The United States is the worst-hit country, with over 32.7 million cases, while the coronavirus death toll there stands at 582,500.
Next comes India, which is experiencing a record-high surge in the numbers of infected, with 22.6 million cases and over 246,000 deaths. Brazil has confirmed over 15 million infected and around 423,000 fatalities from the pandemic.
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TORONTO (Sputnik) - The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta will no longer offer the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s first dose of the coronavirus vaccine to its residents, provincial health officials said.
“Effective today, Ontario will be pausing the rollout and administration of the initial doses of AstraZeneca vaccine,” Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
BERLIN (Sputnik) - Almost 10% of Germans have received two shots of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, official figures published on the government’s vaccination dashboard show.
Over 557,000 people were vaccinated on Monday, bringing the total of fully vaccinated citizens past 8 million, or 9.6% of the population. More than 27.7 million, or 33.3%, have received at least one shot.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Kingdom of Bahrain has approved the emergency use of the Sputnik Light vaccine, national agency BNA reported.
According to the agency, the decision was made by the kingdom's public health agency based on data on the vaccine and studies that had proven its high effectiveness.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States is partnering with the Pan American Health Organization to provide Brazil $17 million in novel coronavirus medications, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
"In view of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in Brazil, the United States is partnering with the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, to provide access to approximately $17 million worth of essential medications to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients who require intubation to be connected to life-saving ventilators," Price said in a press briefing.
Price said 164 pallets of medication arrived in Brazil earlier on Tuesday that should help sustain several hospitals in the country for at least 30 days.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Canadians can enjoy a summer with fewer public health restrictions if vaccination rates pick up and the number of new coronavirus cases begins to fall.
“We all want to have a summer, where we can see our loved ones and invite friends over for barbecues. We can have that summer. We can have a one dose summer,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
However, a summer with fewer pandemic-induced restrictions is conditional on the number of new infections being “way down" and at least 75 percent of Canadians having received their first shot, the Prime Minister noted.
While the number of new cases, nationally, is slowly declining, according to Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam, Canadian public health officials are still reporting an average of over 7,000 new infections daily – far more than during the first wave of the pandemic. Overall, Canada has recorded nearly 1.3 million coronavirus cases since the onset of the pandemic as well as 24,682 fatalities.
To date, 16,445,582 Canadians have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, however, only 3.4 percent of adults have been fully immunized, with the Trudeau government prioritizing first-dose vaccination and extending the time between doses to four months.
The United States is partnering with the Pan American Health Organization to provide Brazil $17 million in novel coronavirus medications, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
"In view of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in Brazil, the United States is partnering with the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, to provide access to approximately $17 million worth of essential medications to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients who require intubation to be connected to life-saving ventilators," Price said in a press briefing.
PAHO, headquartered in Washington, DC, is the World Health Organization's regional office for the Americas. PAHO is also a specialized agency for the Inter-American System.
Slovakian Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky has held expert consultations and decided to suspend the further use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine after an inoculated woman died from thrombosis, a spokeswoman for the health ministry said on Tuesday.
"Currently, the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine will only be given to people who have already received the first shot of this vaccine and are waiting for the second one. The further use of this vaccine has been suspended", Zuzana Eliashova said.
The Slovak State Institute for Drug Control confirmed the death of a 47-year-old woman from blood-clotting after she was administered the AstraZeneca vaccine, labeled Vaxzevria, last week.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has long been under scrutiny over multiple deaths from blood clotting in recipients in different countries. In April, the European Medicines Agency confirmed the dangerous but "very rare" side effect, but nonetheless recommended continuing to use the drug, saying that benefits outweigh risks.
This past Friday, the EU regulator began probing the AstraZeneca vaccine over a different side effect, namely a rare neurological disorder known as the Guillain-Barre syndrome.
President Joe Biden will announce later on Tuesday a range of additional measures to boost the vaccination effort in the United States, including free rides to vaccination sites from Uber and Lyft, the White House said in a release.
"The [US] President [Joe Biden] will highlight a new program from the ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber, which will offer free rides to anyone going to a vaccination site to get vaccinated. As part of this historic commitment, Lyft and Uber will promote rides to and from tens of thousands of vaccination sites through their apps", the release said.
The free-ride program with Uber and Lyft will start in the next two weeks and continue until 4 July, the release said.
Biden will also announce new partnerships between federal retail pharmacies and high-enrollment community colleges to provide on-site clinics for students, staff, and local communities, the release also said.
Last week, Biden set a goal to administer at least one coronavirus injection to 70 percent of American adults by 4 July.
LONDON (Sputnik) - Activists have gathered outside the headquarters of AstraZeneca in Cambridge, blocking the building, to demand that the pharmaceutical company drop patent protections for coronavirus vaccines, Our Future Now, a youth group affiliated with the protest's organizers, said on Tuesday.
The demonstration was organized by the UK-based Global Justice Now social justice organization in light of pharmaceutical firms behind coronavirus vaccines refusing to waiver patents following an appeal from Washington. The drug company has argued that patent protection will be effective in curbing the pandemic, while the best strategy is to expand drug production capacities.
"Activists have blockaded @AstraZeneca during their annual shareholder meeting. AZ must #joinCTAP to share vaccine know-how with the world We need an end to profit before lives in the Global South," the group wrote on Twitter.
Some demonstrators, demanding "a vaccine for global health not shareholder profit," have chained themselves to the doors of the office, while others are playing drums outside the building.
"AZ pledged to keep vaccine at cost price during the pandemic yet private doses in India are being charged almost 4x more than EU price while their masses face turmoil," the group added.
A solidarity protest is also taking place outside the University of Oxford, which was also involved in the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UK government is "worried" about a variant of COVID-19 first identified in India that is believed to be more transmissible than the original coronavirus, but ministers remain confident that vaccines should be effective against new strains, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Tuesday.
"We are worried about the Indian variant", Hancock told the Times Radio broadcaster.
During a later appearance on the BBC Radio 4 broadcaster, the health secretary said that the COVID-19 vaccines currently in use should be effective against the virus strain first identified in India, although added that concerns remained over their effectiveness against the South African variant.
"We have some degree of confidence that the vaccine works effectively against the so-called Indian variant, and then against the South African variant we are a little bit more worried, but we don't have full data on those yet", Hancock remarked.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia registered 8,115 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 8,465 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,896,842, the coronavirus response centre said on Tuesday.
"Over the past day, 8,115 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 82 Russian regions, including 1,155 cases (14.2 percent) without clinical symptoms", the centre said, adding that the rate of increase stands at 0.17 percent.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Philippines has registered the first two cases of the coronavirus caused by the Indian mutant variant, media reported on Tuesday, citing the Department of Health.
The virus was found in a 37-year-old male who came from Oman and a 38-year-old male who arrived from the United Arab Emirates, the department said, adding that both were placed under quarantine.
Eleven COVID-19 patients in the ICU of Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia Government General Hospital in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, died on Monday evening due to a lack of oxygen after a tanker with the was delayed late by just minutes.
District Chief M Hari Narayana said that while the 11 people who were on oxygen support died, medics were able to save several others. Nearly 1,000 COVID patients are being treated at the hospital at the moment.
