The coronavirus death toll has surpassed 1.5 million, while the number of infected is nearing 69 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The US tops the list of the most affected nations (over 15.3 million cases, 289,000 deaths) and is followed by India (9.7 million infections, 141,000 fatalities), and Brazil (over 6.7 million cases, and a death toll of almost 179,000).
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A US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel approved Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for use on Americans.
The panel of outside advisers to the FDA voted 17-4 to approve emergency use for the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, a panel member said after Thursday's meeting.
The first 30,000 doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine are due to arrive in Canada in a matter of days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.
"The first 30,000 doses are expected to arrive on Canadian soil in just a few days," Trudeau said on Thursday, a day after health regulators approved the country’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, granting emergency authorization to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine candidate.
The federal government will cover the cost of the vaccine, Trudeau added.
The prime minister also announced that his government will create a federal vaccine support program to address the unintended adverse effects of vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.
Canada is expected receive up to 249,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech before the end of December, which will allow up to 124,500 Canadians to be vaccinated before the end of the year, Trudeau said on Monday.
Public health officials say the plan is to vaccinate 40 to 50 percent of Canadians by next summer and complete the COVID-19 immunization program by September 30, 2021.
As of Tuesday, Canadian authorities have reported over 440,000 coronavirus cases and more than 13,000 virus-related fatalities.
Moscow has registered 77 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 9,722, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Thursday.
"Another 77 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the center said.
In the previous day, 74 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.
MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - European Council President Charles Michel has said on Thursday that the leaders of the European Union's 27 member states have come to an agreement on the bloc's proposed 1.8 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) seven-year budget and COVID-19 recovery fund following a dispute over a controversial rule of law mechanism.
On November 16, the Hungarian and Polish representatives at the EU's Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper II) refused to give their approval to the budget, also known as the multiannual financial framework (MFF), and recovery fund. The decision was reportedly taken to oppose the bloc's attempts to make access to EU funds contingent on the observance of democratic values and respect for the rule of law.
The leaders of the bloc's member states ended the impasse on Thursday after giving their approval at a European Council summit in Brussels, Michel said.
"Deal on the #MFF and Recovery Package #NGEU. Now we can start with the implementation and build back our economies. Our landmark recovery package will drive forward our green & digital transitions," the European Council president wrote on Twitter.
Michel's spokesman, Barend Leyts, also confirmed that conclusions on the rule of law conditionality mechanism had also been approved during the summit meeting.
BELGRADE, (Sputnik) - The Slovenian government has extended the restrictive measures imposed to contain the spread COVID-19 infections for another week, the Cabinet of Ministers said on Thursday.
According to the Slovenian health ministry, over the past 24 hours, 6,410 tests for coronavirus were conducted, and 1,849 people have tested positive for COVID-19. Another 49 people died over the same period. On Tuesday, the country broke its single-day record of coronavirus-related deaths with 66 fatalities.
"The Government of the Republic of Slovenia has decided to extend restrictions on the movement of people and mass gatherings in order to counter the spread of COVID-19, which will take effect on Saturday, December 12, for a period of seven days," the Slovenian cabinet said on Twitter.
The government of Slovenia declared the coronavirus disease a nationwide epidemic in October amid record-high rates of new infections. A night-time curfew was introduced and public events and ceremonies, including church services, were banned. Inter-regional traffic was restricted and wearing masks became mandatory both indoors and outdoors.
A new facility to make coronavirus vaccines will open in Moscow in January, city Mayor Sergey Sobianin said Thursday.
"I can tell you that apart from Binnopharm, which is located in Zelenograd, we are building one more large factory to produce vaccines on the basis of Technopolis Moscow, which will soon begin work. In January, it will be producing big batches of vaccine," the mayor said as aired on Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
About 6,000 people in Moscow have already been vaccinated, the mayor said.
Finland has extended restrictions on the movement of citizens across the country's border until January 12, as cautionary measure to guard against the spread of coronavirus pandemic, which is still raging across the world, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
"The government has decided that the travel restrictions would be extended until January 12, 2021. The coronavirus epidemic continues to accelerate globally. Despite the fact that the number of new cases in Finland began to rise in the fall after a calm situation in summer, the gap between the epidemic situation in Finland and many other countries has recently increased sharply. Thus, easing of restrictions is not justified," the interior ministry said.
The ministry added that existing 'flexibility' with neighboring countries, including Estonia, Sweden and Norway would remain. The land border between Finland and Sweden is open and residents of Sweden and Estonia can work in Finland without quarantine.
Cooperation in immunization against COVID-19 has to be a priority and considered as part of the right to life, Alexander Lukashevich, the Russian permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said Thursday.
Speaking at an online meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, the Russian envoy stressed that 2020 became a turning point for everyone.
"The pandemic brought to the forefront the need for maintaining social and economic rights of citizens, highlighted the lack of alternative to multilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues, including in the areas of health, education and science. Cooperation on vaccination issues has to set an example - to be viewed within the context of maintaining the right to life," Lukashevich said in response to a speech by Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maria Peichinovich-Burich.
The Russian diplomat emphasized the need for a more focused activity based upon legal mechanisms developed by the Council of Europe.
The recent cyberattack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) did not affect the work and the schedule of the regulator, EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said on Thursday.
Over the past two weeks, there were several cyberattacks against the agency, Cooke told the relevant committee of the European Parliament.
EMA head stressed that European and Dutch cybersecurity experts were involved in the investigation of incidents.
On Wednesday, EMA said that it had been subjected to a cyberattack. The regulator stressed that while the investigation into the incident continued, it could not provide further information.
Authorities in the city of Chengdu in western China’s Sichuan province identified four new COVID-19 patients on Thursday, after conducting polymerase chain reaction tests for the close contacts of the first case, which triggered the recent outbreak, for a second time, a top local health official said during a press conference.
"[From December 9-10] during the second round of testing of the close contacts who have been placed under quarantine, Pidu District [in Chengdu] detected four more positive [COVID-19] cases. Two of them were confirmed COVID-19 patients and another two were asymptomatic patients," Xie Qiang, the Director of Chengdu Center of Disease Control, said.
China lists asymptomatic cases separately in its official COVID-19 case counts.
According to Xie, Chengdu has completed 1.02 million COVID-19 tests after the first patient was confirmed to be infected on Monday.
Before the press conference, local authorities in Chengdu designated two more local communities as areas with "medium risks," which meant residents in the area were not allowed to leave without permission.
As of Thursday, Chengdu has identified eight confirmed COVID-19 patients and three asymptomatic cases after the recent outbreak in the city.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A team of Australian researchers has developed the fastest coronavirus genome sequencing technology in the country to date, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) said on Thursday.
According to the university's press release, the cutting-edge method was developed based on the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing system using Nanopore technology. The study was published in the Nature Communications peer-reviewed scientific journal.
"Every time the SARS-CoV-2 virus passes from person to person, it may make copying errors that change a couple of its 30,000 genetic letters. By identifying this genetic variation, we can establish how different cases of coronavirus are linked – to know where a case was potentially picked up from and who they may have given it to", Rowena Bull, the study's co-author from the UNSW’s Kirby Institute, said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The upper house of the French parliament has said that Director-General of Health (DGS) Jerome Salomon was responsible for the mask shortage in the country at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, President of the Republicans group in the French Senate Bruno Retailleau told Europe 1 broadcaster on Thursday.
According to the Senate commission of inquiry into the COVID-19 crisis management, back in 2018 Salomon had ordered only 50 million masks to stock up for a possible health emergency, contrary to the scientific recommendations of having a billion masks in stock. In addition, Salomon allegedly put pressure on the expert panel to modify in hindsight a report recommending a billion masks to justify his decision. The commission proves the accusation using an exchange of emails between Salomon and former Director-General of Sante Publique, the national health agency, Francois Bourdillon, concerning the report.
"Our committee of inquiry [on health management] in the Senate has just revealed an extremely serious fact: the fact that Mr Salomon, head of Sante Publique, influenced an expert report on the famous mask stock. It's serious", Retailleau said.
According to the inquiry commission, the DGS also failed to notify then-Health Minister Agnez Buzyn about the 50 million mask stockpile. The official was then subjected to an inquiry over mishandling the coronavirus crisis, including the shortage of face masks and the necessary equipment to treat COVID-19 patients at the onset of the first wave. Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and incumbent Health Minister Olivier Veran are also being probed on the matter.
"I can assure you that we are ready to receive our Turkish colleagues, under agreements determined by the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Russian Health Ministry, to discuss all details and shortly deliver the necessary amount of doses. First of all - for various examinations, and also for starting the third phase of the clinical trials in Turkey involving volunteers", Alexander Gintsburg, the head of the Gamaleya Research Institute, said on the Russia-24 broadcaster.
Saudi Arabia's Food and Drug Agency has registered the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for import and use in the kingdom.
"Over 150,000 residents of our country have already received the vaccine after it was put on the market. This is the highest number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 [more] than in any other country in the world", Gintsburg told the Russia-24 broadcaster.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Phase 3 of the clinical trials of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 is coming to an end with success, Ramil Khabriev, the chief scientific officer at the National Research Institute of Public Health, said on Thursday.
Speaking at a scientific and methodological forum for health professionals in the Russian capital, Khabriev mentioned the Phase 3 trials were launched within the Moscow health system.
"Today, we find ourselves in a situation where this trial is successfully coming to an end and the city was one of the first, essentially the [very] first, to proceed to a mass vaccination of population", the health expert said.
"Here I have a bill for presidential approval that I want to sign right now before you because it is a very important act for the entire country. At this moment, the new vaccine bill for all Colombians is approved", President Ivan Duque said during a governmental TV programme, Prevention and Action on Wednesday.
"Decisions [on lockdown] have not yet been made by the President of the Republic [Emmanuel Macron] and Prime Minister [Jean Castex]," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that the incidence and fatality rates from the pandemic have recently shown "stagnation".
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has registered 27,927 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 26,190 the day before, bringing the total to 2,569,126, the federal response centre said on Thursday.
"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 27,927 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 5,283 (18.9 percent) were detected among people showing no clinical symptoms", the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 2,569,126.
ATHENS (Sputnik) - The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) said that 24 of its staffers have recently contracted coronavirus, and also gave an account of the measures implemented to contain the spread of the virus.
"UNFICYP confirms that, in spite of its stringent procedures, there are currently 2 civilian positive cases of COVID-19, 4 UN police officers and 18 military personnel, for a total of 24 staff members. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, a total of 33 cases of COVID-19 have been identified. Nine individuals have subsequently made a full recovery", the peacekeeping mission said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The UNFICYP noted that it continues to work closely with Cyprus' authorities "to ensure that all relevant protocols to prevent and mitigate the risk of COVID-19 are strictly adhered to".
"We will start the first vaccinations on 27 December – in two and a half weeks .... Israel is ready to conduct 60,000 vaccinations per day, and this is a huge figure", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech, broadcast by Israeli TV channels.
