India vaccinates record 1m against virus in a day
UAE reports 2,742 new cases, 17 deaths and administers 35,674 doses of vaccine; Kuwait to impose curfew, close parks as cases rise; EU opens way for Russian jabs; African nations to begin vaccination drive by end of March, says WHO.
India reached a milestone on Thursday, vaccinating over a million people in a single day against COVID-19.
According to a report by a local TV channel NDTV, some 10.93 lakh people were given the vaccine till 7:00 pm, Health Ministry data showed on Thursday.
The milestone takes the total to 1.77 crore since the country launched the campaign on Jan.16.
The country expanded its vaccination drive from healthcare and frontline workers to seniors above 60 and those over 45 with illnesses and has eased rules for private hospitals to vaccinate people.
The milestone comes amid a surge in cases in Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka, accounting for 85.51 per cent of fresh cases, according to the union health ministry.
The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced on Thursday 17,407 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 11,139,516.
The reported death toll rose by 89 to 157,435. The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) announced that it conducted 235,797 additional COVID-19 tests and detected 2,742 new cases.
MOHAP also announced 17 deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
The Ministry also noted that an additional 1,691 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19.
The Ministry has also announced that 35,674 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the past 24 hours.
The total number of doses provided up to Thursady stands at 6,204,004 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 62.73 doses per 100 people.
Kuwait will impose a 5:00pm to 5:00am curfew and close parks from Sunday until April 8 in a bid to contain the coronavirus, the government’s spokesman said on state TV.
Kuwait registered a record daily toll of 1,716 cases on Thursday. It had seen daily cases fall below 300 late last year from close to 1,100 in May.
Egypt on Thursday expanded its coronavirus vaccination rollout to include the elderly and people with chronic diseases ater several weeks of vaccinating medical staff, the cabinet said.
Nearly 153,000 people have applied for vaccinations since Sunday when the North African country opened online registration, the cabinet said in a statement.
Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous count Russian coronavirus shots could soon be doled out across Europe ater the EU said it was assessing the vaccine, as Britain pushed ahead with a plan to fast-track jabs adapted to fight new strains.
The EU’S drug watchdog said it had started a “rolling review” of the Sputnik V shot, prompting Russia to say it could supply doses for 50 million Europeans starting from June.
The 27-nation bloc has already approved three vaccines, but its relatively slow rollout have been widely criticised and some members have gone it alone, approving jabs from Russia and China unilaterally.
The EU has been trailing in the wake of Britain, which has approved jabs more quickly, sourced them more efficiently and rolled them out more effectively.
Britain was again at the forefront on Thursday, announcing a partnership with public health bodies in Australia, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland to ensure jabs modified to cope with new variants are fast-tracked.
“Our priority is to get effective vaccines to the public in as short a time as possible, without compromising on safety,” Christian Schneider of the UK’S medicines watchdog said.
Russia has fully vaccinated two million people with its homegrown jabs, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, while another two million have received the first of a two-dose shot.
The figures, revealed by the Russian leader in a conversation with volunteers, show how far the country has to go before all of its 146 million people are inoculated against COVID-19, nearly three months ater it began vaccinating its citizens.
Most African countries will kick-start their COVID-19 vaccination programs by the end of March as efforts to procure doses for the continent’s 1.3 billion people gather pace, the World Health Organisation ( WHO) said on Thursday.