MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 3.903 million, over 180.1 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 20:30 GMT Friday, the number of cases globally is 180,176,351, including 3,903,639 fatalities.
The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 33,598,304, including 603,454 fatalities.
Only 0.5 percent of those who received both shots of a coronavirus vaccine in Russia were confirmed to contract the disease, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said. The number of Russians inoculated with the first component of a coronavirus vaccine topped 21 million, he said.
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus was approved for pregnant women, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi did not rule out that Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V might never be approved by the European Medicines Agency.
The Afghan authorities have received no response to their request for the supply of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to the country, Afghan Ambassador to Moscow Said Tayeb Jawad told Sputnik.
Kyrgyzstan has approved the use of Sputnik Light, Russia's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said.
More than 2,000 protesters marched to the office of South African drug regulator SAHPRA in Pretoria on Friday to demand that it approve Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm vaccines against the coronavirus.
The Danish Health Authority is keeping its recommendation to refrain from vaccinating the population against coronavirus with drugs produced by AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson, after updated studies of the vaccines.
Oman granted emergency use authorization to Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinovac vaccines, bringing the number of approved COVID-19 shots up to four, the disease surveillance chief said.
Japan will send a total of 17 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to several Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and others, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said.
Australian scientists have started the first phase of clinical trials of a new gene-based coronavirus vaccine, which is administered using a device without a needle, the University of Sydney announced.
Canadian public health officials are in touch with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as other international health regulators regarding the cases of heart inflammation following immunization with coronavirus vaccines, the country's chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said.
Russia registered 20,393 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 20,182 the day before, taking the cumulative total to 5,409,088, the federal response center said.
The delta coronavirus variant is spreading rapidly through the European Union, but two shots of a coronavirus vaccine protect very effectively against it, while a single shot can at least reduce risks of a severe illness, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the European Union to do everything to avoid the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic amid the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India.
India has confirmed 51,667 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 30,134,445, the country's ministry of health and family welfare said.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 73,602 to 18,243,483 within the past 24 hours, the national ministry of health said.
Japan may achieve herd immunity to COVID-19 by mid-October as the vaccination campaign in the country has recently sped up, the Kyodo news agency reported on Friday, citing research by Nomura Securities Co.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the transmissibility of the Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India and now present in 85 countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The discovery of the so-called Delta Plus coronavirus variant, a new strain of the Delta variant first identified in India, demonstrates how quickly the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can mutate and raises fears that vaccine-resistant strains of the disease could emerge in the near future, experts told Sputnik.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued an urgent call to give Africa greater access to coronavirus vaccines, describing the situation in many countries of the region as "worrisome."
The Italian government is mulling extending a ban on dismissals past June but only in sectors considered particularly fragile, media said.
Israel has reinstated mandatory mask-wearing indoors in a bid to halt a flare-up in Covid19 cases driven by the more infectious Delta variant of virus, the country's health ministry said.
The Japanese government is ready to impose another state of emergency across the country if there is no let up in the spread of the coronavirus infections, media reported, citing Health Minister Tamura Norihisa.
The World Health Organization is seeing the world make the same mistake of inequitable distribution of treatment in its response to COVID-19 that was seen during the HIV crisis of the 1980s, Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
First cases of COVID-19 may have appeared as early as in the beginning of October 2019 in China, a new study by the University of Kent suggests.
Between 51 percent and 69 percent of people in six European countries, the US, and Australia say the World Health Organization is transparent in reporting on the origins of COVID-19, a poll published by Morning Consult on Friday showed.
