In Europe, many nations, including France, Germany, the UK, Hungary, and Belgium have introduced lockdowns, while Italy, Spain, and other countries have also imposed partial quarantines in the most affected regions.
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Trials of the Chinese vaccine Coronavac in Brazil will resume after an analysis of the situation by a special committee, according to the G1 portal, which cited National Health Surveillance Agency ANVISA chief Antonio Torres.
Earlier, Anvisa temporarily halted tests of the Coronavac vaccine from the Sinovac laboratory in connection with a "serious incident" - due to the death of one of the volunteers.
"We need to be sent clear, accurate and complete documents, which has not happened," Torres said.
He also said that the agency had not been informed whether the cause of death was suicide. Information about that appeared in the media.
Moscow has registered 73 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 7,429, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Another 73 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the center said.
Italy has registered 35,098 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Tuesday, with the numbers drastically up from 25,271 the day before.
The ministry also reported 580 COVID-related deaths against 356 on Monday - the highest daily death toll since 14 April.
A COVID-19 vaccine like Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate is likely to need special vaccination locations, Swiss health experts said Tuesday as cited by media, noting it must be stored at temperatures matching an Antarctic winter.
US-based Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech praised on Monday their mRNA vaccine candidate as over 90% effective based on preliminary results, with the comments triggering an unexpected boost in global markets.
David Bossie, a prominent conservative activist who leads advocacy group Citizens United, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, joining White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Housing Secretary Ben Carson as the latest White House officials to have fallen down with the novel virus.
Bossie was the other day tapped to lead the legal challenges to Trump's loss in the 3 November vote.
News of a breakthrough in the competition to arrive at an effective COVID-19 vaccine ushered in one of the heaviest trading days since the climax of the pandemic crisis, with nearly $2 trillion changing hands on Monday, according to data analysed by Reuters.
Traders rushed to the riskier plays in equities, foreign exchange and bond markets after Pfizer Inc released inspiring updates on its vaccine trial, embarking on a course out of safe havens such as technology stocks, Japanese yen and alike.
"The infection trends show that the growth of infections is decreasing and we are slowly approaching the path of stabilization of the number of cases", Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said at a briefing.
According to the minister, the Polish government is not going to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for citizens.
"I do not think that we are moving toward mandatory vaccines. We will certainly try to make the vaccine financially affordable so that its cost or the refinancing conditions are as affordable as possible", Niedzielski added.
Poland counts on obtaining a vaccine under a specialized European program.
As of Tuesday, a cumulative total of 593,592 cases were confirmed in Poland, including 8,375 deaths.
"There will be no exams for GCSE or AS level learners next year. A-level students will also not be required to sit exams. We remain optimistic that the public health situation will improve, but the primary reason for my decision is down to fairness; the time learners will spend in schools and colleges will vary hugely and, in this situation, it is impossible to guarantee a level playing field for exams to take place", Education Minister Kirsty Williams said in a statement.
According to the minister, the exams will be replaced by teacher-managed assessments, which "will be externally set and marked but delivered within a classroom environment under teacher supervision".
Universities across the UK have already confirmed that they are "used to accepting many different types of qualifications", but hope for a transparent approach that provides evidence of a learner’s knowledge, the official noted.
She also explained that scrapping the exams would allow for teaching and learning to continue throughout the summer term and build the knowledge.
Today I’m pleased to confirm Wales’ approach for qualifications in 2021.
— Kirsty Williams (@wgmin_education) November 10, 2020
It is my intention there will be no end of year GCSEs, AS levels or A levels exams.
Full details available here: https://t.co/1Bzc4pHJG7 pic.twitter.com/HZXNoInlJl
"Mutual humanitarian assistance and the deployment of epidemiologists have contributed to the stabilization of the situation in our countries. Kazakhstan expresses gratitude to the respective countries, including Russia and China, for active and productive cooperation on this global issue", President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.
The president stressed that "there will be a long-lasting struggle against the pandemic, its impact on the health of our citizens, as well as on the economy of SCO member states".
According to the Kazakh interdepartmental commission on the coronavirus, Kazakhstan has confirmed a total of 117,336 COVID-19 cases. In the past 24 hours, the country registered 564 new infections.
"The health ministry announces that Health Minister Osama Ahmed Abdul Rahim, as well as heads of the health general directorate and the general directorate for the coronavirus treatment, have tested positive for coronavirus", the ministry said in a statement published on Facebook.
The minister and two high-ranking Sudanese officials had passed the tests immediately after they experienced first disease symptoms.
"They are undergoing treatment and are in good health. The minister continues to work while being on quarantine", the ministry added.
Huge thanks to Kate Bingham and the Vaccine Taskforce for all their fantastic work in securing 40 million doses of the @pfizer & @BioNTech_Group vaccine and over 300 million doses of other promising vaccine candidates.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 10, 2020
"We have opened up a process for member states and others to make contributions to the Panel's work through our website, and this has been well received. We do encourage governments and other partners to share with us their experiences and suggestions and we expect to open up additional survey opportunities in the weeks ahead", Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand and IPPR co-chair, told the reconvened World Health Assembly.
The top priority for IPPR now is to establish an accurate and authoritative chronology of epidemiological alert and response events related to COVID-19, she said.
"Varying social, economic political contexts means that a one-size-fits-all approach to the pandemic of the national level is unlikely to be appropriate. But we do believe that countries find it useful to share experiences and to consider policy alternatives and solutions developed by others and to calibrate them according to their domestic circumstances and resources", Clark added.
Four people, including Hungarian Ambassador to Cambodia and Vietnam Csaba Ory, tested positive for the coronavirus infection after a visit to Cambodia by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who was also found to be infected with COVID-19 shortly after the trip, Cambodian state media reported on Tuesday.
Szijjarto tested positive for the virus last Tuesday upon arrival in Bangkok from Cambodia.
Cambodian state news agency AKP reported that 1,167 people who participated in the events during the visit of the Hungarian foreign minister to Cambodia were tested for COVID-19 by the Institute Pasteur of Cambodia. In 1,140 cases, the results were negative, another 4 tests came back positive, 23 people are still waiting for the results of the second test.
According to AKP, among the infected people are a Cambodian lawmaker, a senior official of the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the Hungarian ambassador to Cambodia and Vietnam, and a personal bodyguard of the Hungarian delegation.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has introduced new COVID-19 restrictions in the Russian capital from 13 November to 15 January.
"We have noticed some media reports. After communicating with the Brazilian partner Butantan Institute, we learned the head of Butantan Institute believed that this serious adverse event (SAE) is not related to the vaccine", Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac said.
Public health authorities in Brazil suspended the clinical trial of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate on Monday after a severe adverse event occurred.
Dimas Covas, the head of Sao Paulo’s medical research institute Butantan, was quoted by TV Cultura, a local TV channel, as saying that he believed the death of one volunteer in the trail was not related to the vaccine.
Sinovac stressed in its statement that the clinical study in Brazil was strictly carried out in accordance with Good Clinical Practice requirements and the company was "confident in the safety of the vaccine".
"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 20,977 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 5,322 (25.4 percent) were detected with people showing no clinical symptoms", the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 1,817,109.
Moscow reported 5,902 COVID-19 cases, down from the record of 6,897 yesterday. This is the highest daily increase of all Russia's regions, followed by St. Petersburg with 1,485 cases (up from 1,403 yesterday), and the Moscow Region with 685 cases (up from 660 yesterday).
As many as 368 coronavirus patients died in the past 24 hours, up from 256 yesterday, raising the country’s death toll to 31,161.
In the same period, 15,600 coronavirus patients were confirmed to have recovered, up from 10,722 yesterday, bringing the total number of discharges to 1,350,741.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga instructed his cabinet to form an economic relief package, the third of its kind, to stave off the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic, media reported Tuesday.
According to national broadcaster NHK, the new budget looks to shore up the country’s economic foundations through the first quarter of 2021, although a sum has yet to be estimated. The package will look to address recovery in the job market, new measures to curb the spread of the virus, natural disaster relief among others, the broadcaster reported.
The UK government has asked the National Health Service to be ready to deploy any COVID-19 vaccine from the start of December, Health Minister Matt Hancock told Sky News.
According to Hancock, there are still many difficulties to clear and the government would not deploy the vaccine until it was confident in its clinical safety.
"We're not proposing to make this compulsory, not least because I think the vast majority of people are going to want to have it. This is not for children and children have a very low susceptibility to coronavirus", he said.
