medical standards and regulations.

Saudi Arabia's mass vaccination campaign began on 17 December. As of Thursday, the country reported just over 373,000 COVID-19 cases, including 364,646 recoveries and 6,445 deaths.

 US federal prosecutors launched an inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in state-run nursery homes by the administration of New York governor Andrew Cuomo, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the case.

The US attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York has started the new inquiry as an addition to the earlier request for records about coronavirus response in the state-run nursing homes submitted by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in August 2020. Reportedly, the data was required to determine whether a further official inquiry in the matter would be needed. Currently, with the investigation  still at preliminary stages, no charges have been pressed.

Rich Azzopardi, senior adviser to Gov. Cuomo confirmed that he was cooperating with the DOJ on the matter.

"As we publicly said, DOJ has been looking into this for months. We have been cooperating with them, and we will continue to," Azzopardi was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Since early February, Republican senators have been pushing for the investigation of the "cover-up" by the Cuomo administration of COVID-19 death toll in state nursing homes and demanded Cuomo's resignation over the alleged human rights violations. Cuomo himself refuted the claims and stated that the authorities of New York State have provided full reports on all COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. He apologized for the "void" in information provided and noted that the administration did everything in its power to save people's lives.

New York became the epicenter of pandemic during the first wave in spring 2020, with over 700 deaths a day at its peak. As of now, the situation has stabilized, and more than one million New Yorkers have been fully immunized against the virus.

Russia registered 13,447 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, up from 12,828 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,125,598, the coronavirus response centre said on Thursday.

"Over the past day, 13,447 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 regions, including 1,494 cases (11.1 percent) that were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 4,125,598, with the rate of increase at 0.3 percent.

Moscow confirmed 1,950 new coronavirus cases over the given period, up from 1,282 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 1,094 new cases, down from 1,103 the day before, and the Moscow Region with 577 new cases, up from 470 on Wednesday.

The response centre reported 480 COVID-19 fatalities, up from 467 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 81,926.

Total recoveries increased by 18,730 over the given period, up from 17,919 the day before, and reached 3,661,312.

We are taking all precautions & continue undaunted with our efforts against COVID19.

New SOPs will be in effect for International Passengers arriving in India from 23:59 hrs on 22 Feb 2021...@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA @MoCA_GoI @MEAIndia @AAI_Official @DGCAIndia pic.twitter.com/sVM3D0pBPQ

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) February 17, 2021

India has confirmed 12,881 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 10,950,201, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The death toll from the disease has reached 156,014 people, with 101 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 10.65 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States, with more than 27.82 million COVID-19 patients.