A health worker fills a syringe with the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-in inoculation site in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Feb 8, 2021. (RAHEL PATRASSO / XINHUA)

TORONTO / BERLIN / PARIS / MEXICO CITY / GENEVA / RIO DE JANEIRO / STOCKHOLM / LONDON / KIEV / BUCHAREST / ADDIS ABABA / SANTIAGO / LUSAKA / ATHENS / TIRANA / RABAT / SAO PAULO / VIENNA - US federal health agencies on Tuesday recommended pausing the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine after six women under 50 developed rare blood clots after receiving the shot, dealing a fresh setback to efforts to tackle the pandemic.

The move comes a week after European regulators said they had found a possible link between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and a similar rare blood clotting problem that led to a small number of deaths.

Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) single dose vaccine - most COVID-19 shots are delivered over two doses - and AstraZeneca’s low-cost vaccine are seen as vital tools in the fight against a pandemic that has claimed more than three million lives.

J&J said it will also delay the rollout of its COVID -19 vaccine in Europe. 

The weekly death toll from COVID-19 in the US rose for the first time since February, topping 7,000 for the period ending Sunday. Fatalities are again averaging about 1,000 a day, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg show. 

Meanwhile, infections have climbed for four straight weeks - the longest streak since November. 

The number of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in Michigan state reached 3,918 on Monday, surpassing the reported peak during the surge of the virus in December.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director (CDC) Rochelle Walensky said Michigan should “shut down” to combat the surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Meanwhile, the CDC has declared racism a "serious public health threat," after a new wave of COVID-19 cases was witnessed in the country, USA Today reported recently. Communities of color were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they were more likely to be hospitalized or even die from the virus, the CDC said in a statement recently, according to the report.

Brazil

A new study led by Brazil's biomedical Butantan Institute has shown that China's CoronaVac vaccine can be more effective at protecting against COVID-19 with a longer interval between the two doses.

The study was published on preprints database SSRN and submitted to the medical journal The Lancet on Sunday for peer review.

Data from a subgroup of 12,396 participants showed that the vaccine's efficacy rate grew to 62.3 percent when the doses were given at an interval of 21 days or longer.

"This study corroborates what we had already announced about three months ago and gives us even more confidence about the effective protection provided by the vaccine," Dimas Covas, director of the institute, told Brazil's TV network GloboNews.

The study also showed that CoronaVac is effective against P1, a more contagious variant that emerged in Amazonas in November.

WHO

Even though more than 780 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered globally, the world has seen seven consecutive weeks of increasing cases and four weeks of increasing deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday, urging consistent public health measures alongside equitable vaccination.

"In January and February, the world saw six consecutive weeks of declining cases. We have now seen seven consecutive weeks of increasing cases, and four weeks of increasing deaths. Last week was the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week so far," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing.

The WHO chief attributed the recent rise in cases to "confusion, complacency, and inconsistency in public health measures."

"This pandemic is a long way from over," and whether or not this pandemic can be controlled in months "comes down to the decisions and the actions that governments and individuals make every day," he said.  

ALSO READ: WHO: COVID-19 deaths in Europe surpass 1m

Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends a press conference on the annual global WTO trade forecast at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 31, 2021. (SALVATORE DI NOLFI / POOL / KEYSTONE / AFP)

WTO

The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Monday a meeting this week to tackle “glaring” inequity in COVID-19 vaccine allocation will be attended by major manufacturers and look at solutions such as firing up idle or under-used manufacturing plants in Africa and Asia.

The April 14 meeting will bring together vaccine makers from the US, China and Russia, ministers from wealthy and developing countries, and banking officials to discuss vaccine export restrictions, scaling up manufacturing and a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 drugs and shots, she told Reuters.

“The vaccine inequity is glaring,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “I’m a pragmatic person and what hurts me now is that people are dying from not having access to vaccines.”

Among the possible practical solutions are re-purposing animal vaccine plants to make COVID-19 shots or firing up unused capacity in countries like Bangladesh, Thailand and Senegal by connecting them with financiers like the European Investment Bank or the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.

The meeting, the first of a series, will also raise the controversial waiver of TRIPS intellectual property rights for COVID-19 drugs on which members are deadlocked, amid opposition from wealthy countries.

“I am urging: let us try not to impede the supply chain,” she said, adding she thought her message was “being heard”.

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 136.4 million while the global death toll topped 2.94 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

UK strain

The COVID-19 variant that emerged in the UK and became the dominant strain in the US isn’t as deadly as earlier research indicated, although it’s confirmed to be faster-spreading than other versions, according to a study.

Among 339 patients with the coronavirus, 36 percent of those infected with the B.1.1.7 strain that arose in the UK became severely ill or died, according to research published Monday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, compared with 38 percent of those who had non-B.1.1.7 infections.

“We’re not saying it’s nothing, but it’s not worse in terms of outcome in our study, in our setting,” said Eleni Nastouli, a co-author of the study and an associate professor at University College London. She noted that the study differed from some earlier research, looking at patients in hospitals, rather than in the community, and making precise identifications of variants with whole-genome sequencing.

Africa

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 4,350,512 as of Monday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The death toll stood at 115,765, the Africa CDC said, adding that a total of 3,906,408 people across the continent have recovered from the disease.

Various leaders including African countries' presidents and those from health and business world noted at a conference that producing their own vaccines would lead to the continent's health and economic security.

"Africa must put in place resources and measures to ensure it produces its own vaccines for the current crisis and the future," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said during Africa's vaccine manufacturing virtual conference on Monday.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, said there is hope in vaccine development in Africa. 

Nkengasong called on the region to have a continental agenda on vaccines that seeks to reduce reliance on imports, mitigate risks on global vaccine challenges and strengthen vaccine continental research and development capacity.

Albania

The number of daily coronavirus cases in Albania dropped below 150 on Monday for the first time since early October last year.

The health ministry reported 125 new infections over the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative tally to 128,518. 

Meanwhile, four newly reported deaths took the total number of fatalities to 2,321.

The total number of recoveries rose to 98,269 after 546 new recoveries were registered in the same period.

Austria

Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober of the Greens, the junior partner in the country’s conservative-led coalition, said on Tuesday he is stepping down as he is overworked because of the COVID-19 pandemic and his health has suffered.

“I ... do not want to break myself,” Anschober, 60, said in a short-notice statement to the media, adding that he has recently been suffering from blood-pressure problems and exhaustion. 

In another development, the city of Vienna extended the regional lockdown measures for the Austrian capital until May 2 as intensive-care resources are increasingly strained by severe cases of coronavirus patients, Mayor Michael Ludwig told reporters. 

That means non-essential shops, services such as hairdressers will remain closed. Schools will also remain shut for most students until April 25. 

The lockdown was originally planned to be lifted gradually from next week.

Brazil

Brazil added an additional 1,480 people to its COVID-19 death toll on Monday, as a looming investigation of how the government has handled the world’s second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak puts increased pressure on right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.

A brutal new wave of COVID-19 in recent weeks has pushed the official toll since the pandemic began to more than 13.5 million cases and over 354,000 deaths, according to Health Ministry figures released on Monday.

The Senate is preparing to install a special committee to investigate how Bolsonaro’s government has dealt with the pandemic.

Last week, a Supreme Court justice cleared the way for the Senate inquiry, which the Senate president had sought to delay despite it having garnered support from the necessary number of senators.

The Supreme Court is expected to uphold the ruling when the full court hears the case later this week, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday, although it may grant the chamber leeway to decide when to install the committee.

Canada

For the first time since the pandemic began, Canada has passed a grim milestone with more new COVID-19 cases per capita than the US.

There have been roughly 22 new recorded cases per 100,000 people in the country over the past 7-days. 

“This is the worst moment of the pandemic, thus far,” Kevin Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the University Health Network, said in an interview. “Our ICUs are full.”

Canada had reported a cumulative total of 1,066,591 COVID-19 cases also of Monday afternoon, including 23,333 deaths and 967,394 recoveries, according to CTV.

Ontario is being hit the hardest with hospitals coming under increasing strain, especially in Toronto, the country’s largest city.

Canada's most populous province, announced that all schools will stay closed indefinitely to in-person learning as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the province.

The announcement came after the province posted a record-breaking number of COVID-19 and intensive care admissions.

The province is canceling elective surgeries, admitting adults to a major children’s hospital and preparing field hospitals after the number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs jumped 31 percent to 612 in the week leading up to Sunday, according to data from the Ontario Hospital Association.

Chile

Chile's health ministry on Monday reported another 137 COVID-19 deaths, the fifth straight day that the daily toll was above 100, taking the overall toll to 24,483.

The ministry also reported 6,372 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the tally to 1,082,920.

In addition, of the 26,630 COVID-19 cases confirmed between April 4 and 10, Deputy Health Minister Paula Daza said that 70 percent were among people between 20 and 59 years old.

Chile has been facing an increase in infections for the past several weeks, with an overwhelmed health system and record-breaking daily cases of over 9,000 on Friday.

As a result, more than 17 million Chilean residents, or over 80 percent of the population, are currently under quarantine to reduce the spread of the virus.

COVAX 

Close to 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have already been distributed through the COVAX Facility, half of them in Africa, but vaccine supplies are still stalled due to "tremendous demand" especially in India, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

COVAX "has, as of today, distributed just over 38.7 million doses and we expect to get past 40 million doses later this week," Bruce Aylward, the WHO's senior advisor to the director general on organizational change, said at a press conference.

"Over 40 countries on the African continent will have received doses by the end of this week, and they will receive nearly half of the doses from COVAX," he added.

Some 14.1 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been allocated to 47 countries and economies for delivery in the second quarter of this year, the Gavi Vaccine Alliance said on Monday.

Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, and Ukraine are set to be among the main recipients of the Pfizer vaccine between April and June, according to Gavi, which co-leads COVAX.

Australia, Britain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are due to receive their first shots via COVAX with the Pfizer doses, which is “based on current knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine supply availability”, Gavi said in a statement.

Deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine to 142 participants under a previously announced round were underway, “with some delays” that may extend deliveries past May, Gavi said on Monday.

READ MORE: J&J begins vaccine supplies to EU, 50m doses expected in Q2

Cuba

Cuba on Monday registered its deadliest day in the COVID-19 pandemic with eight newly reported fatalities, taking the death toll to 467, the country's Ministry of Public Health announced.

Over the past 24 hours, the Caribbean nation reported 854 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally to 87,385.

Of all new cases reported, 424 were registered in Havana, the epicenter of the pandemic on the island, followed by the provinces of Matanzas and Granma. 

Ethiopia

The Ethiopia Agency for Refugees and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) said on Monday it has recently started giving COVID-19 jabs to refugees.

In a press statement, the ARRA said that over the past week, it has administered Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine jabs to 405 refugees.

"As part of its longstanding tradition of kindness to those who are in dire need, Ethiopia has begun vaccinating Refugees and front-line health professionals in the refugee program," the ARRA said.

The COVID-19 vaccine jabs rollout to refugees is being carried out in collaboration with various stakeholders including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ethiopia Public Health Institute (EPHI).

Ethiopia is home to 801,349 registered refugees and asylum seekers as of March 2021.

Ethiopia's tally rose to 230,944 as of Monday morning after 1,948 new COVID-19 cases were logged in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.

The toll rose by 34 to 3,208.

EU

Experts from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) visited a pair of clinics in Moscow that were involved with Phase 3 trials of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, Interfax reported Monday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the trip.

EU regulators are conducting a rolling review of Sputnik V, a process that could take several months. The inoculation has been approved in more than 50 countries, now including India.

Meanwhile, the European Commission said on Monday it was seeking clarification from AstraZeneca over its shortfalls in supplies to the European Union, after it sent a letter to the company in March as part of a dispute-resolution process.

Stella Kyriakides, the European Union’s health commissioner, asked member states to provide data on potential side effects from AstraZeneca’s vaccine by Friday at the latest, in order to develop a coordinated approach to restrictions in administering the shot.

She requested the data to allow the agency to better characterize the benefit and risk of the Astra vaccine in different age groups and/or genders, as well as to identify other possible other risk factors, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg.

“Only on this basis, we will be able to ensure a coordinated European approach which does not confuse citizens, and that does not fuel vaccine hesitancy because it is based on robust scientific evaluation,” Kyriakides said in the letter.

The EU’s efforts to get member countries to take a joint position on the Astra vaccine have so far failed to have much effect. Ireland became the latest country to change guidance on the shot, limiting it to those age 60 and over.

France

A drive-in vaccination center was opened on Tuesday in southern France to further ramp up vaccination pace and counter accelerating COVID-19 spread, local media reported.

"The idea is to offer an additional means of getting vaccinated," Alexandre Pascal, delegate of Regional Health Agency of Occitanie was quoted by Franceinfo radio as saying.

The country's first "vaccidrive" is implemented in a clinic's emergency parking in Saint-Jean-de-Vedas, on the outskirts of Montpellier. It proposes to vaccinate people as they remain seated in their own car.

Data from Health Ministry showed that 11 million French people have got their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, representing 21 percent of the adult population and 3.8 million have completed their inoculation.

The French health ministry reported that the number of patients in intensive care units with COVID-19 increased by another 78 to a new 2021 record of 5,916 as a new nationwide lockdown in place for a week has yet to show an impact.

France also reported 385 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals, compared to 176 on Sunday, taking the cumulative toll 99,135.

France also reported 8,536 new cases on Monday, taking the total to 5.07 million, a week-on-week increase of 4.84 percent, the lowest week-on-week increase since Wednesday last week.

Over the past three weeks, the average week-on-week increase has been around 5.6 percent, still far below the double-digit week-on-week increases seen throughout most of the autumn of 2020.

Germany

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved legislation setting out nationwide rules on restrictions designed to stem Covid-19 infections.

It would make tighter restrictions mandatory in virus hotspots, potentially including nighttime curfews and the closing of non-essential stores and schools.

The number of infections rose on Tuesday to 140.9 per 100,000 people over the past seven days, the highest in nearly three months, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The number of confirmed increased by 10,810 to 3,022,323 while the death toll rose by 294 to 78,746, data from RKI showed. 

The worsening outbreak comes despite faster vaccinations, which hit a daily record last week.

Merkel’s cabinet also approved a regulation requiring companies to offer COVID-19 tests to on-site employees. The requirement had been voluntary, with about 60 percent of firms complying, but that is insufficient and all companies must now provide the tests, according to Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.

The regulation, which is set to take effect next Monday, applies to the public sector and private firms, Heil said on ARD television. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said companies will have to pay for the tests themselves as a contribution to the country’s battle against the pandemic.

Ghana

A total of 703,752 people have received one shot of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine so far, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) announced Monday.

The country began mass inoculation on March 2.

Despite growing concerns about the shortage of the AstraZeneca vaccines globally, the government assured it has had high-level bilateral and multilateral discussions with its partners to purchase more vaccines to continue the vaccination till the end of the year.  

Greece

Greece will get a first tranche of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine against COVID-19 on Wednesday and will start inoculating people with it next week, a senior health ministry official said on Monday.

“We will receive the first 33,600 doses of the single-dose vaccine by Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday, April 14,” the country’s secretary general in charge of vaccinations, Marios Themistocleous, said at a weekly briefing.

Greece has inoculated more than 2 million of its 11 million population with at least one shot of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines.

Along with new deliveries from those companies, Greece has said it expects 1.3 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by June.

In another development, high school students returned to classrooms nationwide on Monday after five months of remote learning.

Authorities plan to offer free self-testing kits to some 900,000 workers in retail, restaurants, transport, banks and justice this week, government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said on Monday.

People chat at a park in Dublin, Ireland, April 12, 2021, as the country began easing some COVID-19 restrictions. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Ireland

Ireland recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine be given to people age 60 and older only, becoming the latest country to restrict its use amid blood clot concerns. 

People under 60 who have already received a first dose should have the interval before the second shot extended to 16 weeks from 12 weeks “to allow further assessment of the benefits and risks as more evidence becomes available,” the state’s vaccine advisory group said Monday night.

While the vaccine is “highly effective,” authorities recommended the restriction because the reported clotting events carry “a very high risk of death or severe outcome,” the group said.

Italy

The government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi is in discussions to set up vaccine production hubs in Italy using state funding, according to the director-general of the nation’s drug regulator. 

The aim is to start production in the fourth quarter, Nicola Magrini, head of the Italian Medicines Agency, told Bloomberg in an interview.

On Monday, the Ministry of Health reported 9,789 new coronavirus infections, the second time in a week the figure was below 10,000 - a benchmark previously not seen since February. 

There were 358 newly reported deaths, the third day the daily toll remained under 500.

More than 18,000 more people have recovered from the disease, the third straight day that the number of recoveries surpassed the daily tally. 

The positive developments came amid reports that at least 2.2 million vaccine doses would arrive in Italy this week - the highest one-week total for vaccine arrivals since they first became available in December.

As of Monday, 13.1 million Italians had received at least one COVID-19 shot, and 3.95 millions have been fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, only four of Italy's 20 regions - Valle d'Aosta, Campania, Apulia, and Sardinia - remain as “red" zones. 

Kenya

Kenya will only accept applications for emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines for jabs that have been listed by the World Health Organization, according to Ronald Inyangala, director in charge of products registration at the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

A study into Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been temporarily stopped until the vaccine gets WHO approval, Inyangala said by phone on Monday. Kenya has so far allowed emergency use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine and Russia’s Sputnik V. The use of the latter, which hasn’t been listed by WHO, was frozen last week.

A health worker inoculates a man with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination drive for persons over 60-years-old at the University Olympic Stadium in Mexico City, April 12, 2021. (MARCO UGARTE / AP)

Mexico

Mexico’s government reported 1,627 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 364 more fatalities, according to data from the health ministry on Monday, bringing the total to 2,281,840 infections and 209,702 deaths.

Morocco

Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 502,277 on Monday as 175 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, the death toll rose to 8,909 after nine more fatalities were logged during the last 24 hours.

The total number of recoveries increased by 271 to 488,632, the commission said, adding that there were 424 people in intensive care units.

Meanwhile, 4,486,628 people have received one COVID-19 shot, and 4,148,610 people have received both jabs.

Novavax 

Novavax Inc has pushed back the timeline for hitting its production target of 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses per month until the third quarter due to supply shortages including bags used to grow cells, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

Novavax executives had previously said full-scale vaccine production could be achieved by mid-year. The company told Reuters in January it expected to reach full production capacity by May or June.

“We said during our earnings call that we expect all capacity being online by around mid-year. We’re continuing to refine that timing as we get closer, which now leads us to think we’re online/at full capacity by Q3,” Novavax communications director Amy Speak said by email on Monday.

Romania

Three COVID-19 patients died on Monday in a mobile intensive care unit (ICU) in the Romanian capital of Bucharest due to a malfunction in the oxygen installation, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Eight patients were in the mobile facility in the Victor Babes Hospital, one of the largest designated COVID-19 hospitals in the country, and the five surviving patients were quickly transferred, according to the statement.

The number of inpatients and the critically ill has surged recently, putting great pressure on the medical system in some large cities, including the capital Bucharest.

The coronavirus caseload surpassed 1 million in Romania on Saturday and reached 1,008,490 on Monday. 

Russia

Russia reported 8,173 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 1,782 in Moscow, taking the official infection tally to 4,657,883.

The government coronavirus task force said 338 people had died in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 103,601.

Russia suspended most air travel with Turkey, citing rising coronavirus infections, cutting off a key source of tourism revenue to the country.

Most charter and regular flights will be suspended between April 15 and June 1, but two flights a week will still run between Moscow and Istanbul, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in a televised briefing Monday. Fully 80 percent of the cases of COVID-19 identified in Russians returning from abroad were in people who came from Turkey, public-health chief Anna Popova said at the same briefing.

Slovenia

The 11-day period of strict lockdown in Slovenia ended on Monday as the country entered the red tier of coronavirus restrictions under an overhauled traffic light system. 

The night curfew was lifted after nearly six months, and schools were once again opened along with most service businesses.

Health Minister Janez Poklukar has said that while the lockdown is being relaxed, the country is well in the third wave of the pandemic, whose extent is difficult to fully predict.

South Sudan

South Sudan vaccinated less than a fifth of the number targeted in its first week of inoculations because of a lack of transport. The East African nation has only administered shots to 947 health workers, while it planned for 5,000, Health Ministry official George Auzanio Legge said by phone. The ministry now intends to travel to them instead, he said.

Sweden

The number of patients being treated in intensive care units in Sweden is now higher than during the second wave of the pandemic and eclipsed only by the first, deadly outbreak of the disease roughly a year ago, figures showed on Monday.

The number of new COVID-19 cases has been picking up in recent weeks and 392 people were now being treated in intensive care units, according to the Swedish Intensive Care Registry.

That topped the 389 who were treated in ICU units in early January, but was below the number in intensive care during the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020, when the total reached as high as 558.

While infections have surged, the death toll from the disease has so far not spiked in similar fashion, a trend attributed by the health agency to the roll-out of vaccinations among the most vulnerable, above all nursing home residents.

Diners sit outside cafes and pubs in Soho, central London, on April 12, 2021, the day some of England's coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased by the British government. (ALBERTO PEZZALI / AP)

UK

British prime Minister Boris Johnson said COVID-19 infections and deaths would start to rise again as restrictions were eased despite the successful roll out of vaccinations to those aged above 50 and vulnerable groups.

“The bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “So, as we unlock the result will inevitably be that we will see more infections and sadly we will see more hospitalizations and deaths.”

Britain has offered all over-50s a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine as the rollout of Moderna’s shot in England began on Tuesday, the government said, adding it was on track to give a shot to all adults by the end of July.

The government said it had offered at least one shot to priority cohorts 1 to 9, which include all adults over 50, the clinically vulnerable, and health and social care workers, ahead of a target to do so by Thursday.

“We will now move forward with completing essential second doses and making progress towards our target of offering all adults a vaccine by the end of July,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.

In a boost to vaccine supplies for first doses, the rollout of Moderna’s shot in England begins on Tuesday, after first doses were given in Wales last week.

Scotland will ease some lockdown restrictions for domestic travel and outdoor meetings earlier than expected, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday.

Some 69,223 people have received a first dose of a vaccine, taking the total to 32.191 million, and 189,665 people received a second dose.

Britain reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases since April 1 on Monday, with 3,568 new cases reported, up from 1,730 on Sunday, government data showed. The new cases took the cumulative tally to 4,373,343.

A further 13 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19, taking the total number of deaths on the measure to 127,100.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged people who live, work or study in two city boroughs to be tested following an outbreak of new cases linked to the South African variant.

Ukraine

Ukraine has completed laboratory studies of the CoronaVac vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech and is starting to send the vaccine across the country, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on his official Facebook page on Monday.

According to the official, the CoronaVac vaccine will be provided to police officers, people with limited mobility and their guardians, Olympians and Paralympians.

READ MORE: Director of China CDC criticizes misleading accounts

As of Monday, 1,861,105 COVID-19 cases and 37,301 deaths have been registered in Ukraine, while 1,416,215 patients have recovered, according to the health authorities.  

Zambia

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Zambia on Monday as the southern African nation began the rollout of its vaccination program.

The first consignment under the COVAX Facility consisting of 228,000 doses of AstraZeneca manufactured in India arrived at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on Monday afternoon and was received by health officials, the media and cooperating partners.

Minister of Health Jonas Chanda said that the arrival of the vaccine signals a significant stride in the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the government was determined to vaccinate all eligible citizens above the age of 18 and that the program will be undertaken in a cautious manner on a voluntary basis. A total of 8.3 million people are targeted to be vaccinated.