A funeral worker carries a coffin cover for a patient who died of COVID-19 at Infectious Hospital No. 5 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, on Oct 20, 2021. (ROMAN YAROVITCYN / AP)
WASHINGTON / WINDHOEK / ADDIS ABABA / MOSCOW / LONDON / STOCKHOLM / HAVANA / MEXICO CITY / SAO PAULO / WARSAW / CAIRO – Russia reported its highest single-day COVID-19 case tally since the start of the pandemic on Monday as some regions imposed a workplace shutdown to combat a surge in infections and deaths.
Faced with worsening infection rates and frustrated by the slow take-up of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine by its own population, authorities are introducing stricter measures this week to try to slow the spread of the pandemic.
President Vladimir Putin last week declared that Oct 30 to Nov 7 would be paid non-working days but said every region could extend that period or start it earlier depending on the epidemiological situation.
Six regions, including the Samara and Perm regions east of Moscow, began their non-working days on Monday, TASS news agency reported.
Putin also ordered a series of measures including increased testing, tighter monitoring of mask-wearing and social distancing and an acceleration of the vaccine campaign, with employees to get two paid days leave as a reward for getting inoculated.
From this Thursday, Moscow will introduce its tightest lockdown measures since June 2020, with only essential shops like supermarkets and pharmacies remaining open. Unvaccinated over-60s in the capital have been ordered to lock down for four months starting Monday, and Moscow schools are also closed.
The government's coronavirus taskforce reported 37,930 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, a daily record, as well as 1,069 deaths related to the virus, six short of the record of 1,075 set on Saturday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that economic support measures to compensate for the losses incurred by the restrictions were sufficient at this stage.
"All these measures work, and the situation is being monitored very closely," Peskov said. "The situation is difficult and everybody will carefully follow how it develops."
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Brazil
Brazil registered 187 new deaths due to COVID-19 and 6,204 confirmed cases of the virus, according to data released on Sunday by the Health Ministry.
Brazil has now reported 605,644 COVID-19 deaths, the most in the world after the United States.
A girl gets a dose of the Cuban made Soberana-02 vaccine for COVID-19 in Havana, Cuba, Aug 24, 2021. (RAMON ESPINOSA / AP)
Cuba
Cuba has continued to see a reduction in infections and deaths from COVID-19, with 1,319 cases and 15 deaths reported in the last day, for a total of 945,750 infections and 8,182 fatalities, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Sunday.
"Today, we have indicators that show a certain control of transmission," said the ministry's director of hygiene and epidemiology, Francisco Duran, in his daily address to the nation.
The epidemiologist said there were 5,731 active cases, a figure that had decreased steadily for more than a month.
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Ethiopia
The latest batch of Chinese-donated Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines, totaling 800,000 doses, arrived in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on Sunday, giving a boost to the East African nation's vaccination efforts.
China has so far donated in excess of 1.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Ethiopia, which the Ethiopian government said has played an important role in combating the virus.
The handover ceremony for the donated vaccines was attended by senior Ethiopian government officials and members of the Chinese diplomatic community in the Ethiopian capital.
Speaking to Xinhua on Sunday, Ethiopia's Minister of Health Lia Tadesse said the Chinese-donated vaccines have proved effective as data shows that vaccinated people are less vulnerable to COVID-19 than the unvaccinated ones.
Ethiopia has registered 247 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 362,335 as of Sunday evening, the country's health ministry said.
The ministry reported 11 new COVID-19-related deaths during the same period, bringing the national death toll to 6,358 respectively.
Egypt
Egypt has allowed hotels to run at full capacity while observing strict coronavirus precautionary measures, an official at the Ministry of Tourism said on Sunday.
Assistant Minister Abdel Fattah al-Asi told Reuters the decision had already come into effect.
Egyptian hotels had been running at 70 percent of capacity since July due to COVID-19 regulations. Tourism accounts for up to 15 percent of Egypt's national output, and is a key source of foreign currency.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 243.74 million while the global death toll topped 4.95 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
This undated image provided by Merck & Co shows their new antiviral medication. Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co said on Oct 1, 2021 that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorize its use. (MERCK & CO VIA AP)
Merck
US drugmaker Merck & Co Inc said on Monday the European Union's drug regulator has initiated a real-time review of its experimental COVID-19 antiviral drug for adults.
Under the procedure, also known as a "rolling review", the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would assess data as soon as it becomes available, instead of waiting for a formal application when all required information has been gathered.
While vaccines are the main weapons against COVID-19, Merck's experimental pill molnupiravir could be a game-changer after studies showed it could halve the chances of dying or being hospitalised for those most at risk of contracting severe illness.
Merck, which is developing molnupiravir with partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, filed for U.S. emergency use authorization for the drug on Oct. 11. A panel of outside advisers to the US health regulator are now slated to meet late in November to discuss whether to authorize the experimental antiviral pill.
Molnupiravir, if approved by regulators, would be the first COVID-19 drug administered orally and also the first treatment for mildly ailing patients, whereas existing drugs are mostly used to treat the critically ill.
The drugmaker has a contract with the US government to supply 1.7 million courses of the drug at a price of $700 per course. It also recently signed supply deals with countries including Britain, Malaysia and Singapore.
An EU official told Reuters earlier in the month that the bloc too was also considering signing a supply agreement for the antiviral pill, but would do so only after the company started the process of seeking approval.
Mexico
Mexico's Health Ministry on Sunday registered 87 more confirmed coronavirus deaths and 1,666 new cases, bringing the country's overall death toll to 286,346 and the total number of cases to 3,783,327.
This photo taken on April 28, 2021 shows vials of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Moscow, Russia. (EVGENY SINITSYN / XINHUA)
Namibia
Namibia will suspend its rollout of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, its health ministry said on Saturday, days after the drugs regulator in neighbouring South Africa flagged concerns about its safety for people at risk of HIV.
The Gamaleya Research Institute, which developed Sputnik V, said Namibia's decision was not based on any scientific evidence or research.
South African regulator SAHPRA decided not to approve an emergency use application for Sputnik V for now because, it said, some studies suggested that administration of vaccines using the Adenovirus Type 5 vector – which Sputnik V does – was associated with higher susceptibility to HIV in men. read more
Namibia's health ministry said in a statement that the decision to discontinue use of the Russian vaccine was "out of (an) abundance of caution that men (who) received Sputnik V may be at higher risk of contracting HIV," adding that it had taken SAHPRA's decision into account.
Sputnik V remains one of the safest and most efficient vaccines against COVID-19 in use globally, the Gamaleya institute told Reuters. It said more than 250 clinical trials and 75 international publications confirmed the safety of vaccines and medicines based on human adenovirus vectors.
"While adenoviruses, including ad-5, are one of the most frequent causes of light common flu…, there is no evidence of increased risk of HIV infection among human population after (the) common cold," the institute said.
"These inaccurate speculations that have since been refuted relate to unsuccessful clinical trials of another HIV vaccine by another manufacturer that simply did not seem effective enough."
People enjoy their drinks and food in a restaurant in Warsaw on May 28, 2021. (WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP)
Poland
Poland's daily COVID-19 cases are growing at a rate of around 90 percent compared to the previous week, a deputy health minister said on Monday, as the fourth wave of the pandemic gathers pace.
"The results we got on Monday do not reflect what stage of the pandemic we are currently at, they are always lower … but what is more important is this strong uptrend, and at a high level, which is holding, at the moment it is around over 90 percent compared to last week," Waldemar Kraska told public broadcaster Polskie Radio 1.
Poland will need to consider tighter COVID-19 restrictions if average daily cases exceed 7,000, the health minister was quoted as saying on Monday, as the government warned that infections were almost doubling each week.
"If, at the end of October, we are at an average level of over 7,000 cases per day, we will have to consider taking some more restrictive steps," Adam Niedzielski was quoted as saying by state-run news agency PAP. "Decisions will be made at the beginning of November."
However, Niedzielski stressed that the government was not considering a lockdown.
On Saturday Poland reported more than 6,000 daily cases for the first time since May.
Sweden
An estimated 300,000 Swedes suffer from an impaired sense of smell due to COVID-19, Swedish national TT News Agency reported on Sunday.
According to the report, queues are long for clinics that offer treatment for the condition in the country. With around 10 million inhabitants, Sweden has only two such clinics, of which the newest opened in September at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge near the capital city of Stockholm.
According to the latest statistic released by the Swedish Public Health Agency on Friday, nearly 1.166 million coronavirus cases had been confirmed since the pandemic started. The total number of deaths was approaching to 15,000.
The country has seen a slight increase in the number of new cases since the restrictions, such as limited number of participants in public spaces and restaurants, were lifted on Sept 30 together with the advice to wear face masks and if possible work from home, but there are currently no plans to tighten restrictions.
UK
Britain is likely to require staff in the National Health Service to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday.
He told Sky News that mandatory vaccines for health workers would help to protect patients, and that he was not deterred by the fact there is already a staff shortage in the health system.
"We are considering it," he told Sky News. "We're yet to make a final decision but I am leaning towards doing it."
Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, responds to questions by Senator Rand Paul during the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 20, 2021. (J SCOTT APPLEWHITE / POOL / AFP)
United States
Vaccines for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 will likely be available in the first half of November, top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Sunday, predicting a timetable that could see many kids getting fully vaccinated before the end of the year.
"If all goes well, and we get the regulatory approval and the recommendation from the CDC, it's entirely possible if not very likely that vaccines will be available for children from 5 to 11 within the first week or two of November," Fauci said in an interview with ABC's This Week.
US Food and Drug Administration officials are reviewing the Pfizer/BioNTech application seeking authorization of its 2-dose vaccine for younger children, with its panel of outside advisers scheduled to weigh in on Oct 26.
The FDA typically follows the advice of its panel but is not required to do so.
Advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will weigh in on recommendations for the vaccine at a meeting on Nov 2 and Nov 3, helping to inform a final decision by its director.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, speaking at Fox News Sunday, also said the agency wanted to act swiftly.
"After they (FDA) are able to review all the science and conduct the regulatory action and the CDC will meet, and if all of that goes smoothly … we will act quickly," she said.
"We know how many parents are interested in getting their children between 5 and 11 vaccinated and we intend to act as quickly as we can," she added.
Once authorized, roughly 28 million more children in the United States would be eligible to receive what would be the first US COVID-19 vaccine for younger kids.
The Pfizer/BioNTech shot is already available to those ages 12-17, and the companies are still studying it for children younger than 5.
