German Chancellor Angela Merkel (foreground) address Germany's lower house of parliament in Berlin on Dec 16, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

NEW YORK  / STOCKHOLM / LONDON / PARIS / BERLIN / BRUSSELS / ROME / COPENHAGEN / VIENNA / TBILISI / KAMPALA / WINDHOEK / TALLINN / MINSK / LAGOS - Chancellor Angela Merkel tied an exit from the coronavirus pandemic to immunizing more than 60 percent of the population, indicating a long fight still ahead.

Germany is targeting so-called herd immunity, which means most of the population is resistant to the disease, Merkel said Wednesday in Germany’s lower house of parliament, as a hard shutdown takes effect across Europe’s largest economy.

The German leader has hinted that stringent restrictions, which are set to run until Jan 10, will remain in force longer. 

The country’s daily death toll jumped on Wednesday to a record 910 people, the latest reminder of the risks posed by COVID-19, taking the overall toll to 23,544, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The number of new cases rose by 21,456 to 1.38 million.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, the death toll rose by 952 to 23,427. It put the number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 1,379,238, an increase of 27,728. 

Merkel told her parliamentary caucus that Germany faces a new peak of infections next month and predicted that the first two months of 2021 will be particularly tough, according to a participant in the virtual meeting Tuesday. 

The nation is heading toward a seven-day incidence rate of 200 cases per 100,000 people, four times the level the government has determined to be manageable, she said.

Germany should start giving coronavirus shots 24 to 72 hours after the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine gets European Union regulatory approval and could begin as soon as Christmas, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Tuesday.

Russia

Russia has conducted around 10 percent fewer COVID-19 tests so far this month than the same period a month ago, despite a surge in recorded infections, official data shows, raising questions over authorities’ ability to control the spread.

Beyond affluent Moscow, people with COVID-19 symptoms can wait days to be tested and doctors sometimes refuse to test them altogether, according to Reuters interviews with patients, doctors and officials in 11 regions.

Rospotrebnadzor, the сonsumer health watchdog, ordered an increase in testing on Nov 16 yet the number of tests conducted in the first half of December fell by 825,000, or 11 percent, compared with the first half of November, Reuters calculations using official data showed.

In St. Petersburg, Deputy Governor Oleg Ergashev said just 4 percent of the hospital beds allocated to patients infected with the coronavirus were vacant in the city

St Petersburg is running dangerously low on hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, city authorities said, as deliveries of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine began on Wednesday across the country.

Biotech group Biocad, licenced to produce Sputnik V, said it was supplying the shot nationwide to help fulfil a large-scale inoculation plan.

In comments to local television late on Tuesday, deputy St. Petersburg governor Oleg Ergashev said just 4 percent of the beds allocated to patients infected with the coronavirus were vacant.

Russia recorded 26,509 new cases over the past 24 hours, slightly down from 26,689 a day earlier, the country's COVID-19 response center said Wednesday.

The national tally of COVID-19 cases has increased to 2,734,454, including 48,564 deaths and 2,176,100 recoveries, the center said.

Moscow, the country's worst-hit region, reported 5,028 new cases, bringing the city's total to 708,530.

A woman wearing a face mask walks under decorations and lights set up for the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations in Moscow, Russia, on Dec 15, 2020, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP)

Uganda

Uganda has postponed clinical trials of three antiviral drugs developed locally to treat COVID-19, the health ministry announced Wednesday.

Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the ministry's spokesperson, told Xinhua by phone that the trials of the drugs developed by local scientists at Uganda Virus Research Institute will start in January 2021, and that "the scientists are still working on the trial protocols".

Late last month, President Yoweri Museveni said studies on COVID-19 patients treated from home in Uganda showed that the antiviral drugs killed the virus and also limited the virus-induced damage to the body.

"The scientists have told me that dozens of people have been healed by these substances but, starting Dec 15, patients, under strict medical supervision, will have this medicine tried on them," said Museveni in a televised address.

The trials had been scheduled to start on Dec 15.

So far, Uganda had registered a total of 28,168 COVID-19 cases, including 10,005 recoveries and 225 deaths.

Namibia

Namibia is seeing a continuous increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases among healthcare workers, Minister of Health Kalumbi Shangula said Wednesday.

The cumulative number of infections among healthcare workers stands at 702, Shangula said, adding that that placed a huge burden on the health system as it affects the country's capacity to respond to the pandemic.

"We have commissioned an investigation in the circumstances that lead to increase infection among the health care workers," he said.

Meanwhile, as of Dec 15, the country has carried out a total of 178,677 COVID-19 tests, translating into 70 tests per 1,000 population, the minister said.

Estonia

Estonia's Health Board on Wednesday reported 590 new COVID-19 cases within the last 24 hours, bringing its total caseload to 19,271.

The death toll rose by three to 160, it said.

The Health Board has requested cancelling all large-scale parties and urged Estonians not to travel abroad during the winter holidays in order to stop the spread of the virus. 

Nigeria

Nigeria has confirmed 758 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national total to 74,132, said the country's Center for Disease Control on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the country has also registered three more deaths, taking its death toll to 1,200.

Belarus

Belarus reported 1,838 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking its total to 165,897, according to the country's health ministry.

The number of recoveries rose by 1,930 to 143,373, the ministry said, adding that the death toll climbed by nine to 1,291.

Austria

Austria has confirmed 2,664 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total to 330,343, according to data published by the Austrian Interior Ministry Wednesday.

To date, the country has reported a total of 4,764 deaths with 291,042 recoveries, said the ministry.

Georgia

Georgia reported 3,487 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its tally to 198,387, the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health said on Wednesday.

Of the new cases, 1,477 were confirmed in the capital city of Tbilisi, the center said.

The death toll rose by 39 to 1,922, while the number of recoveries increased by 2,495 to 167,281.

Vaccine distribution

Nearly one in four people may not get COVID-19 vaccines until at least 2022 because rich countries with less than 15 percent of the global population have reserved 51 percent of the doses of the most promising vaccines, researchers said on Tuesday.

Low- and middle-income countries - home to more than 85 percent of the world’s population - would have to share the remainder, said researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States.

An effective response to the pandemic requires high-income countries “to share in an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the world”, they wrote.

As of Nov 15, high-income nations had pre-ordered nearly 7.5 billion doses of vaccines from 13 manufacturers, researchers said in a paper.

This included Japan, Australia and Canada who collectively have more than 1 billion doses but accounted for less than 1 percent of current novel coronavirus cases, according to the paper.

Even if leading manufacturers’ vaccines reach their projected maximum production capacity, nearly 25 percent of the world’s population may not get the vaccines for another year or more, according to the paper.

The John Hopkins researchers said WHO’s COVAX Facility could play a key role in ensuring fairer access to approved vaccines but it has only secured 500 million doses, far below its target of delivering at least 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.

Belgium

Belgium on Wednesday registered 2,211 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing its tally to 611,422, the public health institute Sciensano reported.

It also reported 124 coronavirus-related deaths, taking the death toll to 18,178.

Denmark

Denmark registered 2,992 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 116,087, said Danish health authorities on Tuesday.

The country also reported 11 additional deaths, taking its toll to 961.

Minister for Health and Elderly Affairs Magnus Heunicke announced an extension of the country's partial lockdown measures starting on Friday. Around 80 percent of the population have come under the restrictions, local media reported. 

Global tally

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 73.4 million on Sundan while the related deaths topped 1.63 million, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Pfizer

Health workers given a placebo in the Pfizer Inc-BioNTech SE vaccine trial are already getting access to the newly authorized shot.

“Participants who courageously volunteered to help make a difference during this pandemic will have an option to receive the investigational vaccine while continuing to be part of the clinical trial,” Pfizer and BioNTech said on a joint website dedicated to information about the continuing studies.

Many are taking up the offer. Called “the Vaccine Transition Option,” the effort allows trial participants who got the placebo to receive the real two-dose regimen, while continuing to be monitored by investigators. But to get access, they must be eligible under the current emergency-use authorization. That means health-care workers and residents of long-term care facilities who were in the trials will be the first unblinded.

Pfizer rebutted comments by Florida Gov Ron DeSantis that the company has had a “production issue” that’s delaying deliveries of its vaccine to the state.

Moderna 

Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared set for regulatory authorization this week after US Food and Drug Administration staff endorsed it as safe and effective in documents released Tuesday.

An FDA decision on whether to issue a so-called emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine will be made after a panel of outside advisers meets Thursday. The FDA typically follows the advice of the panel, but is not required to do so.

BAT vaccine

A vaccine candidate under development by cigarette maker British American Tobacco’s US biotech unit Kentucky BioProcessing will start a Phase I human study following approval of its investigational new drug application by the US Food and Drug Administration, according to an emailed statement.

The study is designed to enroll a total of 180 healthy volunteers who will be divided into two age cohorts, then subdivided into low and high dose treatment groups. Results are expected in mid-2021 and, if positive, would allow for progress to a Phase 2 study, subject to regulatory approval.

A pharmacy technician fills up a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a University Hospital Network (UHN) vaccination clinic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Dec 15, 2020. (PHOTO / BlOOMBERG

US

The first COVID-19 test that can be performed entirely from home was cleared by US regulators on Tuesday, and it can be acquired without a prescription.

While availability initially will be limited, the new test and others in development could make virus screenings as accessible as over-the-counter pregnancy tests in the US for the first time. The advance follows months of criticism that the Food and Drug Administration has been too slow to give its approval to this type of virus screening.

The United States expanded its rollout of the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine to hundreds of additional distribution centers on Tuesday, inoculating thousands more healthcare workers in a mass immunization expected to reach the general public in the coming months.

Distribution of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE began on Monday, three days after it won US emergency-use authorization, opening a new front in the battle against a pandemic claiming more than 2,400 US lives a day.

Meanwhile, US states and territories will get US$140 million to prepare for COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and US$87 million for tracking and testing, the US Department of Health and Human Services said.

US hospitalizations for the coronavirus increased by more than 1,200 patients a day in the six days through Tuesday, data from the Department of Health and Human Services show.

US President Donald Trump will “absolutely” encourage Americans to take COVID-19 vaccines, and will receive a vaccine himself as soon as his medical team determines it’s best, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday.

New Yorkers can expect a shutdown of all but essential businesses soon after Christmas, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Nearly 1,640,000 children in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest data of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

On COVID-19 relief, US congressional negotiators neared a US$900 billion deal to address the pandemic, including direct payments to Americans but no financial aid for states and cities and no liability protections for businesses, according to media reports on Wednesday.

EU

Europeans are set to start getting coronavirus vaccines before the new year after the regional drug regulator accelerated its approval process following the launch of immunisation campaigns in the United States and Britain.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said an expert panel would convene on Monday Dec. 21 to evaluate the vaccine made by US company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech. It had previously said the meeting could be as late as Dec 29.

Germany, France, Italy and five other European states will coordinate the start of their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, the countries’ health ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The countries will promote “the coordination of the launch of the vaccination campaigns” and will rapidly share information on how it is proceeding, the statement said, along with other commitments on areas such as transparency.

The statement was released by Italy and also signed by the health ministers of Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

UK

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the public to exercise “extreme caution” and avoid meeting elderly people at Christmas but he stopped short of canceling plans to let households mix over the holiday.

“We can celebrate it sensibly, but we have to be extremely cautious in the way we behave,” Johnson told members of Parliament on Wednesday. He said the government does not want to “criminalize people’s long-made plans.”

The public must “exercise a high degree of personal responsibility” and “avoid contact with elderly people wherever possible,” he said. 

The premier’s new advice against meeting older people who are more vulnerable to COVID-19 follows a surge in infections that forced him to impose tighter rules on London. But he rejected calls to scrap his plan to ease the rules across England to allow families to meet over Christmas, even though doctors have raised concerns that the relaxation will lead to a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. 

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove will discuss the issue with his counterparts from the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland later on Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

Under the rules, which were previously agreed across the four constituent nations of the UK, as many as three households will be able to gather together for five days between Dec 23 and 27. 

Another 18,450 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,888,116, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 506 to 64,908, the data showed.

A total of 137,897 people in the UK have been vaccinated, Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Twitter, providing the country’s first comprehensive look at numbers since immunizations began with a shot from Pfizer and BioNTech earlier this month. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two shots, and these data are for the first shot only.

About one in five people in Britain with coronavirus may suffer from long COVID-19, which means enduring coronavirus symptoms, new data from the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Wednesday. According to the data, about a fifth of people kept having symptoms for five weeks or more while around one in 10 were affected for 12 weeks or more.

British scientists are trying to establish whether the rapid spread in southern England of a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is linked to key mutations they have detected in the strain, they said on Tuesday.

The mutations include changes to the important “spike” protein that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses to infect human cells, a group of scientists tracking the genetics of the virus said, but it is not yet clear whether these are making it more infectious.

Meanwhile, a hospital in Northern Ireland treated patients in ambulances in its parking lot as the surge in cases strains resources. Antrim Area Hospital now has 43 people in the emergency room waiting to be formally admitted, after 17 ambulances were used outside the hospital on Tuesday.

France

France’s rolling seven-day average of new cases fell below 12,000 on Tuesday, marking a second day of pause after rising for most of last week. Hospitalizations fell for the first time in four days, health authorities reported. The seven-day average of deaths linked to the virus fell to the lowest since early November.

France reported on Tuesday 11,532 new COVID-19 infections within 24 hours, and 790 new deaths as the government relaxed restrictive rules ahead of year-end festivities, health authorities data showed.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, France has witnessed 2,391,447 people infected with the novel coronavirus, as well as 59,072 fatalities.

A total of 307 patients in hospitals had succumbed to the flu-like disease in one day, down from 371 reported on Monday, while 483 fatalities were reported in nursing homes in the same period.

Hospital admissions fell by 241 to 25,240, while 2,881 positive cases were in intensive care units, 25 fewer than Monday's figure.

READ MORE: Moderna virus shot found safe, effective before key FDA review

Italy

An adviser to Italy’s health ministry has called for coronavirus restrictions to be drastically tightened to avoid a “national tragedy” after the national statistics bureau ISTAT said deaths this year would be the highest since World War II.

“We are in a war situation, people don’t realise it but the last time we had this many deaths, bombs were dropping on our cities during the war,” public health professor Walter Ricciardi told the television channel la7 on Tuesday evening.

Ricciardi, the adviser to Health Minister Roberto Speranza, said the government, which is considering tightening restrictions over the Christmas and New Year holidays, should lock down the main cities completely.

In an interview with Wednesday’s daily La Stampa, he said Rome had been “constantly late” in responding to the second, autumn wave of the virus.

Italy reported 14,844 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing its tally to 1,870,576, according to the country's health authorities.

The health ministry confirmed 846 additional fatalities over the past day, taking the death toll to 65,857, the highest in Europe.

ISTAT head Gian Carlo Blangiardo said Tuesday that the overall number of deaths in Italy this year would exceed 700,000, against 647,000 in 2019.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged Italians to avoid “irresponsible” gatherings over the holidays and said the government might make some “small adjustments” to its current restrictions.

Ukraine 

Ukraine on Tuesday registered 8,416 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 909,082, said the country's National Security and Defense Council.

Meanwhile, the nationwide death toll rose to 15,480 after reporting 233 new deaths.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal recently said in his official Telegram channel that the government decided to introduce a lockdown from Jan. 8 until Jan. 24, 2021 to curb the spread of the pandemic.

A man walks past a street in London in Dec, 2020 as the city was expected to enter 'Tier 3'. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Sweden

The coronavirus is spreading across all age groups in Sweden, the country's Public Health Agency said on Tuesday as it presented the latest COVID-19 figures at its bi-weekly news conference.

The spread of the coronavirus among those aged 70 and up is particularly worrisome, said Sara Byfors from the agency, since they are most likely to need hospital care and most at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying.

Byfors said unlike the previously slow rise in infections, Sweden is now experiencing a more rapid spread. That means "everyone must be part of halting the infection rate."

Systemic shortcomings in Sweden’s elderly care coupled with inadequate measures from the government and agencies contributed to the country’s high death toll in nursing homes, an initial report by an official commission said on Tuesday.

ALSO READ: WHO: Water crisis in health centers worldwide ups virus risk

Ireland 

Ireland on Tuesday reported 329 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 76,776, the country's National Public Health Emergency Team said in a statement.

Meanwhile, eight additional COVID-19 deaths were recorded, taking the country's death toll to 2,134, said the statement.

As of Tuesday afternoon, hospitalizations stood at 196 with 31 patients in intensive care units.

Cyprus

Cyprus' Health Ministry on Tuesday announced a detailed vaccination program against COVID-19 for the country's population of about 1 million, saying that it will help in facing a surging second phase of the pandemic.

"The vaccine is the beginning of the end but not the end of the road," Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou told a press conference, adding that people still have to apply personal protection measures for some time.

Deputy Director of Medical Services Olga Kalakouta said that priority in distributing the vaccines will be given to about 5,000 people living or working in homes for the elderly and nursing establishments.

Second in line will be people over 80 years of age and those with chronic diseases, followed by healthcare professionals.

She said that about 168,000 vaccine doses will arrive in early January, but the actual date will depend on the European Union distribution program to member states, all of which will receive the vaccine on the same day.

Portugal 

Portugal on Tuesday reported 2,638 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 353,576, the country's Directorate-General of Health reported.

Meanwhile, 84 more COVID-19 deaths were recorded, taking the country's death toll to 5,733, it said.

The agency also reported 5,761 more recoveries, lifting the national total recoveries to 280,038.

Bulgaria 

Bulgaria has confirmed 2,743 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total to 184,287, according to data published by the country's Unified Information Portal on Wednesday.

The country also reported 167 new deaths from the virus, taking its total death toll to 6,005, showed the data. And 87,935 people have recovered nationwide so far.

Canada

Canada reported 6,352 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the nationwide tally to 475,214, according to a report by the Canadian Press.

The country also reported 106 more deaths from the virus, and the total death toll now stands at 13,659, said the report by Canada's national news agency.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government has reached an agreement with Moderna to receive up to 168,000 early doses of the company’s coronavirus vaccine.

Moderna is prepared to ship the vaccines within 48 hours of the shot’s approval by public health authorities, Trudeau said Tuesday in Ottawa.

Colombia 

Colombia reported 10,130 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 1,444,646, the country's health authorities said Tuesday.

The country also reported 161 more deaths, raising its total death toll to 39,356. Meanwhile, 1,328,430 people have recovered so far, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection said in an update.

Brazil 

Brazil on Tuesday reported 964 deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, raising the nationwide death toll to 182,799, according to the country's health ministry.

Meanwhile, 42,889 new infections were reported, bringing the total caseload to 6,970,034, the ministry said.

Also on Tuesday, the ministry announced the official launch of the national COVID-19 vaccination plan, a 94-page document delivered last week to the Federal Supreme Court.

A pedestrian in the SoHo neighborhood of New York on Dec 14, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Argentina

Argentine authorities on Tuesday urged the public to keep up preventive measures against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), especially during Christmas and New Year holidays.

"While we have auspiciously seen a very important decrease (in cases) throughout the country in recent weeks, we have noticed that for a few days this decline has tended to stabilize," Minister of Health Gines Gonzalez Garcia warned at a press conference.

"As the holidays (Christmas and New Year) near and vacations are coming ... it is necessary to be more careful, and that is what we are trying to stress, being more careful," said Gonzalez.

Argentina on Tuesday reported 6,981 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its national tally to 1,510,203, said the Ministry of Health.

The ministry also said that 165 more patients died of the disease, raising the nationwide death toll to 41,204.

Bolivia 

Bolivia is constantly assessing the potential for new outbreaks of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections as it tries to plan the 2021 school year, Education Minister Adrian Quelca said on Tuesday.

At an upcoming meeting on Dec. 17 and 18, the educational sector is set to decide when to start the new school year and under what conditions, which could vary from region to region, Quelca told reporters.

With cases on the rise in urban areas but under control in less populated rural areas, he said he would propose opening the school year in February, with a combination of remote and in-person classes in city schools, and face-to-face classes in rural areas, as well as classes in shifts to promote social distancing.

Ecuador

Ecuador's Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday reported 176 new cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and 20 fatalities in the last 24 hours, raising the caseload to 202,356 and the death toll to 9,357.

According to the ministry, the death toll may be closer to 14,000 as another 4,539 deaths were likely caused by COVID-19, but not confirmed due to a lack of evidence.

The country's 24 provinces continue to see an increase in infections due to community transmission of the virus, however, four provinces concentrate the most number of cases.

Chile 

Chile reported 1,498 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total infections to 575,329, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday.

The country also registered 18 more deaths from the disease, bringing the death toll to 15,949, while 548,190 people have recovered from the disease so far, the ministry said in a daily report.

Chilean officials continue to "work very hard to tackle the country's coronavirus situation," Health Minister Enrique Paris told a press conference.

Mexico 

Mexico reported 11,228 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 1,267,202, according to the health ministry.

Meanwhile, the country's death toll from the virus increased by 801 to 115,099.

Mexico ranks fourth among Latin American countries in terms of documented COVID-19 cases, following Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

The country has the world's fourth highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, Brazil and India.

Honduras 

Honduras added 301 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 114,943, the health ministry tweeted Wednesday on its official account.

The country also reported 12 more deaths from the disease, taking the national death toll to 3,001, said the ministry. 

Zimbabwe 

Zimbabwe said Tuesday it will quarantine travelers who come into the country without genuine COVID-19-free certificates obtained within 48 hours.

Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said this during a post-cabinet media briefing.

"Noting the need to guarantee convenience to the traveling public, Cabinet reiterates that all travelers coming into the country are required to submit COVID-19-free certificates obtained 48 hours before date of departure and obtained from a World Health Organization-certified laboratory. Those who arrive without these requirements will be quarantined," Mutsvangwa said.

Tunisia

The COVID-19 vaccines will be free for all Tunisian citizens, Hechmi Louzir, director general of the Pasteur Institute of Tunis, said on Tuesday.

Louzir told Tunis Afrique Presse that the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be allocated to those suffering from chronic diseases, the elderly, and health workers, adding that the vaccination will not be mandatory.

The health official affirmed that his country has already reserved 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Ethiopia 

Ethiopia on Tuesday reported 300 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 117,542, Health Minister Lia Tadesse tweeted.

Meanwhile, four more COVID-19 deaths were recorded, taking the nationwide count to 1,813, she said.

The minister also said that with 1,082 new recoveries registered, the national total amounted to 96,307.

Libya 

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Tuesday reported 660 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's total caseload to 92,017.

Meanwhile, five more COVID-19 deaths and 691 more recoveries were recorded, taking the country's death toll to 1,319 and total recoveries to 62,144, the center said in a statement, adding it received 5,035 suspected samples in the past day.

South Africa 

South Africa on Tuesday reported 7,552 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 873,679, the country's health department reported.

Meanwhile, 210 more COVID-19 deaths were recorded, taking the country's death toll from the disease to 23,661, it said.

The department also reported a total of 764,977 recoveries from the disease to date.