Testing staff of non-profit organisation Albatros receive people for a coronavirus (Covid-19) test before Friday prayer at the 'Haus der Weisheit' (House of Wisdom) Mosque in Berlin's Moabit district on April 23, 2021. (TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP)
BERLIN / BELGRADE / PARIS – France said it’s moving toward a rollout of so-called vaccine passports aimed a jump-starting travel as trials start on internal flights, while planning discussions on the reopening of trans-Atlantic services.
The country’s year-old COVID -19 tracing app has been equipped with a new function to host virus test results and inoculation records and is being deployed on short-haul services between Paris and the Mediterranean island of Corsica, French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said Tuesday.
Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday that the South African variant of the COVID-19 virus is on the rise in the Paris area but that no Indian variant has been detected in the region around the capital.
New COVID-19 cases in France saw the lowest week-on-week increase since early March on Monday, but pressure on hospitals remained high as the number of coronavirus patients rose above 6,000 again for the first time since spring 2020.
New cases were up by 3.92 percent compared to a week ago as week-on-week increases continued their steady decline from more than six percent mid-April.
France’s Emmanuel Macron gave some hints about how the country will start to reopen some businesses from mid-May. During a school visit Monday, just as pupils were going back to class after an extended vacation to tackle the virus, Macron said restaurants would reopen gradually between May and the end of June.
He added that the timeline will be based on local virus circulations, potentially diverging from one region to another. Cultural venues would start to reopen from mid-May, with limited occupancy rates, and the current 7 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew might be pushed back, he told pupils.
Macron had said at the end of November – when France had about 15,000 new cases per day – that lockdown conditions could be eased if daily new infections fell to 5,000.
But after dipping to 10,000 early December, the number of daily new infections has increased steadily, with the seven-day moving average of new infections now at just below 30,000.
Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government aims to open COVID -19 vaccinations to all adults by June, dropping Germany’s rules that regulated who’s at the front of the queue.
The country also intends to allow people who have been fully immunized or who have recovered from the disease privileges such as going shopping and visiting hairdressers without needing negative coronavirus tests, Merkel said after talks with regional leaders on Monday. Officials didn’t agree though on firm details.
Germany classified India as a region with a particularly high risk of infection with COVID-19, a so-called virus variant region, and restricted travel between India and Germany with immediate effect on Monday.
"We are very concerned about the newly discovered virus mutation in India," said Minister of Health Jens Spahn via Twitter on Saturday. "In order not to jeopardize our vaccination campaign, travel to India must be significantly restricted."
Only German citizens travelling from India were allowed to enter the country. "They must also be tested before departure and enter a 14-day quarantine immediately after entry," Spahn noted.
Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas sent a message of support and solidarity towards India. "Right now, the second wave is overwhelming India with unprecedented force. It was right that we acted quickly to stop the entry of the new mutation into Germany," he told the German newspaper Rheinische Post on Sunday.
"However, it is equally important that we now do our utmost to help India overcome the emergency," Maas said. India had taken on a key role in the joint fight against COVID-19 as the most important supplier to the COVAX global vaccination alliance.
"This deserves not only our respect, but also our solidarity right now," said Maas, adding that the German government, in talks with companies, was currently preparing aid deliveries such as oxygen and medicines.
India is presently witnessing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. On Monday morning the country reported the world's biggest-ever daily surge with 352,991 new cases and 2,812 related deaths in the past 24 hours.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 10,976 to 3,310,301, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. The reported death toll rose by 344 to 81,968, the tally showed.
US
The United States will start to share up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca Plc's COVID-19 vaccine doses with other countries as they become available, White House senior COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said on Monday.
"US to release 60 million AstraZeneca doses to other countries as they become available," he wrote on Twitter. The Associated Press earlier on Monday reported the doses would be shared in coming months following a federal safety review.
The Biden administration in March said it would send roughly 4 million of the drugmaker's vaccine to Canada and Mexico and is under growing pressure now to expand sharing of its stockpile with India and other countries.
The US State Department on Monday lowered its travel advisory rating for Israel to "Level 3: Reconsider Travel" – just days after it had raised it.
Last week, the State Department added 119 countries to the 34 countries listed at its highest "Level 4: Do Not Travel" rating, out of about 209 destinations listed.
US trade chief Katherine Tai met with key officials at Pfizer and AstraZeneca about raising production of COVID -19 vaccines and a proposed waiver of intellectual-property protections.
India and South Africa have proposed that the WTO waive broad sections of its intellectual-property rules and to try to forge an agreement on how patents developed in the race against Covid-19 should be recognized.
The pharmaceutical companies say they are working to expand global capacity already, and argue that the fastest way for the US to help developing countries is by giving them the stockpile of vaccines it already has. The US announced Monday it would share its entire AstraZeneca supply with other countries and readied an aid package for India.
Vaccinated Americans may get clearance to shed masks outdoors in one of the most significant changes to virus guidelines since the US first told people to don the face coverings to curb the spread of COVID -19.
More than 5 million Americans, or nearly 8 percent of those who received a first jab of their COVID-19 vaccine, have missed their scheduled second dose, US media reported.
The number of those skipping their important second dose has increased from about 3.4 percent in March, more than double the rate among people who got inoculated in the first several weeks of the nationwide vaccination campaign, CNN reported, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
EU
One in four adults in the European Union have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday, as the bloc seeks to leave behind its supply woes and pick up the pace of its inoculation drive.
“So far, 129 million vaccines have been administered in the EU,” von der Leyen told EU lawmakers Brussels. “Approximately 26 percent of adults have received at least one dose.”
Around 30 million additional doses will be delivered throughout the bloc this week, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Her comments come after she said last week that the EU’s vaccination campaign is on track and the bloc will meet its key goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults in July.
ALSO READ: EU takes AstraZeneca to court over vaccine delivery delays
The target came under pressure amid supply issues with AstraZeneca Plc and unexpected delays to the shot from Johnson & Johnson, which paused distribution so the EU drug regulator could conducted a safety review. But the snags were offset thanks to a supply boost from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, which agreed to bring forward 50 million deliveries to the EU originally scheduled for later in the year.
Around 30 million additional doses will be delivered throughout the bloc this week, according to von der Leyen. The increased deliveries come as the EU’s inoculation efforts have stepped up after their faltering start, and some member states are starting to loosen restrictions that were aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz called the European Union's 750 billion euro (US$905.85 billion) recovery fund, intended to kick-start the economy hit hard by COVID-19, a groundbreaking step for the 27 nation bloc. "Today, Europe is starting a new chapter. It's a chapter
UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund will take 1.3 million doses from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s delivery of 1.7 million doses and redistribute them to other African countries to avoid their expiration.
The vaccines donated by the COVAX facility will expire on June 24, Susie Villeneuve, UNICEF’s Regional Adviser for Health Systems Strengthening, West and Central Africa, said at a conference in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, which she joined by video call.
A lack of shipment plans to support inoculation campaigns and insufficient vaccination sites have impaired access in many countries, and the short shelf-life of AstraZeneca Plc vaccines have made reallocations necessary, she said.
ALSO READ: UNICEF: India likely to delay COVAX supplies for March, April
Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Madagascar and Comoros, are among possible recipients of the Congolese batch, according to the official.
Egypt
The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) approved the Chinese Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in Egypt, said the authority in a statement on its Facebook page on early Wednesday.
Mahmoud Yassin, head of EDA's Central Administration for Biological and Innovative Products, said "the step is part of the state's efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 and provide the vaccines for all citizens."
He added that "the EDA has authorized the license of using the vaccine after carrying out the required assessment based on the international and domestic conditions to ensure the effectiveness and quality of the vaccine."
Egypt has approved so far China's Sinopharm, Russia's Sputnik V, and Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, the statement added.
Spain
Spain will enforce a quarantine on all travellers from India in response to the emergence of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus there, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said on Tuesday.
As there are no direct flights from India to Spain, the measure will apply to those who travelled via third countries, Montero said.
Finland
Finland should end its COVID-19 state of emergency as infection rates decline, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Tuesday, adding that the issue would go before parliament. "We see that the conditions no longer call for the emergency powers legislation," Marin said.
Canada
Canada will send the armed forces and Red Cross to Ontario to help the country's most populous province as it struggles to cope with a surge in hospitalizations from COVID-19, the country's public safety minister said on Monday.
The federal government approved a request from Ontario which would include air lifting medical personnel from the Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador to Toronto, the epicentre of Ontario's third wave, a spokesman from Public Safety Canada said in a statement, without giving details of personnel involved.
Bill Blair, minister of Public Safety Canada, said on Twitter the federal government has agreed to provide support to the provincial healthcare system.
UK
Another 2,064 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,406,946, according to official figures released Friday.
The country also reported another six coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,434. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
More than 33.7 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
On Monday, non-essential shops, gyms, swimming pools, pubs, restaurants reopened Monday in Scotland as the region further eases its lockdown.
Under the new measures, travel restrictions were scrapped and people in Scotland are allowed to travel to other parts of Britain for non-essential reasons.
Sweden
Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, has registered 14,911 new coronavirus cases since Friday, health agency statistics showed on Tuesday.
The figure compared with 16,692 cases during the corresponding period last week. The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 45 new deaths, taking the total to 13,968.
The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks. Sweden's death rate per capita is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours' but lower than in most European countries that opted for lockdowns.
Latvia
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins on Monday ruled out any relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions as new cases continued to grow in the Baltic country for three consecutive weeks already.
The prime minister told reporters that on Tuesday his government would hear experts' information on the epidemiological situation in Latvia. Karins said that with COVID-19 incidence remaining persistently high, the situation is "unstable and dangerous" and that he therefore does not see any grounds for easing the measures and restrictions introduced with the aim to curb the virus.
Ireland
The Irish government has agreed to allow the use of both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines for people over 50 years old, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Tuesday.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been paused by health authorities and AstraZeneca was only allowed for those over 60.
The country is broadly on target in its rollout, Martin told journalists when asked if he expected to achieve its goal of vaccinating 80 percent of the adult population by the end of June.
The Irish state body charged with advising on the use of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to recommend that Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine be used for anyone over the age of 50, state broadcaster RTE reported on Monday.
The recommendation from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, due in the coming days, would be a relief to the government, which last week indicated a feared ban on the use of the vaccine for under-60s would render its current vaccination targets virtually impossible.
Ecuador
Ecuador reported 1,413 new COVID-19 infections and 100 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the totals to 374,775 cases and 13,198 deaths, the Public Health Ministry said on Monday.
The daily report also registered another 23 probable deaths from the virus, to a total of 5,102.
Pichincha province reported 495 cases in the one day, with 405 corresponding to the capital Quito, the most populated city and epicenter of the pandemic in the South American country.
Pichincha is among the 16 provinces that were put under lockdown this past weekend, amid a state of emergency decreed by the government to curb the increased spread of infections and avoid overloading already congested hospitals.
Cuba
Cuba saw less than 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases for the first time in two weeks, registering 938 infections and six deaths in the last day, bringing the totals to 102,441 cases and 597 deaths, the Ministry of Public Health said on Monday.
Of the cases reported, 900 were from community transmission, the ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran said during his daily report.
Havana, with 600 new cases in the same period, continued to be the epicenter of the pandemic in the country. 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.
Russia
Russia reported 8,053 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 2,098 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 4,779,425.
The government coronavirus task force said 392 people had died of the virus in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 108,980. The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and reported a much higher death toll of more than 225,000 from April 2020 to February.
Russia has vaccinated 12.1 million people against COVID-19, of whom 7.7 million have had both doses, deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said on Tuesday.
Mexico
Mexico reported 1,143 new coronavirus cases and 116 deaths on Monday, according to Health Ministry data, bringing the total number of cases to 2,329,534 and fatalities to 215,113.
Brazil
The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Monday rejected importing the Russian-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine requested by state governors battling a deadly second wave of the virus that is battering Latin America's largest nation.
Anvisa's five-strong board voted unanimously not to approve the Russian vaccine after technical staff had highlighted "inherent risks" and "serious" defects, citing a lack of information guaranteeing its safety, quality and effectiveness.
Ana Carolina Moreira Marino Araujo, general manager for health monitoring, said that taking into account all the documentation presented, data acquired at in-person inspections and information from other regulators, "inherent risks" were too great.
Brazil registered 1,139 new COVID-19 deaths on Monday and 28,636 additional cases, according to data published by the nation's Health Ministry. The South American country has now registered 391,936 total coronavirus deaths and 14.37 million confirmed cases.
Serbia
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic welcomed another batch of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines together with Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo at the Belgrade Airport on Monday.
Together with the latest shipment, vaccine doses that have been delivered from China will help Serbia reach the target of vaccinating 37 percent of its population by the end of April, said Brnabic.
So far, 1.3 million people have received both doses across Serbia, which helped to lower the number of new cases, said Brnabic, adding that most people in Serbia were inoculated with Sinopharm vaccines.
The first batch of the Sinopharm vaccine doses arrived in Serbia in mid-January, followed by three more deliveries in February, March and April.
For his part, Chen expressed his delight for the contribution of Chinese vaccines to the inoculation program in Serbia, where the epidemic remains under control.
"The mass vaccination in Serbia is giving results, the number of new infections has been decreasing," Chen said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 680,000 cases have been confirmed in Serbia and 6,257 people have died. To date, 5,318 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, of whom 183 are on ventilators.
Congo
Health authorities are reallocating around 75 percent of Democratic Republic of Congo's 1.7 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to other African countries to make sure they're used before they expire, a UNICEF representative said on Monday.
Congo received the doses from the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility on March 2, but delayed the rollout after several European countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca shot in response to reports of rare blood clots.
The country began its vaccination campaign on April 19, but had administered doses to just 1,265 people out of its population of over 85 million as of Saturday, according to the state biomedical research laboratory.
Morocco
Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 509,465 on Monday as 102 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.
The death toll rose to 8,999 with seven new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 400 people are in intensive care units, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health.
The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 495,408 after 146 new ones were added, the statement said.
The COVID-19 fatality rate in Morocco stands at 1.8 percent while the recovery rate is 97.2 percent.
Meanwhile, 4,731,440 people have received so far the first vaccine shot against COVID-19 in the country, and 4,219,876 people have received the second dose.
Africa
A slow rollout of COVID -19 vaccines and a lack of funding to bridge the gap between poor and rich countries could set Africa back two to five years, according to the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
“The fact that Africa isn’t going to get vaccinated as fast is going to clearly slow growth,” Vera Songwe, the executive secretary of the UNECA, said Monday in an interview. A lack of access to vaccines that will keep barriers to travel and business in place will also slow trade and hamper investments that could set back economic growth and prevent the creation of 26 million jobs, she said.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria's COVID-19 death toll has risen to 16,101 after 194 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, official data showed Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections went up by 1,759 to 399,259, according to the country's COVID-19 information portal.
During the same period, 4,100 people have recovered from the disease, raising the country's total recoveries to 329,043.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia registered 841 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 253,120 as of Monday evening, the country's Ministry of Health said.
The ministry also reported 19 new deaths from COVID-19 in a day, bringing the national death toll to 3,570.
A total of 750 patients have recovered from the disease, taking the national count of COVID-19 recoveries to 193,497.
Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, has so far reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the East Africa region, and is so far the fourth most COVID-19 affected country in Africa in terms of positive cases.
According to the ministry, Ethiopia currently has some 56,051 COVID-19 patients, with 990 of them in severe condition.
