MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th December, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 1.747 million, over 79.7 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 20:00 GMT Friday, the number of cases globally is 79,701,951, including 1,747,508 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 18,725,322, including 329,792 fatalities.
More than 14,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine EpiVacCorona will be delivered to Russian regions before 2021, and by February over 50,000 doses, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said.
The results of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine trials on senior citizens will be revealed soon, the head of the Gamaleya research institute that developed the vaccine told Sputnik, assuring that no new side effects were detected among the volunteers.
The US forces deployed to South Korea received the first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Moderna biotechnology company, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing airport officials.
Canada has received the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine from Moderna just one day after the government approval, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
More than 600,000 UK citizens have received the vaccine against the coronavirus developed by Pfizer and BioNTech pharmaceutical companies, the Department of Health said.
The first shipments of COVID-19 vaccines will reach Estonia on Saturday, and the country will launch its vaccination campaign the day after, the Ministry of Social Affairs said.
Fifty-seven percent of Germans have concerns about possible side effects of a coronavirus vaccine, according to a YouGov poll for the dpa news agency.
The safety of QazCovid-in, a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Kazakhstan, is not inferior to its foreign counterparts in terms of safety, Berik Khairullin, a senior researcher at the country's Research Institute for Biological Safety Problem, told Sputnik.
An expert group of the Japanese Ministry of Health has identified the categories of citizens who are supposed to be the first to be vaccinated against COVID-19, including medical workers and people over 65.
There is no evidence that the 501.V2 variant of the coronavirus that has been detected in South Africa has higher transmissibility than the strain recently identified in the United Kingdom despite such claims from London, South African Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said.
Russia has registered 29,018 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from record 29,935 the day before, bringing the total to 2,992,706, the federal response center said.
Over 40 percent of all COVID-19 tests taken in the Czech Republic in the last 24 hours have come back positive, with 4,363 new cases having been registered, the country's health ministry said.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Israel has reached 393,036 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including new 9,651 cases detected over the past two days, as the country is expected to enter the third nationwide lockdown in a row, the health ministry said.
The Hong Kong government announced on Friday that the compulsory coronavirus-related quarantine for all inbound travelers would be extended from 14 to 21 days, fearing that the incubation period of the mutated COVID-19 strain may be longer than two weeks.
Japan will restrict entry from South Africa over the new coronavirus variant that has been registered there, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
The Japanese government has decided to allocate 486.2 billion Yen (about $4.7 billion) from the reserve fund for the current fiscal year to provide additional financial assistance to healthcare facilities dealing with the COVID-19, as well as to companies affected by restrictive measures introduced amid the pandemic, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Pope Francis urged for unity among people in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in his Christmas address.
