Latest on Coronavirus
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2022) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 5.57 million, over 339.6 million cases of infection were detected, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from federal and local authorities, media and other sources.
As of 20:45 GMT Thursday, the number of cases globally is 339,690,871, including 5,570,224 fatalities. As many as 9.73 billion of vaccine doses have been administered to date.
The patients that were vaccinated against coronavirus with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine showed a 2.5 times lower fall in the level of antibodies to the Omicron variant that those who received the Pfizer vaccine, Italy's National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani and Russia's Gamaleya Research Center revealed. The titer of virus-neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron coronavirus strain is two times higher after Russia's Sputnik V vaccine than after the Pfizer vaccine, the study revealed. Russia's one-dose Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine is a universal booster to other vaccinesagainst the deadly virus, it said.
Russia has sent all data on the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO), a visit of its experts to Russia is expected in the first quarter, tentatively in February, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.
A consignment of three million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered by flight from China to Belarus on Friday to help the country halt a recent flare-up in coronavirus cases, the Belarusian Health Ministry said.
Pfizer has won a more than $2 billion US Army modification contract to produce an additional 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for international donation to low and low-middle income countries, the US Defense Department announced.
Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has granted a tentative approval to two oral medications, Paxlovid and Lagevrio, for use in high-risk patients with mild COVID-19 infection.
Russia confirmed 38,850 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which brings the cumulative total to 10,938,261, the federal response center said. Over the past 24 hours, 684 deaths of patients with COVID-19 have been confirmed, bringing the country's total coronavirus death toll to 324,060.
Germany has registered 133,536 new coronavirus cases within the past 24 hours, marking thus the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, Robert Koch Institute said.
UK Health Minister Sajid Javid said that people in the UK must learn to live with COVID-19 in the same way they live with the flu, warning that the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 "is not going away.
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Some US states are already seeing a decline in the number of coronavirus infections, while most of the regions in the United States will reach peak in cases in the first half of February, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Antony Fauci said.
Mexico has confirmed 60,552 new coronavirus cases within the past 24 hours, marking thus the largest daily increase since the start of the pandemic, the health ministry said.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by record 204,854 to more than 23.4 million within the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) urged nations around the world to lift or ease COVID-19 travel restrictions, saying they proved to be of little public health value but detrimental for economic growth.
The Austrian National Council, the parliament's lower house, voted on Thursday to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory from February.
The situation in the United States with respect to COVID-19 is clearly better than a year ago and the country is not going back to lockdowns amid the surge in Omicron cases, US President Joe Biden said during a speech marking one year in office.
The Thai Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has decided to resume the Test & Go quarantine-free entry program for vaccinated tourists from all countries starting February 1, modified due to the spread of the the Omicron strain, media reported.
The world economy will lose $12.5 trillion in output by 2024 due to the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund managing director said.
Supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic contribute to inflation and lead to worsening financial conditions, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
Tourism in London might not recover to its pre-coronavirus scale until the mid-2020s, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said, urging the government to come up with a package of support measures for the affected businesses.
Some 58% of Americans now believe the coronavirus Omicron variant surge has made the COVID-19 pandemic worse and general pessimism about the course of the contagious disease is growing again across the United States, a Gallup poll revealed.
President Joe Biden said it is an appropriate time for the Federal Reserve to recalibrate support for the US economy to address pandemic-induced issues such as galloping inflation.