Members of the public queue for vaccinations outside of a temporary vaccination centre at the Essa academy in Bolton, northwest England on May 20, 2021. (PAUL ELLIS / AFP)

OTTAWA / SANTIAGO / HAVANA / QUITO / ADDIS ABABA / LONDON / LOS ANGELES / MOSCOW- The number of rapid COVID-19 tests being carried out in England fell to just over five million per week at the start of May, despite a government campaign calling on members of the public to test themselves twice weekly at home.

Official data shows that almost 5.1 million so-called lateral flow tests were conducted in the week to May 12, down from a high of 7.6 million in the week to March 17 when schools reopened after the winter lockdown. The rapid test total has fallen for three weeks in a row in England, which has a total population of about 56 million people.

Boris Johnson’s government has long pointed to mass testing as the key to the UK getting back to normal, after suffering one of the worst death tolls from coronavirus in the world.

The ability to quickly identify outbreaks of the virus and keep it under control is seen as fundamental to the UK’s economic recovery, alongside a vaccination program that aims to deliver at least one dose to every adult by the end of July.

But the UK’s test-and-trace program, which is set to cost 37 billion pounds over two years, has repeatedly faced criticism for failing to deliver on key metrics.

A double dose of COVID-19 vaccines is almost as effective against the fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against Britain's dominant strain, English health officials said on Saturday.

Britain's health minister said the data was groundbreaking and he was increasingly hopeful that the government would be able to lift more COVID-19 restrictions next month.

A study by Public Health England found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88 percent effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant two weeks after the second dose.

That compared with 93 percent effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 “Kent” strain which is Britain’s dominant COVID-19 variant.

Two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were 60 percent effective against symptomatic disease from the Indian variant compared with 66 percent effectiveness against the Kent variant, PHE said.


Another 2,694 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,460,446, according to official figures released Saturday.

The country also reported another six coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,716. 

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline Plc fell behind in the COVID-19 vaccine race, but now the drugmaker is working to make sure it’s on the front lines of the next pandemic.

The British pharma giant is talking with the UK and other governments about building facilities to bring vaccine development and production onshore before the next crisis, said Roger Connor, its vaccines chief. The labs would offer a range of vaccine technologies to tackle deadly viruses of the future, he said in an interview.

“When every government does their after-action review from this pandemic, they’ll start to think about manufacturing within their own boundary, or within their own region at least,” said Connor. We want to “create in-country manufacturing and vaccine development capability for the future.”

Glaxo’s main R&D vaccine hubs currently are based in Belgium, Italy and the US, with manufacturing capacity globally, including the UK.

Despite being one of the world’s largest vaccine companies by revenue, Glaxo wasn’t among the frontrunners in developing a COVID-19 shot. Its sluggish effort disappointed some shareholders, and a decision by activist investor Elliott Management Corp to buy a significant stake in the company has increased scrutiny of its strategy.

Argentina

Argentina will receive more than 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will arrive in the country between Sunday and Monday, according to an emailed statement from President Alberto Fernandez’s press office.

Of the doses, 204,000 are set to arrive Sunday morning via purchases through COVAX, while 843,000 will arrive Monday from the US.

Argentina on Saturday entered a phase of strict lockdown which will last until May 30 to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The decision was made through a presidential decree published on Saturday in the Official Gazette, and includes the restriction of movement from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am and the suspension of all non-essential activities.

About 11,500 troops were deployed throughout the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area to ensure compliance with the restrictions.

Argentina's Ministry of Health on Saturday reported another 32,171 cases of COVID-19, bringing the total caseload to 3,514,683.

Additionally, another 297 deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 73,688.

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A woman squats by a grave at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery on Mothers Day, in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil, on May 9, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP)

Brazil

Brazil passed 16 million cases Saturday, at the end of week in which infections and deaths were rising, according to Health Ministry data.

Cases rose for the fourth consecutive week, adding another 76,490 on Saturday, though the weekly caseload of 460,905 remains about 80,000 below a peak in March.

Weekly deaths increased to 13,495, after falling for five straight weeks from a peak of 21,141. Brazil has a total 448,208 recorded deaths, the most after the US.

Canada


About 50.08 percent of Canada's population were administered with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 4.3 percent with second dose as of Saturday afternoon, according to CTV.

The country, with a population of 38 million, has administered more than 20 million vaccine doses.

"This past week we marked some incredible milestones in COVID-19 vaccines delivery and vaccination coverage, including delivery of 4.5 million doses of vaccines ahead of the long weekend and reaching 20 million vaccines administered across the country," according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Saturday.

As vaccine delivery continues to ramp up at an accelerated pace, said Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam on Saturday, "there is increasing optimism that widespread and lasting immunity can be achieved through COVID-19 vaccination."

"Benefits are being seen among groups targeted for priority vaccination and as vaccine coverage increases across Canada, we can expect further benefits to protect more Canadians over the coming weeks and months," Tam added.

Health Canada said it would like to see at least 75 percent of eligible Canadians aged 12 and up vaccinated with one dose and 20 percent fully inoculated before anti-COVID-19 measures are relaxed.

As of Saturday afternoon, Canada reported 3,647 new cases of the COVID-19, bringing the cumulative total to 1,355,765 cases, including 25,203 deaths, according to CTV.

Workers prepare tables as restaurants reopen after a lockdown imposed against the spread of COVID-19 in Santiago on May 13, 2021. (MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP)

Chile


Chilean Minister of Health Enrique Paris reported on Saturday that, for the third consecutive day, more than 7,000 daily cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country.

Paris said that 7,514 new cases of the disease were registered in the last 24 hours, bringing the national total to 1,323,413.

Meanwhile, another 96 deaths were also reported, bringing the death toll to 28,386.

Cuba


Cuba reported on Saturday 1,289 new COVID-19 infections and 14 more deaths in one day, for a total of 131,832 cases and 863 deaths, the Ministry of Public Health said.

Of the total number of new cases, 1,229 were from community transmission, the ministry's director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran reported.

Ecuador

Ecuador reported on Saturday 1,219 new COVID-19 infections and 65 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the caseload to 417,840 and death toll to 14,758, the Ministry of Public Health said.

Another 5,422 deaths are considered to be COVID-19 related, but not verified, according to the ministry.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia has registered 381 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 268,901 as of Saturday evening, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

The ministry said eight new deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 4,068.

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Russia

Russia's cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases reached 5,001,505 after the country registered 8,951 new infections over the past 24 hours, the official monitoring and response center said Sunday.

The national COVID-19 death toll rose by 357 to 118,482 in the past day, while the number of the country's recoveries grew by 7,297 to 4,617,762.

Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit area, has registered 2,924 new cases, taking the city's total to 1,157,039.

According to official data, as of Friday, 25,468,057 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Russia that has a population of more than 146 million.

US


Variant cases of COVID-19 continued to be identified in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, public health officials said Saturday.

Although the variants first detected in California (B.1.427/429) have been dominant in the past in Los Angeles County, the most common circulating variant of concern in the metropolitan area with over 10 million residents is now the variant first detected in UK (B.1.1.7), according to the county's Department of Public Health.

Of the 40 specimens analyzed by the Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory in the past week, 53 percent were the B.1.1.7 variant and none were the B.1.427/429 variants. The lab also detected 6 cases of P.1 variant which was first found in Brazil last week and one case of B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa, said the department in a daily update.