The US is the worst-hit country amid the pandemic, confirming over 33.3 million coronavirus cases and a death toll of around 595,000.
India, which has been suffering from a dramatic spike in infections since last month, is second with a total of 28 million COVID-19 cases and over 335,000 deaths. Brazil rounds out the top three, with more than 16.7 million cases and the second-highest death toll in the world of around 467,000.
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ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Argentine Ambassador to Russia Eduardo Zuain has confirmed to Sputnik that the Latin American nation is going to launch the mass production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus in July.
In April, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) reported that it, together with partners, implemented the technology transfer to Argentina's Richmond laboratory. The first batch was delivered to the Gamaleya institute to control the quality of the vaccine, and last week, the Russian research center confirmed the good quality of the drug produced in the Latin American nation.
“Yes, we maintain such plans,” the ambassador said on late Thursday, answering the question of whether Argentina was going to start the manufacture of Sputnik V in July.
Argentina became the first Latin American country both to authorize the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and to start local production. In April, it announced its plans to produce 4-5 million doses of Russia's drug monthly and expects to bring yearly production to 500 million doses.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 171.96 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 3.69 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Argentina has confirmed more than 3.88 million COVID-19 cases so far, with about 80,000 fatalities.
TORONTO (Sputnik) - The Canadian province of Ontario will begin allowing residents to mix and match vaccines following updated guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunizations (NACI).
On Tuesday, NACI recommended relaxing rules governing the interchangeability of second coronavirus vaccine doses, saying that Canadians, who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca or its Indian analogue COVISHIELD, can receive an messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for their second shot, namely the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots.
“Effective June 4, 2021 and in alignment with NACI’s recommendation, Ontarians who have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine can choose to either receive a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, or an mRNA (Pfizer or Moderna) vaccine for their second dose,” the province said in a statement on Thursday.
Those who wish to receive the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine should contact the pharmacy or primary care provider where they received their first dose, the statement read.
NACI’s decision to offer an mRNA vaccine for the second dose was made after experts studied the risk of Canadians’ developing Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia following vaccination with the UK drugmaker’s vaccine and the risk of complications pertinent to vaccine mixing.
Additionally, Ontario said it stands by the advisory panel’s recommendation that first and second mRNA vaccine doses should come from the same manufacturer, however, in the event of supply shortages the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be considered interchangeable.
Canada’s vaccination regime has faced repeated setbacks, with the country experiencing a shortage of doses, despite the Trudeau government lauding deals with numerous vaccine manufacturers.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 83,391 to 16,803,472 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said on late Thursday.
According to the ministry, the death toll has risen by 1,682 to 469,388 people within the same period of time.
More than 15.22 million patients have recovered since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, the country confirmed more than 95,000 new coronavirus cases, with 2,507 fatalities.
ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Chile wants to purchase Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, the negotiations on the issue are on an advanced stage, Undersecretary for International Economic Relations at Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rodrigo Yanez said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2021).
SPIEF-2021 is taking place from Wednesday through Saturday in person at the Expoforum Exhibition and Convention Center in St. Petersburg. The Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is a media partner of the event.
“From the very beginning, we have viewed Sputnik V as an alternative [to the currently used vaccines]. We expect it to become available along with other vaccines one day,” Yanez said on late Thursday.
The diplomat added that as part of his visit to Russia he would meet representatives of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), with which Chile continues to hold “advanced” negotiations.
LONDON (Sputnik) - The Indian strain of the coronavirus has overtaken the British one as the dominant variant in the United Kingdom, with cases linked to the Delta mutation rising by 5,472 since last week to 12,431, Public Health England said Thursday.
"Although there is some regional variation, PHE experts now believe that Delta (VOC-21APR-02) has overtaken Alpha (VOC-20DEC-01) as the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in the UK," the agency said.
It said early evidence suggested that there might be an increased risk of hospitalization associated with the Delta mutation, compared to the UK variant Alpha. This week, 278 people with Delta were taken to the emergency ward, resulting in 94 admissions. Last week, there were 201 people and 43 admissions.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A Swedish parliamentary committee, tasked with scrutinizing the government, outlined several flaws in its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, in a report published Thursday.
The Committee on the Constitution said that testing numbers did not increase as expected across Sweden because of uncertainty about which groups were covered by budget funds.
On the procurement of protective medical gear, the influential panel said that a mix-up led several suppliers to believe that they were only to sell it to the national health board, instead of regional authorities.
It also found that curbs on public gatherings and a ban on visits in nursing homes significantly limited constitutionally protected freedoms. The committee concluded that such regulations must be reevaluated continuously.
BELGRADE (Sputnik) - The Albanian cabinet has earmarked an equivalent of $497,000 in the 2021 budget’s reserve funds for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, media said.
The cabinet’s statement appeared on Thursday on Albanian Daily News website.
It said a deal had been reached between the small Balkan nation’s health ministry and Human Vaccine LLC, a subsidiary of the Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF, which markets the shot abroad.
The United Arab Emirates gifted Albania a batch of the Sputnik V vaccine in March. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced in April the arrival of a second batch, although he gave no details about its origins.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A study with cell cultures suggests that the experimental drug Tempol may be a promising antiviral treatment for COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Thursday.
“Tempol can limit SARS-CoV-2 infection by impairing the activity of a viral enzyme called RNA replicase,” the NIH said in a press release.
RNA replicase allows the coronavirus to replicate its genome and make copies of itself once inside a cell, the release said.
In cell culture experiments with live coronavirus, the study team found that the drug can inhibit viral replication, the release added.
Tempol has previously been tested in animals as a treatment for other diseases. The study team plans on conducting additional animal studies and will seek opportunities to evaluate Tempol in a clinical study of COVID-19, according to the release.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The United Nations welcomes the decision by the Biden administration to share some 19 million coronavirus vaccine doses via the COVAX facility in order to be used in developing countries, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Biden said the United States will allocate 25 million vaccines for increased global coverage, 75 percent of which will be donated through COVAX to Latin America, South Asia and Africa.
"We very much welcome that move. It is very, very important for wealthy, developed countries to share as much as possible with COVAX", Dujarric said.
The COVAX initiative, aimed to provide equitable access to coronavirus vaccines globally, is falling short in efforts to obtain funding, Dujarric said.
COVAX urgently requires $2 billion in donor contributions in addition to the $6.3 billion that have already been pledged.
The United States had earlier committed $4 billion to support the COVAX facility.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The weekly filing for jobless benefits in the United States fell by about 5 percent last week as some 385,000 people filed for unemployment claims, the lowest number since March 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday.
“In the week ending May 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 385,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level,” the department said in a statement. “This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000.”
Delhi’s Drug Control Department on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that former cricketer and BJP parliamentarian Gautam Gambhir’s foundation has been found guilty of illegally stocking and giving the drug Fabiflu to COVID-19 patients.
Counsel Nandita Rao, appearing for the Drug Controller, told the Delhi High Court that the Gautam Gambhir Foundation has committed an offence under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act as the foundation was found stocking medicine unauthorisedly during the pandemic.
Based on her submission, the Delhi High Court then directed the Drug Controller to take action against such people who violate the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and file a status report.
"Over the past day, 8,933 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 1,339 cases (15 percent) without clinical symptoms", the centre said, adding that the rate of increase grew to 0.18 percent.
"There is no new hybrid variant in Vietnam at this moment based on [the] WHO definition", the World Health Organisation's (WHO) representative in Vietnam Kidong Park said, adding that it is just a part of the existing Indian strain.
Considering the local elections to the Mumbai municipal corporation next year, political leaders have started organising vaccination camps (both free and paid) for citizens by directly collaborating with private hospitals, or facilitating tie-ups between hospitals in the state of Maharashtra.
An FIR has been registered against actors Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani & others for violating COVID-19 restrictions: Mumbai Police
— ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2021
The actors were found roaming at Bandstand Promenade & couldn't give a valid reasons to police for being out of their homes after 2 pm
(file photos) pic.twitter.com/gLKAb7BYcG
After waiting for more than two months, with no relatives coming to pick the bodies up, Karnataka Revenue Minister R. Ashoka has performed the last rites of over 1,000 ash and bone remains, hiring a dozen priests to lead the rituals.
