MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2.183 million, over 101.2 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 Thursday, the number of cases globally is 101,211,750, including 2,183,169 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 25,680,413, including 431,129 fatalities.
Trials of Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus showed no side effects, a senior researcher at the gene engineering center of the Gamaleya Center, Darya Egorova, said.
Vaccination passports are a bad idea, as it makes people wrongfully think that COVID-19 immunization is mandatory, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Algerian counterpart, Sabri Boukadoum, discussed over the phone the delivery of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said he had had a "very productive" discussion on Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus with the country's ambassador in Copenhagen, where the WHO Europe office is located.
The European Union member states have adopted guidelines on coronavirus vaccination certificates for medical purposes, the European Commission said.
The ongoing rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 is a "stress test" for international solidarity, WHO European director Hans Kluge said amid a fierce dispute between AstraZeneca and the European Union over planned delivery cuts.
German bioengineering firm BioNTech has received the green light to produce its anti-coronavirus vaccine at a site in Marburg, its spokeswoman told Sputnik.
UK-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca is in talks with the European Union about which parts of their vaccine delivery contract should be made public, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing EU sources.
Pharmaceutical firm Valneva has begun manufacturing its candidate vaccine against COVID-19 at a site in Scotland, the UK government said.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected conclusions of German experts that a vaccine against COVID-19 produced by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford should not be given to people aged 65 or above.
Turkey has delivered a second shipment of 20,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the region's health minister, Ali Pilli, told the Anadolu news agency.
The Lebanese National Vaccination Registration platform was launched in Beirut during a press-conference co-held by the country's caretaker Minister of Public Health Hamad Hasan and caretaker Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised that more vaccines against the novel coronavirus produced in his country would soon be made available in order to help the world fight the pandemic.
India has delivered to neighboring countries more than 5.5 million doses of domestically-manufactured vaccines against the novel coronavirus free of charge since January 20, external affairs ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.
Belarus expects the delivery of a free batch of coronavirus vaccines from China, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said.
South African Finance Ministry spokeswoman told Sputnik the potential $1.3 billion national campaign to vaccinate citizens against the coronavirus, voiced by the National Treasury chief, was just an estimate and the exact costs have not been determined yet.
Russia has developed a new test that can distinguish the "regular" coronavirus from a virus with new mutations, Anna Popova, the head of the national consumer health watchdog, said.
The Syrian government is determined to scale up COVID-19 testing and detection by reinforcing the responsible teams of medical workers, Assistant Health Minister Ahmad Khalifawi said.
Scientists in Cambodia have found coronavirus strains whose nucleotide identity is 92.6 percent similar to SARS-CoV-2 in samples of horseshoe bats collected back in 2010, according to a preprint of a study on the BioRxiv medical research portal.
Russia registered 19,138 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, up from 17,741 the day before, taking the tally to 3,793,810, the coronavirus response center said.
Up to 25 percent of Russians have antibodies specific to the coronavirus, Russian public health chief Anna Popova said.
The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus infection in Poland is declining, the country's health ministry said.
The capital of Mexico has registered 464 COVID-19 deaths over the past day, the second consecutive anti-record in a row, Mexico City Major Claudia Sheinbaum said.
Russia resumes flights with Greece and Singapore from February 8, the frequency of such flights has also been determined, the federal coronavirus response center told reporters.
An end to mandatory face mask wearing in Russia could come as early as this year as greater numbers of residents are inoculated against COVID-19, Anna Popova, the head of public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said.
The European Union has reviewed its list of the countries, whose citizens can travel to the bloc amid the pandemic, and removed Japan, leaving only seven states, the Council of the EU said.
European nations should ensure that they ease their coronavirus-related lockdowns cautiously and with restraint, the head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe office, Hans Kluge, said.
The Brussels police appealed to Belgian citizens to refrain from participating in unauthorized rallies expected to take place in the city on Sunday amid a surge in coronavirus infections.
Norway is imposing tougher measures to contain the spread of the mutated coronavirus and is actually closing borders to non-residents with a few exceptions, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced that coronavirus rules would be relaxed starting February 1, after the Central European nation saw infection and mortality rates drop.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to prolong the closure of the borders for two more weeks over fears of new coronavirus variants.
Qatar will keep in force an entry ban for tourists from any country, including Russia, at least until mid-February, Qatar's National Tourism Council told Sputnik.
Bahrain and Oman have decided to tighten restrictive measures again to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the countries' news agencies reported, citing health ministries' decisions.
Thai police have issued one-month suspended jail sentences and fines of 10,000 Baht ($133) to more than 100 revelers who attended a party on the island of Ko Pha Ngan earlier this week in violation of the country's COVID-19 rules, the UK's Sky News broadcaster reports, noting that six Britons were among those fined.
The Philippine food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the emergency use of the vaccine against the coronavirus developed by AstraZeneca, media reported.
Colombia has suspended air traffic with Brazil for a month over the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus there, Colombian President Ivan Duque said.
The Restaurants Association of South Africa told Sputnik it hoped President Cyril Ramaphosa would heed its calls and save the industry by lifting the coronavirus-related restrictions, as catering facilities have already suffered extreme losses.
The US economy shrank 3.5 percent in 2020, its sharpest contraction on record since 1946, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to take its toll on the country, the Commerce Department said.
The United Kingdom's world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show has been pushed back from May to September for the first time in the event's 108-year history due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) said.
The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee does not rule out the possibility of holding the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 without spectators amid fears of the spread of the coronavirus, Japanese media reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the country's coronavirus measures corresponded to the level of threat.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for closing the $27 billion gap for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.
Jordanian King Abdullah II called for international support in taking care of the well-being and health of refugees in the challenging times of the coronavirus pandemic.
A fresh study by the Australia-based Lowy Institute found that New Zealand's handling of the coronavirus pandemic was the most effective in the world, while Brazil was ranked as the worst out of nearly 100 countries at responding to the outbreak.
The team of experts dispatched by the World Health Organization to China began their mission to investigate the origins of COVID-19 on Thursday, after they were allowed to leave the hotel in which they had been quarantined for 14 days upon their arrival.
There is no need to cover the coffins of people who died of COVID-19 in plastic wraps or mark them with biohazard stickers prior to burial, the South African Department of Health said.
