Children are accompanied by relatives as they walk to school in Mexico City on June 7, 2021, as face-to-face classes resume. (CLAUDIO CRUZ / AFP)

BUENOS AIRES / BRASILIA / LONDON / OTTAWA / GABORONE / ADDIS ABABA / TUNIS / QUITO / HAVANA / SANTIAGO / RABAT - About a quarter of Mexico's 126 million people are estimated to have been infected with the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Friday, far more than the country's confirmed infections.

The 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey (Ensanut) showed that about 31.1 million people have had the virus, the ministry said in a statement, citing Tonatiuh Barrientos, an official at the National Institute of Public Health.

The estimate was given as the country recorded 3,282 new cases and 243 more fatalities, taking its total number of confirmed infections to 2,448,820 and the death toll to 229,823.

The government has said previously the real number of cases was likely to be significantly higher.

According to Barrientos, not all of the people in the survey's estimate necessarily showed symptoms. The survey was based on interviews with people at 13,910 households between Aug. 17 and Nov. 14 last year, and confirmed preliminary results released in December. 

Separate data published in March suggested Mexico's actual death toll was at least 60 percent above the confirmed figure.

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 175.28 million while the global death toll topped 3.78 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

UN

A Group of Seven (G7) plan to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries lacks ambition, is far too slow and shows Western leaders are not yet on top of tackling the worst public health crisis in a century, campaigners said on Friday.

While the head of the United Nations welcomed the move, even he said more was needed. Antonio Guterres warned that if people in developing countries were not inoculated quickly, the virus could mutate further and become resistant to the new vaccines.

"We need more than that," he said of the G7 plan. "We need a global vaccination plan. We need to act with a logic, with a sense of urgency, and with the priorities of a war economy, and we are still far from getting that."

ALSO READ: WHO urges 'massive effort' to extend vaccine access in Africa

Africa

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 4,990,089 as of Friday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The death toll stood at 133,855 while a total od 4,489,665 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease, the Africa CDC said.

Argentina

Argentina extended quarantine measures for at least two more weeks until June 25 as a wave of infections sends the nation’s pandemic death rate past that of the United States.

The decree allows governors and the mayor of Buenos Aires to determine the extent of local lockdowns within certain parameters. 

The health ministry approved Friday the emergency use of the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine developed by Cansino Biologics Inc, aiming to bolster its portfolio of the critical jabs as the country faces a harsh second wave of the disease, further complicating its recovery from a lengthy recession.

The ministry also announced that it had signed contracts with CanSino and Sinopharm for millions of doses from each one.

Argentina on Friday reported 689 more deaths in 24 hours, raising its pandemic death toll to 84,628. There were 26,934 newly reported cases, taking the cumulative caseload to 4,093,090.

The country recently surpassed the US in deaths per million people since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Almost 80 percent of the beds in Argentine intensive care units are occupied, government data show.

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi receives a COVID-19 shot in Gaborone, Botswana, on June 11, 2021. (TSHEKISO TEBALO / XINHUA)

Botswana

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Friday received his first shot of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 in the country's capital city Gaborone.

Masisi encouraged everyone to take the jab when their time comes in order to save lives.

The southern African country is currently administering the second dose for people who have received their first shot of Sinovac's vaccine. 

Botswana has administered at least 150,019 doses of COVID-19 vaccine so far.

The country has reported a total of 59,480 cases and 896 fatalities.

Brazil

Brazil health regulator Anvisa on Friday said it had approved use of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine for children over 12 years of age.

The vaccine, the first in Brazil to receive definitive approval from Anvisa, was already authorized for use on adolescents aged 16 and over, the regulator said. It added that the Pfizer vaccine was currently the only one authorized to be used on minors.

Meanwhile, Anvisa met with representatives of Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Janssen on the same day to discuss extending the expiry date of a batch of 3 million doses of its vaccine bought by the South American nation. The batch of vaccines expires on June 27.

Janssen is proposing extending the expiry to four-and-a-half months from three at present, as approved on Thursday by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Anvisa said in a statement. 

Brazil on Friday posted another 85,149 coronavirus cases and 2,216 deaths, the health ministry said on Friday.

The South American country has registered 17,296,118 cases and 484,235 deaths in total, according to ministry data.

Canada

Health Canada said Friday it will not release the 300,000 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses which arrived in Canada in April due to a possible quality issue.

"To protect the health and safety of Canadians in response to concerns regarding a drug substance produced at the Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore Maryland, Health Canada will not be releasing the shipment," the government department said in a statement.

To ensure the safety of any future vaccine supply from this facility, Health Canada is planning an onsite inspection, expected to take place this summer.

"Until this inspection has been completed, Canada will not be accepting any product or ingredients made at this site," it said.

Chile

Chile reported on Friday 7,972 new COVID-19 cases and 133 additional deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 1,461,419 and the death toll to 30,472, the health ministry said.

The Chilean region of Aysen had the highest incidence per 100,000 inhabitants in the country, followed by the regions of Los Rios, Maule and the Santiago Metropolitan Region.

Cuba

Cuba registered on Friday 1,288 new COVID-19 infection and eight more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 154,866 and the death toll to 1,065.

"We still have bad results because the number of confirmed cases is increasing," said Francisco Duran, the ministry's director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran, during his daily report.

Havana, with 460 new cases in the last day, had an incidence rate of 314.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the country.

Ecuador

Ecuador registered 1,098 new COVID-19 infection and 46 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total cases and deaths to 437,121 and 15,436, respectively, the Ministry of Public Health said on Friday.

In its daily report, the ministry also reported another 5,561 deaths considered to be COVID-19 related, but not verified.

According to the ministry, the highest number of daily cases was reported in Pichincha province, where the capital Quito is located, with 380 cases.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia registered 214 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the nationwide tally to 273,892 as of Friday evening, according to the Ministry of Health.

The ministry said four more deaths and 443 new recoveries were reported, bringing the toll to 4,235 and the total recoveries to 249,471.

This March 6, 2021 file photo shows vials of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine at a pharmacy in Denver, the United States. (DAVID SALUBOWSKI / AP)

EU

The European Union does not expect Johnson & Johnson will be able to deliver 55 million COVID-19 vaccine doses it had committed to shipping to the bloc by the end of June, an EU official said on Friday.

The EU had previously said that it was confident the US pharmaceutical giant could meet its commitments. The position has changed after the European drugs regulator earlier on Friday said J&J doses sent to Europe from a factory in the United States would not be used out of precaution after a case of contamination.

France

France reported 3,871 newly confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, the second day in a row that the new cases tally was below 5,000 and the first time since late August 2020 that the seven-day moving average of new cases fell below 5,000.

The health ministry also reported 69 additional coronavirus deaths in hospitals on Friday and just five virus deaths in retirement care homes over the past three days.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Friday approved a new manufacturing site in France for the production of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine.

The site at Monts will be operated by Recipharm and produce the finished product, the EMA's committee for human medicines (CHMP) said.

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,911 to 3,713,480, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. 

The reported death toll rose by 129 to 89,816, the tally showed. 

The number of patients in intensive care is 28 percent lower than a week ago, according to an overview provided by newspaper Zeit.

Italy

The Italian government said on Friday it was restricting the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people over the age of 60, after a teenager who had received the shot died from a rare form of blood clotting.

Camilla Canepa died on Thursday aged 18 after being given the vaccine on May 25, triggering a media and political outcry over the Anglo-Swedish company's shot being used for adults of all ages despite previously-raised medical concerns.

"AstraZeneca will only be used for people over 60," the country's special COVID commissioner Francesco Figliuolo told reporters.

People under the age of 60 who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca should be given a different vaccine for the second dose, the government's chief medical adviser Franco Locatelli said at the same news conference.

“The risk-benefit assessment has changed," Locatelli said, without mentioning the death of Canepa, who suffered from a low platelet count, brain haemorrhage and abdominal blood clots.

READ MORE: EU advises against Astra shot in those with rare blood condition

Moderna

Moderna In. said that scientific evidence it has reviewed doesn’t suggest that its COVID-19 vaccine was the cause of a heart condition in some people who received it.

The drugmaker said in a statement Friday that after reviewing the available safety data on its shot for cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, it “has not established a causal association with its vaccine.”

Morocco

The number of people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Morocco reached 7,047,704 on Friday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

So far, a total of 9,362,000 vaccine doses have been administered in Morocco, according to the statement.

Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 523,165 after 400 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, according to the statement.

The number of recoveries increased by 324 to 510,623 while the death toll rose by 10 to 9,202.

Novavax

Novavax Inc said on Friday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed immune response and protection against the highly contagious coronavirus variant originally identified in South Africa in a clinical trial.

The vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, is being tested in multiple trials but has yet to be authorized for use in any country.

Novavax also said studies in mice and baboons found that a different vaccine specifically targeting the South African variant, now known as Beta, produced immune response and protection, and that it expected to conduct further clinical testing of the Beta-focused vaccine in the fall.

The company said testing of blood serum of thirty participants of a mid-stage trial who had received both doses of NVX-CoV2373 revealed robust antibody responses to the original version of the coronavirus as well as against the Alpha variant first found in the UK and the Beta variant.

However, the response against the Beta variant was slightly less, Novavax said.

People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus ride a subway car in Moscow, Russia, June 10, 2021. (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP)

Russia

Russia reported 13,510 new COVID-19 cases in the past day, the highest since Feb 15. A surge in infections pushed the daily total above 10,000 for the first time in three months.

The new cases reported in the last 24 hours brought the national tally to 5,193,964.

Of the new cases, 6,701 were posted in Moscow, the most since Dec 26. 

The government’s coronavirus task force said 399 more people had died, pushing the toll to 126,073.

Russia’s statistics agency on last Friday raised the number of deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 last year by 38 percent, showing the pandemic’s toll has been worse than acknowledged.

There were 144,691 deaths last year attributed to the coronavirus, up from 104,826 previously reported, according to a Rosstat report released late Friday.

The data did not contain deaths of people who had COVID-19 but were found to have died from other causes. Previously, Rosstat listed 58,499 deaths in that category for last year, but a spokesman said some of those had been shifted into the revised total for deaths attributed to COVID-19.

South Africa

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines intended for South Africa remain suspended following a US ruling that ingredients for the country’s doses may have been contaminated during production in a plant in Baltimore.

South Africa is heavily reliant on the J&J vaccine to meet a target of inoculating two-thirds of its 60 million population this year, having ordered more than 31 million of the single-dose shot. Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., Africa’s largest drugmaker, has a contract to fill and package the doses at a factory in the coastal town of Gqebherha, until recently known as Port Elizabeth.

“The vaccines awaiting distribution from the Gqebherha plant need further assessment by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority,” the country’s Ministry of Health said in a statement. That will determine “if they are suitable for use in South Africa. There is now a real possibility that they may not be, however this is for the regulator to rule on,” it said.

To compensate, 300,000 J&J doses are cleared to be shipped to South Africa “as a matter of extreme urgency,” the ministry said. Furthermore, the drugmaker has agreed a contract to supply the vaccine to the country and will therefore need to honor that in time.

Sweden

Swedish health officials warned on Friday of worrying local outbreaks of the COVID-19 Delta variant and urged people to get vaccinated to avoid a fourth wave of the pandemic.

Close to half the adult population has received at least one vaccine shot but the health agency warned that people who had only received one shot were less protected against the Delta variant that was first detected in India.

"There are some dark clouds on the horizon and I think mainly of outbreaks of the Delta variant. It is found in Europe and also locally in Sweden," agency director general Johan Carlson said at a news conference.

So far, only 71 cases of the variant have been confirmed in Sweden but it has prompted the agency to step up contact tracing.

On Thursday, Sweden reported 831 new cases and three deaths. 

Switzerland

Switzerland plans to reopen its borders for overseas visitors who have received a COVID-19 vaccine on June 28, joining other European countries easing entry rules imposed during the pandemic.

With its vaccine drive accelerating and COVID-19 infections falling, the Swiss government said it wants to prepare for the upcoming vacation season.

The Swiss government also plans to ease social-distancing rules. It has proposed reopening discotheques and allowing larger groups of people at restaurants and sporting facilities.

A final decision on reopening travel will be taken on June 23.

ALSO READ: Japan considers easing curbs in Tokyo, Osaka from June 21

Tunisia

Tunisia’s health ministry on Friday reported 2,161 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally to 364,819.

The death toll rose by 60 to 13,365 while the total number of recoveries reached 319,475, the ministry said in a statement.

So far, 1,274,840 people have received a COVID-19 shot, of whom 352,873 have received both doses, according to the latest figures published by the ministry. 

UK

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's hopes of ending England's coronavirus lockdown on June 21 hung in the balance on Friday as data showed a further rise in cases of the rapidly spreading Delta variant.

The Delta variant that drove India’s catastrophic second surge is 64 percent more likely to spread among household members than the Alpha strain, researchers from Public Health England reported.

The findings support existing evidence that Delta, also known as B.1.617.2, has “a substantially increased transmissibility advantage,” and that households are important settings for its rapid spread, they said. Delta became the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in England at the end of May and accounts for more than 90 percent of all new cases there.

The report came on a day the UK posted 8,125 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily total since Feb 26, government statistics showed.

The government reported 17 further deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test. 

In total, the UK has reported 4,550,944 confirmed cases and 127,884 deaths.

"We have to be really careful. We had a very big opening on the 17th of May where people could meet friends indoors, in a restaurant, in a pub, and socialise indoors as well," vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told Times Radio.

Johnson is due to announce on Monday whether the planned lifting of restrictions, which would see an end to limits on social contact, can go ahead on time.

However, the rapid spread of the Delta variant, first discovered in India, has thrown those plans into jeopardy, meaning there will be a one-month delay to the lifting of the restrictions, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Ukraine

Denmark is ready to deliver 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said in a statement after he spoke to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen by phone on Friday.

Ukraine has lagged behind other European countries in vaccinating its 41 million people. The government suggested some lockdown restrictions could continue over the summer, though case numbers have fallen.

US

The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday said Johnson & Johnson (J&J) must throw away millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine that were manufactured at a problem-plagued Baltimore factory but also cleared millions for use.

Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the agency had cleared about 10 million doses. The New York Times reported that the batches being discarded amount to around 60 million doses, citing people familiar with the matter.

Without disclosing or confirming the number of vaccine doses, the FDA said in a news release that it had authorized two batches of the vaccine for use, that several other batches were not suitable for use and that others were being evaluated.

The agency said it was not yet ready to authorize Emergent BioSolutions Inc's plant for manufacturing the J&J vaccine. Production of J&J's vaccine at the Baltimore site was halted by US authorities in April and J&J was put in charge of manufacturing at the plant.

J&J, in a statement, confirmed that the FDA authorized the two batches, but did not acknowledge the doses regulators decided should be tossed.