Coronavirus: Latest Global Developments

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jan, 2021 ) :Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: - Brazil approves two vaccines - Brazil's Anvisa health regulator gives emergency approval for its first two coronavirus vaccines as the country gears up for a mass inoculation campaign while facing a devastating second wave of the virus.

It authorises AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covishield shot and China's CoronaVac for use in a nation where the Covid-19 death toll now exceeds 209,000.

- India campaign off to fast start - India has given more than 224,000 people their first jabs, with just three people hospitalised for side effects, the health ministry says.

Authorities have given emergency-use approval for two jabs -- Covishield, a version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and the Indian-made Covaxin, which has yet to complete its Phase 3 trials.

- Spain administering 2nd dose - Spain has already started giving a second dose to people on the priority list who received their first shot in December.

- Austria extends lockdown - Austria, currently in its third national lockdown, says the current curbs will be extended by another two weeks until February 8 in face of a rise in infections and the spread of virus variants believed to be much more contagious.

- Deadly outbreak at Belgian care home - Three residents die at a Belgian retirement home and 111 people including 39 staff members are confirmed as infected with the UK variant of the virus.

The cluster represents two-thirds of the home's residents.

- Israel to vaccinate Palestinian prisoners - The Israel Prison Service says it has begun vaccinating all incarcerated people against Covid-19, including Palestinians, following calls from rights groups, Palestinian officials and Israel's attorney general.

Israel has given at least one vaccine dose to more than two million of its citizens, a pace widely described as the world's fastest per capita.

- More Australia Open players quarantined - Another 25 players will have to spend two weeks in quarantine before the Australian Open, after a fellow passenger on a flight from Doha tests positive.

They will join 47 players already confined to their hotel rooms for 14 days in Melbourne.

- More than 2 million dead -More than 2,024,656 have died from the virus across the world, with nearly 95 million cases recorded, according to an AFP tally based on official sources at 1930 GMT Sunday.