Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	106,998,172	+319,381	2,335,732
USA	27,700,629	+87,031	476,405
India	10,847,790	+8,947	155,195
Brazil	9,550,301	+25,661	232,248
Russia	3,983,197	+15,916	77,068
UK	3,959,784	+14,104	112,798
France	3,341,365	+4,317	79,423
Spain	2,989,085	+19,305	62,295
Italy	2,644,707	+7,970	91,580
Turkey	2,539,559	+8,103	26,900
Germany	2,296,326	+4,816	62,597
Colombia	2,161,462	+4,246	56,290
Argentina	1,985,501	+5,154	49,398
Mexico	1,932,145	+6,065	166,200
Poland	1,552,686	+2,431	39,132
South Africa	1,477,511	+1,376	46,473
Iran	1,473,756	+7,321	58,536
Ukraine	1,246,990	+2,141	23,644
Peru	1,191,221	+4,523	42,467
Indonesia	1,166,079	+8,242	31,763
Czechia	1,037,469	+2,449	17,430
Netherlands	1,007,981	+2,221	14,428
Canada	808,120	+3,860	20,835
Portugal	767,919	+2,505	14,354
Chile	755,350	+3,464	19,056
Romania	746,637	+1,319	18,961
Belgium	725,610	+1,740	21,389
Israel	696,528	+7,189	5,171
Iraq	630,263	+1,713	13,126
Pakistan	555,511	+1,037	12,026
Philippines	538,992	+1,687	11,231
Bangladesh	538,378	+316	8,221
Morocco	475,589	+234	8,408
Austria	424,896	+1,057	8,032
Serbia	409,841	+1,960	4,139
Japan	404,990	+1,555	6,395
Hungary	377,655	+1,160	13,155
Saudi Arabia	370,634	+356	6,406
Jordan	336,839	+1,685	4,385
UAE	329,293	+2,798	930
Panama	327,654	+563	5,506
Lebanon	321,980	+2,063	3,677
Nepal	272,055	+130	2,045
Slovakia	264,083	+757	5,271
Georgia	262,228	+204	3,298
Belarus	259,499	+808	1,792
Ecuador	258,607	+325	15,013
Malaysia	245,552	+3,100	896
Croatia	235,473	+71	5,198
Azerbaijan	231,198	+44	3,161
Bolivia	227,967	+839	10,796
Bulgaria	224,849	+1,115	9,420
Dominican Republic	224,119	+721	2,843
Tunisia	217,753	+667	7,257
Ireland	204,397	+829	3,687
Denmark	202,051	+430	2,216
Costa Rica	197,435	+210	2,692
Kazakhstan	196,115	+1,006	2,540
Lithuania	187,034	+264	2,955
Slovenia	174,000	+304	3,635
Kuwait	171,994	+996	969
Egypt	170,207	+567	9,699
Armenia	168,177	+89	3,123
Moldova	164,858	+289	3,557
Greece	164,575	+629	5,997
Guatemala	163,247	+110	5,922
Palestine	163,213	+612	1,888
Honduras	154,568	+663	3,721
Qatar	154,525	+427	251
Ethiopia	142,994	+656	2,156
Myanmar	141,427	+4	3,177
Nigeria	140,391	+643	1,673
Paraguay	138,945	+827	2,846
Oman	135,990	+316	1,535
Venezuela	130,596	+480	1,240
Libya	124,882	+856	1,974
Algeria	109,313	+225	2,918
Bahrain	108,048	+719	383
Kenya	101,944	+125	1,786
North Macedonia	94,871	+73	2,946
China	89,706	+14	4,636
Albania	86,289	+953	1,472
Kyrgyzstan	85,113	+42	1,431
S. Korea	81,185	+289	1,474
Uzbekistan	79,162	+64	621
Ghana	72,328	+795	472
Latvia	72,088	+288	1,347
Sri Lanka	70,235	+887	365
Montenegro	65,657	+430	842
Norway	65,118	+346	582
Zambia	63,573	+940	869
Singapore	59,721	+22	29
El Salvador	56,653	+211	1,692
Luxembourg	51,879	+31	597
Estonia	48,267	+339	466
Finland	47,969	+353	688
Uruguay	45,650	+339	497
Mozambique	44,912	+312	465
Uganda	39,860	+12	327
Namibia	35,070	+97	375
Zimbabwe	34,658	+106	1,339
Cuba	33,484	+653	240
Cyprus	31,864	+105	214
Ivory Coast	29,967	+142	165
Senegal	29,057	+297	689
Australia	28,857	+7	909
Sudan	27,717	+86	1,835
Malawi	27,422	+227	874
Botswana	24,435	+932	179
DRC	23,671	+72	681
Suriname	8,690	+19	162
Aruba	7,238	+15	64
Vietnam	2,050	+49	35

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

EU chief calls on member states to donate Covid-19 vaccines to Ukraine 

From CNN’s Rob Iddiols

 

 

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen at the European Parliament in Brussels on January 20, 2021. Francisco Seco/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

The President of the European Commission called on EU member states to donate some of their coronavirus vaccine supply to Ukraine. 

"On top of Covax, I have also asked our member states to donate part of their doses to Ukraine," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a video address at a conference held in Kiev on Monday. 

Covax is an initiative to provide equitable global access to Covid-19 vaccines and is led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization. 

“Thanks to Covax, Ukraine's doctors and nurses will receive the first vaccines already this month. Millions of other doses will reach Ukraine by the summer," von der Leyen said. "We will stop the pandemic only if we contain the virus in all our countries. We Europeans are all together in this,” she added. 

The EU has faced criticism for its handling of the vaccine rollout across the continent. Von der Leyen did not elaborate on what the donations to Ukraine – a non-EU country – would mean for the bloc. 

More about Ukraine: Ukraine has a population of approximately 40 million people. It is awaiting delivery of eight million vaccine doses promised under the United Nations Covax program, and up to five million doses of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. The country will begin the first phase of its Covid-19 inoculation program this month, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced during the conference. 

The 43-year-old leader, who experienced mild symptoms of the coronavirus last year, said he was ready to get inoculated to encourage others to do the same. 

"As with the majority of world leaders, I am ready to show people by personal example that vaccination is important, it is safe, it is needed," Zelensky said. 

Ukraine has recorded over 1.2 million cases and more than 23,000 deaths from Covid-19.  

 

 

 

Pfizer says it has increased production to double coronavirus vaccine output

From CNN Health’s Nadia Kounang

 

Boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant on December 13, 2020 in Portage, Michigan. Molly Gash/Pool/Getty Images

Efficiencies and upgrades in the production process have helped vaccine maker Pfizer double its output of coronavirus vaccine in the past month, a spokeswoman for the company told CNN Monday.

While the company did not give any production figures to support the estimate, spokeswoman Amy Rose said Pfizer expects production time to be cut nearly in half, from 110 days to an average of 60 days for one batch of Covid-19 vaccine.

One batch is equal to between 1 million to 3 million doses, Pfizer says.

Producing the genetic material that forms the basis of the vaccine initially took 16 days, but will soon take just nine to 10 days, Rose said.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said last week the company expects to deliver 200 million doses of its vaccine to the United States by the end of May.

 

 

 

Italy starts vaccinating people over 80 

From CNN’s Livia Borghese

 

An elderly woman is accompanied by a relative to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on February 8 in Rome. Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images

Italy started to vaccinate citizens over 80 years old on Monday, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a tweet. 

“Our commitment continues to protect the elderly that have been most affected by the pandemic,” Speranza wrote. 

The vaccination of elderly people was planned to start at the beginning of February but was delayed by the reduced number of doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.  

Special coronavirus commissioner Domenico Arcuri has expressed disappointment over Pfizer’s and Moderna’s failures to meet their scheduled delivery date.

Italy, like many of its European Union allies, has not authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 55. 

Italy first started vaccinations of medical and hospital personnel, as well as care home residents and staff, on Dec. 31. 

The number of people to receive both shots of the Covid vaccine is 1,147,256 since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the Health ministry website says. 

The population of Italy is about 60 million.

 

 

 

France's health minister gets vaccinated and says 'I will be protected'

From CNN's Pierre Bairin, Stephanie Halasz and Eva Tapiero

 

 

French Health Minister Olivier Veran receives a dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the South Ile-de-France Hospital Group in Melun, on February 8. Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images

The French Minister of Health received the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday.

Minister Olivier Véran, who is 40, posted a picture of himself getting vaccinated with the words “vaccinated” to his Twitter account on Monday. He was vaccinated while visiting a hospital in Melun, a suburb southeast of Paris.

In a nod to Véran's inoculation, the Ministry of Health said in a press release on Monday that "the vaccination campaign continues in France and since this Saturday, February 6, 2021, people under the age of 65, including health and social professionals, can be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

Speaking to reporters outside the hospital where he was vaccinated, Véran recommended that health workers in France who are eligible for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine get the shot, saying that it "protects against at least 99% of the strains that circulate today in our country."

"Given the level of scientific and medical information that I have -- and that Europe has -- at least 99% of the viruses circulating today on our territory do not correspond to a South African variant and which the AstraZeneca vaccine allows to protect against almost all viruses that are in circulation. "

The Health Minister was making reference to a study released by a South African university on Sunday that showed that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offered reduced protection from the South African variant.

The French Health Ministry told CNN that Véran, who is a neurologist, was authorized to get vaccinated as he is a medical doctor.

Véran said on Monday that he accepted the invitation from the hospital's director to receive the first injection of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine there, as he had "always said that as soon as I am part of the target for vaccine indications, I will be protected."

France has hit some road bumps in the vaccination process so far, with a total of 2,130,000 doses administered so far, according to the French Health Authority.

 

 

 

Netherlands police issued nearly 7,000 curfew fines last week

From CNN’s Mick Krever

 

 

Police monitor demonstrators protesting against Covid-19 lockdown and curfew measures in Tilburg, Netherlands, on February 5. Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Police in the Netherlands said Monday that they issued 6,959 fines last week for those breaking the rules of the country’s national 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. curfew. 

It's a drop from the 10,810 curfew fines that Dutch police issued the previous week.

Violating the national curfew, which was designed to reduce social interaction and thus the spread of coronavirus, comes at a cost of 95 euros (approximately US $114).

It's been in effect since January 23.

Last week, the Dutch government extended the nation’s lockdown until at least March 2, and said that it will also consider extending the curfew before it expires on February 10.

Police also say that they also issued 8,139 fines last week related to other coronavirus regulations, for example for not wearing a mask.

That is also down from the previous week, when 12,938 fines were issued.

 

Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-02-08-21/index.html

 

 

 

Indonesia begins inoculating people 60 and older, after initially excluding them

By Richard C. Paddock, Muktita Suhartono and Aurelien Breeden

 

An 84-year-old doctor received his first dose of China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccine in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.Credit...Willy Kurniawan/Reuters

 

Indonesia began inoculating people 60 and older on Monday after health officials concluded that the Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine they were using was safe for that age group.

The government had been criticized over its earlier decision to exclude people 60 and older in the early stages of its vaccination campaign, which began on Jan. 13. People in that age group have accounted for half of Indonesia’s coronavirus deaths.

Officials said that clinical trials in Indonesia for the Sinovac vaccine, which is made by a private Chinese company and is the only one approved for use in Indonesia so far, did not include any volunteers over age 60 and that more data was needed.

Indonesia’s Food and Drug Administration reversed course last week, granting emergency use authorization for the Sinovac vaccine among older people after analyzing trial results from China and Brazil.

However, people 60 and older will receive their second dose of the vaccine after four weeks rather than two like everyone else because a trial showed that it would give recipients in that age group greater protection, said the agency’s head, Penny Lukito. The health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the priority would be to inoculate older health care workers because they were most at risk.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populous nation, with 270 million people, has recorded more than 1.1 million infections and more than 31,000 deaths, making it the worst outbreak in Southeast Asia. Experts estimate that the actual number of infections is at least three times higher than officially reported.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/08/world/covid-19-coronavirus/indonesia-begins-inoculating-people-60-and-older-after-initially-excluding-them

 

 

 

Facebook says it plans to remove posts with false vaccine claims

By Mike Isaac

 

 

Anti-vaccine protesters shouted and waved signs at health care workers in Tampa, Fla., on Sunday as they entered Raymond James Stadium to watch the Super Bowl.Credit...Zack Wittman for The New York Times

Facebook said on Monday that it plans to remove posts with erroneous claims about vaccines from across its platform, including taking down assertions that vaccines cause autism or that it is safer for people to contract the coronavirus than to receive the vaccinations.

The social network has increasingly changed its content policies over the past year as the coronavirus has surged. In October, the social network prohibited people and companies from purchasing advertising that included false or misleading information about vaccines. In December, Facebook said it would remove posts with claims that had been debunked by the World Health Organization or government agencies.

Monday’s move goes further by targeting unpaid posts to the site and particularly Facebook pages and groups. Instead of targeting only misinformation around Covid-19 vaccines, the update encompasses false claims around all vaccines. Facebook said it had consulted with the World Health Organization and other leading health institutes to determine a list of false or misleading claims around Covid-19 and vaccines in general.

In the past, Facebook had said it would only “downrank,” or push lower down in people’s news feeds, misleading or false claims about vaccines, making it more difficult to find such groups or posts. Now posts, pages and groups containing such falsehoods will be removed from the platform entirely.

“Building trust and confidence in these vaccines is critical, so we’re launching the largest worldwide campaign to help public health organizations share accurate information about Covid-19 vaccines and encourage people to get vaccinated as vaccines become available to them,” Kang-Xing Jin, head of health at Facebook, said in a company blog post.

The company said the changes were in response to a recent ruling from the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body that reviews decisions made by the company’s policy team and rules on whether they were just. In one ruling, the board said that Facebook needed to create a new standard for health-related misinformation because its current rules were “inappropriately vague.”

Facebook also said it would give $120 million in advertising credits to health ministries, nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies to aid in spreading reliable Covid-19 vaccine and preventive health information. As vaccination centers roll out more widely, Facebook said it would help point people to locations where they can receive the vaccine.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has been proactive against false information related to the coronavirus. He has frequently hosted Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, on Facebook to give live video updates on the American response to the coronavirus. In his private philanthropy, Mr. Zuckerberg has also vowed to “eradicate all disease,” pledging billions to fighting viruses and other diseases.

Yet Mr. Zuckerberg has also been a staunch proponent of free speech across Facebook and was previously reluctant to rein in most falsehoods, even if they were potentially dangerous. The exception has been Facebook’s policy to not tolerate statements that could lead to “immediate, direct physical harm” to people on or off the platform.

Facebook has been criticized for that stance, including for allowing President Donald J. Trump to remain on the platform until after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

For years, public health advocates and outside critics took issue with Facebook’s refusal to remove false or misleading claims about vaccines. That led to a surge in false vaccine information, often from people or groups who spread other harmful misinformation across the site. Even when Facebook tried updating its policies, it often left loopholes that were exploited by misinformation spreaders.

Facebook on Monday said it would also change its search tools to promote relevant, authoritative results on the coronavirus and vaccine-related information, while making it more difficult to find accounts that discourage people from getting vaccinated.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/technology/facebook-vaccine-misinformation.html

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

· WHO investigators to brief media from Wuhan at 4pm local time. The international team of experts in China investigating how the outbreak started will speak to the media in Wuhan on Tuesday, the WHO has announced.The briefing, at 4:00pm local time (0800 GMT) at a hotel in the city, will be live-streamed in English on the UN health agency’s digital and social media platforms.

· WHO says don’t dismiss AstraZeneca shot after South Africa delays jabs. The World Health Organization insisted Monday that the AstraZeneca vaccine was still a vital tool in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, after South Africa delayed the start of its inoculation programme over concerns about its efficacy against a virus variant.

· Covid mortality in England still higher for some ethnic minorities, study finds. A new sweeping analysis in England shows that between the first and second waves of the pandemic in 2020, death rates in black communities improved, but continued to remain high in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds.

· Russia official death toll half of figure listed by state statistics agency. Russia has recorded a dramatic increase in mortality in 2020 fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data published by the Rosstat agency. The figures showed that between April, when the pandemic hit Russia, and December, the country saw 162,429 coronavirus-related fatalities. However, as of Monday, the official total released by Russia’s health officials stood at only 77,068 virus deaths – on the Johns Hopkins University tracker, the figure is listed as 75,828.

· The number of newborns in China plummeted 15% in 2020 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Public Security, with the onset of the novel coronavirus disrupting the economy and weighing on decisions to have a family. China saw 10.035 million births last year, the ministry said on Monday, compared with 11.79 million in 2019. Of those born last year, 52.7% were boys and 47.3% girls.

· Five people including three officials have been jailed in China for dereliction of duty over an outbreak in a Shandong prison which saw more than 200 inmates infected in February 2020.

· Pete Buttigieg to quarantine for 14 days after security detail member tests positive. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will quarantine for 14 days after a member of his security detail tested positive for Covid on Monday, the department said.

· UK faces renewed calls for border curbs. Scientists and senior MPs have renewed calls for sweeping border curbs to protect the UK’s vaccination programme against new variants as Boris Johnson prepared to introduce tougher measures and Britain saw internal infections fall.

· Facebook has banned misinformation about all vaccines following years of harmful, unfounded health claims proliferating on its platform. As part of its policy on Covid-19-related misinformation, Facebook will now remove posts with false claims about all vaccines, the company announced in a blogpost on Monday.

· Authorities on Easter Island began vaccinating residents on Monday, distributing 1,200 doses on the first day, AFP reports.Situated 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles) off Chile’s coast, the island - renowned for its ancient, giant humanoid monoliths - has not reported a single coronavirus case in more than 300 days.

· Israel and Greece agreed a tourism deal Monday that will allow coronavirus-vaccinated citizens of the two countries to travel between them without limitations once flights resume.

· EU chief urges states to donate vaccines to Ukraine. The European Commission chief said on Monday she had called on EU member states to donate some of their coronavirus jabs to Ukraine, as it prepares to launch its vaccination campaign.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/feb/09/coronavirus-live-news-who-says-it-is-too-early-to-dismiss-astrazeneca-vaccine?page=with:block-60222e468f0813c5b0043efa#block-60222e468f0813c5b0043efa