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The World Health Organization has not received enough information on the Russian COVID-19 vaccine to evaluate it, according to Jarbas Barbosa, the assistant director of its regional branch, the Pan American Health Organization.
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President Vladimir Putin said Russia has developed the first vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus.
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Worldwide coronavirus cases have surpassed 20 million, with Brazil and Mexico reporting a combined 27,000 infections in just one day. More than 12.4 million have recovered, and almost 738,000 have died from the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.
Here are the latest updates:
Wednesday, August 12
04:53 GMT – Cathay Pacific reports first-half loss of $1.27 bn
Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific said it lost HK$9.9 billion ($1.27bn) in the first half of this year after border closures triggered by the coronavirus pandemic grounded its fleets.
“The first six months of 2020 were the most challenging that the Cathay Pacific Group has faced in its more than 70-year history,” chairman Patrick Healy said in a stark statement.
“The global health crisis has decimated the travel industry and the future remains highly uncertain, with most analysts suggesting that it will take years to recover to pre-crisis levels,” he added.
03:55 GMT – China’s community cases hit single digits
China’s newly confirmed community transmitted cases of coronavirus fell into the single digits on Wednesday, while Hong Kong saw another 33 cases of infection.
The National Health Commission said all nine new cases were found in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose capital Urumqi has been at the center of China’s latest major outbreak.
Another 25 cases were brought by Chinese travelers arriving from abroad.
03:18 GMT – New Zealand considers freight as possible source of new cluster
New Zealand officials are investigating the possibility that its first COVID-19 cases in more than three months were imported by freight.
Ashley Bloomfield, director-general of health, said health officials are “working hard to put together pieces of the puzzle on how” the four members of one family got infected in Auckland.
Investigations were zeroing in on the potential the virus was imported by freight and Bloomfield said surface testing was underway in an Auckland cool store where a man from the infected family worked.
“We are very confident we didn’t have any community transmission for a very long period,” Bloomfield said during a televised media conference. “We know the virus can survive within refrigerated environments for quite some time.”
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WHO COVID Debrief on masks (3:00) |
02:45 GMT – S Korea, US to hold ‘smaller’ military drills
South Korea and the US will kick off their annual joint military drills this week but without mobilising US-based troops after scaling back the programme due to coronavirus concerns, according to South Korean media.
The allies have been discussing how to adjust the exercises – which usually begin in August and involve tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides – with the coronavirus threatening to disrupt the travel of US personnel.
The Yonhap news agency said exercises will be held from August 16-28 but in a reduced scale, though the timeframe was extended by a couple of days to disperse participants and minimise night activities.
01:48 GMT – Argentina death toll tops 5,000
Argentina’s death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 5,000 on Tuesday amid a surge in cases that have pushed the South American nation up in the global charts despite months of lockdown.
Argentina has been under quarantine since March 20, although officials previously relaxed restrictions in many parts of the nation, a move blamed for the recent spike in cases.
The country recorded 7,043 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, pushing the total confirmed infections to 260,911, surpassing the total caseload in Italy.
The latest government data shows 5,004 people have died from the disease.
01:01 GMT – Mexico sees near-record deaths
Mexico reported a near-record 926 newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the country’s accumulated total to 53,929.
The Health Department reported 6,686 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases so far to 492,522.
00:28 GMT – New Zealand defers dissolution of parliament
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern deferred the dissolution of parliament to make way for a general election until Monday, following the latest outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.
New Zealand’s parliament was due to be dissolved on Wednesday morning – the first step towards holding the general election scheduled for September 19.
Ardern said no decision had been made yet on postponing the election.
“We’re seeking advice around the options of the issue of the election from the Electoral Commission, just so that we make sure we have all those options available to us,” she said.
“No decisions have been made; we’re obviously at the very early stages.”
00:19 GMT – Australia’s Victoria logs deadliest day of pandemic
Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria reported its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic with 21 fatalities in the last 24 hours and 410 new cases.
The state reported 19 deaths from the coronavirus, its previous one-day high in casualties, on Tuesday and Monday. It logged 331 cases a day earlier.
Victoria last week imposed a night curfew, tightened restrictions on people’s daily movements and ordered large parts of the local economy to close to slow the spread of coronavirus.
00:04 GMT – US inks $1.5bn vaccine deal with Moderna
The US entered an agreement with drugmaker Moderna Inc to acquire 100 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine for approximately $1.5bn, the company and the White House said.
Moderna’s price per dose comes out to about $30.50 per person for a two-dose regimen. That is broadly in line with other deals that Washington has penned with drugmakers for potential vaccines.
Moderna’s vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, is one of the few that have already advanced to the final stage of testing. The study, which aims to include 30,000 people, is on track to be completed in September, the company said this month.
The US government has allocated a total of at least $10.9bn for the development and manufacturing of a coronavirus vaccine. It has already ordered 100 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Pfizer and Sanofi and 300 million from AstraZeneca.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.
For all the key developments from yesterday, August 11, go here.
