MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2.067 million, over 96.5 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 20:20 GMT Wednesday, the number of cases globally is 96,563,635, including 2,067,143 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 24,331,161, including 403,952 fatalities.
Russia's upper chamber speaker, Valentina Matviyenko, assured that no coronavirus vaccination passports would be introduced in the country, and also stressed that those inoculated will have no extra rights.
The procedure for mass vaccination against the coronavirus will soon be perfected in Russia to ensure that there are no hiccups, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Russian Health Ministry has received a set of documents necessary for registering the country's third vaccine against the coronavirus, developed by the Chumakov research institute, health minister Mikhail Murashko said.
Russian vaccines against the coronavirus objectively have all the potential to compete on an equal basis globally, Russia's Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) confirmed that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) held a scientific consultation for developers of Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, with recommendations expected within up to 10 days.
Uzbekistan is contemplating the certification of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the near future, marking the first step towards establishing local production of the vaccine in the country, spokesperson for the Service of Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health told Sputnik.
Kyrgyzstan has requested from Russia 500,000 doses of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Kyrgyz Health Minister Alymkadyr Beishenaliev said on Wednesday in an interview with the national radio broadcaster Birinchi.
The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) will set out conditions for travel across the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) for passengers who were vaccinated against the coronavirus, an aide to the EEC chief said.
The Dominican Republic is reviewing the possibility of buying Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, Dominican Ambassador to Moscow Hans Dannenberg Castellanos told Sputnik.
The European Commission expects that coronavirus vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and German company CureVac will join the bloc's list of authorized vaccines soon, President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced his intention to get inoculated with the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine despite it not having the European Union's authorization at the moment.
Spanish group Insud Pharma said that it had reached an agreement with UK-Swedish company AstraZeneca on producing the latter's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Greece has started issuing digital vaccination certificates to all nationals who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, the Greek prime minister's press service said, adding that the pilot certificate was presented by Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday evening at the General Secretariat for Civil Protection.
India sent its first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccines to Bhutan and the Maldives, Anurag Srivastava, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said.
Japan has reached an agreement with the US Pfizer pharmaceutical company on the supply of 144 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the novel coronavirus within the year, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Chile has approved the use of China's Sinovac vaccine against the coronavirus, the country's health ministry said.
Facial nerve paralysis experienced after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine shot against COVID-19 is a rare complication, it does not last long, but causes of this side effect remain unclear, an Israeli doctor and the former head of the World Medical Organization, Prof. Leonid Eidelman, told Sputnik.
The world is facing a severe shortage of vaccines against the novel coronavirus, that aggravates serious inequalities among a number of countries in terms of access to the vaccines, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to Russia Melita Vujnovic said.
Russia registered 21,152 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 21,734 the day before, taking the tally to 3,633,952, the coronavirus response center said.
South Africa has registered more than 4,300 suspected cases of COVID-19 reinfection, a phenomenon seen as rare, the National Health Laboratory Service's executive manager told BNO News.
Germany will extend and strengthen the coronavirus-related restrictive measures until February 14, Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Germany will make medical face masks mandatory in stores and public transport, she said. The authorities expect that by the end of the summer the vaccine against COVID-19 will be available to all citizens of the country, Merkel saids.
Switzerland has listed 10 countries as epidemiologically risky, and introduced a 10-day quarantine for visitors from those countries, from February 1, Switzerland's Federal Public Health Office said.
The topic of the coronavirus epidemic in the United States has lost its "political component" after the elections, decisions will now be made more rationally, Alexis Rodzianko, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham), told Sputnik.
The German economy will stagnate in the first quarter of 2021 after the national lockdown was extended by mid-February, economists from the ifo research institute predicted.
The majority of French citizens aged between 15 and 30 years said the coronavirus-driven health crisis caused them significant damage, according to the Odoxa-Backbone consulting survey for France Bleu, Franceinfo, and Le Figaro news outlets.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the UK's medical regulator, should have the infrastructure in place to approve vaccines for future COVID-19 variants if required, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
The French government will continue to provide financial aid to the Air France airline battered by the coronavirus pandemic, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told the BFM business broadcaster.
