Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 5.162 million, over 258.4 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 20:00 GMT Tuesday, the number of cases globally is 258,495,568, including 5,162,939 fatalities. As many as 7.44 billion of vaccine doses have been administered to date.

San Marino and Laos approved the use of Sputnik Light as a COVID-19 vaccine and as a booster dose, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said.

Russia has always spoken in favor of suspending intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Minister-President of Germany's Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, said that mandatory coronavirus vaccination would be the last resort in the fight against the pandemic in the country, but still a possible option.

Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder demanded that anti-coronavirus shots become mandatory nationwide as Germany struggles to curb the fourth and worst infection wave.

The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) approved booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech for those aged 16 and over.

Switzerland has signed a contract to purchase more than 8,000 doses of the coronavirus drug molnupiravir developed by US companies Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the country's Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) said.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced the beginning of marketing authorization review for the Lagevrio antiviral medicine for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The US government has now achieved a 95% compliance rate of vaccination against COVID-19 among the 3.5 million federal employees, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said.

Russia confirmed 33,996 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total to 9,400,835, the federal response center said. The response center reported 1,243 deaths linked to the coronavirus, bringing the country's death toll to 266,579.

The new spike in COVID-19 cases in Europe is caused mainly by those unwilling to get vaccinated, as well as the higher contagiousness of the Delta variant and the gradual reduction of vaccine protection, Jean-Luc Gala, professor of immunology at Belgium's UCLouvain university, told Sputnik.

The Catalan government decided to require COVID-19 certificates or health passes to enter bars, restaurants and gyms in Spain's autonomous community.

The high court of Spain's autonomous Basque Country ruled that it was illegal to require COVID passports for entering nightclubs and other late night venues in the region.

The Dutch police have arrested 173 participants of last week's protests against COVID-19 restrictions, acting Dutch Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus said.

Every working citizen of Latvia in contact with other people will have to take a COVID-19 express-test twice a week, the Latvian government announced.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put Germany and Denmark on the list of countries with the highest COVID-19-related threat and recommended avoiding travel to these two destinations.

Many Germans are preparing for a toned-down Christmas as the fourth wave of the pandemic is sweeping the country, according to a poll by the federal statistics agency Destatis.

The UK government advised people to take a rapid lateral flow test before going to crowded and enclosed spaces or visiting people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.