Workers wait to admit fans to Wembley Stadium to watch the English League Cup final football match between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, in northwest London on April 25, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)
RIGA / VANCOUVER / NEW YORK / QUITO / GENEVA / SANTIAGO / HAVANA / SKOPJE / HARARE / VALLETTA / GABORONE / LONDON / BRUSSELS / TUNIS / LISBON / SAO PAULO / SOFIA – Thousands of people at a mass nightclub rave in the UK this week will be a key test of whether live events halted during the pandemic can reopen at full capacity as planned from the end of June.
The two-day event in Liverpool, northwest England, is part of a national research program which so far appears to show people are happy to be tested for coronavirus to secure entry to large-scale events.
There are also no early signs that live events are spreading the disease, according to government scientist Paul Monks, and the program is expected to move to its second phase next month — with live events held at a “full range” of indoor and outdoor venues with “different scales” of capacity.
Britain is working on using the existing National Health Service (NHS) coronavirus app to show that people have received their COVID-19 vaccine for international travel, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday
"It will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments with the NHS … to be able to show that you've had a vaccine or that you've had testing, and I'm working internationally with partners across the world, to make sure that that system can be internationally recognised," he said.
Britain has earmarked May 17 as being the earliest date when international travel would be allowed for non-essential reasons following a winter lockdown, with a "traffic light system" based on individual countries' COVID risk levels.
Mexico
Mexico will produce Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 domestically, its foreign minister said on a visit to Moscow, in a TV interview shared on Wednesday on the official Sputnik V Twitter feed run by the fund marketing the vaccine.
Mexico's top diplomat travelled to Moscow on Sunday amid talks to hammer out plans for Mexico to bottle Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine domestically after delays in shipments.
Bottling the Russian shot in Mexico could start as early as May, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets the vaccine abroad, said on Twitter.
Mexico's Health Ministry said in late February it expected to receive 7.4 million doses of Sputnik V by April and an additional 16.6 million shots in May. Mexico has signed an agreement to acquire a total of 24 million doses.
European Union
European Union countries introducing their own COVID vaccination certificates would be left with a dangerous myriad of disjointed solutions if the 27-nation bloc fails to build a joint system, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The EU is pushing to launch a shared digital health pass to allow tourists to travel freely this summer. But discussions are not yet settled on costs, data and privacy issues, as well as technical and medical aspects of the new system, among others.
"If we can deliver politically, the technical solution will be ready in time. If we don't, we risk fragmentation across Europe, with a multitude of possibly incompatible national solutions," EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.
"We would risk having a variety of documents that cannot be read and verified in other member states. And we risk the spread of forged documents, and with it, the spread of both the virus and the mistrust of citizens," he told the European Parliament.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 148.76 million while the global death toll topped 3.13 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Portugal
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced on Tuesday evening the end of the "state of emergency" on April 30, due to the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
"After hearing the experts and the parties in the Assembly of the Republic, all seen and considered, I decided not to renew the state of emergency," the head of state said in a speech to the nation.
Decreed since Nov 9, 2020, this highest level of civil protection in the country, which allows restrictions on people's rights and freedom, has been renewed 15 times to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in Portugal.
"This decision weighed in the stabilization and even the decrease in the average number of deaths, inpatients in the infirmary and in intensive care, as well as the stabilization of the number of infected people, that is, the incidence of the pandemic," the president explained, noting that the pandemic remains under control even though "a month has passed since Easter and the reopening of schools."
However, he was quick to warn that "we are not yet at a time free of COVID-19, or free of viruses," and the Portuguese still face the risk of new variants, which "justifies a concern for all."
Venezuela
Venezuelan COVID-19 patients are paying doctors to come to their homes due to the high cost of private clinics and hospitals overflowing with patients and often lacking oxygen and medicine, doctors interviewed by Reuters said in recent weeks.
Family members tend to chip in or launch crowdfunding campaigns for infected relatives, said Laura Martinez, a 55-year-old resident of the lower middle-class Las Acacias neighborhood in western Caracas, whose husband and elderly parents were treated at home. Patients who receive home treatment for the coronavirus generally purchase respirators, oxygen tanks and anti-viral drugs.
As the new wave gathered steam throughout March and April, home care, gained popularity thanks to word of mouth and social media. Such treatment often includes house calls, an option seen as a luxury in many developed countries but rendered cheap in Venezuela by a surfeit of underpaid doctors. Home visits cost US$40-US$80, depending on the severity of the patient's symptoms, doctors said.
Venezuela's public hospitals frequently suffer from blackouts and routinely lack running water, according to medical associations who stage frequent protests over the inadequate conditions of the public health system.
Private clinics are better equipped but charge at least US$1,500-US$2,500 per night for inpatient care and as much as US$5,000 per night for emergency care to treat acute respiratory problems.
That's out of reach for the vast majority in a country where monthly minimum wage has not topped US$5 in several years.
Canada
The province of Quebec on Tuesday reported Canada’s first death of a patient from a rare blood clot condition after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Canada has reported at least five cases of blood clots following immunization with the vaccine, but public health officials maintain the benefits of the AstraZeneca shot outweigh the potential risks
Quebec Public Health Director Horacio Arruda told reporters the death of the patient due to thrombosis will not change the province's vaccination strategy.
The rare complication – which some regulators including Health Canada are calling Vaccine-Induced Prothrombotic Immune Thrombocytopenia – involves blood clots accompanied by a low count of platelets, cells in the blood that help it to clot.
Among the first cases of the extremely rare condition identified in those who received the AstraZeneca shot in Europe, 40 percent died. Health Canada has said the risk associated with the condition is likely to fall with increased awareness and early treatment, and use of the vaccine in much of Europe and elsewhere has resumed after a regulatory review.
AstraZeneca Canada said in a statement it is aware of the investigation into the death, and that "it is not appropriate for us to comment further on specific individual cases."
This photo shows vials of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 at Saint Margit Hospital in Budapest, Hungary, April 14, 2021. (ZOLTAN BALOGH / MTI VIA AP)
Russia
Russian developers of Sputnik V rejected Brazil's criticisms of the COVID-19 shot, saying on Tuesday that its refusal to approve the vaccine for use was not justified on scientific grounds.
The board of Brazil's health regulator Anvisa voted unanimously not to approve COVID-19 after technical staff warned of flaws in its development along with incomplete data regarding the vaccine's safety and efficacy.
A crucial issue for the Brazilian regulator was the risk of other viruses used to make the vaccine reproducing in patients, which Anvisa's medicines and biological products manager Gustavo Mendes called a "serious" defect.
Denis Logunov, the main developer of Sputnik V, denied that the two viral vectors, or adenoviruses, used to produce the COVID-19 shot could replicate.
He said every batch underwent rigorous checks both by the Gamaleya Institute and the Russian health watchdog and none had shown the presence of adenoviruses that could replicate.
"The vaccine is clean … and it does not contain replication-competent adenoviruses," Logunov told reporters.
Logunov said the shot went through a four-stage cleaning and filtration process, which he said was rare among vaccine makers.
Russia confirmed 7,848 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, below 8,000 for the first time since the end of September, taking the nationwide tally to 4,787,273, the country's official monitoring and response center said Wednesday.
The national COVID-19 death toll rose by 387 to 109,367 in the past day, while the number of the country's recoveries grew by 8,420 to 4,411,098.
United States
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai discussed increasing COVID-19 vaccine production in a virtual meeting on Tuesday with an executive with drugmaker Novavax, Tai's office said in a statement.
Tai and Novavax Executive Vice President John Trizzino also discussed a proposal before the World Trade Organization to waive certain intellectual property rights in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the USTR statement said.
"Ambassador Tai sought Mr. Trizzino's views on steps Novavax is taking to quickly increase equitable production and distribution of vaccines in the United States and around the world," the statement said.
Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine is not currently authorized for use in the United States.
Also, federal health officials said earlier that fully-vaccinated Americans can be unmasked when exercising, dining and socializing outdoors in small groups, and can gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people and family members without masks or social distancing.
But masks should remain on anywhere there’s a large gathering, including ballparks, malls or church, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. And the agency urged that vaccinated people be mindful around those with a higher risk for severe illness.
A man wears a double mask as he visits Times Square in New York on Dec 10, 2020. (KENA BETANCUR / AFP)
Spain
Travelers arriving in Spain from India will be subject to a 10-day quarantine starting from May 1, according to the Official State Gazette (BOE) on Wednesday.
The measure is a response to a devastating wave of coronavirus sweeping across India recently, which, the Spanish government said, has led to countries such as France, Italy, Britain and Indonesia adopting restrictions to travelers arriving from India.
People who have to undergo the quarantine will only be allowed to leave their homes for food, medicines and other essentials.
A trial concert in Barcelona where 5,000 people took rapid COVID-19 tests and crammed into a venue without social distancing did not drive up infections, organisers said on Tuesday, giving hope to the moribund live-music sector.
Two weeks after the show by Catalan indie band Love of Lesbian, just six cases of coronavirus were detected among attendees, medical supervisor Dr Josep Maria Llibre told a news conference.
That is equivalent to around half the infection rate among Barcelona's general population as measured over the past two weeks, said Llibre, an internal medicine specialist at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital.
"This has not been a super-spreading event," he said, and there were no signs that the six infections had occurred at the venue.
"These are very reassuring data and we believe that can be helpful in opening cultural activities everywhere in the world," Llibre said.
On the day of the show, concert-goers had to take a test at one of three locations in the city and demonstrate a negative result before being allowed into the Palau Sant Jordi arena.
Latvia
As of May 3, COVID-19 vaccines will be made available to all residents of Latvia without dividing them into priority groups, the government of the Baltic country decided on Tuesday.
Originally, the government planned to begin the immunization of the general public no later than May 10, but ministers decided at a meeting to start offering the jabs to everyone sooner.
With vaccination against COVID-19 gathering pace in Latvia, the jabs are already available to several priority groups, including medics, seniors, people with chronic diseases, residents and staff at nursing homes and employees of emergency services.
According to data from the National Health Service, 222,798 people, or 11.76 percent of the population, have been administered a first vaccine dose; and 39,804 people, or 2.1 percent, have received the second shot.
Ecuador
Ecuador's Ministry of Public Health reported 554 COVID-19 infections and 83 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 375,329 cases and 13,281 deaths.
Another 5,108 deaths are considered to be COVID-19 related, but not verified, according to the ministry.
Over the last day, the provinces of Pichincha and Guayas registered 177 and 124 new cases, respectively, with most corresponding to their capitals, Quito and Guayaquil, the hardest hit by the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in 16 of the country's 24 provinces with high incidence rate of infection, a state of exception has been in effect since April 23, including a nighttime curfew and a total weekend lockdown to curb the increase in cases, which will last until May 20.
In addition, public and private sector workers throughout the country are obliged to telework.
According to the government, the measures were taken in view of the circulation in Ecuador of the new coronavirus variants first detected in other countries, which are more contagious.
ALSO READ: Virus: Encouraging vaccine data emerges from UK, Israel
Switzerland
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), Switzerland's official public health department, announced Tuesday that 10 percent of the Swiss population has been vaccinated against COVID-19 while some 18 percent received at least one vaccine dose.
"The number of completely vaccinated people is close to 870,000, which amounts to 10 percent of the population," said Virginie Masserey, FOPH's head of Infection Control and Vaccination Program, at a press conference.
The FOPH also reassured that the number of new infections was not increasing despite the recent opening of restaurant terraces.
"During the last few weeks, we saw stabilization in the number of infections," said Masserey, even though she confirmed that the B117 variant, originating from the UK, is "predominant."
The B117 has been detected in 17,000 infections since the end of February, about 62 percent of all infections since that period. Masserey said that the variant was "more virulent" and caused "more severe infections."
South Africa
South Africa plans to buy Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines and shots developed by China’s Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd as it steps up efforts to tackle the coronavirus.
The government will order 10 million doses of each shot, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told lawmakers in Cape Town on Wednesday. “We are doing this now because we do expect the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority to approve those vaccines,” he said.
South Africa, the nation that’s been hardest hit by the pandemic on the continent, resumed its administration of Johnson & Johnson vaccines to health-care workers on Wednesday, after putting their use on hold for two weeks due to concerns that they could be linked to blood clots. Almost 1.58 million COVID-19 cases have been detected in South Africa and more than 54,000 of those diagnosed with the disease have died.
The single-dose J&J shots were given to 292,623 health workers as part of a drug trial that enabled normal regulatory procedures to be bypassed prior to their use being paused. The vaccine has since been approved for general usage.
Poland
Poland announced an extensive easing of restrictions to help its virus-weary economy after the country turned the corner on the latest surge in the coronavirus pandemic.
Poland, the second-worst place to live during the pandemic after Brazil in Bloomberg’s COVID-19 Resilience Ranking, will next month open hotels, restaurants and shopping malls. All students will return to schools from May 29, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.
“We want our economy to get back to normalcy as soon as possible,” Morawiecki told a news conference with Health Minister Adam Niedzielski. “The most recent data suggest that the third wave has abated and we have reasons for cautious optimism.”
Chile
Chile's Health Ministry reported on Tuesday 4,141 COVID-19 infections and 45 more deaths in the last 24 hours, for a total of 1,179,772 cases and 26,020 deaths.
Ten regions in the South American country have seen a decline in the number of cases in the last 14 days, Chilean Minister of Health Enrique Paris said during a press conference.
The southern region of Magallanes registered the highest incidence rate in the country per 100,000 inhabitants, while the regions with the greatest increase in new confirmed cases in the last seven days were Aysen, Arica, Magallanes and Atacama.
Chile has been facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections since March, after relaxing restrictive measures during the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere and resuming some face-to-face activities.
Meanwhile, after observing a decrease in the number of cases, the Health Ministry has decided to relax quarantines in certain localities and municipalities.
Cuba
Cuba again surpassed 1,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hours on Tuesday, with 1,083 infections, as well as seven more deaths, bringing the caseload to 103,524 cases and 604 deaths, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health.
"These are unfavorable indicators, with a higher number of confirmed cases corresponding to the epidemiological situation we are facing," the ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran said.
Cuba has been facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections since January, as authorities have moved to regulate the closure of many public spaces, restrict mobility, and require testing and quarantining for arriving travelers.
In the capital, the ministry is preparing for a mass vaccination campaign in May with two Cuban vaccine candidates, Soberana-02 and Abdala.
North Macedonia
The government of North Macedonia decided on Tuesday to relax the COVID-19 restrictive measures as daily cases in the country have decreased.
The decision will enter into force from April 28 until May 15, the government said in a press release.
The government has decided to cut by one hour the nationwide curfew time from the current 8 pm to 9 pm until 5 am the next day.
There will be no curfew during the upcoming religious holidays: Orthodox Easter on May 1-2 and Eid al-Fitr on May 13-14, the press release said.
On Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported 450 new infections and 28 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 151,122 with 130,910 recoveries and 4,742 fatalities.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has received US$75 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help it fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said Tuesday.
The funding is for three years from 2021 to 2023, Mutsvangwa said during a post-cabinet media briefing.
"It should, however, be noted that the government continues to provide resources from its own coffers for the COVID-19 response program, with 11 billion Zimbabwean dollars having been released since the onset of the outbreak," she said.
Apart from receiving 400,000 vaccine doses that were donated by China, Zimbabwe has also purchased 1.2 million doses of vaccines from the Asian country.
ALSO READ: Germany rejects EU executive call to ease virus border curbs
Malta
Malta's ailing businesses impacted by COVID-19 will receive an extra 20 million euros (US$24.1 million) in state assistance to cover rent and utility costs as well as psychological support to reduce pandemic stress, Prime Minister Robert Abela said Tuesday.
Abela said the direct aid and the package of incentives targeted businesses crippled by the pandemic, especially those that were forced to remain shut for several months.
Abela said the country's already existing support schemes, such as those covering a percentage of rent costs and refunds on electricity bills, will be topped up with new measures intended to stimulate economic activity as the pandemic wanes.
Botswana
Botswana announced its lowest number of COVID-19 cases on Monday since the start of the year.
In the weekly update of the country's state of the coronavirus, Deputy Director of the Presidential Task Force for COVID-19 Professor Mosepele Mosepele said 226 new cases were recorded from April 20-23, being the lowest average numbers per day recorded since January.
The announcement comes at a time when the country's vaccine rollout plan has gained speed with 47,160 people having received their first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine. This also follows the arrival of a batch of 200,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by China on Sunday.
Mosepele said the drop in the number of new cases could be attributed to the government's recent efforts to minimize movement of people especially from high-risk areas to low and moderate risk places. The government has restricted issuance of inter-zonal movement permits during the Easter holidays at the beginning of April.
Belgium
Over 3,500,000 vaccine doses have been administered in Belgium since the start of the vaccine rollout, said Sabine Stordeur, member of the country's Vaccination Task Force, on Tuesday.
"With 3,500,000 administered vaccines, we have achieved 30 percent vaccination coverage with a first dose," Stordeur said in a press conference.
The vaccination program is already containing the spread of the virus in some working sectors, according to a report based on a study carried out jointly by Hasselt University, KULeuven, and the Institute of Public Health Sciensano on the risks of infections at work.
There is a significant drop in COVID-19 cases in areas where there are high numbers of vaccinated people, according to the report.
Tunisia
Tunisian Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 1,957 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 303,584.
The death toll from the virus rose by 92 to 10,444 in Tunisia, the ministry said in a statement.
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the North African country reached 2,754, including 527 in intensive care units, while the total number of recoveries reached 253,058, it said.
Brazil
Brazil's death toll reached 395,022 on Tuesday after 3,086 more people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said.
The ministry said that tests detected 72,140 new cases, raising the national count to 14,441,563.
Given current daily fatalities, the nationwide death toll is likely to reach 400,000 by the end of April.
Dimas Covas, the head of the Sao Paulo-based Butantan Institute, a state-run medical research facility, warned that May "will be very tough" in terms of COVID-19 deaths and infections despite progress in vaccination.
Bulgaria
The number of COVID-19 cases in Bulgaria reached 401,109 after 1,850 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours, official data showed Wednesday.
The country's death toll from the epidemic rose to 16,182 after 81 patients died in the last day, while the number of recoveries grew by 3,375 to 332,418, according to the country's COVID-19 information portal.
At the same time, the current number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive-care patients stood at 7,480 and 714, respectively.
