COVID-19 UPDATE: RUSSIA INOCULATES OVER 800,000 PEOPLE, VATICAN CITY PLANS SWIFT VACCINATION DRIVE

Sat 02 January 2021:

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1.82 million lives in 191 countries and regions since it originated in China last December.

Over 83.68 million cases have been reported worldwide, with more than 47.19 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

Israel vaccinates a million against COVID in less than two weeks

Israel says it has vaccinated one million people – more than a tenth of its population – against COVID-19, as it rolls out one of the world’s earliest and most rapid inoculation campaigns.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein hailed the millionth vaccination on Friday in Umm al-Fahm, a predominantly Arab city in the country’s north.

Israel has administered the first dose of vaccine to more than 10 percent of the population, according to Edelstein, less than two weeks after the launch of its inoculation campaign.

The goal is to vaccinate 5.5 million people in the country of 9.3 million, Netanyahu said.

On Thursday alone, Israel gave the jab to about 153,400 people, according to the health ministry.

India: Two vaccine doses, with a four week break

India’s drugs regulator is likely to approve giving people two vaccine doses, with a four week break between them, according to Reuters.

Officials had already approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, and another locally developed one by Bharat Biotech. A final decision is expected to be announced by the chief of the central drugs standards control organisation (CDSCO) on Sunday.

Greece will tighten Covid restrictions for a week from Sunday

Closing hair salons, bookstores and some other shops that had been allowed to reopen in the run-up to Christmas, the government has announced.

While most shops remained closed during December, there was a seasonal easing of curbs that provided a little relief for some hard-hit retail businesses.

The more stringent rules will come into force on 3 January, and a night-time curfew will start at 9pm – an hour earlier than before.

In a televised statement, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said the measures were aimed at helping schools reopen on 11 January.

Greece, which started the first vaccinations against the coronavirus last week, has reported 139,447 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,881 related deaths.

Russia inoculates over 800,000 people

More than 800,000 people in Russia have been inoculated so far against the new coronavirus and more than 1.5 million vaccine doses have been dispatched, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Saturday.

Russia, which began rolling out its Sputnik V vaccine in early December, has the world’s fourth higher number of COVID-19 cases and is putting high hopes on several vaccines it plans to produce.

The Sputnik V vaccine, which Russia already started supplying to other countries, is administered in two doses, which use different components, 21 days apart.

Russia sent 300,000 doses of the vaccine to Argentina last week, causing frustration at home, with some people arguing that more shots should be made available at home.

UK reports 57,725 cases

The United Kingdom recorded a further 57,725 cases of virus, the fifth day running that it has topped 50,000, and another 445 deaths, official data showed.

Friday’s data had shown 53,285 new infections and 613 deaths.

Medics warn of ‘catastrophe’ in Lebanon

Lebanon’s hospitals are being overwhelmed by virus cases, medics warned, as infection rates surge in the wake of end of year holidays.

The national Covid-19 task force met Saturday and recommended a three-week lockdown, its head Petra Khoury said, a decision supported by the parliamentary health committee.

Lebanon, with a population of around six million, has recorded 183,888 virus cases, including 1,466 deaths, since February.

On Thursday, it hit a daily record of more than 3,500 new cases.

Vatican City plans swift vaccination drive for residents

Vatican City, the world’s smallest sovereign state, expects to receive enough vaccine doses in the coming days to inoculate all of its workers and residents, a statement said.

The Vatican is home to about 450 people, including Pope Francis, while several hundred of its employees live in Rome, which surrounds the city state.

“It is likely that the vaccines could arrive in the state in the second week of January in sufficient quantity to cover the needs of the Holy See and the Vatican City State,” the statement said.

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