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Screen grab taken from video issued by Britain's Oxford University, showing microbiologist Elisa Granato, being injected as part of the first human trials in the UK for a potential coronavirus vaccine, untaken by Oxford University, England, Thursday April 23, 2020 - Sputnik International

Live Updates: UK to Vaccinate All Adults Before Sharing COVID-19 Jabs With Other Countries

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The global death toll from the coronavirus infection has topped 2.791 million and over 127.5 million cases of the infection have been detected, according to Baltimore, Maryland's Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from national and local authorities, the media and other sources.

The United States, Brazil and India lead in terms of the number of registered coronavirus infections; the largest number of COVID-19-related deaths has been observed in the United States, Brazil, Mexico and India, according to Johns Hopkins University.

US President Joe Biden has said that 90 percent of the adults in the United States would be eligible for coronavirus vaccines by 19 April.

In turn, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised that the United Kingdom will have enough Pfizer vaccines to offer Brits a second round of shots against the coronavirus in April.

Follow Sputnik’s feed to find out more.

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02:09 GMT 31.03.2021

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The number of registered cases of coronavirus infection in Turkey over the past day was 37,303, this is the maximum since the end of November, the country's Ministry of Health said in a statement.

"Today, 37,303 new cases of COVID-19 were registered, 1,376 patients were hospitalized; 155 patients died, since the beginning of the pandemic - 31,385. A total of 2,054 patients are in serious condition," the ministry said.

01:08 GMT 31.03.2021
Packaging of injectable preparations for the syringe-dose of the EpiVacCorona vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, produced at the Vector-BiAlgam enterprise in Novosibirsk. - Sputnik International, 1920
Venezuela Receives Batch of Russia's EpiVacCorona Vaccine for Study, Minister Says
00:09 GMT 31.03.2021

MADRID (Sputnik) - The Spanish Health Ministry is lifting the age restrictions for the coronavirus vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, Cadena Ser radio reported.

Earlier reports said the country had raised the age limit for the medicine from 55 to 65 years.

00:01 GMT 31.03.2021

HELSINKI (Sputnik) - The Estonian government has decided to cancel the special coronavirus-related exceptions for those coming to the country from Lithuania, Latvia and Finland from April 5, the cabinet said in a statement.

"For those arriving from Lithuania, Latvia and Finland, from April 5, the same rules will apply as for those arriving from other European countries. This means that all people after crossing the Estonian border will have to be isolated for 10 days," the cabinet said.

"People who have gone through COVID-19 or have undergone a full course of vaccination are free from self-isolation and testing," it said.

20:01 GMT 30.03.2021
Vial labelled Sputnik V coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine placed on displayed Sputnik V logo is seen in this illustration picture taken March 24, 2021. - Sputnik International, 1920
Putin, Macron, Merkel Touch Upon Prospects for Registration of Sputnik V in EU, Kremlin Says
18:39 GMT 30.03.2021

German health authorities decided that starting March 31, AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine will be administered only to people over 60 years old, the DPA agency reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with a ministerial meeting with heads of federal states.

"According to the decision of the Ministers of Health of the Federation and the states, the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine will be administered only to people over 60 years old starting Wednesday. For those under 60 years of age, vaccination can only be continued after a doctor's assessment and in the case of an individual risk analysis after careful information," the agency reported.

Reports emerged earlier in the day that 31 people, most of them women under the age of 55, have experienced brain thrombosis after getting AstraZeneca shots, leading to nine deaths.

18:05 GMT 30.03.2021

Chile has signed a deal for the delivery of 1.8 million doses of China's CanSino coronavirus vaccine scheduled to arrive in May-June 2021, the country's president, Sebastian Pinera, announced on Tuesday.

"Today we have good news. We have reached an agreement with CanSino that will allow us to purchase 1.8 million doses of the vaccine ... This is a single-shot vaccine," the president told the press.

He expressed hope that the vaccine will soon be approved for use by the country's drug regulator.

Chile tested CanSino vaccine on 3,500 volunteers. According to the research, people develop immunity to coronavirus the fourth week after receiving the shot.

The Latin American country began the mass vaccination campaign the first week of February using Sinovac and Pfizer vaccines. As of now, over 6.4 million people have received at least on shot, about half of them are fully inoculated. The priority was given to those over 58 years old.

Chile has also inked vaccine deals for deliveries of Russia's Sputnik V and AstraZeneca. Additionally. the country is part of the WHO-backed COVAX project.

17:58 GMT 30.03.2021

An analysis of blood samples of recovered COVID-19 patients who were infected before novel coronavirus variants emerged demonstrated that immune systems were still able to recognize mutations from variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Tuesday.

"In their study of recovered COVID-19 patients, the researchers determined that SARS-CoV-2 -specific CD8+ T-cell responses remained largely intact and could recognize virtually all mutations in the variants studied," NIH said in a press release.

The results indicate that the T-cell response in convalescent individuals, and most likely from vaccines as well, remain unaffected by mutations found in the three variants and, and should offer protection against other emerging variants, the release said.

NIH explained that T cells limit infection by recognizing parts of the virus protein on the surface of infected cells and killing those cells.

NIH emphasized the need for more research, since the study was based on blood samples from 30 people who contracted the disease early in the pandemic, the release added.

The investigators sought to determine whether the T-cells could still recognize three variants: B.1.1.7, which was first detected in the United Kingdom; B.1.351, originally found in the Republic of South Africa; and B.1.1.248, first seen in Brazil, according to the release.

17:00 GMT 30.03.2021

The United States and 13 other nations have jointly announced their concerns over the recent World Health Organization (WHO) study on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic because it was late in coming out and failed to include complete data and samples, the US Department of State said in a media note on Tuesday.

"We join in expressing shared concerns regarding the recent WHO-convened study in China, Australia, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia and the United Kingdom," the note said. "[I]t is equally essential that we voice our shared concerns that the international expert study on the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples."

16:39 GMT 30.03.2021
16:00 GMT 30.03.2021

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that another coronavirus wave is expected to hit war-torn Syria as community transmission of the virus is likely to continue in 2021.

"The pandemic has put further strains on the health sector. And another COVID-19 wave lies in wait," Guterres said during his briefing to the UN General Assembly on the situation in the country.

"Although COVAX vaccinations are planned to begin across Syria in the coming weeks, distribution of these initial vaccines will continue through 2021. As a result, community transmission of COVID-19 is anticipated to continue in the present year," he said.

The most vulnerable people, particularly those living in densely populated refugee camps, will suffer the most, Guterres said.

Additionally, he said, thousands of cases in Syria go unconfirmed because of the "dangerously low" testing rates and only 58 percent of the country’s hospitals being fully functional.

Guterres also noted that in the coming weeks, the COVAX facility will deliver the first batch of one million vaccine doses, covering around 3 percent of Syria’s population. Some 100,000 doses of those will be delivered to northeast Syria, and 224,000 are allocated for the northwest.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Syria has so far reported 18,638 coronavirus cases, with 1,247 related deaths.

15:29 GMT 30.03.2021
14:39 GMT 30.03.2021
A shipment of doses of the Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)  - Sputnik International, 1920
EU Attempts to Take Measures to Discredit Russian COVID Vaccine, Intelligence Service Says
13:49 GMT 30.03.2021

Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) has registered 31 cases of brain thrombosis after the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, resulting in nine casualties, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, 31 people, mostly women under 55 years of age, had suffered from cerebral venous sinus thrombosis after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca. Another 19 patients showed abnormally low levels of thrombocytes in the blood, nine people died.

Complications were identified in two men, 36 and 57 years old, and 29 women in the age group of 20 to 63.

In response, some German local vaccination centers have suspended the use of the vaccine for certain age groups.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that it has been investigating incidents when patients suffered from blood clotting after receiving shots from the same batch of AstraZeneca vaccine in several EU countries. Earlier in March, the agency green-lit the use of the vaccine on the grounds that its benefits outweigh possible negative effects.

Several European countries, including Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Denmark, Bulgaria, Norway, Iceland, Slovenia, Cyprus, Italy, France, Germany and Spain, temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca, but some have since resumed after receiving the EMA approval.

On Monday, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunizations (NACI) recommended to pause inoculating Canadians under the age of 55 with AstraZeneca citing safety concerns. Following the recommendation, Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador provinces announced a temporary suspension of vaccination with AstraZeneca.

13:33 GMT 30.03.2021

Berlin has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a precautionary measure and the city authorities are awaiting expert recommendations regarding the issue but there have been no serious side effects after inoculation against COVID-19 with the vaccine developed by the UK/Swedish drugmaker in the German capital, Berlin Health Senator Dilek Kalayci said on Tuesday.

Two Berlin-based health centers, Charite and Vivantes, have already suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine among women who are younger than 55 years old over brain thrombosis cases.

"We have decided not to vaccinate people under the age of 60 — regardless of gender — with AstraZeneca for now. This is a precautionary measure … Those who have already been vaccinated and who did not have side effects — and we did not have tragic cases — they have excellent immunity protection, the vaccine, as before, is good. But when new data appears, you need to wait until it is analyzed," Kalayci said at the press conference.

The health official added Berlin expects that experts from the Permanent Commission on Vaccinations and the Paul Ehrlich Institute will give their recommendations on AstraZeneca within a day.

13:15 GMT 30.03.2021

Germany has decided to keep border control with the Czech Republic in place for two more weeks due to COVID-19 concerns in the neighboring country, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Tuesday.

Control on the German-Czech border has been in effect since February. It was supposed to be lifted at the end of March. The minister, however, explained that the epidemiological situation remains particularly unstable in the border districts of the Czech Republic. 

"Therefore, I extend the border control for 14 days on the border of the Czech Republic with Saxony and Bavaria," Seehofer said at a press conference.

At the same time, control on the border with the Austrian city of Tyrol will be lifted. 

The minister also said that the government considered the introduction of a ban on travel abroad "legally impossible" while commenting on the matter. At the moment, German citizens are recommended to refrain from non-essential trips within and outside the country.

To date, Germany has confirmed nearly 2.8 million coronavirus infections with the death toll at over 76,000, while the Czech health authorities have detected more than 1.5 million COVID-19 cases and some 26,000 related fatalities.

13:14 GMT 30.03.2021

German pharmaceutical manufacturer BioNTech said in its annual financial report that it planned to expand COVID-19 vaccine production capacity to 2.5 billion annually by the end of the year.

"More than 200 million doses of BNT162b2 [coronavirus vaccine] supplied as of March 23, 2021, with signed orders for 1.4 billion doses to date for delivery in 2021. BioNTech and Pfizer expect to expand manufacturing capacity to up to 2.5 billion doses by end of 2021," the company said in its 2020 financial results and corporate update, published on Tuesday.

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said that the previous year was transformational for the company and that the development of new formulations of the vaccine was underway to tackle new coronavirus variants.

The vaccine, produced by BioNTech in partnership with the US giant Pfizer in a record short time, has an efficacy rate of over 90 percent and remains the most sought-after vaccine by high-income Western countries.

12:23 GMT 30.03.2021

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and his wife, Maria Serenella Cappello, on Tuesday received their first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19.

According to a press release, the 73-year-old politician was vaccinated at a center located at Rome's central Termini station.

Draghi was vaccinated in accordance with the schedule provided by the authorities of the metropolitan area of Lazio for individual age categories.

Earlier in March, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, 79, was vaccinated with a Moderna shot.

The Italian authorities have set an objective to vaccinate at least 80 percent of its 60-million population and achieve herd immunity by early fall. The country has so far administered over 9.6 million vaccine doses and fully vaccinated 3 million people.

12:22 GMT 30.03.2021
11:08 GMT 30.03.2021

Prof. Paul Heath, the lead investigator for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trial in the United Kingdom, said on Tuesday that he was very keen for the drug developed by the US pharmaceutical company to be approved by the UK medicines regulator because it was showing very high efficacy against the virus, including the UK variant.

"The trial has produced the primary results and this shows very high efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 around 90 percent effective and that includes against the UK variant," Heath, who is also a specialist in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St George's University of London, told Sky News broadcaster.

According to the expert, Novavax has proved to be 86 percent effective against the variant first discovered in the English county of Kent last year, and around 95 percent effective against the previous so-called Wuhan strain variant.

"So really excellent data," he stressed, adding that the vaccine is also showing very high levels of safety.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday that the UK pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline would manufacture the Novavax vaccine in the northeast of England if approved for massive rollout by the UK regulator.

More than 30 million people in the UK have already received their first dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, and the government expects that, by the end of July, all adults in the country — around 52.7 million people — had been offered a jab.

09:10 GMT 30.03.2021
A Palestinian health worker displays a vial of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in Gaza City February 24, 2021. - Sputnik International, 1920
Mali Becomes 58th Country to Register Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine
09:04 GMT 30.03.2021
08:21 GMT 30.03.2021

Russia registered 8,277 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 8,711 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,536,820 , the coronavirus response centre said on Tuesday.

"Over the past day, 8,277 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 84 Russian regions, including 1,007 cases (12.2 percent) without clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 4,536,820, with the rate of increase falling to 0,18 percent.

Moscow confirmed 1,219 new coronavirus cases over the given period, down from 1,612 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 719 new cases, up from 697 the day before, and the Moscow Region with 556 new cases, down from 595 on Monday.

No new cases were confirmed in the Chukotka Autonomous Region.

The response centre reported 409 COVID-19 fatalities, up from 293 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 98,442.

Total recoveries increased by 9,588 over the given period, up from 7,280 the day before, and reached 4,155,996.

07:32 GMT 30.03.2021

Honduras followed Panama's suit and temporarily banned all travelers who have recently visited South America from entering the country amid the spreading Brazilian P1 variant of COVID-19, the national risk management system said on Tuesday.

“Limiting entry into the country by any ways and means of transport for citizens-non-residents and/or tourists from the United Kingdom and South Africa remains temporarily active. This measure applies to people who visited South America in the last 15 days,” the statement, published by the authority on Twitter, said.

All those who arrive in Honduras must present a negative PCR test or a vaccination certificate on the border.

In Panama, the ban on visitors from South America will come into force on Wednesday.

07:12 GMT 30.03.2021
06:22 GMT 30.03.2021

Syrian President Bashar Assad and his spouse, Asma, have recovered from the coronavirus infection and are now returning back to work in normal mode, Assad's office said on Tuesday.

"As the quarantine period ends, the COVID-19 symptoms are gone and there are negative PCR tests ... President Bashar Assad and Mrs. Asma Assad return to their work in normal mode starting today. They wish a speedy recovery for all [coronavirus-infected] patients," the office said in a statement.

06:17 GMT 30.03.2021
05:05 GMT 30.03.2021

The full version of the report on the results of the World Health Organization (WHO) expert mission to China's Wuhan investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to be released on Tuesday at 16:00 CET (14:00 GMT) at a virtual press conference.

Media representatives can attend the virtual event and communicate with the experts about the report findings. A link to the report is set to be shared with global media half an hour prior to the press briefing.

The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. In January 2020, an international team of infectious disease experts was tasked by the WHO with exploring key sites in Wuhan and investigating the origins of the virus. The investigation lasted for a month, during which the team visited a laboratory, hospitals and markets searching for clues.

04:37 GMT 30.03.2021
04:37 GMT 30.03.2021
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