MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 1.439 million, over 61.4 million cases of infection were detected, and over 39.2 million of those patients were cured, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from federal and local authorities, media and other sources.
As of 20:00 GMT Friday, the number of cases globally is 61,403,420, including 1,439,655 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 12,982,155, including 264,163 fatalities and 4,871,203 recoveries.
Russia will begin mass vaccination against the coronavirus in January or February, but at-risk groups will be inoculated in December, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik.
Russia has begun mass coronavirus vaccination among its armed forces, planning to inoculate more than 400,000 servicemen, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced on Friday that it reached an agreement with India's pharmaceutical company Hetero on producing over 100 million doses of Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V per year in India.
Russian has already begun sending Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus to Africa, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Sputnik.
Russia's Vector Research Center, which has developed the EpiVacCorona vaccine against the coronavirus, hopes that the inoculation will protect vaccinees from new mutations of COVID-19, Alexander Ryzhikov, the head of the center's zoonotic diseases and flu department said. The EpiVacCorona vaccine helps prevent the severe form of the COVID-19, Ryzhikov said. The EpiVacCorona vaccine creates immunity one month after the inoculation, he also said.
Crimean scientists have started to test their locally-developed vaccine against coronavirus on rabbits and mice, and will announce its efficacy or otherwise toward the end of the year, virologist Vladimir Oberemok, who heads the laboratory of cell technologies and DNA drugs at V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, said.
The Hungarian authorities would be glad if they could establish the production of Russian vaccine Sputnik V in the country, but it will take up to a year and a half, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sijjarto he told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster. First small batches of Sputnik V are expected to be delivered to Hungary in December, and larger consignments in January, Sijjarto said. There is a strong lobby against COVID-19 vaccines "from the outside" in Europe, but Budapest will act in the best interest of its people, he said.
The troublesome storing conditions of some candidate coronavirus vaccines and the associated high costs should not discourage countries from adopting them as an immunization means, Kate O'Brien, the director for Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at the World Health Organization (WHO), said.
Morocco expects that the population will start receiving shots of a coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese pharma giant�Sinopharm's subsidiary, CNBG, in mid-December, Health Minister�Khalid Ait Taleb told Sputnik in an interview.
Spain will vaccinate about 2.5 million people working and residing in care homes in the first phase of inoculations against COVID-19, which will last from January to March, Health Minister Salvador Illa said at a briefing.
The Cuban Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices approved the launch of clinical trials of two COVID-19 candidate vaccines developed by the Cuban Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), CIGB Director Eulogio Pimentel Vazquez said.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirmed that it had received a request from the government's Department of Health and Social Care to assess the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
Switzerland may begin mass vaccination against the coronavirus disease in January of next year, Alain Berset, the head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, said.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health signed a contract with UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to procure 26 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine.
The WHO is looking forward to full, detailed data on AstraZeneca's trials of the coronavirus vaccine, after which it can better assess its efficacy, a WHO spokesperson told Sputnik.
Shortened trials for coronavirus vaccines worldwide make it difficult to predict the duration of protection they provide, as well as long-term side effects they might have, Kate Elder, the senior vaccines policy advisor for Doctors Without Borders' (MSF) Access Campaign told Sputnik. Much funding has yet to be raised as part of the Gavi-led initiative to ensure that low-income countries have access to COVID-19 vaccines, Elder also said.
The WHO is facing a funding gap of $500 million to maximize the use of rapid antigen tests for COVID-19, the organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.
Russia has registered 27,543 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 25,487 the day before, breaking the record for the second consecutive day and bringing the total to 2,215,533, the federal response center said.
Just four countries account for about 70 perscent of coronavirus cases and deaths globally, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The COVID-19 infection rate in Austria will significantly decrease in the comings days as a result of the recently introduced nationwide lockdown, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said.
The Belgian National Security Council (NSC) is expected to reopen all non-essential shops, which have been closed since the beginning of November, on December 1, the LN24 channel reported.
Moldova is introducing a state of emergency in healthcare sector starting on November 30 and until January 15, the cabinet said.
French GDP has risen by 18,7 percent quarter-on-quarter in July-September, when the coronavirus restrictions were eased between two nationwide lockdowns, but still was down 3.9 percent year-on-year, the INSEE national statistics agency said.
A further 12 computerized tomography (CT) centers will open in Moscow to serve patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, Anastasia Rakova, the deputy mayor of the Russian capital, said on Friday, adding that paramedics will also be issued with antiviral drugs to deliver during home visits.
The COVID-19 epidemic in Russia may end in 2021, the country is working hard to achieve this, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik.
Russia has registered cases of repeat coronavirus infections in the same person, Murashko also said.
Modeling studies indicate that some 60-70 percent of people would need to be immune to COVID-19 to weaken or halt the virus transmission, the WHO's top immunization expert, Dr. Katherine O'Brien, said.
Shimadzu Corporation, a Japanese company that specializes in developing precision instruments and medical equipment, on Friday announced that it had started selling an automated COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test device, AutoAmp, priced twofold lower than similar products developed by competitors.
