MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2021) The global tally of the coronavirus infection cases has exceeded 86.8 million, while the death toll is over 1.87 million and the number of recovered patients is 48.5 million, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from federal and local authorities, media and other sources.
As of 19:30 GMT Wednesday, the number of people infected globally is 86,809,552, including 1,876,156 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 21,145,275 and 359,077 fatalities.
The European Commission authorized the vaccine against coronavirus developed by US pharmaceutical company Moderna, which has become the second COVID-19 vaccine approved by the bloc, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that Berlin hoped that production of the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine would start in the town of Marburg in February.
The Netherlands became the last European country to launch its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, having inoculated a nursing home worker, among other patients, according to a broadcast by the NOS tv channel.
The government of Serbia has signed a deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund for an additional 2 million doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the vaccine's press service said.
Russia has already rolled out for civilian circulation over 1.5 million doses of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and more than 45,000 doses of another homegrown vaccine, EpiVacCorona, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Wednesday.
The Philippines is planning to acquire 148 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to vaccinate at least half of its over 100 million population in 2021, Carlito Galvez Jr, the chief implementer of the Philippines' COVID-19 National Task Force, said.
Kharkiv-based pharmaceutical company Biolik confirmed that it had submitted a registration application for the Russian coronavirus vaccine Gam-COVID-Vac (trademark Sputnik V) with the Ukrainian government back in December.
Japan's coronavirus infection tally has passed a daily high of 6,000 for the first time since the start of the outbreak, according to the Kyodo news agency's tally, based on official figures.
Russia has registered 24,217 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 24,246 the day before, bringing the total to 3,308,601, the federal response center said.
The Czech Republic has confirmed 17,278 new coronavirus disease cases, hitting a new single-day record, the health ministry said.
The coronavirus variant, which was first detected in southern England in the UK, had been detected in 41 countries/territories, the World Health Organization said.
Hotels in Brussels have suffered a 90-percent drop in revenue in the last quarter of 2020 compared to 2019, the Brussels Hotels Association said.
The 63rd Grammy Awards have been postponed from January 31 to March 14, the US Recording academy said.
England is canceling its General Certificate of Secondary education (GCSE) and General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (A-Level) exams this summer in favor of assessed grades over the COVID-19 pandemic, UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said.
The Norwegian government has been looking into legal aspects of possible implementation of curfew since November, Justice Minister Monica Maeland said at a press conference.
Moldova will resume flights with the United Kingdom starting Friday while mandating all arrivals from that country to spend time in quarantine, the Moldovan government said.
Switzerland has added Denmark, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic to the list of countries and areas with an increased risk of infection as of January 15, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health.
The Swiss government said that the restrictions adopted to halt the spread of the coronavirus disease should remain in place after January 22 and proposed extending the shutdown of restaurants as well as cultural, sports and entertainment facilities until late February.
South Korea has extended its ban on flights to and from the United Kingdom until January 21 over concerns about the new strain of the virus, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
The Israeli government has approved the introduction of tougher quarantine measures for a period of two weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Ministry of Health said in a joint statement.
The Philippines temporarily suspend entries from India, Brazil, Portugal, Norway, Finland and Jordan over the new strain of the coronavirus, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque wrote on Facebook.
