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Agence France-Presse

Daily global deaths from Covid-19 have topped 18,000 for the first time, the latest reminder of the pandemic’s devastating impact as governments tightened restrictions in a bid to contain alarming new coronavirus strains.
With vaccines seen as the only real chance of returning to some form of normality, a row erupted between the European Union and drugs firm AstraZeneca over supplies.
And in Lebanon, a third night of clashes was raging between police and anti-lockdown protesters, following similar violence in the Netherlands against a curfew this week.
As fears escalate over highly infectious new strains of the coronavirus, governments have introduced a slew of travel restrictions.
Moderna says vaccine works against new Covid-19 variants
Finland banned all but essential travel, while Norway announced a border shutdown to almost all non-residents as of Friday.
Portugal suspended all flights with Brazil – home to one of the new strains – and Israel shut off its land borders with Egypt and Jordan.
New strains first detected in Britain and South Africa have already spread to dozens of countries, the World Health Organization warned.
Britain, the hardest-hit country in Europe, announced new hotel quarantine rules for citizens and residents returning from 22 “high-risk” countries.


Those flying back must stay in hotels for 10 days at their own cost, interior minister Priti Patel told lawmakers.
France was considering a third national lockdown, with its famed Cannes Film Festival postponed until July.
The pandemic has claimed some 2.2 million lives out of more than 100 million recorded cases since the virus was first detected in China in late 2019. A total of 18,109 Covid-19 deaths were registered on Tuesday.
China’s vaccines assessed by WHO for emergency use
Over the week from January 20-26, 101,366 coronavirus deaths were registered worldwide, an average of 14,000 fatalities each day and the worst week on record.
In recent months the daily death rate has been increasing. By the end of November, the world had passed the milestone of 10,000 daily deaths.
This rose to 11,000 by mid-December, 12,000 on January 8 and up to 13,000 three days later.
Five countries accounted for the 101,000 deaths recorded last week.

Topping the list was the United States with 23,675 deaths over the week, bringing its toll total to 425,227. Mexico, Britain, Brazil and Germany complete the list.
“We are in the fight of our lives. We have to make sure that we’re not fighting each other; that we’re fighting the virus,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19.
“We can conquer this virus – and we will conquer this virus.”
There have been rising complaints of “vaccine nationalism” as countries compete to get hold of scarce supplies.
Race to dig graves in Brazil’s ‘Gateway to Amazon’ as Covid-19 death rate soars
The EU is in a tense stand-off with drugs company AstraZeneca after it told the bloc it could only supply a quarter of the doses previously promised for the first quarter of 2021.
The EU has demanded the firm supply doses from its UK factories, in a move that risks setting the EU and Britain on a post-Brexit collision course as they both insist on receiving promised supplies.
“We reject the logic of first-come, first-served,” EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said.
“That may work at the neighbourhood butcher’s but not in contracts, and not in our advanced purchase agreements.”
Britain said its deliveries must be honoured. “I think we need to make sure that the vaccine supply that has been bought and paid for, procured for those in the UK, is delivered,” Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove told LBC Radio.
The row compounds the woes of Europe’s vaccine roll-out, with many EU countries already facing delays in shipments of jabs made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Spain’s Madrid region said on Wednesday that it was suspending new vaccines for at least two weeks due to shortages.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Global Covid-19 deaths hit daily record as row erupts over vaccine supply

A giant globe in front of the London School of Economics. The pandemic has claimed some 2.2 million lives worldwide. Photo: AP

TOPSHOT - Dutch police officers patrol in the streets of Rotterdam, during the curfew time, on January 26, 2021, a day after police clashed with groups of demonstrators protesting against the introduction of new measures, including the curfew, to fight against the spread of the Covid-19. - In South Rotterdam and in the city center, several people were arrested for, among other things, gathering and not being able to show proof of identity. The police are massively present in the city after the riots of the day before and check people walking in groups on the street. (Photo by STR / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT

China’s Sinopharm, Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines assessed by WHO for emergency use

Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine is one of two being considered by the WHO for ‘emergency use listing’. Photo: Xinhua

Coronavirus: Moderna says vaccine works against new Covid-19 variants

A man receives a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in New York on January 10. Photo: AFP

World coronavirus cases hit 100 million, doubling under 3 months

A nurse washes a Covid-19 patient in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Pierre-Benite in France on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Despite restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, thousands crowd Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

TOPSHOT - A health worker informs people who arrive to receive the Chinese-made Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine in Belgrade Fair turned into a vaccination centre, on January 25, 2021. - Serbia launched a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign and became the first European country to use Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine, after receiving one million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, on January 16, 2021. (Photo by Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP)

Race to dig graves in Brazil’s ‘Gateway to Amazon’ as Covid-19 death rate soars

Workers bury a person who died of Covid-19 in the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Brazil. Photo: EPA

A member of the Witoto indigenous tribe receives the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. coronavirus vaccine in Manaus, Brazil, on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Severe oxygen shortages at hospitals in Brazil's Amazon prompted local authorities to impose a curfew and airlift patients to other states to deal with the onslaught of a second coronavirus wave. Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 15, 2021 a man holds an oxygen tank in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil, amid the COVID-19 ovel coronavirus pandemic. - Despair, tears, mourning and unemployment: everywhere the coronavirus, which has killed more than two million people in one year, sows grief and desolation and paralyzes economic life. But for populations all around the world, the vaccination campaigns are now a source of hope, as shown by this selection of 10 photos from our AFP correspondents. (Photo by Michael DANTAS / AFP)

TOPSHOT - Aerial view showing a tractor digging graves in a new area of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida, where COVID-19 victims are buried, in Manaus, Brazil, on January 22, 2021. - With over 3,000 burials in January, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the expansion of the largest cemetery in the capital of Amazonas state. (Photo by MARCIO JAMES / AFP)

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Record 18,109 Covid-19 deaths were registered on Tuesday
EU rows with AstraZeneca over vaccine supplies



Daily global deaths from Covid-19 have topped 18,000 for the first time, the latest reminder of the pandemic’s devastating impact.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Coronavirus vaccine

Coronavirus US

Coronavirus UK

Global Covid-19 deaths hit daily record as row erupts over vaccine supply

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Record 18,109 Covid-19 deaths were registered on Tuesday EU rows with AstraZeneca over vaccine supplies

Record 18,109 Covid-19 deaths were registered on Tuesday

EU rows with AstraZeneca over vaccine supplies