MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th December, 2021) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 5.404 million, over 280.7 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 Monday, the number of cases globally is 280,738,431, including 5,404,167 fatalities. As many as 8.96 billion of vaccine doses have been administered to date.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed by phone with World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the registration of Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V by the WHO and the need for all countries to recognize documents on vaccination against COVID-19 on a reciprocal basis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
About 1,200 COVID-19 patients in the Russian capital, including children, have received an antibody-based drug for the treatment of the infection and it has demonstrated very high effectiveness, Moscow Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova told Sputnik.
More than 78% of adults in the European Union have been vaccinated against COVID-19 since the vaccination campaign started in the bloc, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Italy will begin using the new COVID-19 vaccine produced by the US company Novavax in January-February 2022, Italy's COVID-19 Emergency Commissioner Francesco Figliuolo announced.
Swiss drug regulator Swissmedic said that it had approved the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot for people over 18.
In the Netherlands, people who are afraid of injections, but still want to get vaccinated, are offered to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in virtual reality glasses, Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge said.
The US government should seriously consider mandating compulsory vaccination against the coronavirus for all domestic airline passengers, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
The US Agency for International Development's (USAID) funding, which is expected to cover the Biden administration's efforts to support the global COVID-19 vaccination campaign, is drying up, Politico reported, citing agency officials.
Sheba Medical Center, Israel's largest, has recently seen 150 of its employees becoming the first in the world to receive a fourth dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine as part of a study on the effectiveness of a second booster, Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, the head of Infection Prevention and Control Units at Sheba Medical Center, said.
South Korea's Ministry of food and Drug Safety approved Pfizer's oral antiviral pill, the first one to treat COVID-19 in the country, after a panel of experts reviewed its safety and efficiency, national media said.
Russia has confirmed 23,210 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total to 10,415,230, the federal response center said. The response center reported 937 deaths linked to the coronavirus, bringing the country's cumulative coronavirus death toll to 305,155.
Walter Ricciardi, a scientific adviser to the Italian health minister, predicts that Italy will witness a surge in COVID-19 cases in January and begin a fourth round of vaccination against coronavirus in May.
White House pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci advised the US public not to hold New Year's Eve parties in order to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus Omicron variant.
Essential workers in New York who have been in contact with COVID-infected people can return to work without testing for the virus themselves as long as they spend five days in isolation and have no symptoms to show, health commissioner Mary Bassett said.
More than 2,500 flights were canceled and more than 7,500 were delayed globally on Monday following the coronavirus Omicron variant spreading� over the weekend, according to tracking website Flightradar24.
An overwhelming majority of Austrians, or 90% of population, believe there is a social divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated against the coronavirus disease, according to a poll conducted by the Linz Market Institute for Austrian newspaper Der Standard.
The European Commission paid out first 10 billion Euros ($11.3 billion) to Spain from the EU-wide fund created to support member states during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic will be solved at a state rather than a federal level, US President Joe Biden told a group of bipartisan governors.
The White House is mobilizing military and federal medical personnel in order to mitigate the risk facing some hospitals of possibly getting overrun with coronavirus infections in unvaccinated individuals, President Joe Biden said during a call with the National Governors Association.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged Beijing to release the first Chinese COVID-19 journalist Zhang Zhan, who has been on a partial strike protesting her four-year sentence - "for provoking trouble" - from a year ago.
