In this Sept 11, 2020 file photo, a laboratory technicians handles vials as part of filling and packaging tests for the large-scale production and supply of the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, in Anagni, southeast of Rome. (VINCENZO PINTO / AFP)

LONDON / LOS ANGELES / WASHINGTON / ADDIS ABABA / RIO DE JANEIRO / SAO PAULO / BERLIN / STOCKHOLM / VALLETTA / PARIS / ROME / QUITO / BUENOS AIRES / KIEV / OTTAWA / LIMA / HARARE / MEXICO CITY / LA PAZ / MOSCOW - The world risks a “moral catastrophe” if COVID-19 vaccinations are delayed in Africa while wealthier regions inoculate their entire populations, the head of the continent’s disease control body said on Thursday.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hopes significant vaccination campaigns on the continent will begin in April, its head, John Nkengasong, told reporters.

“That’s a long way to go given that this virus transmits very quickly,” he said, adding that in Africa, “the second wave is here with a vengeance”.

Cases of the new coronavirus increased by nearly 19 percent since last week and deaths increased by 26 percent, according to Africa CDC data. Africa has recorded 2.7 million coronavirus infections and 64,000 deaths as of Thursday, it says.

UK

The new coronavirus variant that emerged in the UK is more transmissible and appears to affect a higher proportion of people under 20, according to a report from Imperial College London and other science groups.

The mutation has “a substantial transmission advantage” and it can raise the virus’s reproduction rate, which indicates how many people one patient infects, by as much as 0.7, the researchers found. Social distancing measures that worked against earlier strains of the virus were insufficient to control the spread of the new variant, the study found.

Britain’s armed forces could administer 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine a day if required, helping immunize millions of vulnerable people before the spring, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Thursday.

Wallace said he had already authorized 130 military planners and personnel to work with the health service on ramping up the vaccine rollout, and more staff could be used to administer the vaccine itself.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered millions more people to live under the strictest restrictions from Thursday to counter a new variant of the virus that is spreading at a “sheer pace” across the country.

The government said three quarters of England’s population would be in the top tier of restrictions from 0001 on Thursday, covering 44.1 million people. In those areas, hospitality venues and non-essential shops are closed and households cannot mix.

The UK reported 981 additional deaths, the highest daily toll since April 24, according to the latest official figures released on Wednesday

According to the latest official figures released on Wednesday, the UK reported 981 additional deaths, the highest daily toll since April 24, bringing the toll to 72,548.

The tally rose by 50,023 to 2,432,888. Scotland recorded the highest daily number of cases since the pandemic began with 2,045 new infections logged in the past 24 hours.

Everyone in England should stay at home when they celebrate the New Year on Thursday night, the government said.

ALSO READ: UK first in world to approve AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine

Meanwhile, the government said that secondary schools would delay and stagger their reopening after Christmas to enable testing to be implemented, while some primary schools in the worst-hit areas will not open to all pupils.

In Northern Ireland, the region's Education Minister Peter Weir said Thursday that primary and secondary school children in the region will return to the classroom later than planned because of “unprecedented levels” of positive COVID-19 tests since Christmas.

In Scotland, large areas are under tough lockdowns where pubs, restaurants and cafes must close, while schools will open later than expected. Northern Ireland and Wales have their own similar, tough restrictions.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the country’s hospitals were coming under very significant pressure, with the number of people battling the virus on wards or intensive care as high as it was during the first wave.

A sign of an NHS COVID-19 vaccination center for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is seen at the entrance in London on Dec 30, 2020. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

Global tally

The global COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 1.8 million while the number of coronavirus cases reported worldwide topped 82.5 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

US

The new coronavirus variant originally discovered in Britain has been detected in Southern California, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday, a day after the first known US case was documented in Colorado.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis described the patient infected with the new UK variant in his state as a National Guard soldier in his 20s who had been assigned to help deal with a COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing home

Colorado Governor Jared Polis described the patient infected in his state as a National Guard soldier in his 20s who had been assigned to help deal with a COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing home in semi-rural Elbert County, on the outskirts of the Denver metropolitan area.

The director Colorado’s Public Health and Environment Department told reporters that a second member of the National Guard may also have contracted the UK variant, though the state was still awaiting final laboratory confirmation.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is looking into whether the mutations will make existing treatments less effective, Henry Walke, the agency’s COVID-19 incident manager, said.

So far, the US has reported over 19.6 million cases and more than 341,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reported a new daily high of 13,422 cases as he stressed the need to reopen the economy long before the majority of the population is vaccinated.

US states are improvising new delivery systems and rewriting priorities as vaccinations are off to a tortoise-paced start. Some states are already starting to offer the vaccine more widely than the federal government recommends. In Colorado, the vaccine will be available to everyone 70 and up, Polis said. 

Meanwhile, Governor of Washington state Jay Inslee announced a one-week extension of restrictions.

Separately, the US may boost COVID-19 testing for international passengers who come from destinations in addition to the U.K., in a bid to increase overseas travel. Federal agencies have been in discussions with airlines about how to restore international air travel safely amid the pandemic. 

Bolivia

Russia’s sovereign fund, Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), agreed to supply Bolivia with enough of its two-dose Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to vaccinate 2.6 million people, RDIF said on Wednesday, marking the South American nation’s first major vaccine deal.

RDIF said the agreement would make it possible for more than 20 percent of Bolivia’s population to access the vaccine and supply would be facilitated by the Russian fund’s international partners in India, China, South Korea and other countries. Bolivia’s population is 11.35 million and 20 percent would be 2.27 million people.

Bolivian President Luis Arce said in a signing ceremony that the contract had guaranteed his country 5.2 million doses, but the Russia fund later clarified that it had committed 2.6 million doses, or 5.2 million injections of the two-shot vaccine.

A fund spokesman confirmed the promised supply would treat 2.6 million people.

Arce said Russia would send 6,000 doses, for 3,000 “treatments”, in January to vaccinate its most vulnerable populations, 1.7 million doses by the end of March and the rest “between April and May”.

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca said it has submitted full data to pursue conditional marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency for its COVID-19 vaccine, but the regulator said it still needs more information for approval.

An EMA official said earlier in the week that more data was needed and that AstraZeneca had not given enough detail to warrant a conditional marketing licence for the shot it has developed with Oxford University.

“The latest clinical package was received on 21 December and is currently being assessed,” the EMA said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the company also said that Argentina’s regulator approved its vaccine for emergency use there. 

Brazil’s government has given a best-case-scenario date of Jan 20 for AstraZeneca vaccinations to begin.

Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa met with AstraZeneca Plc representatives in the morning and said the company’s local partners, federally-funded biomedical institute Fiocruz, will file for emergency use authorization, without saying when.

Bulgaria 

Bulgaria may complete the first stage of vaccination with 9,750 Pfizer shots by the end of Thursday, the government said. The next delivery of 25,000 shots is expected next week, and the vaccination of all front-line medics may be completed by the end of January.

South Africa 

South Africa reported a record 17,710 new daily COVID-19 cases days after control measures were implemented to slow a surging second wave of infections.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country since the start of the pandemic stood at 1,039,161 with 28,033 deaths, the health department said in a statement late Wednesday. 

A positivity rate of 33 percent “remains a major concern,” it said. The number may be distorted by testing lags over the festive season.

Germany

In her last New Year’s address as chancellor, Angela Merkel called on Germans to remain disciplined in the fight against the coronavirus.

“These days and weeks - there is nothing to sugar coat - are difficult times for our country,” Merkel said in the text of a speech to be broadcast late Thursday. “And so it will continue to be for quite a while.”

READ MORE: Take virus as wake-up call, experts tell world

Merkel’s comments indicate that restrictions to contain the disease will continue beyond Jan 10, when most curbs are currently set to expire. The chancellor will meet with the premiers of Germany’s 16 states next week to discuss whether to keep non-essential stores, gyms and restaurants shut for longer.

The mass-selling Bild newspaper reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff had agreed during a video conference with regional leaders to extend a lockdown until Jan 24 or 31.

Germany is struggling to contain the spread of COVID-19, like many of its European neighbors. Daily infections rose to a record of 49,044 on Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The number of fatalities jumped by another 963, one day after deaths exceeded 1,000 for the first time. Intensive care units threaten to become overloaded and contagion rates are more than double government targets.

Germany has made relatively quick headway in its inoculations, saying 78,000 shots have been administered, but there have been reports of setbacks with some vaccination centers shutting down temporarily because of supply shortages.

Responding to complaints in the capital Berlin and in the federal states of Brandenburg and Bavaria of delays in delivering the Pfizer vaccine, the Health Ministry said further shipments were due on Jan 8 and Jan 18.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn urged “a thorough and quick examination” of the AstraZeneca vaccine by EMA, in addition to the expected clearance of a shot from Moderna in early January.

Georgia 

Georgia reported 1,527 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing its total to 227,420, according to the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).

Among the new cases, 710 were confirmed in the capital city of Tbilisi, said the center.

As of Thursday, 211,727 of the 227,420 patients have recovered, while 2,505 others have died from the disease, it added.

Spain

Spain on Wednesday said 9,860 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed over the previous day, the highest number reported since the start of the pandemic.

Earlier this week, Spain became the fourth European country to record more than 50,000 coronavirus deaths. Spaniards started getting the vaccine on Sunday, and officials said the country will track people who refuse to take it.

Ireland 

Ireland’s chief medical officer Tony Holohan said the latest virus wave appears to involve much earlier transmission into older-age groups than previously, spurring a significant increase in hospitalizations. The government on Wednesday announced a third national lockdown, to avoid what health authorities described as an “almost unimaginable” outbreak.

Ireland will enter lockdown for a third time, as the COVID-19 spread threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

The government will close non-essential stores, further limit travel and delay school reopening, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said in an televised national address. 

Gyms, golf courses and tennis clubs will also close. 

The measures will last for at least one month.

Sweden

Sweden has reported four cases of the UK variant, the Public Health Agency confirmed Wednesday.

According to Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, a British Airways flight from London, carrying 29 Swedes and four Finns whose final destination was Helsinki, landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on Saturday. None of the 33 passengers were turned away, tested on arrival or required to go into quarantine.

Interior Minister Mikael Damberg said Wednesday that starting from Jan 1, non-Swedish nationals traveling from Britain will need to show a negative test result taken not more than 72 hours before entering Sweden.

Also on Wednesday, Sweden took steps to increase anti-virus measures, recommending commuters wear masks on public transport during rush hour as the country announced a record death toll from COVID-19.

The move came on a day the country said it had registered 8,846 new cases and 243 deaths, the highest in Sweden since the pandemic began, although the health agency said statistics over the Christmas period are skewed by less testing and delays in reporting deaths. Sweden’s death toll stands at 8,727. 

“We know that public transport means situations where congestion can be difficult to avoid ... then mouth protection can be useful,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said in a statement, which added that the recommendation was effective from Jan 7.

Wednesday’s updated guidance from the country’s health authority and Tegnell, who is the main architect of Sweden’s no-lockdown strategy, marks a shift in policy for the Nordic outlier’s health experts.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 2,525 new COVID-19 infections in the highest daily spike since the outbreak, bringing the national total to 113,010, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that 13 of the new cases are imported and 2,512 are local transmissions.

Another eight deaths were reported, pushing the total deaths to 471.

Some 1,481 more patients were released after recovery, bringing the total cured and discharged to 88,941, or 78.7 percent of all cases.

Malta

Malta has detected three cases of the UK variant, Minister for Health Chris Fearne announced in a tweet on Wednesday.

Fearne said the cases were immediately isolated and their contacts quarantined.

Superintendent of Public Health, Charmaine Gauci, said that the new cases were detected in a 37-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man, who landed in Malta from the UK on Dec 19. They tested positive at the airport and were immediately placed in isolation. Their nationalities were not disclosed.

The third case, involving a 75-year-old Maltese woman, is still being investigated to determine where she could have contracted the new variant.

Currently, Malta has 1,392 active cases, according to the  Health Ministry. As of Wednesday, the pandemic has claimed 216 lives in the country.  

Brazil

Brazil recorded 55,649 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 1,194 deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Brazil has registered more than 7.6 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 193,875, according to ministry data.

Travelers wait to board an interstate bus amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dec 30, 2020. (ANDRE PENNER / AP)

France

The French health ministry reported 26,457 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Wednesday, up sharply from 11,395 on Tuesday, and a level unseen since Nov. 18.

France, which launched its gradual vaccination campaign Sunday, saw the number of persons hospitalised for the disease decline by 183 over 24 hours.

France’s cumulative total of cases now stands at 2,600,498, the fifth-highest in the world.

The COVID-19 death toll was up by 303, at 64,381, versus a rise of 969 on Tuesday.

Italy

Italy will not make COVID-19 vaccinations obligatory, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday, adding he was confident there would be a large-scale demand for the shots among Italians on a voluntary basis.

Italy plans to vaccinate 10 to 15 million of its roughly 60 million citizens against COVID-19 by April 2021, Conte said.

Separately, Conte said Italy must hurry up in presenting its national recovery plan to access some 209 billion euros (US$256.55 billion) from a EU fund designed to help the bloc’s economies worst-hit by the pandemic.

Italy’s coronavirus toll is probably considerably higher than reported, statistics bureau ISTAT said in an analysis pointing to thousands of fatalities that have not been officially attributed to COVID-19.

In its second report on the epidemic’s impact on Italy’s mortality rate, ISTAT said that from February to the end of November, there were almost 84,000 more deaths compared with the average of the previous five years.

Of these “excess deaths”, 57,647 - or 69 percent - were officially registered by the health ministry and civil protection unit as being attributed to the new coronavirus.

Argentina

Argentina's National Administration of Drugs, Foods and Medical Devices (ANMAT) on Wednesday approved the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.

It is Argentina's third authorization of a vaccine against COVID-19, following the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec 22, and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine on Dec 23.

Argentina registered 11,765 new cases and 145 deaths on Wednesday, taking the national count 1,613,928 and the toll to 43,163, the health ministry said.

There were 144,089 active cases and 3,440 people in intensive care, it said.

Ecuador

Ecuador's Ministry of Public Health on Wednesday reported 1,186 new COVID-19 cases and 22 fatalities, raising the total number of cases to 211,512 and the death toll to 9,469.

According to the ministry's daily report, another 4,554 "probable deaths" caused by COVID-19 pushed the actual death toll over 14,000.

The capital Quito, located in Pichincha, remains the epicenter of the outbreak in the country, with 69,067 positive cases, 463 more than on Tuesday.

Quito's Secretary of Health Ximena Abarca told local media there was an increase in the occupancy of intensive care unit (ICU) beds at public hospitals and an increase in mortality.

According to hospital reports, in the capital, the average age of patients admitted with the virus has fallen to around 40.

Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country has signed a contract for more than 1.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's SinoVac Biotech, and the state is working on obtaining more vaccines, the president's press service reported on Wednesday.

"We signed the first contract for the supply of the vaccine - no longer a memorandum, but a contract for more than 1.9 million doses," said Zelenskiy.

He said that Ukraine already has an agreement on 8 million doses of the vaccine under the COVAX program, which the state will receive for free, but the authorities are trying to increase this number.

Ukraine has so far reported  1,045,348 COVID-19 cases and 18,324 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the health ministry.

Canada

Ontario and Quebec, the two most populous provinces in Canada, reported single-day records of new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday morning.

Ontario posted 2,923 new cases, bringing its caseload to 178,831.

There were 1,177 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, the highest number of admissions since the start of the pandemic. Of those, 324 were being treated in intensive care and 204 required ventilators to breathe, according to the Ontario government.

Meanwhile, Quebec reported 2,511 new cases, bringing its caseload to 199,822.

Hospitalizations in the province jumped by 80 from Tuesday to Wednesday and there were 1,211 people hospitalized.

As of Wednesday noon, Canada has reported a total of 570,940 COVID-19 cases and 15,438 deaths, according to CTV.

Moderna

At least three shipments of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Texas last week with signs the shots had strayed from their required temperature range, prompting a delay in other deliveries, according to the state hospital association. It was unclear how many doses were affected.

Some Moderna vaccine shipments that were set for delivery last week were held back over the temperature issue, said Carrie Kroll, vice-president of advocacy, quality and public health at the Texas Hospital Association. The US replaced the shipments and held back other deliveries because of a potential problem with the temperature sensors, Kroll said.

A Moderna spokesman referred questions to the federal government and McKesson Corp, which is distributing Moderna’s shots. Spokespersons for the US CDC and McKesson said they were looking into the matter.

Peru

Peruvian officials on Wednesday warned citizens not to lower their guard against COVID-19 amid a second wave of infections.

At a press conference, Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez expressed concern over more relaxed social behavior during the year-end holidays, as the country's tally stood at 1,012,614.

Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti warned of "pandemic fatigue" weakening control measures, and called on the population to comply with recommendations to avoid reunions and gatherings for New Year's Eve.

The government could take drastic measures if situation worsened and infections continue rising, Minister of Production Jose Luis Chicoma said.  

Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean government on Wednesday announced the postponement of school reopening as COVID-19 cases surge, coupled with the threat of flooding posed by Cyclone Chalane.

Schools were supposed to reopen for the first term of 2021 on Jan 4.

Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education Tumisang Thabela said in a notice to learners, parents and other stakeholders that public examinations would still proceed as scheduled on Jan 5.

To date, the country has recorded 13,325 cases, including 359 deaths and 11,067 recoveries.

Mexico

Mexico registered 12,406 newly confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,052 additional fatalities on Wednesday, bringing the total in the country to 1,413,935 infections and 124,897 deaths, according to the health ministry’s official count.

Russia

Russia reported 27,747 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 6,566 in Moscow, taking the nation's tally to 3,159,297 since the pandemic began.

Authorities reported 593 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 57,019.