Live Updates: UK Starts Consultation to Make COVID-19 Vaccinations Compulsory for Care Workers

 The first large-scale trial of an experimental antibody treatment on hospitalized COVID-19 patients demonstrated a 20 percent reduction in deaths, the manufacturer Regeneron said on Wednesday.

“The UK RECOVERY trial found that adding investigational REGEN-COV™ to usual care reduced the risk of death by 20 percent in patients who had not mounted a natural antibody response on their own against SARS-CoV-2, compared to usual care on its own,” the release said.

Regeneron’s cocktail of laboratory-grown antibodies gained notoriety with the successful treatment of former President Donald Trump who contracted the novel coronavirus in 2020.

But the UK RECOVERY trial marked the first large-scale test among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a delay attributed to uncertainty about the value of antiviral therapies in late-stages of the disease, the release said.

“It is wonderful to learn that even in advanced COVID-19 disease, targeting the virus can reduce mortality in patients who have failed to mount an antibody response of their own," Oxford University Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases Peter Horby said in the release. Horby served as joint chief investigator for the UK trial.

In the United States, Regeneron’s antibody treatment has been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration, however the current EUA does not permit the drug’s use in patients who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 or require oxygen therapy, according to the release.

Regeneron said it in talks with the Food and Drug Administration to expand the authorization.

The Japanese government is considering replacing the state of emergency with intensive anti-virus measures in seven prefectures and removing the restrictions altogether in two more, national media reported on Wednesday.

There are ten prefectures under a state of emergency, which expires on Sunday. Of them, only Okinawa, where the infections are still on the rise, will have the measure extended until 11 July, the NHK broadcaster said.

The authorities are looking at a transition to a quasi-emergency in Tokyo, Hokkaido, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka on Sunday. The containment measures will be in force until 11 July.

The plan is yet to be discussed by the government advisory panel of experts on Thursday.

There have been no coronavirus-related fatalities in the Czech Republic for the first time since September 2020, the country's health ministry said on Wednesday.

The European country checks its fatalities data within two days.

"Monday, 14 June, was the first day in the Czech Republic when there were no registered coronavirus-related fatalities in nine months. These data were confirmed on Wednesday morning. The last time it happened was September 2, 2020. Overall, 52 people have died from the coronavirus in June," the ministry said in a statement.

The country has confirmed a total of 1.66 million COVID-19 cases, including 30,254 fatalities. There are currently 4,295 active patients.

The country of 10 million has already fully vaccinated 2.16 million people.

US government has increased its order of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine by 200 million doses bringing the total quantity of doses purchased from this American manufacturer to 500 million, the company announced on Wednesday.

“Moderna today announced that the U.S. government has purchased an additional 200 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, including the option to purchase other COVID-19 vaccine candidates from Moderna’s pipeline,” the company said in a statement. “This purchase brings the U.S. government’s confirmed order commitment to 500 million doses.”

The 200-million batch will include 110 million vaccine doses to be delivered at the end of 2021 and 90 million doses which are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022, the statement said.

According to the statement, so far Moderna has supplied 217 million doses of its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine to the US government.

 France will lift its coronavirus curfew this Sunday, instead of June 30 as initially planned, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday.

"The curfew will be cancelled starting this Sunday, meaning 10 days earlier than the scheduled date," Castex said during a press conference.

France is lifting the restrictions in line with a four-phase plan, unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron in late April, which regulates the nation's exit from COVID-19 lockdown.

Face masks will stop being compulsory in most outdoors settings starting Thursday, the prime minister said.

"Wearing masks outdoors will no longer be mandatory, with an exception of special circumstances — at group gatherings, in crowded places, in queues, in markets, or on stadium stands," he said.

Vaccination against the coronavirus in Russia is not mandatory and the authorities do not plan to force citizens to get the injection, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"As before, the vaccination is not compulsory, this issue is off the table," Peskov said, when asked if there were any plans to enforce the vaccination throughout the entire country after the announcement.

Earlier in the day, Russian consumer rights watchdog announced that companies in Moscow and the Moscow Region were asked to vaccinate at least 60 percent of employees.

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex stopped self-isolating on Wednesday after testing negative for COVID-19, the BFMTV reported.

Castex was in quarantine for seven days after coming in contact with his wife who tested positive for the virus.

According to the French broadcaster, the prime minister will now be able to resume all face-to-face activities starting with his participation in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.

It is also mentioned that Castex would receive his second AstraZeneca dose by the end of the week.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) continues to review the data on clinical trials of Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Wednesday, adding that it expects the drug's registration within two months.

"This information does not correspond to reality. All data on the clinical trials of Sputnik V have been provided, the GCP [good clinical practice] inspection has been completed and a positive review has been received from the EMA," RDIF said in a statement.

"Though the decision on the timing of the procedure is the EMA's prerogative, the Sputnik V team expects to receive the vaccine's registration within two months," RDIF said in a statement.

The head of Moscow’s consumer’s rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Elena Andreeva, on Wednesday instructed organizations to fully vaccinate 60 percent of employees by 15 August.

Employees of trade, services, catering, transport, healthcare, housing and communal services, as well as of education and culture fields are subject to compulsory vaccination, according to the corresponding decree is published on the department's website.

"I am instructing the heads of organizations, individual entrepreneurs operating in the territory of the city of Moscow … by 15.07.2021, organize preventive vaccinations with the first component or single-component vaccine and by 15.08.2021 - the second component of the vaccine against the new coronavirus infection that has passed the state registration in Russia, [vaccinate] at least 60% of the total number of employees, employees," the decree read.

Russia registered 13,397 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which brought the cumulative total to 5,249,990, the federal response centre said on Wednesday.

"Over the past day, 13,397 COVID-19 cases were confirmed across 84 Russian regions, including 1,918 cases (14.3 percent) without clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the rate of increase grew to 0.26 percent.

Moscow confirmed 5,782 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours. The Russian capital was followed by the Moscow Region with 1,187 cases and St. Petersburg with 927 new cases.

The response centre reported 396 new fatalities linked to the coronavirus, raising the country's death toll to 127,576.

In the same 24 hours, 10,256 people were discharged from hospitals as recovered across the country, bringing the total to 4,828,500.

South Africa decided to return to stricter COVID-19 restrictions amid a rise in infection cases and a 59% increase in hospitalizations over the past two weeks, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

"In view of the rising infections, we have therefore decided to move the country to Alert #Level3. This will take effect later this evening once the regulations have been gazetted," the president tweeted late on Tuesday.

According to the thread of tweets, the new restrictions include an extended curfew from 10.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m. and a 9 p.m. curfew for all non-essential businesses. In addition, all gatherings will be limited to a maximum of 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors.

Ramaphosa said that the average number of people who die from COVID-19 every day has increased by 48% — from 535 two weeks ago to 791 last week. Additionally, over the past two weeks hospital admissions have increased by 59%.

"We will not be daunted by the size or the complexity of the task before us. We can now see a path towards overcoming this pandemic. But there is still much that we need to do," he said.

According to the president, South Africa has the capacity to vaccinate at least 150,000 people per day and is planning to increase that number to 250,000. By the end of the month, the country expects to receive 2 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson and 3.1 million doses from Pfizer, of which 2.4 million doses have already arrived.

Uttarakhand has ordered a probe into allegations that fake Covid reports were issued by private laboratories tasked by the Uttarakhand government with conducting tests during the Kumbh Mela.

Kumbh, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, was held in the state from 1 to 30 April.

According to the preliminary report, as many as 100,000 Covid-19 test results issued during the Hindu festival in the Haridwar district may have been fake.

Residents of a housing society in Mumbai’s Kandivali area claim they were the victims of an elaborate “vaccination scam”, in which they were given fake Covid-19 shots.

As part of a vaccination camp at Hiranandani Estate Society on 30 May, around 390 people received Covishield vaccines inside the society's premises.

Suspicions arose when none of the inoculated persons developed any post-jab symptoms.

The vaccination certificates which came after 10-15 days were from different hospitals. When contacted, these hospitals denied ever providing vaccines to the housing society in question.

Sixty-seven Bnei Menashe Jews from the Indian state Manipur, who tested positive for coronavirus before flying to Israel, have been discharged from the Guru Tegh Bahadur Covid Centre at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in central Delhi after recovery.

"All of them have been discharged after testing negative. They are scheduled to fly to Israel on Thursday," an official at the COVID-19 care centre said.