Medical workers observe a moment of silence during a national memorial for COVID-19 victims, in Tucson, Arizona, on Jan 19, 2021. (JOSH GALEMORE / ARIZONA DAILY STAR VIA AP)

NEW YORK / WASHINGTON / LONDON / ROME / PARIS / BRUSSELS / MEXICO CITY / RIO DE JANEIRO / BERLIN / LISBON / ABUJA / BELGRADE / ADDIS ABABA / OTTAWA / MADRID / DUBLIN / LIMA / RABAT / TUNIS / ALGIERS / KAMPALA / SANTIAGO / RIGA / JOHANNESBURG / HARARE / NAIROBI / AMSTERDAM - US President-elect Joe Biden plans to take immediate steps Wednesday after he is inaugurated to re-engage with the World Health Organization and send top US medical expert Anthony Fauci to speak to the group in a strong repudiation of Donald Trump’s snubs during the coronavirus pandemic.

The incoming administration plans to participate in the WHO executive board meeting this week, with Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, heading the delegation and speaking. Once the US resumes its engagement with the WHO, the new administration will work with the body to strengthen and reform the group, according to a fact sheet released by the Biden transition team.

Trump announced in May that the US would exit the WHO because of what he said was its undue deference to China and failure to provide accurate information about the coronavirus. He often blasted the organization and also has publicly belittled Fauci and diminished his role in past months.

In announcing these changes, Biden is underscoring that he intends to set a new science-based tone in seeking to reverse Trump’s dismissal of virus mitigation strategies and international cooperation in addressing the pandemic.

The US had been the WHO’s largest contributor, providing US$400 million to US$500 million in mandatory and voluntary contributions, and Trump’s decision last year drew sharp criticism in Congress, as well as from allies in Europe. The WHO has been heavily involved in the fight against the coronavirus, especially in poor countries. The Geneva-based group said it looks forward to the participation of the US delegation at Thursday’s executive board meeting.

The administration of Biden plans to join the COVAX, a WHO-led coalition planning to distribute vaccines to poorer nations, that Trump declined to take part in, Antony Blinken, nominee to be secretary of state, told lawmakers Tuesday at his confirmation hearing.

The US reached the grim milestone of 400,000 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, as the nation prepares to inaugurate a new president who has pledged to speed up vaccine delivery and promote protective measures like mask-wearing as a patriotic duty.

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 96.1 million while the global death toll exceeded 2.05 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

ALSO READ: WEF: Pandemic could be source of global crises for years

In this Jan 9, 2021 file photo, vials of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine are placed next to a loaded syringe in Throop, Pennsylvania. (CHRISTOPHER DOLAN / THE TIMES-TRIBUNE VIA AP)

Moderna

Moderna Inc said on Tuesday it had received a report from California’s health department that several people at a center in San Diego were treated for possible allergic reactions to its COVID-19 vaccine from a particular batch.

The company’s comments come after California’s top epidemiologist on Sunday issued a statement recommending providers pause vaccination from lot no. 41L20A due to possible allergic reactions that are under investigation.

The vaccine maker said it was unaware of comparable cases of adverse events from other vaccination centers which may have administered vaccines from the same lot or from other lots of its vaccine.

A total of 307,300 doses from the lot remain in storage, Moderna said, of the total 1,272,200 doses that were produced in the batch.

Moderna said it was working closely with US health regulators to understand the cases and whether pausing the use of the lot was warranted.

Nearly a million doses from the lot have already been distributed to about 1,700 vaccination sites in 37 states, Moderna said.

Pfizer

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is likely to protect against a more infectious variant of the virus, which was discovered in Britain and has spread around the world, according to results of further lab tests released on Wednesday.

The encouraging results, based on an analysis of blood of participants in trials, are based on more extensive analysis than those released by the US drugmaker last week.

Last week, Pfizer said a similar laboratory study showed the vaccine was effective against one key mutation, called N501Y, found in both of the highly transmissible new variants spreading in Britain and South Africa.

The latest study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, was conducted on 10 mutations, which are characteristic of the variant known as B117 identified in Britain.

Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once again urged Canadians on Tuesday not to travel abroad as his government could change travel rules very quickly due to COVID-19 variants.

Canada has verified 23 cases of the variant first reported in Britain and two cases of the variant first reported in South Africa, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Overall, Canada has reported a total of 718,828 COVID-19 cases and 18,238 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, according to CTV.

Meanwhile, Pfizer Inc told Canada on Tuesday it will receive no vaccines next week, officials said, an unexpected development that promises more pain for provinces already complaining about a shortage of supplies.

Canadian Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the delay was "very disappointing", adding she had insisted to Pfizer over the weekend that Canada be treated fairly and not be forced to wait longer than other nations for vaccines.

Pfizer said last week it would slow production in late January and early February because of changes in manufacturing processes, resulting in a supply cut for Canada and European Union nations.

EU

European Union (EU) states should aim to vaccinate at least 70 percent of their adult populations against COVID-19 by the summer, the European Commission recommended on Tuesday.

The 70 percent goal could mean inoculating over 200 million people, most likely with vaccines which need two doses per person. The EU has so far given a first dose to about 5 million people since it started its rollout at the end of December, the Commission said.

As a mid-term target, by March at least 80 percent of people over the age of 80, and 80 percent of healthcare workers should also be vaccinated in each EU state, the Commission said.

The Commission is also urging EU states to boost their capacity to sequence the coronavirus in order to detect new variants. It called on EU governments to sequence at least 5 percent of all positive tests whereas at the moment many states test less than 1 percent of samples.

The Commission also said it was working with EU states to adopt a common approach by the end of the month on vaccination certificates to facilitate travel.

READ MORE: EU eyes scheme to share surplus vaccines with poorer nations

UK

Some British hospitals look like war zones with doctors struggling to cope with an influx of patients infected with COVID-19, the government's chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said, as the death toll rose by a record daily amount towards 100,000.

Separately, Home Secretary Priti Patel said that the death numbers were horrendous but that it was not the time to look back at the government's possible mismanagement of the crisis.

The United Kingdom's official COVID-19 death toll is 91,470 - Europe's worst death figure and the world's fifth worst after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico.

The British government reported a record rise in deaths on Tuesday with 1,610 people dying within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.

A further 33,355 cases were reported, lower than the seven-day rolling average of 44,997. The average number of new cases has been steadily falling since early January, although it remains significantly higher as a more infectious strain spreads through the country.

Currently, 37,946 people are in hospital with COVID, 3,916 of them on ventilation. 

The death toll and the level of hospital admissions means it is far too early to speculate about when the lockdown may be lifted or eased, Patel said.

More than 4.26 million people have received their first coronavirus vaccine doses. Britain said it would give COVID-19 shots to up to 2,000 people working in vaccine supply chains, after AstraZeneca requested protection for its workers trying to deliver an ambitious vaccine rollout program.

A coronavirus information sign is displayed in Kingston upon Thames, south west, London, Jan 19, 2021. (MATT DUNHAM / AP)

Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Tuesday that Germany may need to consider border crossing curbs if other European countries do not act to halt the spread of the coronavirus, particularly the new, more transmissible variants.

Her comments came after she and leaders of Germany's 16 states agreed to extend for another two weeks a lockdown for most shops and schools until Feb 14.

Medical masks, and not simple cotton ones, will be made mandatory on public transportation and in stores, and companies must let employees work from home until March 15 where possible.

“We are doing this because we want significantly fewer people to be on public transport, on buses and trains and on the streets,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Wednesday in an interview with ARD television. “We have to reduce social contacts if we want to win against this virus.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany stood at 2,068,002, up 15,974 to, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by 1,148 to 48,770, the tally showed.

According to a separate tally by Johns Hopkins University, the number of fatalities increased by another 1,734 people in the 24 hours through Wednesday morning to 48,997. Confirmed cases increased by 12,233 through Wednesday morning. 

Netherlands

The Dutch government is set to add the first nationwide curfew since World War II to its already broad lockdown on Wednesday in a bid to limit the spread of new coronavirus mutations in the Netherlands, broadcaster RTL reported.

The curfew would allow only people with pressing needs to leave their homes between 8:30 pm and 4:30 am local time as of Friday night, RTL reported, citing government sources.

This lockdown will remain in place until at least Feb 9, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last week.

The introduction of the first night curfew since that was imposed on the Dutch by German occupiers in World War II is highly contentious, and various political parties have already said they will never back it.

The government is discussing the curfew and other possible measures on Wednesday morning, and has said it will announce its decisions early in the afternoon. 

The government is also considering whether to ban travel to and from Britain and South Africa, RTL reported , to limit the spread of the highly contagious virus variants of the virus.

Portugal

Portugal on Tuesday reported a record 218 additional COVID-19 deaths, pushing the country's toll to 9,246, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) said.

In January alone, COVID-19 has already caused 2,274 deaths, a figure that took seven months to reach during the first wave of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, 10,455 new cases were registered, bringing the cumulative caseload to 566,958.

Portugese Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira tested positive for COVID-19 after reporting some symptoms, Portugal’s economy ministry said in a statement.

Vieira had already been in quarantine at home since Saturday as a precautionary measure after Finance Minister Joao Leao tested positive following a meeting with top EU officials. Siza Vieira and Prime Minister Antonio Costa were also at that meeting.

Siza Vieira was the third minister to be diagnosed with the coronavirus in the past week, following Leao and Labour Minister Ana Mendes Godinho.

Italy 

Italy reported 603 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, against 377 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 10,497 from 8,824.

In total, Italy has registered 83,157 COVID-19 deaths and 2.4 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 22,699 on Tuesday, down 185 from a day earlier.

There were 176 new admissions to intensive care units, against 142 the day before. The total number of intensive care patients fell by 57 to 2,487.

France

The spread of the coronavirus in France could sharply accelerate in the coming months due to the emergence of a more contagious variant, two Paris hospital executives said on Wednesday, raising fears of a third lockdown in the country.

Karine Lacombe, head of infectious diseases at Paris' Saint Antoine hospital, and Martin Hirsch, director general of the Paris hospitals system, both warned of the extra strain, first detected in the UK, it could put on healthcare infrastructure.

France reported 23,608 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, up from 3,736 on Monday, while admissions to intensive care units continued to rise.

Health Minister Olivier Veran said earlier the coronavirus was still circulating at a worrying level, but stopped short of recommending a third national lockdown.

Health ministry data also showed 656 people had died from the virus in hospitals on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 71,342, the world's seventh-highest.

France's cumulative total of cases is fast approaching 3 million, the sixth-highest in the world.

The health ministry also said that the number of people to receive coronavirus vaccines rose to 585,664 from 479,873 as of Monday.

Serbia

Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar received China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, becoming the first person to receive the vaccine in the country.

After the vaccination, Loncar called on Serbians to get vaccinated because that is "the only way" for Serbia to fight the novel coronavirus.

He pointed out that the Chinese vaccine is the third registered vaccine in Serbia, after the Pfizer-BioNtech and the Sputnik V vaccines, and they are all efficient and safe vaccines.

Serbia has registered a total of 375,799 COVID-19 infections with 3,791 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Spain

Spain's incidence of the coronavirus as measured over the past 14 days reached a new high of 714 cases per 100,000 people on Tuesday after 689 cases the previous day, Health Ministry data showed, as a rampant third wave of infection grips the country.

The ministry reported 34,291 new infections, bringing the cumulative tally to 2,370,742.

Spain's overall death toll from the virus rose by 404 to 54,173, the data showed. 

As Spain widens its coronavirus vaccination campaign beyond nursing homes, health workers in northern Spain have deployed a mobile vaccination trailer that goes from village to village delivering shots to the elderly.

This photo shows a mobile health unit that is being used to vaccinate local residents with the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus, in the small Pyrenees village of Oronoz-Mugaire, around 45 kilometers from Pamplona, northern Spain, Jan 19. 2021. (ALVARO BARRIENTOS / AP)

Ireland

Ireland reported 93 fatalities from COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest number of deaths confirmed in a single day since the start of pandemic, exceeding a peak of 77 during the first wave last year.

The daily death toll published by the National Public Health Emergency Team can include fatalities that took place weeks ago but were just confirmed to authorities on the day in question. Three of the deaths reported on Tuesday took place in December, it said.

The high death rate follows a sharp increase in infections in the first 10 days of the year following a relaxation of public-health measures over the Christmas season.

The infection rate has since fallen sharply with the 2,001 cases reported on Tuesday bringing the five-day average down to 2,758 from 5,596 on the same day the previous week.

Belgium

Belgium's Scientific Institute of Public Health Sciensano (Sciensano) reported Tuesday that 100,443 people have been vaccinated in the country by Jan 17.

"This represents 35 percent of the target group of phase 1A, i.e. residents and caregivers in nursing homes, health care professionals in hospitals and front-line health workers," Dirk Ramaekers, head of the working group for the vaccination strategy, said Tuesday.

The next phase of the vaccination plan, namely phase 1B, will cover, as a priority, the vaccination of all citizens of 65 and over, and people with a chronic infection, said Ramaekers.

By Jan 17, the National Reference Center of the KUL (Catholic University of Leuven) has detected 91 cases of the UK variant and seven cases of the variant detected in South Africa, said Yves Van Laethem, inter-federal spokesman for the fight against COVID-19, on Tuesday.

So far, Belgium has recorded a total of 679,771 confirmed cases and 20,472 deaths.

Latvia

Latvia has extended its state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic until Feb 7, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told reporters Tuesday.

Karins said that the state of emergency, effective in Latvia since Nov 9, has to remain in place even though the infection rate has finally started showing signs of stabilization this week.

The prime minister stressed that the aim was not to stabilize but reduce the COVID-19 incidence, adding that Latvia's hospitals are still overcrowded with coronavirus patients.

Health Minister Daniels Pavluts said that Latvia's cumulative 14-day COVID-19 incidence remains high at 689 cases per 100,000 population.

Pavluts said that the 14-day COVID-19 incidence must be brought down to some 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants before any relaxation of restrictions can be considered.

Russia

Russia's sovereign wealth fund has filed for registration of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the European Union and expects it to be reviewed in February, the official account promoting the shot tweeted on Wednesday.

The Sputnik V and European Medical Agency (EMA) teams held a scientific review of the vaccine on Tuesday, the Sputnik V account said, adding the EMA will take a decision on the authorization of the vaccine based on the reviews.

Russian Industry Minister Denis Manturov said Wednesday that foreign manufacturers, with whom Russia has signed deals to produce its Sputnik V shot, are capable of producing around 350 million doses per year.

He said production had already been launched in Kazakhstan, and that manufacturers in South Korea, China, India and Belarus were joining the process soon. 

Also on Wednesday, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that herd immunity against COVID-19 in the country could be reached as early as the first half of this year, the RIA news agency cited him as saying.

Russia on Wednesday reported 21,152 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 2,452 in Moscow, pushing the national tally to 3,633,952.

Authorities said 597 people had died overnight, taking the official death toll to 67,220.

Americas region

The Americas region is experiencing a sustained surge in coronavirus infections, with 2.5 million new cases confirmed in the last week, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Tuesday.

New coronavirus variants in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil may be playing a role in accelerating new infections throughout the region, said PAHO Director Carissa Etienne in a press conference.

Mexico

Mexico confirmed 18,894 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to health ministry data, bringing the tally to 1,668,396.

The country also registered another 1,584 fatalities, the highest figure since Oct 5, when authorities adjusted the way they count fatalities caused by the virus. The death toll now stands at 142,832, according to the ministry.

Mexico aims to administer 7.4 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine to its people by the end of March, part of the country's scramble to secure as much supply as quickly as possible.

The Mexican government has yet to approve the vaccine's use, an official plan showed on Tuesday. Nonetheless, 400,000 doses are expected to arrive duringthe week ending Jan 29, according to the plan.

Over the first three months of the year, more than 21 million total doses are expected from Pfizer, CanSino Biologics Inc, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.

A man of the Ticuna indigenous group gets his shot of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd during the start of the vaccination plan on indigenous lands at the Ticuna de Umariaçu village health post in Tabatinga, Amazonas state, Brazil, Jan 19, 2021. (ANDRE BORGES / AP)

Brazil

Brazil on Tuesday registered 1,192 deaths due to the coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 211,491, the health ministry said.

Confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 62,094 to 8,573,864.

More Brazilian states, including the capital Brasilia, gave their first COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday, as the government distributed some 6 million ready doses of the vaccine from China's Sinovac after its approval on Sunday for emergency use.

Brazil's federally funded Fiocruz biomedical center said it would not be able to deliver finished doses of the AstraZeneca shot until March as it waits for the first shipment of active ingredients from China.  AstraZeneca has arranged for substantial manufacturing of its vaccine's active ingredients in China.

Separately, Brazilian pharmaceutical company União Quimica plans to press ahead with production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine with a view to exporting it to other parts of South America.

Venezuela

The timeline has closed for Venezuela to join the COVAX facility for COVID-19 vaccines, a PAHO official said on Tuesday, though the country was still negotiating for doses through other means.

Venezuela expressed interest in joining COVAX, according Ciro Ugarte, director of health emergencies for PAHO.

"However, this is not possible due to lack of resources and timely payments," Ugarte said at a virtual press conference. "The time to be able to join the COVAX mechanism has passed."

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said the country will receive 10 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

Lawyers for Venezuela's central bank say the country has been unable to make payments required to participate in COVAX because sanctions have left funds frozen in foreign bank accounts. 

Being locked out of COVAX will leave Venezuela dependent on the Russian vaccine at a time when health services are collapsing, and an overall economic crisis has raised doubt about the country's capacity to conduct a vaccination campaign.

READ MORE: WHO chief: Vaccine nationalism could prolong pandemic

Cuba

Cuba registered on Tuesday 330 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the national caseload to 18,773 and the death toll to 175, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

Of the new infections, only nine were imported cases, the lowest number in 15 days, which corresponds to the restrictive measures for foreign entry into the country that were put in place at the beginning of the year.

The remaining 321 native cases were mainly reported in four areas with high rates of infection, namely Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.

So far in January, Cuba has registered 29 deaths from COVID-19, the second highest number in a month since the outbreak of the pandemic, after April 2020, in which 55 deaths were recorded.  

Peru

China's Sinopharm Group and Pfizer Inc have requested approval for use of their COVID-19 vaccines in Peru as the Andean country grapples with a second wave of the coronavirus, a health official said on Tuesday.

Carmen Ponce, general director of state drug regulator Digemid, said both drugmakers requested the registration last week after presenting "preliminary information" from their Phase III COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Ponce added that authorization requests from other vaccine makers, such as AstraZeneca Plc and Russia's Gamaleya, are expected in the next few days.

Peru has reported 1,068,802 confirmed cases with 38,931 related deaths.

Chile

Chile on Tuesday registered 3,400 new COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 677,151 and the death toll to 17,573, the Ministry of Health said.

So far, a total of 24,025 people have received an initial dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 8,360 have received the second dose, according to the ministry.

Chile's Public Health Institute is set to review on Wednesday the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China's Sinovac to determine its approval, which would allow the country to continue vaccinating its population, Health Minister Enrique Paris said.

A health worker collects a swab sample from motorist at a mobile COVID-19 testing station on an inter-provincial highway at the Grassmere Toll Plaza near Johannesburg South Africa, Jan 19, 2021. (ALI GREEFF / AP)

Africa tally

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded on the African continent reached 3,288,950 as of Tuesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The death toll stood at 79,782, the Africa CDC said.

Vaccine costs for African nations

African countries will pay between US$3 and US$10 per vaccine dose to access 270 million COVID-19 shots secured this month by the African Union (AU), according to a draft briefing on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and provided to Reuters.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who serves as AU chair, said last week arrangements had been made with the bank to support member states who want access to vaccines. Countries can pay back the loans in installments over five to seven years, according to the document.

John Nkengasong, who heads the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the prices were comparable to those available through the COVAX scheme.

The Serum Institute of India will provide 100 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine at US$3 each, according to the draft document. Pfizer will provide 50 million doses of its two-shot vaccine at US$6.75 each, while Johnson & Johnson will provide 120 million doses of its single-shot vaccine at US$10 each, the document showed.

Afreximbank's financing arrangement hopes to cover shots for about 15 percent, with 20 percent to be supplied through COVAX and the remaining 25 percent covered by the World Bank and other sources, the document showed.

Afreximbank has said it would provide advance procurement guarantees of up to US$2 billion to vaccine manufacturers, upon receipt of firm orders from member states.

Under the plan, countries would have to pay a 15 percent deposit on any order to take advantage of the financing. They would then repay Afreximbank via quarterly installments made over five to seven years, using their own resources, World Bank loans or funds from other sources, it said.

Nigeria

The number of coronavirus patients needing oxygen to survive has risen fivefold as a second wave of the pandemic hit Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city and commercial hub.

The demand for oxygen has risen from 70 six-litre cylinders per day to 350 six-litre cylinders in our Yaba Mainland Hospital, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of the state said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “This is projected to more than double to 750 six-cylinders, before the end of January 2021,” he said.

The rise in cases in recent weeks has forced the state to reopen previously closed isolation centers where the illness is treated. All malaria symptoms should now be first treated as a case of COVID-19 “unless and until proven not to be one,” the governor urged.

Lagos had 41,374 confirmed cases as of Jan 17. A total of 227 infected people have been admitted to isolation centers, while another 9,213 persons are receiving care at home, said Akin Abayomi, the state’s commissioner for health.

Meanwhile, the state has opened discussions with vaccine manufacturers, according to the statement.

Nigeria is to receive 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by early February, said Faisal Shuaib, director-general of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA).

South Africa

A study by South African scientists into the new coronavirus variant driving a resurgence of new cases in the country raises concern about the efficacy of vaccines and a new class of therapies.

Half the blood samples taken from a group of people to have recovered from COVID-19 didn’t have the antibodies needed to protect against the 501Y.V2 strain identified last month, according to the paper by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. In the other half, antibody levels were reduced and the risk of re-infection couldn’t be determined, according to the institute.

New strains of the virus have also been identified in countries including the UK and Brazil, leading to concerns that increasingly dangerous versions of the pathogen still yet to emerge may hamper the global roll out of vaccines.

The NICD findings may “foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines,” the scientists said. They also suggest that treatment with plasma from donors who’ve had the coronavirus may not be successful in those with this variant.

The strain that emerged in South Africa is about 50 percent more transmissible than earlier versions, Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of the COVID-19 ministerial advisory committee, said in a presentation earlier this week. However, there’s no evidence it’s more likely to cause hospitalization or death, he said.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo has died after contracting COVID-19, presidential spokesman George Charamba said on Wednesday.

Moyo, a former army general who announced the military coup that led to the removal of the late long-serving leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017. Moyo died at a local hospital early on Wednesday, Charamba said.

Moyo was one of several generals who, after helping plot the coup, were rewarded with senior positions in President Emmerson Mnangagwa's cabinet and the ruling ZANU-PF party.

Another cabinet minister, retired general and agriculture minister Perrance Shiri, died of the virus last July.

Zimbabwe has suffered a surge in COVID-19 infections, with more than half of the 28,675 total cases and 825 deaths being recorded since New Year's Day.

Kenya

Britain said on Wednesday it was helping Kenya prepare to roll out the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine.

The East African nation has ordered 24 million doses of the vaccine and it expects delivery of the shots to start in the second week of February.

Britain has provided technical assistance to Kenya's health ministry to help ensure the vaccine "gets to those who need it just as quickly as we physically possibly can", British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said during a visit to Nairobi, without offering more details.

The Kenya state medical research institute (KEMRI) has been carrying out trials of the vaccine locally but it has not released the results of the study yet.

So far, Kenya has reported 99,308 cases of COVID-19 infection after 1.13 million tests. It has reported 1,734 deaths.

Algeria

Algeria on Tuesday reported 249 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally to 104,341.

The death toll rose to 2,843 after three more fatalities were recorded, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The ministry said that another 186 patients have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 70,993.

Tunisia

The Tunisian Health Ministry on Tuesday night reported 2,598 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of infections to 184,483.

The death toll rose by 94 to 5,844, the ministry said in a statement.

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached 1,985, while the total number of recoveries stood at 132,983, it said.

Morocco

Morocco on Tuesday reported 1,246 new COVID-19 infections, taking the cumulative caseload to 461,390.

The total number of recoveries increased by 940 to 436,626, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The death toll rose by 34 to 8,011, the ministry said, adding that there were 865 people in intensive care units.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia registered 181 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 131,727, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday.

The death toll from COVID-19 reached 2,037 as of Tuesday evening, after four more deaths were reported, Health Minister Lia Tadesse said on Twitter.

The minister said that 57 new recoveries were logged, taking the total number of recoveries to 116,392.

Uganda

Uganda's Health Ministry on Tuesday registered 449 new COVID-19 cases in the six-day period through Monday, taking the nation's tally to 38,534.

A total of 322 new recoveries were recorded, bringing the total recoveries to 13,405, the ministry said.

The death toll rose by one to 305.

The ministry did not release daily updates for the last six days as to the internet was shutdown during the presidential and parliamentary elections.