An illustration picture shows vials with COVID-19 Vaccine stickers attached and syringes with the logo of British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Nov 17, 2020. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

HARARE / GENEVA / BERLIN / SAO PAULO / KIEV / SANTIAGO / PARIS / BRUSSELS / ROME / LONDON / MAPUTO / CAIRO / JOHANNESBURG / ALGIERS / LA PAZ / ADDIS ABABA / MEXICO CITY / TUNIS / OTTAWA / MOSCOW / SOFIA / PRAGUE -AstraZeneca will deliver 180 million COVID-19 vaccines to Europe in the second quarter, including 20 million to Italy, the head of its Italian unit was quoted as saying on Thursday, but EU officials remained wary about supply.

Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing an EU official directly involved in talks with the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker, that AstraZeneca expected to deliver less than half the COVID-19 vaccines it was contracted to supply the European Union in the second quarter.

Lorenzo Wittum, CEO and chairman of AstraZeneca in Italy, told daily Il Corriere della Sera that Italy would receive more than 5 million shots by the end of March, fewer than the 8 million previously agreed, leading to a total of 25 million doses by June.

The Italian health ministry on February 12 revised its vaccination plan, lowering its expected doses from AstraZeneca in the second quarter to about 10 million from 18 million seen in a provisional plan in January.

In a statement on Tuesday the company said it aimed to deliver 180 million doses to the EU in the second quarter, half from factories outside Europe.

Pfizer 

Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE have begun a clinical study to see if a third shot of their existing Covid-19 vaccine can stimulate stronger immune responses against new variants.

The clinical trial will examine safety and immune responses of a third dose of the vaccine in as many as 144 people who participated in the companies’ Phase 1 study. The dose is being given six to 12 months after the initial two-dose regimen, and researchers will test blood from the participants to see if it enhances levels of antibodies produced against new strains from South Africa and elsewhere.

In addition, the companies plan to begin a human study of a new vaccine that is specific to the newly circulating variant that emerged in South Africa, the companies said in a release. That trial could begin in about a month, depending on negotiations with regulators, said Philip Dormitzer, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer for viral vaccines.

Researchers around the world are monitoring whether new strains emerging from South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere could reduce the real-world efficacy of vaccines. While Pfizer says the existing vaccine is potent enough to be effective against the new strains, in the lab it produces lower levels of neutralizing antibodies against the South Africa strain -- the one scientists are most worried about so far.

Vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc, which were tested in human trials in South Africa at a time when the new strain was present, showed somewhat lower efficacy against it.

Czech Republic

Politics is complicating the response to one of the deadliest virus outbreaks in Europe as the Czech Republic’s government struggles to muster support to tighten social distancing rules.

With Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s administration lacking a parliamentary majority, the opposition has leverage over his ability to stem the pandemic. Now those parties are tapping into voter frustration with demands that they be included in the debate over new measures and get access to information as they ratchet up pressure on his ruling ANO party before October elections.

With new cases per capita growing seven times faster than in neighboring Germany, Babis warned the European Union member was facing “hellish days” and a “catastrophe in hospitals” on Wednesday.

But a late-night emergency cabinet meeting ended with no decisions, and officials said the government must first seek support from opposition leaders to support extending a state of emergency until the end of next month so it can continue and possibly intensify lockdown measures.

South Africa

About 4,000 cases of reinfection with COVID-19 have been found in South Africa, Barry Schoub, the chair of the country’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, said.

“This is probably to a large extent due to the variant” of the virus that was first identified in the country, he said on a webinar on Wednesday.

The South African government plans to soon release the results of a study into the transmissibility of the variant, whether it can cause re-infection and whether it causes more severe disease. A briefing arranged for Thursday has been postponed.

In another development, South African Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Blade Nzimande and other experts on Wednesday dispelled COVID-19 related fake news.

Nzimande said misinformation and propagating of fake news have affected the government's quest to vaccinate people.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni on Wednesday said the government would set aside more than 10 billion rand (around US$690 million) to purchase vaccines in an effort to eradicate the coronavirus in the next two years.

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 112.5 million while the global death toll topped 2.49 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

WHO

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has been decreasing for the sixth week in a row, but the more contagious variants of the virus are spreading fast, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its weekly pandemic report published on Wednesday.

The number of new coronavirus cases has dropped by 11 percent since last week, the WHO said, adding that North America, South America, Europe, Africa and the Western Pacific region all reported declines.

The WHO also said that the number of deaths globally is falling, dropping by 20 percent worldwide since last

The Americas saw the largest weekly decline with 19 percent, while the US still has the highest number of weekly cases at 480,467.

The number of deaths is also trending downward, the WHO said, dropping by 20 percent worldwide since last week.

According to the WHO report, since the beginning of the pandemic, 110 million infections and 2.5 million deaths have been recorded globally. These figures are expected to increase further as new and more contagious variants of the virus have been detected worldwide.

ALSO READ: J&J single-shot vaccine found effective before FDA review

The WHO said that 101 countries have already confirmed the presence of the variant that was first found in the United Kingdom (UK), while the strain that was first detected in South Africa has been identified in 51 countries.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned recently that although the world has seen a continuous decrease in new cases, "the fire is not out...If we stop fighting (the virus) on any front, it will come roaring back."

This Feb 24, 2021 photo shows visitors at Trocadero plaza near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. (MICHEL EULER / AP)

EU

European Union (EU) leaders will agree on Thursday to work on certificates of vaccination for EU citizens who have had an anti-COVID-19 shot, with southern EU countries that depend heavily on tourism desperate to rescue this summer’s holiday season.

“We call for work to continue on a common approach to vaccination certificates,” reads a draft statement of the leaders video-conference seen by Reuters, without setting a time-frame for a result.

Officials said the EU was working with the International Air Transport Association, which is keen to revive air travel, and with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Health Organization

With the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 now gathering pace, some governments, like those of Greece and Spain, are pushing for a quick adoption of an EU-wide certificate for those already inoculated so that people can travel again.

However, other countries, such as France and Germany, appear more reluctant, as officials there say it could create de facto vaccination obligation and would be discriminatory to those who cannot or will not take a jab.

France, where anti-vaccine sentiment is particularly strong and where the government has pledged not to make them compulsory, considers the idea of vaccine passports as “premature”, a French official said on Wednesday.

Officials said the EU was working with the International Air Transport Association, which is keen to revive air travel, and with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Health Organization.

In another development, a senior official said Wednesday EU countries must ensure travel and border restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of new coronavirus variants do not hurt trade in goods and services in the bloc’s single market.

The bloc will agree to keep in place curbs on leisure travel, according to the draft statement.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe will soon receive 1.152 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine under the COVAX scheme, the European Union announced Wednesday.

"Fabulous to see that the #COVAX rollout has begun in Africa! #Zimbabwe will also very soon get 1.152 million doses under the COVAX scheme, to which #TeamEurope is the biggest contributor," the EU said on its Twitter handle.

READ MORE: UNICEF starts shipping syringes for COVAX vaccine rollout

As Zimbabwe awaits additional vaccines under COVAX, China on Wednesday announced that it will donate a second batch of 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to Zimbabwe, bringing China's donation to Zimbabwe to 400,000.

Zimbabwe launched its COVID-19 vaccination program last Thursday, three days after taking delivery of the first batch of the 200,000 vaccine doses from China.

As of Tuesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 35,910 COVID-19 cases, with 32,288 recoveries and 1,448 deaths.

Moderna

Moderna Inc is planning to study multiple approaches to vaccine booster shots that could protect against emerging coronavirus variants, while gearing up to produce more doses of its shots this year and next.

In a statement, Moderna said it had completed manufacturing doses of a new version of its COVID-19 vaccine modified to target the South Africa strain, or B.1.351, and shipped it to researchers at the National Institutes of Health for clinical study. The South Africa booster shot is part of a multi-pronged strategy Moderna is taking against new variants, the company said.

In addition to the South Africa specific booster, the company is testing a third dose of its existing vaccine in a clinical study, and it also plans to test a booster that will combine the South Africa-specific vaccine and its existing vaccine, the company said. Clinical studies will be done both at the NIH and through Moderna.

Moderna said it plans to evaluate both the combined vaccine and the South Africa-specific one as an initial shot for people who haven’t yet been vaccinated.In a separate statement, the company said it was making new capital investments to increase manufacturing capacity and said that next year it plans to produce 1.4 billion doses, up from an earlier estimate of 1.2 billion doses. It also raised the low end of its COVID-19 production forecast this year to 700 million doses from 600 million doses. The high end of its range for this year is unchanged at 1 billion doses.

Brazil

Brazil registered 1,428 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the fourth highest daily toll since the pandemic began, raising the total number of fatalities to 249,957, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

Tests detected 66,588 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the cumulative caseload to 10,324,463, the ministry said.

Ukraine

Ukraine has registered an almost 40 percent jump in new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said, just as the country starts its COVID-19 inoculation.

A total of 8,147 cases were registered on Wednesday, the highest figure since mid-January when the number of new cases stood at 8,199, Stepanov said on Facebook. There were 5,850 new cases as of Feb 24.

The ministry’s data show most of the new cases were registered in the western part of the country and in the capital Kyiv. The country has registered a total of 1,325,841 cases with 25,596 deaths from COVID-19 as of Feb 25.

Coronavirus cases have picked up after a lull during a tight lockdown at the start of the year. The government has set up mobile hospitals in western Ukraine to cope with a sharp spike in cases in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Ukraine on Wednesday started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign and the first 159 medical workers got the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, the first batch of which came to Ukraine on Tuesday from India.

People sit by the Landwehr Canal in Berlin, capital of Germany, Feb 24, 2021. (STEFAN ZEITZ / XINHUA)

Germany

New variants of COVID-19 risk a third wave of infections in Germany and the country must proceed with great care so that a new nationwide shutdown does not become necessary, Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The number of new daily infections has stagnated over the past week with the seven-day incidence rate hovering at around 60 cases per 100,000.  Germany recorded 10,774 new cases in the 24 hours through Thursday morning, the highest one-day addition since Feb 6, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases on Thursday, Germany's tally increased by 11,869 to 2,414,687, while the reported death toll rose by 385 to 69,125. 

Merkel and state premiers in Germany, Europe’s most populous country and largest economy, have agreed to extend restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus until March 7.

Hair salons will be allowed to reopen from March 1, but the threshold for a gradual reopening of the rest of the economy targets an infection rate of no more than 35 new cases per 100,000 people over seven days.

Vaccines and comprehensive testing could allow for “a more regionally differentiated approach”, Merkel said in the newspaper interview, published online on Wednesday.

Merkel also described Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, which some essential workers have refused, as “a reliable vaccine, effective and safe.”

Germany has administered only 15 percent of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shots it has available, the health ministry said, as the vaccine faces public resistance after trials showed it to be less effective than alternatives.

READ MORE: US marks grim COVID-19 milestone

Chile

The Chilean Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported 2,554 new COVID-19, bringing the tally to 807,872.

The ministry also reported 22 more deaths for a total of 20,173 fatalities.

Health Minister Enrique Paris said in his daily report that in the past 14 days, the national incidence rate of the virus dropped by 6 percent, and in the last week, it fell by 1 percent.

He added that in two weeks, the number of cases has decreased in 10 regions of the country, whereas in one week, infections declined in eight regions.

The northern region of Arica and Parinacota has the highest incidence rate for every 100,000 inhabitants, while the regions with the greatest increase in COVID-19 cases in one week were the southern regions of Los Rios and Magallanes, as well as the northern region of Tarapaca. 

France

France on Wednesday confirmed 31,519 new COVID-19 cases, the biggest one-day jump since mid-November, as very worrying situation in some departments forced authorities to impose a partial lockdown to fight the virus resurgence.

The new cases took France's cumulative tally to 3.66 million. 

Another 277 deaths were also registered, bringing the toll to 85,321.

"The epidemic situation is deteriorating in our country...The epidemic has stopped decreasing and in some places it can even increase," said Health Minister Olivier Veran.

"We erased in one week the two consecutive weeks of decline that we had recorded so far," he said during a visit to the northern city of Dunkirk, where the incidence rate rose to over 900 per 100,000 residents per week, nearly nine times the national average.

Around 10 of France's 102 departments are now in a "very worrying situation" which requires "rapid and strong measures," said Gabriel Attal, the government's spokesperson.

As of Tuesday, some 2,656,447 people have received their first doses of vaccines, and more than 1.13 million others have completed their inoculation, according to figures released by the health ministry.

UK variant

A Danish study has found that people infected with a more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain have a higher risk of being hospitalised, the country’s Serum Institute said on Wednesday.

Out of 2,155 people infected with the variant codenamed B117 in the institute’s study, 128 were hospitalized, a rate 64 percent higher than people infected with other variants, it said.

The result is consistent with a similar study in Britain earlier this month, the institute said in a statement.

UK

People in England may not need to wear face masks over the summer months if COVID-19 infections drop sufficiently, but they are likely to be required again in the winter, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries said on Wednesday.

Harries’ remarks came on a day 9,938 new COVID-19 cases and 442 more deaths were reported in the UK, bringing the cumulative tally to 4,144,577 with 121,747 fatalities, according to the latest official data.

A total of 18,242,873 people have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by Tuesday, the latest figures showed.

Britain said on Wednesday it was confident in manufacturers’ timely supply of COVID-19 vaccines to keep fuelling one of the world’s fastest rollouts despite a slowdown this week.

“We have real confidence in our supply and our visibility of supply,” vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi told lawmakers, saying the government talked to manufacturers near-daily.

An elderly woman (right) looks at her daughter through a plastic barrier part of a protective inflatable tunnel at the Martino Zanchi nursing home in Alzano Lombardo, northern Italy, Feb 24, 2021. The protective tunnel was set up to allow home residents to have personal contact with their families and still stay safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (LUCA BRUNO / AP)

Italy

Italy’s government will extend coronavirus restrictions already in place until after Easter, the health minister said on Wednesday, as Rome plans to speed up vaccination efforts to try to beat the pandemic.

“The epidemiological conditions do not allow us to relax the curbs,” Health Minister Roberto Speranza told parliament, adding that strains first discovered in Britain, South Africa and Brazil are increasingly being detected in Italy.

Speranza said a new decree would be issued shortly and would be valid until April 6, at the end of the Easter holidays. He did not provide further details, but cinemas, theaters and gyms look certain to remain shuttered, while opening hours for bars and restaurants will almost certainly stay highly limited.

Speranza said the government was also looking to speed up vaccination efforts. Italy launched its vaccine campaign at the end of December, and has so far administered 3.7 million jabs including second shots. 

Italy reported 16,424 new coronavirus cases and 318 deaths on Wednesday, the health ministry said. In total, the country has so far registered 2.85 million infections and 96,666 fatalities linked to COVID-19.

Italy will receive 25 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of June, the company’s head in the country Lorenzo Wittum said in an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper. 

Meanwhile, the Republic of San Marino, an independent microstate enclosed by Italy, will start a vaccination campaign on Thursday with 7,500 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

US

A new coronavirus variant that shares some similarities with a more transmissible and intractable variant discovered in South Africa is on the rise in New York City, researchers said on Wednesday.

The new variant, known as B.1.526, was first identified in samples collected in New York in November, and by mid-February represented about 12 percent of cases, researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, said on Wednesday.

The researchers said the main concern is a change in one area of the virus’ spike protein, called E484K, that is present in all three variants. The E484K mutation is believed to weaken the body’s immune response to the virus.

Over half a million people have died of coronavirus in the United States, as the country races to vaccinate residents before new variants become widespread.

The US has reported 28.3 million confirmed cases and 505,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

President Joe Biden's administration will deliver more than 25 million masks to community health centers, food pantries and soup kitchens this spring as part of its battle against the pandemic, the White House said on Wednesday.

In another development, the US expects to roll out three to four million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine next week, pending authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said.

The US has administered 66,464,947 vaccine doses in the country as of Wednesday morning.

Almost one-quarter of Americans said they don’t plan to get vaccinated for COVID-19, according to a Census Bureau survey.

Honduras

Honduras has approved the emergency use of the Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Central American country, said Francis Contreras, the head of the Sanitary Regulation Agency, on Wednesday.

"After carrying out the technical evaluation of the documentation, the authorization for Emergency Use in Honduras has been granted for the Gam-COVID-Vac (SPUTNIK-V) vaccine," the agency said in a statement released on social media.

The decision came after Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez issued a decree on Feb 21 to allow the direct purchase of vaccines.

Honduras has reported 166,547 confirmed cases and 4,040 deaths to date. 

Portugal

Portugal reported 1,480 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the country's total number of coronavirus cases to 800,586, according to the health authorities.

Another 50 coronavirus-related deaths were registered, the lowest daily figure since Nov 6, taking the toll to 16,136.

Some 2,767 COVID-19 patients were still being treated in hospitals, including 567 in intensive care units. 

There are now 75,396 active cases in the country.

Finland

Finland’s government is preparing to invoke emergency powers, including a lockdown from March 8 to 28, as infection rates rise, it said on Thursday. 

Among the planned measures are closing restaurants and bars except for takeout, and moving students in junior high and above to remote learning. 

The government is also considering whether municipal elections can be held in April as planned.

Egypt

The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) has approved Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in Egypt, the country's drug regulator said in a statement on Wednesday.

Egypt has previously approved China's Sinopharm and the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use.

Last month, the country began a nationwide campaign of COVID-19 vaccination, starting with medical staff of government hospitals.

Russia

Russia on Thursday reported 11,198 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 1,406 in Moscow, pushing the national case tally to 4,212,100 since the pandemic began.

The coronavirus taskforce said that 446 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 84,876. 

Wheelchair-bound elderly residents of the Iztacalco borough in Mexico wait in line to receive doses of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at the Advanced School for Physical Education, in Mexico City, on Feb 24, 2021. (REBECCA BLACKWELL / AP)

Mexico

Mexico expects to receive 106 million doses of vaccine against the coronavirus by the end of May, according to the health ministry. 

More than 41 million of these are from AstraZeneca and 24 million are of the Russian Sputnik V. 

Mexico reported an additional 1,006 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total death count to 182,815, according to data from the health ministry.

The data showed Mexico also registered 8,642 new cases for a total 2,060,908 since the pandemic began.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell, who has spearheaded the country’s response to the pandemic, has begun receiving supplemental oxygen as part of his treatment for COVID-19, health official Ricardo Cortes said during the health ministry’s regular evening news conference. 

Novavax

Novavax Inc expects data from a late-stage US trial of its COVID-19 vaccine at the start of April, after which it will apply for emergency use authorization, the drug developer’s R&D head Gregory Glenn said on Wednesday.

The Novavax executive said the vaccine has shown a great “safety profile” in UK trials and the company might ask the US Food and Drug Administration to consider the UK data for vaccine authorization.

Mozambique

A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China arrived in Mozambique on Wednesday to help the African country fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was the first batch of vaccines that Mozambique has received.

Earlier in the day, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Veronica Macamo said India would ship 100,000 shots in the coming days.

Algeria

A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China's Sinopharm arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to help the North African nation combat the pandemic.

A military jet of the Algerian Air Force carrying the batch of vaccines landed in the evening at the Boufarik military airport.

The arrival of vaccines came as Health Minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid welcomed the donation of medical equipment from Algerians living in other countries, the official APS news agency reported.

Algeria on Wednesday reported 182 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths, bringing the tally to 112,461 and the toll to 2,970.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria’s coronavirus deaths surpass 10,000 as the EU country with the lowest vaccinated share of the population is preparing to ease restrictions. 

The government said it will allow bars and restaurants to reopen on March 1 despite the rising number of new virus cases.

Bulgaria’s health minister has accused AstraZeneca of failing to stick to its delivery schedule of COVID-19 vaccines to the country and demanded the immediate shipment of at least 52,800 doses that were postponed to March 1, saying the government was ready to arrange air transport at its own expense as early as “tomorrow”.

In a sharply worded letter, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said AstraZeneca’s failure to comply with the agreed deliveries was compromising the massive vaccination campaign the Balkan country launched late last week.

“With the lack of vaccines that were supposed to be delivered by your company the message that your company sends to the Bulgarian people would sound like this: ‘AstraZeneca has taken the hope out of your hands’,” Angelov said in the letter.

The health ministry spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which was published on the website of Bulgaria’s NOVA television on Wednesday.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia registered 977 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the country's infection tally to 155,234 as of Wednesday evening, the Ministry of Health said.

Another 12 newly reported deaths lifted the toll to 2,316, the ministry said.

The total recoveries rose to 133,438 after 387 new recoveries were reported, the ministry said.

Tunisia

The Tunisian health ministry on Wednesday reported 662 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 230,443.

The death toll rose by 26 to 7,869 while the total recoveries stood at 192,282, the ministry said in a statement.

As part of efforts supporting Tunisia's fight against COVID-19, five isolation units funded by the EU have been installed at border crossing points, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported Wednesday.

"These units will accommodate suspected COVID-19 cases coming from abroad," Tunisian Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi said during a ceremony for the installation of one of those units at Tunis-Carthage Airport.

According to Mehdi, the units are equipped with sterilization and sanitary isolation rooms.

Nursing students holding Bolivian flags welcome trucks carrying doses of China's Sinopharm vaccines for COVID-19 in La Paz, Bolivia, Feb 24, 2021. (JUAN KARITA / AP)

Bolivia

Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Bolivia on Wednesday for the largest vaccination drive in the Latin American country.

"Bolivia now has the vaccines. We have the solution ... Now we are going to vaccinate everyone," Bolivian President Luis Arce said at Viru Viru International Airport, where a plane carrying the vaccines from Beijing landed in the morning.

Arce announced that the nationwide vaccination campaign will begin on Thursday, adding that the elderly and people with underlying health conditions will be given priority.

Bolivia has reported 244,380 cases of the novel coronavirus since March 2020.  

Canada

Canada has registered 868 COVID-19 cases of the new variants as of Tuesday, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Wednesday.

However, as variant cases increase, overall COVID-19 numbers have dropped steadily in Canada.

Theresa Tam, chief public health officer of Canada, said Canada continues to see a decline in COVID-19 activity. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, Canada had reported a cumulative total of 854,181 COVID-19 cases and 21,789 deaths, according to CTV.

According to Tam, there were still 30,677 active cases in Canada.

Romania

Romania began vaccinating the teaching staff in the basic education system against COVID-19 on Wednesday, aiming to administer the first dose for 60,000 people within a half-month intensive vaccination program.

The campaign kicked off in more than half of the country, including the capital city of Bucharest and other 22 counties. On Thursday, another 14 counties will follow suit, followed by two more on Friday and the last three on March 1.

There had been constant reports of students and teachers getting infected with the virus after in-person classes resumed on Feb 8 in most kindergartens and schools.

The latest data from the Ministry of Education showed that as of Feb 19, a total of 730 classes had suspended activity due to COVID-19 cases, while a number of 809 students and 638 employees in the education sector were confirmed infected during that period.

Romania on Wednesday reported 3,337 new cases and 73 deaths, bringing the totals to 788,048 confirmed cases and 20,086 deaths.

Morocco

Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 482,128 on Wednesday after 419 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, the death toll hit 8,592 as 18 more deaths were logged.

The total number of recoveries increased by 710 to 466,815, and there were 437 people in intensive care units, according to the statement.

So far, a total of 2,911,635 people have been vaccinated in the country.

North Macedonia

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in North Macedonia exceeded 100,000 on Wednesday as the health ministry reported 725 new infections in a single day.

The tally now stands at 100,632.

The ministry said 13 more deaths were reported, pushing the toll to 3,098.

The second shipment of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines containing 3,510 doses arrived in North Macedonia from Serbia on Wednesday, the Media Information Agency (MIA) reported. 

North Macedonian Health Minister Venko Filipce said 1,300 health professionals had already been vaccinated in the country.

A health worker collects a swab sample from a man inside a mobile coronavirus testing facility in Ishoej, Denmark, Feb 23, 2021. While people are being tested, they can listen to music and watch disco lights in the party bus. (MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN / RITZAU SCANPIX)

Denmark

The COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark has taken on a different character since new variants of the coronavirus emerged, according to Soren Brostrom, director general of the Danish Health Authority, on Wednesday night.

The B117 variant that was first detected in the United Kingdom last week became dominant in Denmark, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all new infections, up from less than 5 percent at the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, Minister for Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke expressed his concern over the variant that was first identified in South Africa. The variant has been found in 13 citizens in Denmark, with the latest two cases being locally transmitted.

According to the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), Denmark registered 523 new COVID-19 infections and a further two deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total cases and toll to 209,097 and 2,345, respectively.

Malta

Bars and entertainment venues in Malta will remain closed for another month to reduce the spread of COVID-19, Health Minister Chris Fearne announced on Wednesday.

He said a requirement for restaurants to close at 11 pm will be extended to midnight.

Meanwhile, Fearne said the AstraZeneca vaccine, which had originally been restricted to those under the age of 55, would now also be administered to those aged between 55 and 65, after advice from a scientific committee. He also said that those aged between 75 and 80 will be inoculated from March 8.

The new measures were announced as Malta reported 226 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the tally to 68,779 with 308 deaths. The number of active cases stood at 2,504. 

Sweden

The government of Sweden has decided to tighten coronavirus restrictions to ward off a looming third COVID-19 wave. 

Under the new rules announced on Wednesday, all restaurants, cafes and bars will have to close by 8:30 pm starting from March 1. The new rules do not apply to restaurants offering takeaway services.

"The situation in Sweden is serious," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. "We have a high spread of infection and it is increasing. Also, the mutated virus variants make the situation even more worrying. There is a great risk of a third wave."

The number of people allowed in shops, malls and gyms will also be lowered, and no sports competitions besides those on an elite level will be allowed. 

By Wednesday, Sweden had reported 647,470 COVID-19 cases and 12,793 deaths.

Poland

The Polish government announced new restrictions on Wednesday in an effort to curb a recent rise in new COVID-19 infections.

A total of 12,146 new cases were confirmed on Wednesday, taking the tally to 1,661,190, including 42,808 deaths.

"Today's results show the third wave is accelerating," Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said.

Niedzielski said that mask wearing will become mandatory in public spaces starting from Saturday. In addition, travelers from southern neighbours Slovakia and the Czech Republic will have to quarantine for ten days upon arrival in Poland.

Warmia-Masuria province in the northeast will introduce additional lockdown measures due to a particularly steep rise in the number of cases there, including the closure of malls and cinemas and a return to remote learning for schoolchildren aged six to eight.

Lithuania

The Lithuanian government on Wednesday decided to extend the existing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown for another month until March 31, and said the wearing of face masks will no longer be mandatory outdoors.

Meanwhile, a ban on non-essential travel between municipalities is extended until March 15 with some exceptions, but travel between major cities and their surrounding districts will be allowed starting from Feb 25.

Lithuania on Wednesday reported 11 new cases of the coronavirus variant that was first identified in Britain, the health ministry said.

The 11 cases were among the 631 fresh infections logged in the past 24 hours. T

The cumulative tally now stands at 195,481, including 3,200 deaths adn 181,230 recoveries, according to the Department of Statistics.  

Austria

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is campaigning for a special "green passport" for people who have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from coronavirus in Europe.

"We need freedom of travel back within the European Union (EU)," Kurz told journalists on Wednesday, adding that such an EU-wide document, a digital proof of immunity from COVID-19, could "provide a good basis for us to get through the summer properly".

He said he will bring the proposal to the EU summit on Thursday.

Austria reported on Wednesday more than 2,000 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the first time in almost five weeks, according to data from the Ministry of Interior.

The 2,006 new cases brought the tally to 450,376 while 37 additinoal deaths took the toll to 8,470, the data showed.

Libya 

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Thursday said that 23 positive cases of COVID-19 variant were reported.

"Experts of the center managed to detect 23 cases of COVID-19 variant after carrying out tests to 88 positive COVID-19 samples. This represents 26 percent of the total samples tested," Ibrahim al-Daghis, official of the center told Xinhua.

The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Libya so far is 131,833, including 118,791 recoveries and 2,156 deaths, the center said in a statement.

Hungary 

Hungary will maintain the restrictive measures introduced to rein in the novel coronavirus pandemic until March 15, Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister's Office, said here on Thursday.

"Mass vaccination will provide an opportunity to ease the restrictions, but we are currently in the third wave of the epidemic, so we will extend the measures in force until March 15, taking into account the views of epidemiological experts," Gulyas said at a press conference following a session of the government.

He said that the national vaccination campaign has been accelerated, and explained that the restrictions could be radically eased once people over the age of 60 and those living with some kind of chronic illness -- who are most at risk -- receive the jab.

The restrictions in force include a curfew between 8 pm and 5 am, the mandatory wearing of face masks, the closure of theaters, cinemas, hotels, and the switch to digital education for secondary and college students. Restaurants are allowed to offer takeaway services only.

Hungary posted the highest number of daily new cases in more than two months, prompting Prime Minister Viktor Orban to say that there’s no room for easing virus curbs.

Authorities reported 4,385 new cases on Thursday, the highest daily total since Dec 18, in what officials described as the ascending part of the next wave.