MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 1.77 million, over 81.1 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 20:00 GMT Monday, the number of cases globally is 81,103,454, including 1,770,304 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 19,221,164, including 334,025 fatalities.
The Sputnik V and AstraZeneca combination coronavirus vaccine will give immunity for two years, Alexander Gintsburg, the head of Russia's Gamaleya center, which developed Sputnik V, said.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that she would recommend that all Russian citizens get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Zambia is currently considering the proposal by Russia for the use of its domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, Russian Ambassador to Zambia Alexander Boldyrev told Sputnik.
US biotechnology company Novavax announced that it would start a Phase 3 trial of a possible COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and Mexico.
Mexican authorities will not object to purchases or imports of COVID-19 vaccine by private entities or companies, but there have been no such requests so far, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
The European Commission adopted a package of 70 million Euros ($84.5 million) to assist Western Balkans in accessing coronavirus vaccines procured by EU member states.
Belgium started its coronavirus vaccination campaign with 96-year-old nursing home resident Jos Hermans becoming the first Flem to receive the shot, media reported.
Italy on Tuesday will receive the second shipment of 450,000 doses the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus disease, the Ansa news agency reported, citing sources.
Germany plans to receive 15.5 million doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine as soon as it is approved by the European Union's drug regulator, a health ministry spokeswoman said.
Less than 50 percent of people in Poland intend to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported, citing the findings of a poll conducted by the Warsaw-based Institute for Social and Market Research.
More than 200 medical staff in eight Estonian healthcare facilities have been vaccinated against the coronavirus disease, the country's social affairs ministry said.
A senior Israeli citizen died from a heart attack after he had been inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease, the country's health ministry said.
Kazakhstan signed a deal with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer to begin receiving its vaccine against the coronavirus disease, the health ministry said.
Australia will have most of the population vaccinated against coronavirus by October, Health Minister Greg Hunt said, emphasizing that shots would not be mandatory.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health has authorized the emergency use of a vaccine against COVID-19 developed by the Pfizer and BioNTech pharmaceutical companies in a bid to curb the spread of the disease.
Israel ranks first in the world in terms of the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, with 379,000 citizens of the country having been inoculated by Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Russia will start the clinical trials of a new antibodies-based medication against coronavirus in the fall of 2021, Alexander Gintsburg, the head of the Gamaleya research institute, told Sputnik.
The head of Russia's Gamaleya research center, which is behind the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Alexander Gintsburg, told Sputnik that the Russian Health Ministry was working with the Moscow city government and the banking giant SberBank to concoct a drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
Initial studies have shown that the COVID-19 immune response has prevented infection with the new coronavirus variant that was first detected in the United Kingdom, Bruno Lina, a virologist and member of the French Scientific Council, said.
Russia has registered 27,787 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 28,284 the day before, bringing the total to 3,078,035, the federal response center said.
Finland has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus strain, which was first identified in the United Kingdom. in the southern Kymenlaakso region that borders Russia, local newspaper Kuovolan Sanomat reported.
Russia extended the suspension of flights with the UK through January 12, 2021, the federal coronavirus response center told reporters.
German Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn opposed easing of COVID-19-related restrictions for persons who have already been vaccinated against the virus.
All passengers flying to or transiting Turkey will need to submit a fresh negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coronavirus test beginning from December 30, Turkish Airlines said.
Gibraltar, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom on the southernmost tip of the European continent, has imposed a nighttime curfew and business closures until January 10 due to a continuous increase in coronavirus cases, according to Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
South Korea extended until January 7 its ban on air travelers arriving from the United Kingdom, where a new variant of the coronavirus has been spreading fast.
Overseas passengers arriving in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, who were previously banned from using public transportation due to COVID-19 fears, will be able to use specially designated cars of an express train to leave Narita Airport, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Saudi Arabia extended the entry suspension for another week starting on Monday in an effort to tackle the spread of COVID-19 and its new strain, the state SPA news agency reported, citing an official source in the interior ministry.
Cuba is set to tighten its coronavirus-related travel restrictions as the number of flights to several countries, including the United States, will be reduced and international visitors will be required to have tested negative for COVID-19, public health officials said, as cited by the ruling party's Granma newspaper.
Even though the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic are not going to disappear with the onset of the New Year, and 2021 is likely to become even harder than 2020 in terms of financial wellbeing and social divisions, the coming year can raise and make way for better, more responsible leaders, futurologists told Sputnik.
Remote learning opportunities have been arranged for 64 percent of Russian college students and over 40 percent of the country's higher education institutions, Russia's Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov said.
Almost half of Russian internet users said the outgoing year 2020 completely changed their lives while the same number of people considered COVID-19 pandemic a very difficult lifetime experience, a study by the Russian social network Odnoklassniki (OK) in conjunction with the ResearchMe company showed.
Russian citizens named doctors and medical workers the heroes of 2020, according to a poll published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).
Serology tests for COVID-19 antibodies showed that about 4.43 percent of residents in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the world's first epicenter of the new coronavirus, had contracted the virus, the country's Center of Disease Control (CDC) said.
The United Kingdom's economic outlook looks to be bleaker than predicted by official surveyors just several weeks ago due to unforeseen factors in the pandemic, according to the Resolution Foundation's regular Macroeconomic Policy Outlook.
Incumbent US President Donald Trump said he had signed coronavirus relief and government spending bill.
Lazarus hacking group has attacked a health ministry and a pharmaceutical company engaged in coronavirus vaccine development in an Asian country, Russian IT security company Kaspersky Lab said.
Continued vaccination against the coronavirus in Russia will help improve the epidemiological situation in the country by the spring, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in an interview with Sputnik.
Spain may overcome the coronavirus pandemic at the end of summer 2021, once about 70 percent of the population is vaccinated, Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that the health services associated with COVID-19 treatment would be available round the clock during the New Year holidays, the NHK broadcaster reported.
