The global COVID-19 count has crossed 130.6 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, Maryland.
The US retains its dubious status as the most affected nation, counting 30.6 million cases of coronavirus and over 554,000 fatalities.
Brazil and India follow the US, with Brazil approaching 13 million cases and India reporting 12.3 million.
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - More than 4 million coronavirus vaccine doses were administered in the United States over a 24-hour period, setting a new record, Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, COVID-19 Data Director at the White House said.
"Wow a record reporting day!! +4.08M doses reported administered over the total yesterday. First day w/ 4M or more. Also first time averaging more than 3M per day over the past week," Shahpar wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
GAZA (Sputnik) - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has extended the year-long state of emergency for another month, media said.
The president signed a degree on Saturday extending coronavirus restrictions for 30 days, effective immediately, according to the WAFA news agency.
The whole of Italy has become a "red zone" for Easter, entering a tough three-day lockdown from Saturday.
Italians are banned from traveling outside their regions. One household is allowed to receive no more than two adult visitors and their children under 14.
Churches are open, with worshipers allowed to attend services within their own regions. All non-essential shops are closed, with cafes and restaurants offering a takeaway-only service.
The restrictions come as Italy is witnessing a virus resurgence, with 21,932 new cases logged on Friday.
Fabiola Yanez, the 39-year-old first lady of Argentina, has tested negative for the coronavirus, according to sources of the Infobae news website, less than a day after President Alberto Fernandez said he was infected.
Fernandez tweeted early on Saturday that he had come down with a mild fever and a light headache. He was tested positive for the coronavirus.
The president celebrated his 62nd birthday on Friday. Foreign Minister Felipe Sola and his deputy have self-isolated, according to the TN news channel.
Fernandez received the first dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine on 21 January. According to Argentine newspaper Clarin, the president has been inoculated with the second dose of the vaccine as well.
According to a publication in the Lancet medical journal, Sputnik V is 92 percent effective at preventing symptomatic illness and 100 percent in preventing severe disease.
The number of Americans who received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine has topped 100 million, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Of these 101,804,762 people, 57,984,785 have been fully vaccinated.
In total, over 204 million vaccine doses have been delivered nationwide, with more than 157 million doses already administered.
In late January, President Joe Biden vowed that the country would administer 100 million coronavirus vaccines within his first 100 days in office. In March, he set a new goal of 200 million shots within his first 100 days.
The US has so far approved three COVID-19 vaccines, two-dose Pfizer and Moderna shots and the one-component Johnson & Johnson drug.
A disagreement has emerged between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and SYRIZA opposition party leader Alexis Tsipras over self-test kits and vaccination concerns during a parliament meeting, local newspaper Kathimerini reported.
The prime minister spoke in the parliament on Friday saying that the goal of the government is to "reach Easter safer and the summer more free" in reference to recent COVID-19 restrictions in place for the residents. He also added that at this stage, restaurants will only be due to open after the Easter holidays which Greece will celebrate on Sunday 2 May.
Greece was forced to tighten COVID-19 restrictions in an attempt to combat the surge in cases over recent months, with hospitals in the worse affected areas around Athens struggling to cope.
During the meeting, Mitsotakis said that be there any "thoughts, suggestions, ideas on how self-test kits can be better used," the government was ready "to discuss them and where necessary adjust [their] strategy".
Opposition party leader Tsipras stepped in and criticized the government's vaccine rollout plan saying that other countries such as Germany found alternative sources of vaccine supply, however the prime minister added that Tsipras's statement was irrelevant as Germany was "way behind" Greece in vaccine rollouts.
"I will hurry to be the first to say that of course mistakes were made", the prime minister said adding, however, that the only policy option that will succeed in the Greek government is that of realism.
The first batch of COVID19 self test kits was delivered to Greece on Friday and will be distributed to local pharmacies as of 7 April. Greece has administered nearly 1.7 million COVID-19 shots so far and aims to complete another 1.5 million by the end of April.
Seven Britons who received the AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine have died after developing blood clots, the national medicines regulator told The Financial Times.
On Thursday, the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reported that the country had recorded 30 cases of blood clots among those vaccinated with the AstraZeneca drug.
"Of the 30 cases in our statement . . . sadly seven have died", the MHRA said on Friday.
The regulator insists that benefits of the shot continue to outweigh risks, stressing that it remains "absolutely confident in the vaccine."
In total, over 18.1 million Britons have been inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In mid-March, several EU countries halted the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine following dozens of reports of blood clotting after inoculations. However, the European Medicines Agency has found no direct link between the vaccine and thrombosis, recommending that the inoculations continue.
Russia has recorded 9,021 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, up from 8,792 the day before, taking the tally to 4,572,077, the coronavirus response centre said on Saturday.
"Over the past day, 9,021 coronavirus cases have been confirmed across 84 Russian regions, including 1,223 cases (13.6 percent) without clinical symptoms", the centre said.
The cumulative case count thus totaled 4,572,077, with the rate of increase remaining at 0.2 percent.
The highest daily increases were confirmed in Moscow (2,011), St. Petersburg (717) and the Moscow Region (594).
The death toll has topped 100,000 after further 384 fatalities — down from 400 the day before — were confirmed.
Total recoveries have grown by 9,618 over the given period, down from 9,832 the day before, and reached 4,195,869.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said that he has received a positive antigen test for COVID-19 and is awaiting confirmation via a PCR test.
Antigen tests are not tests for antibodies. They detect the presence of a specific viral antigen, which implies current viral infection.
"I wanted to tell you that today, after my temperature rose to 37.3 and I had a slight headache, I did an antigen test, which turned out to be positive", Fernandez wrote on Twitter.
He urged everyone to stay vigilant and follow recommendations, warning that the "pandemic has not gone away."
The president feels well and is awaiting results of his polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
In January, the Argentine leader got the first dose of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. Three weeks later, he received the second shot, the Clarin newspaper reported on Saturday, citing sources.
The blood clot case reported in Australia on Friday is likely not linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, Australian University professor, leading epidemiologist and World Health Organisation advisor Marylouise McLaws said.
"Before we start linking the dots, we just need to put this into perspective that this is a very rare event and it's likely not to do with AstraZeneca", she told 9news.
The 44-year old Melbourne man was admitted into hospital on Friday after having received the AstraZeneca shot around March 22 with a rare blood clotting disorder.
McLaws explained that over 10 million people are diagnosed with a clot each year and the particular case of the Melbourne man was very rare.
"When you've been vaccinated and you have one of these rare events, people get very anxious because they think there's some causation but there is probably likely to be no causation", she added.
The leading epidemiologist also mentioned that she does not think Australians should be worried at all.
Over 420,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in Australia and according to McLaws, the rollout has been "very slow" in comparison to other countries.
In the middle of March, several European Union countries have stopped the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clotting cases in people who had previously gotten the vaccine. The European Medicines Agency has found no direct link between the vaccine and blood clotting cases.
India has confirmed 89,129 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 12,392,260, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.
The death toll from the disease has reached 164,110 people, with 714 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 11.56 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.
A day earlier, the country confirmed 81,466 new coronavirus cases, with 469 fatalities.
