MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th December, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 1.737 million, over 79.1 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 20:30 GMT Thursday, the number of cases globally is 79,102,972, including 1,737,373 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 18,581,524, including 327,853 fatalities.
People who work in law enforcement, sport- utilities- and food- related industries will be able to get vaccinated on December 28, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.
Russia is expected to ramp up the production of the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus by 30 million doses by June, Russian Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov said.
A plane with the first 300,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus landed in Argentina, a Sputnik correspondent reported. Argentina will begin inoculating its citizens with Russian vaccine against the coronavirus, Sputnik V, next week, the chief of the Cabinet of Ministers Santiago Cafiero said.
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) expects Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus to be registered in UAE and India in January, the head of the fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said.
US-based pharmaceutical company Moderna expects that its COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the new strains of the coronavirus that were recently discovered in the United Kingdom.
The European Commission began forwarding batches of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus to 27 nations of the bloc prior to the mass vaccination campaign.
Turkey has not yet received the Chinese SinoVac coronavirus vaccine contrary to claims that the first batch has been delivered, a health ministry representative told Sputnik.
France's national health body, Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS), on Thursday approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine against the coronavirus in the upcoming mass immunization campaign, Health Minister Oliver Veran said.
South Korea has signed agreements with Johnson & Johnson's Janssen and Pfizer pharmaceutical companies to purchase vaccines against the coronavirus for 16 million people, South Korea's media reported.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah became the first Kuwaiti national to receive a COVID-19 vaccine marking the start of the nationwide vaccination campaign against the disease, the KUNA state news agency reported.
Russia has registered a new single-day record of 29,935 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 27,250 the day before, bringing the total to 2,963,688, the federal response center said.
Russian scientists have received samples of a new coronavirus strain from the United Kingdom and are studying it, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
A new strain of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, has been detected in 33 people in Denmark, the state-owned tv 2 broadcaster reported, citing the Danish infectious diseases control and prevention institute.
The first case of a "UK" strain of coronavirus in Germany was recorded in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bild reported, citing a spokesperson for the state's health ministry.
The United Kingdom and France have resumed freight traffic across the English Channel almost in full after the launch of rapid COVID-19 testing of truck drivers, the Financial Times reported.
The United Kingdom banned entry for passengers traveling from South Africa after a second new variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, allegedly originating from South Africa was found in the country, the Department of Transport said.
China will suspend flights with the United Kingdom because of possible impact of the newly identified mutated strain of the coronavirus, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's health ministry decided to put Israel into the third nationwide lockdown over COVID-19 starting from Sunday, The Times of Israel reported.
Self-isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic has increased interest in space imaging as a way to monitor and control what is happening on Earth, Milana Elerdova, the head of the Terra Tech company, Russian state space corporation Rosсosmos' commercial operator of Earth's remote sensing and geoinformation services, told Sputnik.
France has deployed 26 firefighters with thousands of COVID-19 test kits to the port of Dover, a major transit hub between France and the UK, to help accelerate the passage for trucks blocked in the area due to fresh restrictions caused by the new coronavirus strain, the French Embassy in the United Kingdom said.
The risk of contracting coronavirus while traveling on trains is less than 1 percent if recommendations of health authorities are being followed, according to a study by the International Union of Railways (UIC).
A committee representing about 500 relatives of those who died of COVID-19 in Italy has initiated a legal claim against the regional and national authorities for an inadequate response to the pandemic, with hearing set to take place in April 2021, the committee's lawyer, Consuelo Locati, told Sputnik.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered to deploy two hospitals to provide care to patients with COVID-19 in Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
