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Friday, November 27, 2020, 23:03
Russia may start virus vaccine supplies to Hungary next month
By Agencies
Friday, November 27, 2020, 23:03 By Agencies


This handout image realeazed by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry on Nov 19, 2020, shows gloved hands of Hungarian officials unpacking the first load of a Russian-made coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine, arrived in their laboratory, in Budapest. (MATYAS BORSOS / AFP / HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY KKM)

BERLIN / STOCKHOLM / LONDON / MOSCOW - Russia hopes to start supplying vaccines next month to Hungary, the first European country that received samples and documents of the Russian treatment. Russia also invited Hungarian doctors to observe testing and production in its local laboratories, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said after meeting Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Budapest.

Talks between the two countries include technology transfer to potentially produce the vaccine in Hungary.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday that the country plans to provide COVID-19 vaccines to more than 400,000 servicemen in the military.

Developers of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine said on Thursday that AstraZeneca should try combining its experimental shot with the Russian one to boost efficacy.

Russia said its Sputnik V vaccine is 92 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to interim trial results, while AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine was 70 effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90 percent effective.

“If they go for a new clinical trial, we suggest trying a regimen of combining the AZ shot with the #SputnikV human adenoviral vector shot to boost efficacy,” the developers of the Russian vaccine said on their Twitter account.

“Combining vaccines may prove important for revaccinations.”

AstraZeneca has said it will have as many as 200 million doses of its vaccine by the end of 2020.

With 2,187,990 infections, Russia has the fourth-largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.

Hungary 

The country’s cabinet will decide on Dec 11 whether coronavirus curbs can be eased around Christmas, Premier Viktor Orban said on Friday on radio.

While the proportion of hospitalized patients to overall infections has declined, altogether more people will need treatment as the virus is spreading and their number will reach 10,000 soon, he said. The country had 135 deaths and its 6,393 new daily cases were near a record high.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria surpassed the Czech Republic and Belgium to become the EU country with the highest number of deaths per 100,000 people over the past 14 days, according to data by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

The Balkan country’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who recovered from the virus two weeks ago, had repeatedly rejected a lockdown until this week. The government ordered a three-week partial closing starting Friday night - schools, restaurants, gyms and shopping centers will be closed, while private events are limited to 15 people.

UK

More than 20 million people across large swathes of England will be forced to live under the toughest category of COVID-19 restrictions when a national lockdown ends on Dec 2, while London was placed in the “high alert” second-toughest tier.

Health minister Matt Hancock on Thursday announced final details of a regional system set to take effect when blanket restrictions on England’s 55 million population end after a month-long lockdown - dictating the terms of daily life for the country’s citizens and businesses.

Britain has Europe’s highest official death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic and has been hit hard by a second wave. The government’s response on lockdown rules, procurement and testing has been criticised as disjointed, expensive and slow.

London will be in tier 2; it was also in tier 2 before the national lockdown was imposed, although a tighter set of rules for each tier was announced earlier this week.

For London, this means no mixing of households indoors and a maximum of six people permitted to meet outdoors, hospitality venues can only offer alcohol alongside a substantial meal, and attendance will be tightly limited at sporting events.

Another 17,555 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,574,562, according to official figures released Thursday.

The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 498 to 57,031, the data showed.

Britain on Friday asked its medicine regulator to assess Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate for temporary supply, a step towards beginning a roll-out before the end of the year.

AstraZeneca expects 4 million doses to be available in Britain by the end of next month, and health minister Hancock is targeting the roll-out to begin before Christmas.

Ireland

Ireland, the first western European country to reimpose a lockdown, is set to sign off on an easing of coronavirus curbs on Friday.

Prime Minister Micheal Martin will lay out a plan, which is likely to include reopening most stores, gyms and cinemas in coming days, after his cabinet finalizes the details. Bars serving food are likely to reopen, but so-called “wet pubs,” which serve only drinks, may remain closed. The government is also expected to relax a 5 kilometers curb on movement from home.

In contrast, across the border, Northern Ireland is moving to introduce new curbs, including the closure of non-essential stores.

Germany

The total number of coronavirus cases in Germany topped 1 million for the first time Thursday, one day after the government extended a partial shutdown until just before Christmas.

Europe’s biggest economy passed the grim milestone around 10 months after the country reported its first infections. Cases have tripled since the start of October, causing the number of patients in intensive care to climb to record levels.

Berlin is racing to open six mass vaccination centres capable of handling up to 4,000 people per day by mid-December, the project coordinator told Reuters on Thursday, as the city waits for authorities to approve the first vaccines.

An empty trade fair hall, two airport terminals, a concert arena, a velodrome and an ice rink will be turned into six vaccination centres where it plans to administer up to 900,000 shots against the coronavirus in the first three months.

Albrecht Broemme said plans envisage 3,000 to 4,000 people per day being ferried through each centre in the same way as shoppers are guided through IKEA stores in one direction.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 22,806 to 1,006,394, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.

The reported death toll rose by 426 to 15,586, the tally showed.

Cyprus

Cyprus imposed a national nighttime curfew from 9 pm to 5 am. The measure, along with other restrictions, will apply Dec 1-14. If the situation doesn’t improve, then the government will need to take further protective measures, Health Minister Konstantinos Ioannou said in a televised statement.

US

Nearly 90,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals across the United States as of Thursday, the Thanksgiving day, reaching a new all-time high for the 16th consecutive day, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Wednesday's death toll climbed to 2,284 cases, the highest since May 7, also the 7th highest daily death total to data.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next 4 weeks, with 10,600 to 21,400 new deaths likely to be reported in the week ending Dec. 19.

CDC's national ensemble predicted that a total of 294,000 to 321,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by Dec. 19.

The third wave of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities has continued, as cases increased at twice the rate of the nation's total cases, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Numbers in New York show no sign of letting up. Hospitalizations in the state topped 3,000 to their highest level since June 1, while new infections hit 6,933, the highest tally for seven months.

ALSO READ: AstraZeneca faces more vaccine questions after dosing error

Sweden

The second wave of COVID-19 infections that has hit Sweden could peak in mid-December, health officials said on Thursday, stressing developments will depend on how well the public follows social distancing advice.

New infections have hit record levels in recent weeks after a lull in the summer, throwing the country’s light-touch approach to fighting the pandemic into renewed focus.

In total, 6,622 people with COVID-19 have died in Sweden, a per capita total vastly higher than neighbours Norway, Denmark and Finland, which opted for stricter lockdowns during the spring, but lower than a handful of larger European nations.

Austria

Austria will share the vaccine doses it gets under the European Union’s joint procurement with the nearby countries of the Western Balkan, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said. The country is entitled to 2 percent of the EU’s vaccine order, which is probably more than needed domestically.

The country’s Austria’s 7-day incidence of new cases fell for a 14th day, bringing the reproduction number down to 0.87, the lowest level since June. The country still recorded 400 new cases per 100,000 in the last 7 days, significantly more than neighboring Germany.

Canada

Canada could approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine “around December,” about the same time as the United States and the European Union, a senior official at Canada’s drug regulator said on Thursday.

Health Canada had said previously that an approval would likely come early in the first quarter, under a new accelerated review process very similar to that in place in the United States.

Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine is most advanced in Health Canada’s reviews, Supriya Sharma, senior medical adviser at Health Canada, said at a media briefing in Ottawa.

Asked whether any Canadians could receive a shot before the end of the year, Sharma said several things are happening at the same time - regulatory reviews, manufacturing, distribution - which makes it difficult to pinpoint dates.

France

France’s hospitalizations and virus patients in intensive care continued to fall from their Nov. 16 peak on Thursday, with the number of severely ill patients in ICU at the lowest in more than three weeks, dropping 130 to 4,018. Health authorities reported 13,563 new confirmed cases, with the seven-day average falling to 13,910, the lowest since early October.

France is on track for new infections to drop to an average of 5,000 a day in the second week of December, the target set by the government as one of the conditions for lifting lockdown measures, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

French PM Jean Castex said it will be possible to travel abroad from Dec. 15, when the government plans to lift its latest lockdown. Travelers must check the health situation in the destination country ahead of travel, Castex said on Thursday. Ski resorts will be open over holiday period but ski lifts will remain closed.

Brazil

The Brazilian Ministry of Health on Thursday reported 37,614 new COVID-19 cases with 691 more deaths, raising the national count to 6,204,220 with 171,460 deaths.

Brazil has the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third largest caseload, next to the United States and India.

After seeing a decline in daily deaths and cases since September, the Latin American country has witnessed a rise in both categories in November, accompanied by an increase in hospital occupancy in large cities.

Morocco

Morocco registered 4,178 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the tally of infections in the North African country since March 2 to 340,684, the health ministry said in a statement.

The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 289,808 after 5,312 new ones were added.

Ukraine

The World Bank, together with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, is working on a project that will allow the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and equipment for medical institutions, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Thursday.

Deputy Health Minister Svitlana Shatalova said the international organization would provide around US$100 million for this project.

Chile

Chile on Thursday reported 97 daily deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the highest number of fatalities in a single day since Sept. 24, raising the total death toll to 15,235.

In the same 24 hours, tests detected 1,564 new cases of infection, pushing the accumulated caseload to 545,662, the Ministry of Health said.

According to the ministry, of that total, 521,247 patients have recovered from the disease, while 8,872 cases are considered to be still active, including 694 people who have been hospitalized in intensive care units.

Lithuania

COVID-19 infections have been detected at a mink farm in central Lithuania, the country's State Food and Veterinary Service (VMVT) said on Thursday.

At a mink farm in the Jonava district, 169 minks suddenly died and were subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, the VMVT said in a release.

Darius Remeika, director of the service, said that one farm employee was also diagnosed with COVID-19 and all those who had been in contact with him were now in self-isolation.

The virus "could have been transmitted to the minks by a farm worker," said Remeika, urging all mink farms in the country to adhere strictly to all biosecurity requirements.

Currently, the farm is home to around 60,000 minks. Around 40 infected animals will now be culled.

READ MORE: Russia virus deaths hit new record as disease ravages regions

Italy

The number of patients in Italy’s intensive-care units fell to 3,846, the first decline in seven weeks, and new infections dropped 20 percent from a week ago, adding to signs that the virus is spreading more slowly in the country.

The coronavirus mortality rate in Italy continued to climb while the rate of new infections inched lower, though health experts warned against relaxing restrictions.

There were 29,003 new infections in Italy recorded Thursday, an increase from 25,851 a day earlier, but the daily figure stayed below 33,000 for the 10th time in 13 days since the infection rate topped 40,000 on Nov 13.

The GIMBE Foundation, a health sector observatory group, reported Thursday that for the first time since the start of the second coronavirus wave in September, the weekly number of infections declined, totaling 216,950 for the week ending Nov. 24, a decline from the previous weekly total.

Slovenia

Slovenia on Thursday reported 1,767 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national tally of confirmed cases to 70,911, according to official figures.

The country conducted 7,391 coronavirus tests on Wednesday, with 23.9 percent returning positive. A total of 1,302 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 215 in intensive care units, 13 more than the day before. With 46 new deaths, the country's total death toll from the coronavirus-caused disease has risen to 1,245.

According to the official COVID-19 tracker site, there are currently 20,174 active cases in the country. The average 14-day incidence rate is now 963 per 100,000 population.

Uganda

Uganda on Thursday registered 225 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the east African country to 19,115, said the Ministry of Health.

The ministry in a statement said that the 225 new infections were confirmed out of the 2,173 contacts and alert samples tested over the past 24 hours for the novel coronavirus.

A total of eight patients recovered from the virus over the past day, bringing the number of recoveries to 8,840.

Spain 

Spain has seen its infection and fatality growth rate declining amid the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic, posting 12,289 new cases and 337 deaths on Thursday.

The 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 of population, a recognized gauge of the pandemic's spread, also fell Thursday, to 325, down from the peak of this wave of resurge on Nov. 9, when the figure was 529.

The government said while the trend is encouraging, it wants to keep the restrictions in place so the target rate of 25 cases per 100,000 of the population could be reached earlier.

Spain has to date tallied 1,605,066 COVID-19 cases, with 44,037 deaths. 

Georgia 

Georgia registered a record high of 4,780 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the national tally to 123,470, according to the country's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).

Out of the new cases, 1,863 were confirmed in the capital city of Tbilisi, said the NCDC.

As of Friday, 102,270 patients across the country have recovered from the disease, while 1,161 others have died, it added.


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