Currently, among the most affected nations are the US (33.1 million infected, 590,000 deaths), India (26.7 million cases, 303,000 fatalities), and Brazil (16.1 million cases, and a death toll of over 449,000).
The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in India has topped 10 million among those aged 18-45 as part of third stage of mass vaccination.
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States will reach on Tuesday its target of fully vaccinating 50 percent of America’s adult population against the coronavirus and will aim to hit the next milestone of 70 percent before its Independence Day anniversary on the 4th of July, White House COVID-19 coordinator Andy Slavitt said Tuesday.
“Today, the US will have 50 percent of adult Americans that are fully vaccinated,” Slavitt told a media briefing. “This is a major milestone in our country's vaccination efforts. The number was one percent when we entered office, January 20th.”
The Slovak government will decide if Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V will be used in the national vaccination effort on Wednesday, Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky said on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Bratislava newspaper Pravda reported, citing Prime Minister Eduard Heger, that the country will begin vaccinating people with the Russian vaccine starting June 1.
"I will sign the decision to use Sputnik V if the majority of the ministers supports it. I am in favor of the European solution. I see that [among the citizens] there is a group of people that prefers solely this vaccine, so in order to raise the percentage of vaccinated people we should resolve this issue [in a positive manner]," Lengvarsky told journalists, noting that there was still the issue of allegedly incomplete documentation from the Russian side.
The Russian vaccine caused a political scandal in Slovakia as former Prime Minister Igor Matovic initiated the decision in February to purchase the vaccine without approval by the European Medicines Agency and without informing President Zuzana Caputova or their cabinet colleagues. This did not sit well with other ministers, who left the government and called on Matovic and then-Health Minister Marek Krajci to resign, which they did. The reshuffled government was approved on April 1 with Matovic as the finance minister.
Sputnik V, the world's first registered coronavirus vaccine, has been approved for emergency use in 65 countries across the globe. The efficacy of the vaccine stands at 97.6%, based on the latest analysis of data on the post-vaccination infection percentage among 3.8 million vaccinated Russians. It is higher than the 91.6% efficacy shown in an interim analysis from the trial published in The Lancet in early February.
A US hacker who received more than $200,000 in COVID-19 relief using identities he stole from 35 victims faces criminal charges in an indictment that was unsealed on Tuesday, the Justice Department said.
"The indictment alleges that, as part of the scheme, [Keon] Taylor obtained over the internet and elsewhere multiple victims’ stolen personal identifying information, or "PII," including victims’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and addresses," the Justice Department said in a press release.
Taylor used the stolen identities to apply for and receive over $219,000 in fraudulent unemployment benefits, and to submit numerous additional applications seeking other benefits for at least 35 victims, the release said.
The indictment further alleges that Taylor also used false information to fraudulently apply for three Economic Injury Disaster Loans under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, a federal law with multiple aid programs for millions of Americans suffering economic damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the release added.
The indictment lists multiple charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the release.
OVID-19 cases in fully vaccinated individuals totaled 10,262 in the first four months of 2021, 10 percent of whom were hospitalized and 2 percent died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on Tuesday.
"Based on preliminary data, 2,725 (27 percent) vaccine breakthrough infections were asymptomatic, 995 patients were known to be hospitalized, and 160 patients died," the report said.
When the breakthrough tally reached 10,262 on April 30, about 101 million Americans had been fully vaccinated, defined as 14 days after the final jab or a one- or two-dose vaccine, the report said.
The median age of patients who died was 82 years, with 28 decedents either asymptomatic or died from a cause unrelated to COVID-19, the report added.
The report cautioned that the tally likely represented a substantial undercount because many persons with vaccine breakthrough infections, especially those who are asymptomatic or who experience mild illness, might not seek testing.
Beginning in May, the CDC said it transitioned from monitoring all reported vaccine "breakthrough" infections to investigating only those among patients who are hospitalized or die.
We made great progress in our fight against #COVID19.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 25, 2021
This week over 300 million doses will have been delivered in the 🇪🇺.
We are on track to have enough doses delivered to vaccinate 70% of the adult population by end of July. https://t.co/jEx1o1IXTJ
IT infrastructure for the planned COVID-19 digital travel certificate scheme will be ready by June 1, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
"Citizens will now be able to use a mutually-recognized certificate wherever they travel in the European Union. The IT infrastructure is ready at EU level as of June 1 and as of mid-June when the regulation enters into force, member states will be able to connect live to the system," von der Leyen told a press briefing.
US pharmaceutical giant Moderna said on Tuesday its COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective in adolescents aged 18 and below based on studies conducted thus far.
“We are encouraged that mRNA-1273 was highly effective at preventing COVID-19 in adolescents,” Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said in a statement, referring to the primary ingredient in the vaccine. “We will submit these results to the US FDA [Food and Drug Administration] and regulators globally in early June and request authorization.”
The so-called TeenCOVE study enrolled more than 3,700 participants ages 12 to below 18 in the United States, the statement said.
“No cases of COVID-19 (were) observed after two doses of vaccine using the primary case definition, consistent with a vaccine efficacy of 100 percent,” it said, adding: “Safety and tolerability (were) generally consistent with Phase 3 COVE study in adults; no significant safety concerns (were) identified.”
Moderna is expected to be the second vaccine that will gain emergency use authorization from the FDA for such use on adolescents aged 12 to 15, after the Pfizer-BioNTech dose was approved on 11 May.
South Korea on Tuesday confirmed another three cases of COVID-19 among those fully vaccinated, bringing the total of such infections to four, the health authorities said.
Last week, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced the first post-inoculation case of COVID-19.
Of the four, two caught the disease within 14 days after the second jab, while the other two contracted it afterward.
"Those who got infected after the 14-day post-vaccination period did not show any clinical symptoms," Lee Sang-won, the head of epidemiological investigation analysis at the KDCA, said at a briefing, also mentioning that the nationwide effectiveness of vaccination after the first shot is 89.5%.
According to the KCDC, the number of such cases will increase in the future, meaning that safety measures have to be followed even after vaccination.
So far, South Korea has fully vaccinated 1.85 million people or 3.6% of the population. The country is using vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford.
The head of Paralympics Australia, Kate McLoughlin, said on Tuesday that all athletes participating in the Tokyo Games this summer would have to receive coronavirus vaccines ahead of the sporting event on a mandatory basis.
"If we have unvaccinated people in the team, it poses a risk to both those athletes or officials who refuse to have the jab, because we know that there will be COVID in the village," McLoughlin told the ABC broadcaster.
Those who refuse to be inoculated will be barred from the Games, the committee head stated, adding that the decision was made to keep the team safe.
"Look it could be, and it was a very difficult decision to come to, but we've mulled over it for a while now," McLoughlin said.
So far, only very few athletes question the need for vaccination, and the national committee is now in discussions with them, she added.
According to the latest decision by the International Paralympic Committee, the vaccination of athletes partaking in the Tokyo Games should be voluntary.
Russia registered 7,884 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, down from 8,406 the day before, which brought the cumulative total to 5,017,795, the federal response centre said on Tuesday.
This is the lowest single-day increase since May 6, when Russia confirmed 7,639 new cases.
"Over the past day, 7,884 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 84 Russian regions, including 935 cases (11.9 percent) without clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the rate of increase fell to 0.16 percent.
Moscow confirmed 2,075 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, down from 2,487 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 844 new cases, down from 851 the day before, and the Moscow Region with 734 cases, down from 766 the day before.
No new cases were recorded in the Nenets autonomous region.
The response centre reported 393 new fatalities linked to the coronavirus, up from 319 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 119,194.
In the same 24 hours, 8,743 people were discharged from hospitals as recovered across the country, up from 6,450 the previous day, bringing the total to 4,632,955.
Austria will again ban flights from the United Kingdom from landing due to COVID-19 outbreak, after the initial restrictions were lifted in March, media said Tuesday.
The ban on most flights from the UK will take effect on 1 June, according to the Austrian news agency APA. Exemptions will be made for Austrian nationals and residents.
The small alpine nation added the UK to the list of at-risk countries on Monday after it reported a surge in coronavirus cases caused by the so-called Indian variant. Flights are already banned from India, Brazil and South Africa.
India has confirmed less than 200,000 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, making it the lowest level since mid-April, according to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.
Over the previous week, the country was recording up to 300,000 new infections per day, which was a slight improvement after a period of rapid surge since last month.
On Tuesday, the 12th consecutive day in India when daily recoveries outnumber new cases, 196,427 people tested positive for the coronavirus, while 326,850 more people recovered from the disease.
The update brings the country's total tally to over 26.9 million, including 2,586,782 active cases, with the death toll standing at 307,231, the ministry said.
While the infection rate continues to decline, the country accelerates the pace of its vaccination campaign. So far, the total number of inoculations has topped 198.5 million.
