09:52
Egypt received its third shipment of 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated through the Covax vaccine sharing initiative, its health ministry said late Friday.
It has now received 4.3 million AstraZeneca doses through the scheme and has also taken shipments of several other vaccines to help in its push to vaccinate 40% of its population by the year’s end.
09:33
Deaths in Russia reached a new record of 819 on Saturday and it recorded 22,144 new cases.
Russia has now had 169,683 deaths from Covid-19.
Though new infections have slightly reduced after reaching record levels in early July they have consistently remained over 20,000 daily.
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09:09
China has administered a total of 1.84bn doses of vaccines as of Friday 13 August, the National Health Commission said on Saturday. On Friday alone, about 11.9m doses were administered, according to a Reuters calculation.
09:06
The Philippine health ministry has recorded 14,249 new cases, the new second-largest daily increase in infections.
The ministry said total confirmed infections in the Philippines have increased to 1.7m, while deaths have reached 30,070, after reporting 233 additional casualties. Active cases, at 98,847, was at a near four-month high, government data showed.
09:02
New South Wales locks down
Australia’s most populous state tightens restrictions and imposes new AU$5,000 fines for lockdown breaches, ahead of an expected worsening of numbers in coming days.
New South Wales was forced into a snap statewide lockdown after enduring its worst day of the pandemic so far, with 466 new cases and four deaths.
However, in China – whence Covid sprang, the situation seems to be easing slightly. Beijing reports 30 new locally transmitted cases; down for the fourth consecutive day.
In the UK, the cost of individual travel tests from NHS test and trace for people who arrive from abroad is to be cut. The health department said it is to go down from £88 to £68 for UK travellers who have come from green list countries, or those who have arrived from amber list countries and have been fully vaccinated.
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