The United States, India and Brazil 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, India and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The United States this week reported more than 3,700 coronavirus-related deaths in a single day, representing a new daily record since the beginning of the pandemic.
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US military scientists identified a miniature antibody - a nanobody - produced by a llama that appears to work well in liquid or aerosol form, suggesting it could help protect a person from the novel coronavirus, the Defense Department said in a press release on Thursday.
"The researchers found that at least one of these nanobodies, called NIH-CoVnb-112, may be highly effective at preventing infections or detecting virus particles by grabbing hold of SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] spike proteins," the release said.
The nanobody disables the coronavirus by covering the teeth of the spike on the virus’ surface, disabling the pathogen’s ability to infect the patient, according to researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences cited in the release.
The llama was vaccinated five times in 28 days with a purified version of the spike protein to produce the nanobody, the release said.
Nanobodies are a type of antibody about a tenth the weight of most human antibodies that are produced naturally by the immune systems of camels, alpacas and llamas, the release added.
Nanobodies are also more stable, less expensive to produce and easier to engineer than typical human antibodies, according to the release.
New York City seeks to vaccinate a million people per day in January to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and prevent becoming again a hotspot for the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday.
"Our goal is to vaccinate 1 million New Yorkers in the month of January 2021," de Blasio told a news conference. "That's a very big goal. That's a very tough goal. That's a very ambitious goal, but it's a necessary goal."
The number of New York City residents hospitalized with possible COVID-19 has passed the city’s threshold this week, hitting 242, with 59 percent of those admitted testing positive for the virus, according to city data.
In addition, the city’s positivity rate based on a rolling seven-day average continues to rise, reaching 7.93 percent. The number of confirmed new cases has also soared to 2,498 on top of 771 probable cases of the virus.
France will open coronavirus vaccination centres before the start of February, the country's health minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday.
The government decided to "speed up protection of priority public", which means that medical workers aged over 50 would get a vaccine from Monday, Veran said on Twitter.
Nous avons décidé, en parallèle, d'accélérer la protection des publics prioritaires. Dès lundi, les soignants de 50 ans et plus qui le souhaitent, pourront se faire vacciner dans les centres disposant déjà de vaccins. (8/12)
— Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) December 31, 2020
The country has confirmed 14,380 new COVID-19 cases, including asymptomatic ones, and 239 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
The United Kingdom saw 55,892 new coronavirus cases in the past day, breaking the record of 53,135 cases recorded Tuesday, according to data published Thursday by the Department of Health.
This brings the total to 2,488,780 cases. The overall number of virus-related deaths stands at 73,331.
The death toll rose by 964 during the same period. It is short of 981 fatalities reported Wednesday, which was the highest daily toll since April 24.
The emergence of a new, fast-spreading strain has forced the government to toughen restrictions for another 20 million people in parts of England, which is overwhelmingly under the highest level of curbs, called Tier 4.
South Korea on Thursday signed an agreement with Moderna pharmaceutical company on the procurement of 40 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine for 20 million citizens, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Earlier this week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in held talks with Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, and the sides agreed on the procurement of 40 million vaccine doses that will be delivered in the second or third quarter of 2021.
Earlier in December, South Korea signed agreements with Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, AstraZeneca and Pfizer pharmaceutical companies to purchase vaccines against the coronavirus for 36 million people.
In addition, another 20 million doses of the vaccine will be provided to South Korea as part of the WHO's COVAX Facility. According to the current plan, vaccine shipments will begin in the first quarter of 2021, starting with AstraZeneca, vaccines from Janssen and Moderna will be delivered in the second quarter, while deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine will start in the third quarter.
By late 2021, the 52-million-people nation plans to receive a total of 106 million doses.
Republican Representative-elect Maria Salazar, a former journalist elected in November, assured supporters that she will survive COVID-19 but will miss the ceremonial swearing in of the next US Congress on January 3.
"I hope that you can forgive me as I have been unable to communicate through social media, but I was diagnosed with COVID-19. I am in quarantine at home & getting better each day," Salazar said via Twitter on Thursday.
Salazar, 59, a former journalist who spent decades with the Spanish television network Telemundo, defeated incumbent Democratic lawmaker Donna Shalala in the 2020 general election to join the state of Florida’s delegation to Congress.
Salazar was admitted to a hospital last week with an irregular heartbeat, where she tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was discharged the next day to recover at home.
Salazar is part of a class of Republican House candidates who defied expectations of a Democratic wave, leaving majority Democrats with one of the smallest margins ever in the next Congress. With several races still undecided, media reports suggest the Democratic majority could be as small as 11 seats.
At least 50 members of Congress from 25 states and the territory of Puerto Rico have tested positive for the novel coronavirus or coronavirus antibodies, according to media reports.
All Egyptian universities will switch to distant learning from Saturday due to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, the government's press service said in a statement obtained by Sputnik.
"As part of the fight against the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and taking care of health of everyone involved in the educational process, the cabinet of ministers ... has agreed with the proposal to complete the current semester in distant learning format starting from Saturday," the statement said.
It was also decided to postpone all exams until after the winter holidays.
The government reiterated that any New Year holiday events are prohibited in Egypt. Cafes and restaurants are required to comply with a limit of 50 percent of visitors.
On November 23, the Egyptian Health Ministry announced the start of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. According to the latest data, more than 136,000 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the country, over 111,000 patients have recovered. The total number of patients who have died from the disease is 7,576.
Hungary refused to purchase coronavirus vaccines from Russia, and intends to buy vaccines through the EU supply mechanisms or directly from China, Reuters reported, citing the head of the Hungarian prime minister's office.
According to the agency, the reason for the refusal is insufficient vaccine production capacity.
Earlier, Reuters reported, citing a statement by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, that Hungary had received 6,000 doses of Russian coronavirus vaccine.
In early December, Szijjarto announced that the country had received the first samples of Russian vaccineSputnik V. Then the minister noted that Hungarian doctors had received detailed information about the Russian vaccine, and also made sure that Sputnik V was being produced with latest technologies and in accordance with WHO protocols.
Finland will extend the ban on passenger flights to Great Britain until 11 January, the country's Transport and Communications Agency said.
Earlier this week, two cases of new coronavirus strain circulating in Britain and some other countries were reported in Finland.
Greece’s Minister for Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis issued a stern warning for citizens of capital city Athens to adhere to the curfew, saying that the city must be "dead" at 10:00 p.m. (08:00 GMT).
Athens has been under curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 05:00 a.m. since early November. It is set to last until 7 January.
"Control will be universal. No one will be outside at ten in the evening. At ten o'clock in the evening, the city must be dead to ensure that in the following days we do not need to take other measures to protect the lives of people, "said Chrisochoidis said in a televised appearance on national broadcaster Skai.
Speaking about measures to be undertaken over the New Year celebrations, the minister described every holiday as a "knife."
Chrisochoidis went on to say that police will retain the right to make checks at any place of living and make arrests if they are found to be in violation of the restriction of household mixing (which allows no more than two families to be under one roof at once).
Police will be dispersed across much of the city and main highways will be shut down as will all public transportation overnight, the minister explained.
Greek health authorities have registered over 137,000 cases of COVID-19 and 4,788 deaths as a result since the beginning of the pandemic. As virtually all other nations, the second wave in November and December has dwarfed the first wave earlier in spring.
Ecuador has signed an agreement with Pfizer to import two million doses of its vaccine against COVID-19, President Lenin Moreno said on Thursday.
"We will win all in the fight against the pandemic. We have signed an agreement with Pfizer to secure two million doses [of vaccines] as part of the national vaccination plan. Deliveries in batches will begin starting from January," Moreno tweeted.
The United States saw a new daily high of 3,744 deaths from coronavirus in the past 24-hour period, according to data published Thursday by Johns Hopkins University.
This is the second straight day of record virus-linked deaths. A day before, the country saw 3,725 fatalities.
An additional 229,042 cases of infection were recorded on Wednesday, taking the US nationwide tally to 19,745,136. The overall death toll stands at 342,414.
South Koreans working at US military bases in the country have become the first citizens to be inoculated against the coronavirus, media reported on Thursday.
According to state news agency Yonhap, the US Forces Korea (USFK) confirmed that Korean health care workers and soldiers part of the Korean Augmentation to the US Army (KATUSA) were among those to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech shots.
"USFK confirms that we started inoculating Korean National health care workers and KATUSA today," the command said in a statement.
South Korea’s vaccination campaign is not scheduled to begin until February, the agency reported.
Separately, the USFK on Thursday said that two civilians working with US troops have tested positive for COVID-19 and that the forces remain on high alert.
The number of people who have been inoculated and those in line to do so remains unclear, according to Yonhap.
South Korea has so far registered over 60,000 cases and 900 deaths from COVID-19, with December showing daily infection rates exceed the 1,000 mark.
Colombia has reached an agreement with the Janssen Vaccines pharmaceutical company, part of the global Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals group, on the procurement of nine million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, Colombian President Ivan Duque said.
"Today [on Wednesday] an agreement was concluded with the Janssen pharmaceutical company. The agreement prescribes the purchase of nine million doses of the vaccine for nine million citizens, since, unlike other vaccines, the Janssen vaccine was developed as a single dose drug," Duque said in a televised statement.
India is set to begin a test run of COVID-19 vaccination in all states starting 2 January, the country’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said Thursday.
A dry run was successfully tested in three states and if the expanded run transpires without glitches, a nationwide rollout will begin under the Co-WIN mobile application.
“The dry run will be conducted by all the State and UT [union territories] governments on 2nd January 2021 (Saturday). The activity is proposed to be conducted in all State Capitals in at least 3 session sites,” the ministry said in a statement.
The expanded run is intended to further test the application and iron out any possible glitches between distribution, planning and implementation of vaccinations at a larger scale, the ministry said. All the shots will be administered to health care workers who will be selected by the medical officers in charge.
The ministry did not name the vaccine that will be administered, with India already conducting several phase three studies, including on vaccines from homegrown pharmaceutical firms Zydus Cadila Healthcare and Bharat Biotech.
#Unite2FightCorona #IndiaFightsCorona
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) December 31, 2020
Centre asks States/UTs to gear up for the roll-out of #COVID19 Vaccine.
Health Secretary chairs high level Meeting with all States/UTs.
Dry Run for vaccine administration in all States/UTs on 2nd Jan 2021.https://t.co/weUEfWJIt1 pic.twitter.com/QUCeinFurk
Over 150,000 Israeli citizens received a vaccine against the coronavirus over the past day, taking the total count of those vaccinated to 800,000, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
The mass vaccination campaign in Israel kicked off on 20 December, as the country has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The priority groups to get inoculated include medical workers, students of medical schools, employees of geriatric institutions and government officials. Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin have already got inoculated.
"More than 150,000 Israelis got vaccinated yesterday [Wednesday], and a total of 800,000 people have already been inoculated against the coronavirus. World Champions! We will continue doing this way and become the first to get out of the pandemic, re-open our economy and return to life," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.
Russia has registered 27,747 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 26,513 the day before, bringing the total to 3,159,297, the federal response centre said on Thursday.
"Over the past 24 hours, 27,747 coronavirus cases were confirmed in 85 regions, including 4,164 cases (15 percent) without clinical symptoms," the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 3,159,297 with the rate of increase at 0.9 percent.
Moscow confirmed 6,566 new coronavirus cases over the given period, up from 5,105 the day before. The Russian capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 3,758 cases, down from 3,764 the day before, and the Moscow region with 1,487 new cases, down from 1,608 the day before.
The response center reported 593 coronavirus fatalities, down from 599 the day before, raising the country's death toll to 57,019.
Total recoveries count 2,554,340 after 28,922 people were discharged from hospitals over the past day, down from 29,235 the day before.
According to the national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, over 90.6 million tests to detect COVID-19 have been conducted in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic, and 663,186 suspected carriers remain under medical monitoring
The Lithuanian government decided to lift the ban on receiving flights from the UK from 1 January, 2021, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Baltic states, which unanimously introduced a ban on flights from Britain, also unanimously lifted it," the ministry said.
"The governments of Latvia and Estonia have decided to resume flights from the UK," the ministry quoted Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis as saying.
Air traffic with the UK will be resumed, but those arriving in Lithuania must pass a COVID-19 test no later than 48 hours before departure and it must be negative, otherwise they will be isolated for 10 days.
France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Bulgaria also announced the resumption of flights to the UK. Other countries are planning to do so just after the New Year celebrations.
India has confirmed 21,821 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 10,266,674, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.
The death toll from the disease has reached 148,738 people, with 299 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 9.86 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.
India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States, with more than 19.7 million COVID-19 patients.
