Coronavirus: Latest global developments

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

– India’s rocketing records –

India reports a record new Covid-19 daily death toll of over 4,000 and more than 400,000 new cases as the country grapples with the world’s worst coronavirus surge.

Members of the opposition call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a national lockdown as the country’s official death toll to date hit 238,270.

– Party-time in Spain –

Spain lifts a state of emergency in place since October, allowing Spaniards to travel between regions for the first time in months.

“It’s like New Year’s,” says 28-year-old Oriol Corbella in Barcelona, where the lifting of the curfew was met with shouts, applause and music.

– Freedom for fully vaccinated Germans –

People fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are now exempt from many restrictions in Germany after the government passed new legislation to restore some freedoms.

Curfews and limits on social contacts no longer apply to the more than seven million people who have both jabs.

They will also no longer have to present a negative test result to access certain services such as hairdressers and “click and meet” shopping appointments.

– France ‘playing politics’ with virus? –

Is the French government playing politics rather than following the science as it begins to ease partial lockdown measures?

A group of 20 doctors and researchers think so and have published demands to focus on the health issues at a time when the coronavirus statistics for infections, deaths and hospitalisations are still high across the country.

They accused the government of “passive management of the epidemic” and demanded “a new national protocol with fixed targets”.

– Jabs with Dracula –

Visitors to Romania’s forbidding Bran Castle, the inspiration for the lair of Dracula, are being jabbed with needles rather than vampire fangs this weekend in a coronavirus vaccination drive.

The government has turned to local vaccination drives and 24-hour “marathons” at such major venues to immunise as many citizens as possible.

– Almost 3.3 million fatalities –

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 3,284,783 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1000 GMT on Sunday.

At least 157,563,420 cases of coronavirus have been registered.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 581,516 deaths from 32,686,462 cases.

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