World News in Brief: May 4

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Monday said enhanced regional and global cooperation was the key to success in the common pursuit of resilient recovery in wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

People get inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 3, 2021. (Photo: Xinhua)
People get inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 3, 2021. (Photo: Xinhua)

* China has administered 279.91 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Monday, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday. That compares with 275.34 million doses given as of Sunday, up 4.57 million doses.

* Brazil registered 983 COVID-19 deaths on Monday and 24,619 additional cases, according to data released by the nation's Health Ministry. The South American country has now registered 408,622 total coronavirus deaths and 14,779,529 total confirmed cases.

* Russia reported 7,770 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, including 2,050 in Moscow, bringing the total national tally of infections to 4,839,514.

* The Group of Seven (G7) foreign and development ministers gathered Monday in London for the first time in two years to address such issues as economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

* US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Monday that the US economy is "not out of the woods yet", particularly with a slower recovery for low-wage and minority workers.

* Italy's population declined in 2020 for the third consecutive year to a total of 59,258,000 as of Jan. 1, 2021, the country's National Statistics Institute (Istat) reported on Monday. Istat said the figure was around 384,000 fewer than a year earlier, a decline of 0.64 percent.

* British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Monday met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss efforts to build back better from COVID-19 and a possible free trade agreement between the two countries.

* The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorize Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged between 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing federal officials familiar with the agency's plans.

* Denmark became the first country to exclude Johnson & Johnson's shots from its vaccination programme over a potential link to a rare but serious form of blood clot.

* Novavax has told the European Union it plans to begin delivering its COVID-19 vaccine to the bloc towards the end of this year, new guidance that could lead to a formal contract being signed as early as this week, an EU official told Reuters.

* Germans who are fully vaccinated should be exempt from quarantine on re-entering Germany, Health Minister Jens Spahn said after the government cabinet discussed plans to lift restrictions for people who have had their shots.

* US President Joe Biden is imposing new travel restrictions on India starting on Tuesday, and barring most non-US citizens from entering the United States.

* Voters in Madrid go to the polls on Tuesday to choose the legislative assembly in Spain's wealthiest region in an election that could reshape the nation's political landscape, in part due to Madrid's unorthodox policy on COVID-19 restrictions.

* Egypt and France signed a contract for the supply of 30 Rafale fighter jets, Egypt defense ministry said on its website early on Tuesday.

* At least 13 people have been killed and 70 others were injured after a metro bridge collapsed in southern Mexico City Monday night, local authorities said.

* Mexico hopes to finish vaccinating its entire population against COVID-19 by the end of next year's first quarter, Mexico's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said

* Venezuela this month will begin clinical trials of the Cuban coronavirus vaccine candidate Abdala, and plans to produce enough doses locally to vaccinate 4 million people.

* Novavax said it had expanded the late-stage study testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to include up to 3,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17.

* US manufacturing activity grew at a slower pace in April, restrained by shortages of inputs as rising vaccinations and massive fiscal stimulus unleashed pent-up demand.

* New cases of COVID-19 in Chile decreased by 14 percent in the past 14 days and 9 percent in the last seven days, Chile's Health Minister Enrique Paris said on Monday.

* South Africa has allocated an extra ZAR4 billion (US$276 mln) to buy COVID-19 vaccines and extend a special distress grant to thousands of people hit by the pandemic, in a Special Appropriation Bill tabled by the finance minister on Tuesday.

* Denmark will allow elementary schools to fully reopen and a range of indoor activities to resume this week, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. Indoor activities that can resume include theatres, concert venues, cinemas, indoor sports facilities and gyms, some sites with caps on maximum attendees.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 7,534 to 3,433,516, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. The reported death toll rose by 315 to 83,591, the tally showed.

* Mexico hopes to finish vaccinating its entire population against COVID-19 by the end of next year's first quarter, Mexico's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said Monday evening.

* Trinidad and Tobago said on Monday it was tightening lockdown restrictions for three weeks starting at midnight as the number of new COVID-19 cases hits record highs and the Caribbean twin-island nation faces a potential shortage of hospital beds.

* Kuwaiti citizens who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 will not be able to travel abroad from May 22, the information ministry said.

* Tanzania announced new anti-coronavirus measures, saying it wanted to prevent the importation of new variants.

Xinhua, Reuters