MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2021) The toll of coronavirus cases has topped 119.7 million globally,�according to the latest update from the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from Federal and local authorities, media and other sources.
This includes 2,651,442 coronavirus-related deaths and over 67.8 million recoveries worldwide.
Over the past day, nearly 492,000 new cases were confirmed globally, according to the World Health Organization.
The United States continues to be the country with the highest single toll of confirmed cases and deaths, 29.4 million and 534,673, respectively.
Brazil has the second-highest toll of cases, 11.4 million, followed by India with 11.3 million cases. Brazil also has the second-highest death toll, 277,102, followed by Mexico with 194,490 deaths.
Russia comes the fourth in terms of cases, but with the case count almost thrice as small as India's. The Russian authorities reported 10,083 new cases and 395 deaths over the past 24 hours, which took the country's cumulative toll to 4.39 million cases, including 92,090 deaths.
The Czech Republic will have its supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine reduced by 40 percent in the coming weeks, the Czech Health Ministry said.
Ireland temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a "precautionary step" amid reports from Norway where three vaccinated medical workers were hospitalized with blood clots earlier this week.
AstraZeneca responded by saying that it had reviewed available safety data of 17 million people inoculated in the United Kingdom and the European Union and found no evidence that its vaccine causes an increased risk of blood clotting.
The European Union can meet its vaccination campaign targets even despite the delays in the supply of AstraZeneca's vaccine, because Pfizer is producing "more than expected" to compensate for the shortfalls, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said.
German biotechnology firm BioNTech has set up an alliance of 13 firms in a bid to speed up the production of the vaccine it has developed jointly with US company Pfizer to compensate for the shortages of doses, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Bahrain is interested in the production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in its territory, the country's ambassador in Moscow, Ahmed Abdulrahman Al Saati, told Sputnik.
Hong Kong's Health Department has reported two fatalities among vaccinated people of age.
Japan plans to limit the number of members of foreign official delegations to 11 accompanying people for each head of state and to four people for ministerial delegations.
In The Hague, some 200 people attended a new anti-government protest in defiance of COVID-19 restrictions, prompting the police to use water cannons.
German police said that 12 officers had been injured during the Saturday protest against the restrictions in Dresden, and four protesters were detained.
French Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne has contracted the coronavirus and will continue working remotely.
Tesla's production facility in California's Bay Area had some 450 of its 10,000 employees infected with the coronavirus last year after pressuring the authorities to let the plant run despite COVID-19 restrictions, The Washington Post reported, citing the PlainSite transparency website.
