Covid-19 cases in Eastern Europe top 10 million – latest updates

Friday, February 12, 2021

US CDC issues guidelines on school reopenings

The US Centers for Disease Control has released new guidance for school reopenings, saying schools in areas of low Covid-19 transmission can fully reopen if they employ universal mask-wearing and other mitigation strategies.

The agency said school reopenings should not be conditional on teachers' access to vaccines, but strongly recommended US states prioritise teachers and school staff for vaccination.

Algerian president returns after surgery

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has returned home after a one-month stay in Germany for surgery following post-Covid-19 complications in his foot, state television said.

"The President of the Republic, Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces and Minister of Defence, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, returned today," the state broadcaster said, but did not broadcast images of his arrival.

Tebboune, 75, had been hospitalised in Germany last year after contracting the virus, and stayed there for two months before returning to Algeria.

He returned to Germany on January 10, and underwent a "successful" operation on his foot 10 days later, according to the presidency.

Cases in Eastern Europe surpass 10 million

The number of Covid-19 cases in Eastern Europe have surpassed 10 million, according to a Reuters tally, as countries across the region aim to increase vaccine procurements from multiple suppliers to accelerate inoculation programmes.

Countries in Eastern Europe have reported more than 10.02 million cases and 214,691 deaths since the pandemic started. However, daily average new cases in the region have declined by about 31 percent in the past 30 days as compared with the previous 30 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

Russia has the most cases in the region and became the first European country to surpass 4 million on Monday. The country has also reported the most deaths in Eastern Europe at about 79,194, according to a Reuters tally.

China refuses to give WHO raw data on early cases

China has refused to give the World Health Organization raw data on its early Covid-19 cases, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing WHO investigators who it said described heated exchanges over lack of detail.

The world health agency officials said raw, personalised data could help them determine how and when the coronavirus first spread in China, the newspaper said.

France recommends single vaccine dose for people who have had Covid

France recommended that people who have already recovered from Covid-19 receive a single vaccine dose, becoming the first country to issue such advice.

All three vaccines approved for use in the European Union are administered in the form of two doses, delivered several weeks apart.

This is because clinical trials showed that immunity against the disease was significantly higher after individuals received two shots.

France's public health authority said, however, that people who had already been infected with Covid-19 develop an immune response similar to that bestowed by a vaccine dose, and that a single dose after infection would likely suffice.

Over 14 million Britons received first vaccine dose

A total of 14,012,224 Britons have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, official data showed, as the government races to vaccinate the most vulnerable people.

Britain also reported 758 deaths within 28 days of a positive test and an additional 15,144 cases.

EU regulator opens review into CureVac's Covid shot

The European Union's medicines regulator said it had started a "rolling review" of a vaccine developed by German firm CureVac, the first step towards a possible authorisation in the bloc.

"Preliminary results from laboratory studies and early clinical studies in adults ... suggest the vaccine triggers the production of antibodies and immune cells that target" the coronavirus, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

The rolling review of CureVac's shot will continue "until enough evidence is available for a formal marketing authorisation application," it added.

With delays to deliveries of three already authorised vaccines, the EMA is under pressure from the EU's 27 member states to speed more into service.

Dose shortages undermine push by US states to speed vaccinations

When the US government began shipping Covid-19 vaccines in December, state health providers could not administer shots fast enough to keep pace with deliveries and millions of doses sat waiting for arms.

Two months later, the situation has reversed. Supply constraints are slowing ambitious vaccination programs, as massive sites capable of putting shots into thousands of arms daily in states including New York, California, Florida and Texas, as well as hospitals and pharmacies, beg for more doses.

Nearly a dozen state and local officials told Reuters they could vaccinate up to four times more people, but federal vaccine shipments remain frustratingly small.

EU countries urged to speed ratifications for virus rescue

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen urged member states to accelerate ratification of a key part of the bloc's $900-billion (750-billion-euro) plan to recover from the impact of the coronavirus.

"This should be our common aim: by mid-year, we should be able to disperse the first funds," she told a media conference after the European Council of member states and the European Parliament gave their signatures to the mechanism conceived in a July summit.

The overall scheme, called "New Generation EU," consists mainly of a 672.5-billion-euro "recovery and resilience facility" that relies on an unprecedented pooling of debt to provide grants and loans to EU countries.

The money has to go to priorities backed by the EU, particularly with an emphasis on making economies "greener." Other priorities include boosting digital transformation, social cohesion and better health care.

Nigeria mobile court hands out fines for mask violations

Authorities in Nigeria's capital Abuja have established an outdoor mobile court in an effort to prosecute individuals and institutions violating rules imposed to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Africa's most populous country is currently facing a second wave of infections, with 143,516 cases and 1,710 deaths reported – but these figures are believed to fall short of the real toll since the number of tests is low.

Face masks are compulsory in public spaces and social distancing is advised across the country, but these rules are rarely observed.

Bosnia begins vaccinating with Russia's Sputnik V jab

Bosnia started vaccinating against the coronavirus, using Russia's Sputnik V jab, but only medical staff will be inoculated for now, given the small supplies available.

Bosnia is now the third Western Balkan nation to begin vaccinating against the virus, after Serbia and Albania.

In the region, European Union member Croatia has also started vaccinating.

Play halted at Australian Open as fans leave for lockdown

Play was suspended temporarily at the Australian Open as fans were told to leave the Rod Laver Arena to comply with a new five-day lockdown in Melbourne.

Top seed Novak Djokovic was two sets to one ahead, but struggling with an injury, against American Taylor Fritz when play was halted at 11:30 pm local time (0030 GMT) and fans were asked to leave.

The five-day lockdown, ordered after a new Covid-19 outbreak at a hotel, was due to start at midnight.

After a short delay while fans made their way to the exits, play resumed.

Covid-19 takes toll on UK funeral home staff

Funeral home staff are under pressure in many places, but the burden is especially intense in Britain, where more than 115,000 people with the virus have died, one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world. 

Undertakers, embalmers and others who deal with death for a living often regard the pressure on them as less important than the pain felt by bereaved families. But many are exhausted by the sheer amount of mortality they have faced, and the pandemic is increasing awareness that their own mental health also deserves tending to.

Funeral directors across the country describe a heavy burden from more services, tougher hygiene measures and fewer staff because of illness and self-isolation requirements.

New Zealand plans to start vaccinations next week

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said the country's inoculation program will likely begin on February 20, brought forward by the earlier receipt of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than originally anticipated.

Pressure has been mounting on Ardern to start vaccinations for the country's 5 million people to take advantage of its rare position of having virtually eliminated the virus domestically.

Both New Zealand and neighbouring Australia have formally approved the vaccine jointly developed by US drugmaker Pfizer Inc and Germany's BioNTech. Australia has said it expects to begin inoculations by the end of this month, without giving a specific date.

UK economy shrinks record 9.9% in 2020 on virus

Britain's economy shrank by a record 9.9 percent last year on the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic despite managing strong growth in the second half.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak said the economy had suffered a "serious shock" from the Covid-19 global health crisis.

The data came one week after the Bank of England forecast economic recovery on the back of Britain's successful ongoing vaccines rollout.

Poland raises upper age limit for AstraZeneca vaccine to 65

Poland is raising the maximum age limit for people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine to 65, the minister in charge of the vaccination programme says.

The country had previously said that the vaccine would be used for people aged 18-60.

US pharmacy vaccine drive begins as cases fall

The United States' Covid vaccination drive has entered a new phase as thousands of pharmacies were scheduling shots, but a wave of optimism brought about by falling cases could soon be tested by dangerous variants.

President Joe Biden's administration was shipping a million doses to some 6,500 drugstores and supermarket pharmacies nationwide, with several chains announcing they would begin giving out the first shots.

The US immunizations campaign got off to a shaky start in December but has since improved: 44.8 million shots have now reached arms, and at least 33 .7 million people have received one or more doses, roughly 10 percent of the population.

The pharmacy program will eventually expand to 40,000 outlets, while the federal government has also used emergency legislation to ramp up vaccine production, opened mass vaccine sites in stadiums, and has begun a separate program to reach underserved communities.

Portugal's relief at falling cases tempered by fear 

Dr. Nuno Germano has a nagging fear when Portugal’s January surge of cases threatened to overwhelm the public health system, forcing his intensive care unit at Lisbon’s Curry Cabral Hospital to double its number of beds in a week.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to care for the patients,” he says.

After Portugal figured for about two weeks last month as the world’s worst-hit country by size of population, anxiety over the recent pandemic peak has eased slightly.

The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital and in intensive care fell Thursday for the third straight day.

The health ministry reported the fewest hospitalizations since Jan. 20 and the fewest patients in ICUs for almost two weeks.

But Portugal’s seven-day average of daily deaths remained the world’s highest, at 2.05 per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Race to vaccinate older Americans advances in many states

Two months after the first shots were administered, the race to vaccinate older Americans is gaining traction, with more than a third of people 65 and up having received their first dose in states that have provided data.

The finding comes from an Associated Press analysis of information from 27 states where data is available. Those states account for just over half of all first doses administered nationwide.

The effort is uneven, with many other states still lagging behind on vaccinations of the higher-risk population.

Brazil’s virus surge in Manaus linked to new variant

A new coronavirus variant identified in the Brazilian Amazon is hammering the jungle city of Manaus with a devastating second wave of infections, Brazil's Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello announced.

He said that early analysis is being on the new variant, which may be three times more contagious.

He also told a Senate hearing that Brazil would vaccinate half its eligible population by June and the rest by the end of the year — an ambitious target as the country has barely guaranteed doses for half the population.

The Butantan institute in Sao Paulo, which has partnered with Sinovac to test and produce the Chinese vaccine, said in a statement that it had begun studies regarding the Manaus variant but would not have a conclusion for two weeks.

The Fiocruz biomedical center in Rio de Janeiro, which has partnered with AstraZeneca to fill and finish doses of its vaccine developed with Oxford University, said it is studying its efficacy against the Amazon variant, sent samples to Oxford and is awaiting results.

China New Year travel slumps amid curbs

The number of people who travelled in China ahead of Lunar New Year has plummeted from two years ago as restrictions curbed the world's largest annual domestic migration.

The seven-day celebration, which kicked off, is China's most important national holiday and is usually marked by big family reunions. Millions of workers traditionally travel - sometimes thousands of kilometres from Beijing and other major cities - to their hometowns in remote regions.

Data from the Ministry of Transportation, Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc and travel analytics firm ForwardKeys showed a sharp drop in the percentage of the country's 1.45 billion population who travelled this year.

Russia reports 15,089 new cases

Russia has reported 15,089 new cases, including 2,139 in Moscow, taking the national infection tally to 4,042,837 since the pandemic began.

Authorities said 507 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 79,194. 

Hungary PM blames British variant for rise in cases

Infections have started to rise again in Hungary, probably due to the spread of the variant of the disease first detected in Britain, Prime Minister Viktor Orban says.

However, Orban said there was no need for further lockdown measures to curb the spread, as a planned acceleration of inoculations with Russian and Chinese vaccines could offset the rise in cases in coming weeks.

"If we start inoculations with the Chinese vaccine as well, by Easter we will be able to vaccinate all the (more than 2 million) people who have registered for vaccines," Orban said.

Hungary expects to receive 500,000 doses of Chinese firm Sinopharm's vaccine next week and plans to start administering it soon, becoming the first EU country to use it.

Catalan vote to test pandemic's impact on separatism

Over 5 million voters will be called to the polls on Sunday in Spain’s northeast Catalonia for an election that will measure the impact of the pandemic on the restive region’s secessionist movement.

Pro-independence lawmakers have held power in the regional government based in Barcelona for the past decade. And although pro-union Socialist Salvador Illa, Spain's former health minister, is hoping to end the separatists’ hegemony on local power, the outcome is far from clear according to the polls.

Participation in the election will likely be lowered by a worrying rate of Covid-19 infections.

The election comes after authorities had to tighten restrictions on social activities to stem another surge in infections. So while Catalans will be free to vote all day on Sunday, eating establishments will still only open for breakfast and lunch and a curfew will send everyone home by 10 p.m.

France hopes Johnson&Johnson vaccine available in April

France's vaccines chief Alain Fischer has said France Info radio that he hoped the Johnson&Johnson vaccine would be available in April.

Fischer also said that, providing there are no bad surprises, France should be able to uphold, even increase, the current rhythm of around daily 150,000 vaccinations.

Philippines to allow cinemas, public attractions to reopen

The Philippines plans to allow more businesses, including cinemas and public attractions, to reopen or expand their operations soon, as the country moves to revive its pandemic-hit economy.

The Southeast Asian country has the second highest number of cases and deaths in the region, but Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said improving hospital capacity provided room to ease more curbs.

From one of Asia's fastest growing nations before the pandemic, the Philippines suffered its worst economic decline in 2020 as a strict coronavirus lockdown shuttered businesses and put millions out of work.

Australian city Melbourne begins 3rd lockdown due to cluster

Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, will begin its third lockdown due to a rapidly spreading cluster centered on hotel quarantine.

The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.

The Australian Open tennis tournament will be allowed to continue but without spectators, he said.

Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced will be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport. Schools and many businesses will be closed.

Los Angeles forced to suspend vaccine centers over dire shortage

Facing a severe vaccine shortage, Los Angeles moved to temporarily close five major inoculation centers including its giant Dodger Stadium site Thursday, even as California this week topped the nation's pandemic death toll.

"We're vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles, and I'm very concerned right now," said Mayor Eric Garcetti, slamming the vaccine supply as "uneven... unpredictable and too often inequitable."

Los Angeles received only 16,000 doses of vaccine this week, Garcetti said, despite having administered just over 13,000 doses per day in recent weeks.

The city has so far delivered 293,000 shots among its 4 million residents.

First injections of the Moderna vaccine will run out Thursday evening, the mayor added, with sites including the Dodgers baseball stadium -- one of the nation's largest such operations -- not expected to reopen until Tuesday earliest.

Until then, inoculation services in surrounding Los Angeles county will be restricted to second shots.

So far, only health workers, nursing home residents, and residents over 65 are eligible to receive the vaccine in the county.

Pandemic woes seen swelling global ranks of child soldiers

More children could be pushed into joining armed groups in conflict zones as families face increasing poverty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a top UN official warns.

The exact number of child soldiers is unknown, but in 2019 alone about 7,740 children - some as young as six - were recruited and used as fighters or in other roles by mostly non-state armed groups, according to United Nations data.

Speaking on International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers - or Red Hand Day - the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba said that number was likely to rise as a result of coronavirus-related hardship.

Venezuelan government and opposition discuss vaccine financing

Venezuelan government officials and opposition leaders have met to discuss buying coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX program using cash frozen in the US by economic sanctions.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido last week said that Venezuelan funds controlled by the US Treasury Department could be used to pay for vaccines. The cash-strapped government of President Nicolas Maduro has signed up for COVAX, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide vaccines globally, but has not made the associated payments.

The meeting marks a step forward in what will likely be a long process requiring that US authorities approve the use of the funds, as well as the completion of a vaccination roll-out plan for crisis-stricken Venezuela.

Germany's virus cases rise by 9,860

The number of confirmed cases in Germany increased by 9,860 to 2,320,093.

The reported death toll rose by 556 to 64,191, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

First vaccines arrive in Japan from Pfizer

The first batch of Pfizer's vaccine arrived in Japan with official approval for the shots expected within days as the country races to control a third wave of infections ahead of the Olympic Games.

A government health panel is due to deliberate on the vaccine later on today, when it is expected to green-light the shots for formal approval. Kyodo News reported that approval would come on Sunday.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has said vaccinations would begin from the middle of next week, starting with health workers, and the government hopes to have secured enough supplies for the whole populace by mid-year.

US acquires 200M more vaccine doses

President Joe Biden has said that the US had signed deals to acquire 200 million more vaccine doses as officials look to immunize the vast majority of the population by July.

The deals with Pfizer and Moderna, which the administration had announced it was seeking last month, increase the country's total vaccine supply by fifty percent, to 600 million doses.

Both vaccines currently authorised for emergency use in the US require two shots.

The US immunisation campaign got off to a shaky start in December but has since improved: 46.4 million shots have now reached arms, and at least 34.7 million people have received one or more doses, roughly 10 percent of the population.

The vaccine drive entered a new phase on Thursday as 6,500 pharmacies began scheduling shots, but a wave of optimism brought about by falling cases could soon be tested by dangerous variants.

A million doses were being shipped to drugstores and supermarket pharmacies nationwide, with chains announcing they would begin administering the first shots today.

The pharmacy program will eventually expand to 40,000 outlets, while the federal government has also used emergency legislation to ramp up vaccine production, opened mass vaccine sites in stadiums, and has begun a separate program to reach underserved communities.

Anthony Fauci, the president's chief advisor on the pandemic, told NBC that by April, vaccines would start being available to anyone who wanted them.

Brazil reports 54,742 new cases

Brazil has recorded 54,742 additional confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, along with 1,351 deaths, the Health Ministry said.

Brazil has registered more than 9.7 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to over 236,000, according to ministry data.

Mexico's death toll rises to 171,234 

Mexico's health ministry has reported 1,474 new confirmed deaths, bringing its total to 171,234.

The government says the real number of infected people and the death toll in Mexico are both likely significantly higher than reported levels.

China reports 12 new cases

China has reported 12 new mainland cases for February 11, official data showed, up from two cases a day earlier but there were no new locally transmitted infections as the Lunar New Year holiday began.

All of the new cases were imported infections, the National Health Commission said in a statement. New asymptomatic infections, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to eight from 16 a day earlier.

China saw a major resurgence of the disease in January, when a cluster emerged in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing. 

The disease spread to northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in the country's worst outbreak since March 2020, prompting an aggressive package of measures including lockdowns in the worst-hit areas to curb the spread of the virus.

The current  data adds to evidence that China was able to effectively stamp out the latest wave of infections and avoid another full-blown crisis.

The total number of confirmed mainland cases stands at 89,748. The death toll is unchanged at 4,636.

Czech lawmakers reject government request to extend state of emergency 

The Czech lower house of parliament has rejected the government's request to extend a state of emergency underpinning pandemic measures beyond February 14.

The minority government said the decision would mean the end of nationwide limits on movement, including a night-time curfew, the lifting of a ban on public gatherings, and a reopening of retail stores.

Some other measures may still be extended under different legislation.

South Africa secures millions of Pfizer, J&J vaccine doses

South Africa has secured millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines to fight the highly infectious variant that is dominant in the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

During an annual state of the nation address, Ramaphosa said South Africa has secured 9 million doses of the J&J vaccine, of which 500,000 would arrive over the next four weeks so authorities could start vaccinating health workers.

Another 20 million Pfizer doses were also on their way, he said.

In addition, the World Health organisation-backed COVAX facility would provide 12 million vaccine doses, Ramaphosa said.

South Africa has been hit doubly hard by a second wave of Covid-19, driven by a new coronavirus variant first discovered in the Eastern Cape, called 501Y.V2 and believed to be 50 percent more contagious than earlier versions of the coronavirus.

Nearly 1.5 million people have been infected since the pandemic began and more than 47,000 have been killed, and Ramaphosa said the economy had shrunk by 6%, while joblessness had soared to new records.