MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 4.48 million, over 215 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 20:25 GMT Friday, the number of cases globally is 215,085,787, including 4,480,877 fatalities. As many as 5.13 billion of vaccine doses have been administered to date.
More than 44 million people in Russia received the first shot of a coronavirus vaccine, more than 37 million Russians are fully vaccinated, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova told reporters.
Half of all the teenagers in the United States have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said.
Australia has approved vaccination of minors aged 12 to 15 against the coronavirus with the Pfizer shot starting September 13, the prime minister's office said.
The Philippine government has secured 195 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that will enable it immunize 100.5 million Filipinos, or roughly 90% of the population before the first quarter of the next year, the government's official PNA news agency reported.
Uzbek scientists are conducting trials of an edible, transgenic, tomato-based vaccine against COVID-19, and they have already yielded definite results, a representative of the national academy of sciences told Sputnik.
International organizations have called on COVID-19 vaccine producing and stocking nations to share their surplus shots with lower-income countries, as alarming inequity undermines pandemic response.
Russia registered 19,509 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 19,630 the day before, taking the overall tally to 6,844,049, the federal response center said.
The number of COVID-19-related deaths in the United States rose to an average of 864 per day in the most recent seven day period, an increase of almost 11 percent on the previous period, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 31,024 to 20,676,561 within the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
India has confirmed 44,658 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 32,603,188, the country's ministry of health and family welfare said.
The number of COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms in Japan has reached 2,000 for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing the health ministry.
More than 350 million COVID-19 Digital Certificates have been issued in the European Union, meaning that 78.4% of the bloc's total population have the passes, the European Commission said.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announcedeasing coronavirus-related lockdown measures across the country, except for the largest city of Auckland and the Northland region.
Lebanon may not be able to enforce lockdown measures if it becomes necessary to rein in a new coronavirus wave, as the country still struggles to weather economic crisis, Mohammad Makkawi, the governor of the central Mount Lebanon province, told Sputnik.
About two-thirds of disabled Americans reported symptoms of mental illness or abused drugs in early 2021 - conditions fueled by poor access to non-COVID-19-related health care during the novel coronavirus pandemic, a report by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said.
The majority of adults in the United States say the economy is moving in the wrong direction, while about a third say the economy is getting better, a new Gallup poll revealed.
The United States will continue working with international partners to press China to cooperate with investigations into the origins of the novel coronavirus, President Joe Biden said.
One US intelligence agency assess the first novel coronavirus infection may have as a result of a leak at the Wuhan virology lab, but four other agencies believe the disease may have emerged through natural exposure to an infected animal, the US Intelligence Community (IC) said in a declassified report about its probe into the origins of COVID-19.
The cooperation of China will be needed to reach a conclusive assessment on the origins of the novel coronavirus, the IC said. Chinese authorities did not know about COVID-19 before the outbreak, it said.
