MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd February, 2021) The number of coronavirus cases globally passed 111.5 million on Monday, with almost 2.5 million dying from the virus.
The United States, India and Brazil have logged the highest overall numbers, followed by Russia, the United Kingdom and France, according to Johns Hopkins University.
With the US nearing 500,000 total deaths from the virus, top US infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci told CBS this was "a horrible landmark," even though the number of daily infections and hospitalizations was decreasing.
Russia's coronavirus tally passed the 4 million mark on Monday, with 12,604 new cases reported over the past 24-hour period. More than 11 percent of the new cases were symptomless.
Russia has passed the knowledge of how to make a COVID-19 vaccine to Belarus as part of their joint response to the pandemic. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said mass production would begin in March.
Syria has approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Syrian Ambassador in Moscow Riad Haddad told Sputnik that the vaccine will come to the country soon.
French pharma giant Sanofi has agreed to help US company Johnson & Johnson produce a COVID-19 vaccine. It has also announced the start of a second phase of trials to identify the right formulation of an enhanced vaccine it developed together with UK peer GSK.
The Philippines has approved the Chinese company Sinovac's vaccine for emergency use following tight scrutiny of its test results. It is the third vaccine to be granted approval in the Southeast Asian nation after Pfizer and AstraZeneca. A shipment of 600,000 doses is expected on Tuesday.
Ukraine will get the first batch of a COVID-19 vaccine "any day now," the deputy health minister said. Health chief Maksym Stepanov traveled to India on Sunday to oversee the transportation of 500,000 doses of CoviShield, the AstraZeneca variety developed and produced in India.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has meanwhile outlined a four-stage plan for easing England's lockdown, starting March 8. Legal limits on social contacts will be removed during the last state, which will happen no earlier than June 21.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also considering a cautious easing of the much-criticized lockdown in three areas, including personal contacts, studying and dining out. A plan will be drafted ahead of her March 3 video conference with state governors.
Pre-school and elementary school students in more than a half of German states have already returned to classrooms for the first time in two months. This was despite infections continuing to rise for the past four days.
The southern French department of Alpes-Maritimes has announced tougher lockdown measures after cases soared. Movement in the most populated coastal towns will be banned for two weekends in a row and residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for essential purposes.
More contagious virus strains are spreading rapidly across Germany, a cabinet spokesman admitted. Steffen Seibert estimated that up to 25 percent of new cases were caused by the British strain. The mutations are more prevalent in border areas, including with France.
France's National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) has banned the sale of an ionized water-based nasal spray to fight the coronavirus over the manufacturer's failure to clinically prove its effectiveness. The manufacturer of the drug, known as COV-Defense Spray or Biokami Spray, claimed to neutralize the Sars-CoV-2 virus with over 99% effectiveness, the regulator said.
