Handout picture released by Panama's Aeropuerto Tocumen, of Cuban medical personnel upon their arrival to Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, on Dec 24, 2020. (AEROPUERTO TOCUMEN / AFP)
ADDIS ABABA / BUENOS AIRES / MINSK / SAO PAULO / OTTAWA / HAVANA / QUITO / ADDIS ABABA / PARIS / TBILISI / RABAT / MOSCOW / TUNIS / NEW YORK - Communist-run Cuba said it had signed an accord with Iran to transfer the technology for its most advanced coronavirus vaccine candidate and carry out last-stage clinical trials of the shot in the Islamic Republic.
The allies are both under fierce US sanctions that exempt medicine yet often put foreign pharmaceutical companies off trading with them and as such they seek to be self-reliant. Both are also strapped for cash.
Iran launched human trials of its first domestic COVID-19 vaccine candidate late last month, while Cuba has four candidates currently in human trials.
Once its most advanced candidate, Soberana (Sovereign) 2, has completed Phase II trials which started on Dec 22, it will be tested in Phase III trials in around 150,000 people in Havana, officials have said.
Yet the Caribbean country will need to conduct more late stage trials abroad too given it does not have a high infection rate due to its successful management of its outbreak, they said. Iran, meanwhile, has been the worst-hit country in the Middle East.
Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute said late on Friday it has signed an accord with Iran’s Pasteur Institute to collaborate on testing of Soberana 2.
Cuba says several countries have expressed interest in its coronavirus vaccines but this is the first such accord it has reached.
Cuba reported 365 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, the highest daily number since the disease first appeared in the country in March, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
So far, Cuba has registered 14,188 cases of COVID-19, with 148 deaths.
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Africa
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reached 3,021,769 as of Sunday morning, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
According to the continental disease control and prevention agency's Africa COVID-19 dashboard, the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 72,121.
A total of 2,450,492 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent as of Sunday morning.
Argentina
Argentina registered 11,057 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the national tally to 1,714,409, the health ministry said.
The ministry also reported 144 more deaths from the disease, bringing the nationwide death toll to 44,417.
Belarus
Belarus reported 1,833 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking its total to 212,201, according to the country's health ministry.
A burial takes place in a new area of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery reserved for COVID-19 victims, in Manaus, Brazil, on Jan 8, 2021 amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. (MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP)
Brazil
Brazil's COVID-19 death toll reached 202,631 on Saturday, after 1,171 more patients died from the novel coronavirus during the past 24 hours, official data said.
In the last 24 hours, tests detected 62,290 new cases of infections, bringing the nationwide tally of confirmed cases to 8,075,998.
Canada
Canada's COVID-19 cases surpassed 650,000 as of Saturday afternoon, with the total hitting 650,922, including 16,788 deaths, according to CTV.
Canada's national-level data on Jan. 1 to 7 indicated a daily average of 7,672 new cases, and many areas continued to experience high infection rates, said the Public Health Agency of Canada on Saturday.
Hospitalisations and deaths were increasing in the country. Provincial and territorial data indicated that on average 4,336 people with COVID-19 were being treated in Canadian hospitals each day on Jan. 1 to 7, added the agency.
Ecuador
Ecuador surpassed 220,000 cases of COVID-19 after registering 1,201 new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 220,349, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Saturday.
According to the ministry, the country registered 10 new deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 9,593, in addition to another 4,584 probable deaths from the virus.
Ethiopia
The Ethiopian Ministry of Health on Saturday said the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the East African country rose to 127,792 after new 220 cases were reported.
The ministry said that the number of COVID-19 related deaths in the country reached 1,985 as of Saturday evening, including 11 new COVID-19 related deaths reported during the last 24-hour period.
A man wearing a face mask walks down a street, on Jan 9, 2021 in Rennes, western France, amid the crisis linked with the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. (LOIC VENANCE / AFP)
France
France on Saturday reported 20,177 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its accumulative tally to 2,767,312, according to the country's health authorities.
The COVID-19 death toll in the country rose by 168 in the past day to 67,599, the third highest in Europe after Britain and Italy, and the seventh in the world, showed data posted on the government's website on epidemic indicators.
France has imposed a stricter evening curfew in Marseille after authorities said the new variant of the COVID-19 virus initially found in the UK had been discovered in the Mediterranean city.
Marseille joined other French cities such as Strasbourg and Dijon in having its curfew moved forward to 6 pm from 8 pm, and running through to 6 am the following morning. The stricter Marseille measures will start on Sunday evening.
Georgia
Georgia on Sunday reported 1,143 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total to 239,229, according to the country's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).
Data from the NCDC showed that 617 more patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 225,355.
Meanwhile, 23 people have died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 2,773.
Mexico
Mexico reported 16,105 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday night, bringing the total to 1,524,036, according to data released by the Health Ministry.
The country also reported 1,135 more COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 133,204.
As of Friday, 6,722 people in the country had been vaccinated.
Morocco
Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 451,637 on Saturday as 1,416 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, the death toll mounted to 7,709 as 24 COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours.
Russia
Russia registered 22,851 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 3,401,954, said the country's COVID-19 response center on Sunday.
Meanwhile, 456 new deaths were reported, taking the nationwide count to 61,837, the center said in a statement.
Tunisia
Tunisian Health Ministry reported 2,611 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, raising the total number of infections to 157,514.
The death toll from the virus rose by 45 to 5,153 in the North African country. It also reported 1,674 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, including 342 in intensive care units, the ministry said in a statement.
UK
The UK became the first country in western Europe to report more than 3 million coronavirus cases, as it grapples with a new strain that’s putting pressure on its health service.
The country reported an additional 59,937 cases on Saturday, taking the total to 3,017,409. That’s the most in Europe, and fifth-highest in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The country passed 1 million cases on Oct 31, which doubled seven weeks later on Dec 19. It took just three weeks to reach 3 million cases.
A further 1,035 people were reported to have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, bringing the total to more than 80,800, also the most in Europe. Reported deaths are usually lower at the weekends.
The new strain of the coronavirus has led to a surge in new cases, forcing the government to place the country under a third national lockdown, closing schools and non-essential businesses.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Philip, both in their nineties, have received vaccinations against COVID-19, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.
“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have today received COVID-19 vaccinations,” the palace said in a statement. The Queen is 94 years old and Philip is 99, putting them in the priority category in Britain’s coronavirus vaccine rollout.
A royal source said the vaccines were administered by a household doctor at the queen’s Windsor Castle residence, adding that she made the news public to counter any speculation.
A healthcare professional prepares a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for health and social care workers at the Life Science Centre at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England, on Jan 9, 2021. (IAN FORSYTH / POOL / AFP)
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US
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 22 million on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
US COVID-19 case count rose to 22,035,618, with a total of 371,260 deaths, as of 3:21 p.m. local time (2021 GMT), according to the CSSE tally.
California reported 2,649,119 cases, followed by Texas with 1,943,625 cases and Florida with 1,464,697 cases. The states of New York and Illinois both registered more than 1 million cases.
Other states with over 550,000 cases include Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan and Indiana, the CSSE data showed.
By far, the United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up more than 24 percent of the global caseload and over 19 percent of the global deaths.
Vatican
Pope Francis said there is an “ethical” obligation to be vaccinated against COVID-19 - and that he will get one himself soon.
”I believe that ethically everyone must take the vaccine, it is an ethical option, because you stake your health, your life, but you also play the lives of others,” Pope Francis said in a prerecorded interview with the Italian broadcaster Mediaset. The pope said vaccinations will begin in the Vatican next week. “I have booked, it must be done,” he said.
