MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 2.978 million, over 138.6 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 20:15 GMT Thursday, the number of cases globally is 138,658,491, including 2,978,601 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 31,475,930, including 565,014 fatalities.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced that it had reached an agreement with South Korean biotech companies GL Rapha and ISU ABXIS on technology transfer and production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.
Serbia can arrange complete production cycle of Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V by the end of the year, Russian ambassador Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said in an interview with Sputnik.
The first batch of Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V will be delivered to India in April, while the on-site production of the vaccine will be launched in May, Indian Ambassador to Moscow Datla Bala Venkatesh said.
Venezuela has received a new shipment of the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, Delcy Rodriguez, the Venezuelan vice president, said.
Finland is all but set to begin negotiating supplies of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine with Russia, Finnish news agency STT reported citing Finnish Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services Krista Kiuru.
Russia's coronavirus vaccine for animals can become the first vaccine of this type approved in the European Union, since the bloc's drug regulator currently has no such vaccines under evaluation, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) told Sputnik, adding that evaluation can take up to 210 days.
Almost 18 percent of Germans have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Jens Spahn, the German health minister, said.
Italy has reported 11 cases of post-vaccination blood clots in people who received AstraZeneca shots, including four related deaths since the rollout of the mass immunization program in late December, a fresh report by the Italian Medicines Agency said.
Denmark can afford to stop administering the coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, as the authorities have managed to bring the epidemiological situation in the country under control, Catherine Smallwood, a senior emergency officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, said.
Norway decided not to resume, but also not to cease altogether, the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine despite the National Institute of Public Health recommending that the drug be abandoned due to side effects, Norwegian Health Minister Bent Hoeie said.
Cyprus will not use the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine until the investigation into blood clot events in the United States is completed, the health ministry said.
Reduced vaccine deliveries to Latin American and Caribbean nations in recent weeks underscore the need to rely on other mitigation measures amid a surge in coronavirus cases, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne warned.
The World Health Organization (WHO) experts said that there was currently no evidence suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccines adversely affected the fertility of both women and men.
The Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) received on Wednesday a permission for phase 2 clinical trials of the Mir-19 drug against the coronavirus, FMBA chief Veronika Skvortsova said.
Russia registered 8,944 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, up from 8,326 the day before, taking the overall tally to 4,675,153, the coronavirus response center said.
India has registered 200,739 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, the national ministry of health said.
Russia restricts air traffic with Turkey and Tanzania from April 15 to June 1. Russia also extended the suspension of flights with the United Kingdom until June 1, the federal coronavirus response center said.
The Italian government could adopt on Friday "a roadmap" concerning the lifting of restrictions against COVID-19 in case of favorable weekly data on the virus' spread, Italian media reported.
The New Delhi government has decided to introduce a curfew on weekends as India's capital city struggles to halt a flare-up in COVID-19 cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
Argentina is imposing a ban on the movement of citizens from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. in the metropolitan area due to a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases, President Alberto Fernandez said.
A group of Canadian politicians called for an end to lockdowns across the country, saying the societal and financial impacts of further prolonged shutdowns ostensibly to protect the population from the novel coronavirus would be too much to bear.
Secretary-General of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party Toshihiro Nikai said that Tokyo Summer Olympics might be canceled if the situation around COVID-19 worsened.
US retail sales jumped 9.8 percent in March, well above forecasts, as consumers began spending their $1,400 checks sent out by the Biden administration as relief for the coronavirus pandemic, Commerce Department data showed.
Horacio Larreta, the mayor of Buenos Aires, intends to file a lawsuit against the Argentine federal government due to its recent order to switch schools to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
