A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and syringes at a vaccination center in Wurzburg, Germany, on Jan 4, 2021. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

CALGARY / LONDON / ROME / PARIS / ADDIS ABABA / NEW YORK / SKOPJE / JOHANNESBURG / RABAT / BUENOS AIRES / QUITO / VIENNA / LUSAKA / LA PAZ / ATHENS / BERLIN / SAO PAULO / COPENHAGEN / MEXICO CITY / HAVANA / MOSCOW - The European Union is negotiating with Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE on a deal that could double their supply of COVID-19 vaccine to the region, according to people familiar with the talks.

The new contract would include 100 million doses, as well as an option for as many as 200 million more, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

Governments across the EU face growing questions over the slow pace of their vaccine rollouts, and shots from other drugmakers such as AstraZeneca Plc won’t be available for weeks at the earliest.

The attempt to secure more of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine comes less than a week after the 27-member bloc boosted its original 200 million-dose order to 300 million. If the option in the new agreement were exercised, it would lift the total doses to 600 million, enough to vaccinate two-thirds of the bloc’s population based on a two-dose regimen.

In premarket trading, BioNTech American depositary receipts rose 2 percent, with Pfizer showing little change.

The EU drug regulator said a decision on the safety and efficacy of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine would come on Wednesday at the earliest. 

Hungary

Hungary’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 10,000 as fatalities spiraled during the pandemic’s autumn and winter surge.

The eastern European country registered 103 deaths on Monday, taking the overall COVID-19 toll to 10,080, according to government data published on Tuesday. 

Deaths jumped after an explosion in contagion following a summer lull and as Prime Minister Viktor Orban delayed tough virus curbs despite warnings from doctors about a “health catastrophe”

Deaths jumped after an explosion in contagion following a summer lull and as Prime Minister Viktor Orban delayed tough virus curbs despite warnings from doctors about a “health catastrophe”.

Hungary has the third-highest number of deaths as a share of the population in the European Union, according to the rolling 14-day average reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on Dec 30.

Opposition politicians argue that the toll may be higher, citing significant discrepancies between reported virus-related fatalities and excess deaths in 2020 compared with previous years. Hungary had the highest number of monthly deaths in November in more than 20 years, with fatalities rising 52 percent from the year-ago period, according to the Hungarian statistics office.

Orban has defended the government’s record, telling state radio on Sunday that Hungary “succeeded in restraining” the virus’ second wave and avoided excess deaths seen in countries where the healthcare system was overwhelmed by patients.

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 85.6 million while the global death toll topped 1.85 million , according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In this image grab made from video, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation from 10 Downing Street, London, Jan 4, 2021, setting out new emergency measures to control the spread of the coronavirus in England. (PHOTO / POOL VIA AP)

UK

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday cancelled a planned trip to India later this month, citing the need to oversee the pandemic response at home.

“The prime minister spoke to (Indian) Prime Minister Modi this morning, to express his regret that he will be unable to visit India later this month as planned,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

“In light of the national lockdown announced last night, and the speed at which the new coronavirus variant is spreading, the prime minister said that it was important for him to remain in the UK so he can focus on the domestic response to the virus.”

Britain offered a new 4.6 billion pound (US$6.2 billion) support package for businesses struggling to cope with a third national lockdown that began this week to stem a new wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping the country.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new national COVID-19 lockdown in England late on Monday saying the highly contagious new coronavirus variant first identified in Britain was spreading so fast it risked overwhelming the National Health Service (NHS) within 21 days.

Under the lockdown, which will last unitl at least Feb 15, people are only allowed to go to work if it's impossible to work from home, such as construction workers. In addition, people are allowed to go out to shop for necessities including food and medicines, and to exercise, ideally once a day and locally.

British PM Johnson's announcement came as the UK reported it's highest daily tally with 58,784 new cases

All schools and colleges will close from Tuesday (except for vulnerable children and those of key workers), and switch to remote learning until the middle of February.

The latest development came as Britain reported the country's highest daily tally with 58,784 new cases, according to official figures. It was the seventh day in a row that new cases topped 50,000. The country now has a total of 2,713,563 cases and 75,431 deaths.

Johnson announced a target to give shots to 13.9 million people at the highest risk from the disease by mid-February. Once they have all been vaccinated, the restrictions can begin to be eased, he said.

Meanwhile, Scotland also imposed the most stringent COVID-19 lockdown since last March. Scots would be legally required to stay at home for January from midnight, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. Schools will close for all but the children of essential workers.

Sturgeon said the new variant accounted for nearly half of new cases in the region.

ALSO READ: Germany will extend curbs amid criticism over vaccine rollout

In another development, Scottish police have arrested Margaret Ferrier, a member of Britain’s parliament, for allegedly breaking COVID-19 rules when she made a long train journey last year after testing positive for the virus.

Ferrier learned that her test was positive at the end of September after she had spoken in Britain’s parliament at Westminster. She has apologized for then taking the train more than 400 miles back to Scotland. Her Scottish National Party (SNP) suspended her shortly afterwards.

Separately, Britain will shortly publish plans for new border restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove told Sky News on Tuesday.

“We are looking at further options to restrict international travel,” Gove told BBC TV separately.

Italy

Italian ministers decided to keep nationwide restrictions in place this weekend to slow coronavirus infections, but agreed to relax curbs on weekdays.

Ministers agreed at a late Monday night cabinet meeting to return to the old, three-tier system, which allows for different measures to be applied to different regions.

All bars and restaurants across the country will have to close this weekend, with travel between towns and cities kept to a minimum.

The government has also decided to postpone the Thursday reopening of high schools to 50 percent of their capacity until Monday. Some regions, including northern Veneto around Venice, have decided to delay the reopening until Jan 31.

According to a government decree, a ban already in place on movement between Italy’s 20 regions was also extended to Jan 15, with travel permitted only for work, health or emergencies.

The moves came a day after Italy reported 348 coronavirus-related deaths while the daily tally fell to 10,800 from 14,245.

In total, Italy has registered 75,680 COVID-19 deaths, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world. The country has also reported 2.166 million cases to date, the health ministry said.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 stood at 23,317, including 2,579 in intensive care. 

Pedestrians wearing face masks walk on an almost empty street in Rome, Italy,  on Dec 24, 2020, amid a partial lockdown imposed over the Christmas and New Year holidays in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19. (VINCENZO PINTO / AFP)

Canada

Eight Canadian politicians resigned or were demoted on Monday after traveling internationally over the Christmas holidays despite urgings from government officials to avoid non-essential trips during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The development follows Ontario’s Finance Minister Rod Phillips' resignation last week after public outrage over a Caribbean vacation he took in December.

READ MORE: Vacations abroad cost Canadian politicians' jobs amid virus curbs

US

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his state has found its first case of the new UK variant in a man in his 60s living in a town north of Albany has the new strain. The man, who is recovering, had not traveled recently, suggesting community spread is taking place. 

Meanwhile, Cuomo called on the state’s public and private hospitals to administer coronavirus vaccines more quickly, warning of fines of as much as US$100,000 for those who don’t comply.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he expects the city to administer 400,000 vaccinations a week at 250 sites by the end of January. The city has only administered around 100,000 doses since it began vaccinating residents about three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said suggesting changes to the FDA-authorized dosing or schedules of COVID-19 vaccines at this time is “premature and not rooted solidly in the available evidence.” The FDA has been following discussions about reducing doses, extending the length of time between them and other potential changes, he said in a statement.

The US has so far reported over 20.8 million confirmed cases and more than 353,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

READ MORE: US COVID-19 cases surpass 20 million

A medical expert warned that surging COVID-19 hospitalizations were putting the country's healthcare system at real crisis, CNN reported.

"This is about total collapse of the healthcare system if we have another spike," Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center, said in Saturday's report.

The US has "remained above 100,000 hospitalizations for 32 straight days," and on Thursday, a record 125,379 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the report.

South Africa

South Africa's COVID-19 death toll on Monday surpassed the 30,000 mark to reach 30,011, after 434 additional fatalities were recorded over the past 24 hours, said Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.

Both the Western Cape (157 deaths) and Eastern Cape (133 deaths) continued recording more deaths than other provinces.

A total of 12,601 new infections were detected during the same period, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 1,113,349.

Bolivia

Bolivia's Foreign Affairs Minister Rogelio Mayta has tested positive for COVID-19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported Monday.

"The foreign minister is stable and, as established by the biosafety protocols, he is isolated and under proper medical supervision," the ministry said in a statement.

Mayta is the second cabinet minister in President Luis Arce's government to be infected. On Dec 28, 2020, Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo tested positive and was also reported to be in "stable" condition.

Presidential spokesman Jorge Richter said some deputy ministers have also tested positive, but did not provide further details. He also said that Arce, together with Vice-President David Choquehuanca, have tested negative.

Meanwhile, Veronica Hurtado, secretary of health for the municipal government of La Paz, said the city's mayor Luis Revilla was infected for the second time by COVID-19 with moderate symptoms and had been quarantined.

Bolivia has so far reported 162,661 cases of COVID-19 and 9,201 deaths from the disease, the Ministry of Health said Sunday. 

France

The new variant of the coronavirus is present in Paris, Martin Hirsch, director-general of the Paris hospitals system, told France 2 television on Tuesday.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran had earlier told RTL radio that France has seen about a dozen cases of the new UK variant.

Veran also said that the high level of coronavirus infections in France made easing current COVID-19 related restrictions unlikely.

The French health ministry reported 4,022 new infections over the past 24 hours on Monday, bringing the tally to 2,659,750, the fifth-highest in the world.

The death toll was up by 378, at 65,415, the seventh-highest in the world.  There were 24,995 patients being treated for the virus, a high since Dec 22.

France is accelerating its COVID-19 vaccination of medical staff in hospitals after a slow initial rollout that has drawn an angry rebuke from President Emmanuel Macron.

Veran said several thousand COVID-19 shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered across France on Monday.

A patient is injected with the coronavirus vaccine at a clinic in Strasbourg, eastern France, Jan 4, 2021. (JEAN-FRANCOIS BADIAS / AP)

France has been slow off the mark, delivering just 516 inoculations during the first week of a campaign that focused on nursing home residents.

Veran said some 500,000 vaccine doses would be delivered by Wednesday afternoon and that France would have one million doses available by the end of this week.

The sluggish start has irritated Macron, who called a meeting with his prime minister and health minister on Monday evening to discuss how to speed up deployment of the vaccine. Macron wanted to “put pressure on the system” and quicken the vaccine’s deployment, an Elysee official said.

Also on Monday, France sent 12 million pupils back to school after the Christmas holidays as planned.

Ecuador

Ecuador's Minister of Public Health Juan Carlos Zevallos reported Monday that in 17 of the country's 24 provinces, the speed of transmission of the novel coronavirus has increased, pushing the average positivity rate nationwide slightly higher to 21 percent.

The situation is most concerning in the central highland provinces of Carchi, Canar and Cotopaxi, where the positivity rate has almost doubled to 38 percent, the minister said.

According to Zevallos, holiday celebrations in December resulted in an increased demand in intensive care unit beds.

"Our national ICU bed occupancy is between 64 and 68 percent," he said, adding that there are some hospitals that are already at full capacity.

In addition, Zevallos announced that the Health Ministry will begin genome monitoring and sequencing to detect any new variants of COVID-19 that may enter the country.

Austria

Austria has detected five new cases of the mutant strains of coronavirus first found in the UK and South Africa, the Health Ministry announced at a press conference on Monday.

The five cases include four infected with the strain first found in the UK and one with the variant first detected in South Africa. Three of the five infected people are children.

"There was no infection in the family circle," Franz Allerberger, head of Austria's Public Health Agency, said at the press conference, adding that contact tracing procedures in all cases were well followed.

The Austrian government on Monday decided to further extend the current COVID-19 lockdown to Jan 24.

The latest data from Austria's Public Health Agency show that Austria has recorded 366,525 COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic, with 6,357 deaths.

Argentina

Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez on Monday called for greater social responsibility, especially among the country's youth, in combating a rise in COVID-19.

In a statement, the president said he wanted to warn Argentines about the severity of the outbreak, especially "the youngest, because all the data indicates that is where we have the biggest problem."

Argentina has so far confirmed 1,640,718 cases and 43,482 deaths as of Sunday night.

Africa tally

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded across the African continent reached 2,830,462 as of Monday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The death toll stood at 67,246, it added.

Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health on Monday reported 297 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the country's tally to 125,919.

The death toll rose by two to ,950, the ministry said.  

It added that some 112,610 patients had recovered so far, including another 243 in the last 24-hour period.

The ministry said that there were some 11,357 active cases, of which 262 were in severe conditions.

Morocco

Morocco announced on Monday 656 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the North African country to 443,802.

The number of recoveries increased by 1,579 to 414,972 while the death toll rose by 53 to 7,538, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

There were 1,169 patients in intensive care units, according to the ministry.

Eritrea

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Eritrea rose to 1,363 after the Red Sea nation reported 42 new cases on Monday, the Ministry of Health said.

The ministry said that the number of recoveries increased by 18 to 694.

The Red Sea nation has recorded only one COVID-19-related death so far.

Zambia

The Zambian government said on Monday that it will start administering COVID-19 vaccines next month.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said that the government was concerned with the current surge in cases during the second wave which has resulted in severity of cases.

According to him, the second wave has been fueled by failure to adhere to preventive health regulations. He warned that the government would be forced to introduce tough measures if people continue disregarding the health guidelines.

The Zambian minister said investigations have established that most of the patients contracted the disease after attending events where there were huge crowds of people.

Zambia has seen a surge in new cases in recent weeks with the cumulative cases standing at 21,993 and 398 deaths.  

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 11,897 to 1,787,410, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

The reported death toll rose by 944 to 35,518, the tally showed.

According to a separate tally by Johns Hopkins University, there were 12,320 new infections and 957 deaths in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning.

A total of 265,986 people have been vaccinated as of Monday, the RKI said.

Germany was weighing on Monday whether to allow a delay in administering a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to make scarce supplies go further, after a similar move by Britain last week.

The health ministry was seeking the view of an independent vaccination commission on whether to delay a second shot beyond a current 42-day maximum limit, according to a one-page document seen by Reuters on Monday.

Brazil

Brazil registered 543 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 196,561, the government announced on Monday.

The Ministry of Health confirmed 20,006 new cases, taking the nationwide count to 7,753,752.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, is the most affected with 1,473,670 cases and 46,888 deaths in total, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 439,345 cases and 25,617 deaths.

Also on Monday, the Sao Paulo government confirmed Brazil's first two cases of the new UK variant.

North Macedonia

North Macedonia will receive 800,000 vaccines against COVID-19 from Pfizer starting from February, the Health Ministry said in a press release issued on Monday.

According to the ministry, the agreement was reached earlier in the day in a telephone conversation between Minister of Health Venko Filipce and a senior representative of the company.

The first batch of 5,850 doses will arrive in North Macedonia in February followed by a larger shipment in March and April, the ministry said.

On the same day, the country reported 106 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally to 84,129, including 63,532 recoveries and 2,550 fatalities.

Moderna

Moderna Inc said it will make at least 600 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, with a goal of finishing the year with as many as 1 billion doses produced. 

The announcement increased the bottom end of the company’s production forecast by 100 million doses. 

Moderna is “continuing to invest and add staff” to produce the two-shot vaccine, according to a statement by the Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech company on Monday.

Ireland 

Ireland will start suspending non-essential hospital services, in an effort to preserve capacity to handle surging coronavirus cases. 

The country reported a record 6,110 new cases Monday, with six deaths.

“This is a really serious situation that demands immediate action,” Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan told reporters in Dublin.

People with flu-like symptoms should now assume they have COVID-19, he said, while the positivity rate is now at about 20 percent. 

The government may delay reopening schools until the end of January, state broadcaster RTE reported. Schools are due to open on Jan 11.

Greece

Greece’s Orthodox Church said on Monday it would defy a government lockdown order imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus and open churches to the faithful during the Epiphany celebration on Jan 6.

The Greek Orthodox Church said it had written to the government urging it to respect the agreement allowing Epiphany services to go ahead.

The letter marks a rare show of dissent by Church authorities, which until now have largely respected government restrictions curbing religious services along with other public activities during the pandemic.

Greek health officials reported Monday the country has logged a total of 140,526 infections and 5,011 COVID-related deaths so far.

Denmark

Denmark approved on Monday a delay of up to six weeks between the first and second shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The Danish Health Authority will allow a wait of up to six weeks before administering a second dose, its head, Soren Brostrom, told local news wire Ritzau on Monday, after scrutinizing vaccine data. But Brostrom said the original guidelines of waiting only three to four weeks should be followed whenever possible.

“If you go longer than six weeks, we cannot see the scientific evidence that you are protected with certainty. Therefore we cannot recommend that,” Brostrom added.

As of Monday, a total of 46,975 Danes had received the first Pfizer-BioNTech shot, mostly health workers and the elderly.

Mexico

Mexico’s health ministry on Monday reported 6,464 newly confirmed coronavirus cases and 544 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,455,219 infections and 127,757 deaths.

Cuba

Cuba on Monday set a new record for daily COVID-19 cases with 316 infections as thousands of people returned to schools and work after the Christmas break.

The development came amid a surge in COVID-19 cases after Havana's Jose Marti International Airport resumed commercial flights on Nov 15.

The new cases brought the tally to 12,740. The death toll remained unchanged at 147.

According to health authorities, there were 1,738 patients being treated at hospitals, of whom 20 were in intensive care units.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel called for more medical resources in intensive care units, stressing that the island is one of Latin American and Caribbean countries with the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates.

Russia

More than a million Russians have been vaccinated with the homegrown Sputnik V COVID-19 shot, RIA Novosti newswire reported, citing Alexander Gintsburg, head of Russia’s Gamaleya research center for epidemiology and microbiology. About 100,000 doses of the vaccine are being shipped daily to clinics, and no negative side effects have so far been recorded, RIA said, citing Gintsburg.

Russia reported 24,246 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, including 4,842 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 3,284,384.

Authorities said 518 people had died, taking Russia’s official death toll to 59,506.

Egypt

Egypt's health ministry has allocated 34 centers across the nation for providing Sinopharm anti-coronavirus vaccines to citizens, state-run Ahram news website reported on Tuesday.

The citizens will receive the vaccines later this month, according to the report.

All the centers, in 27 provinces, will work across the week even during the official vacations, it added.

The report noted that the priority would be given to the health staff, and patients with cancers and chronic diseases.