Pope Francis and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II became the latest high-profile figures to join the global vaccination campaign against COVID-19, as the UK reported it had surpassed more than 3 million cases since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
More than 1.9 million people worldwide have died from the novel coronavirus, with new variants adding to soaring cases and prompting the reintroduction of restrictions on movement across the globe — even as some countries begin mass inoculation campaigns.
The pope urged people to get the vaccination, calling opposition to the jab “suicidal denial” and saying he would get inoculated against the virus himself next week when the Vatican would begin its campaign.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“There is a suicidal denial which I cannot explain, but today we have to get vaccinated,” the pontiff said in segments from an interview with Canale 5 due to be broadcast in full yesterday.
Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, received their COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said, in a rare public comment on the private health matters of the long-serving monarch.
A source told the domestic Press Association news agency that the queen, 94, and Philip, 99, were given the injections by a royal household doctor at Windsor Castle.
More than 1.5 million people in the UK have so far received virus jabs, as the biggest immunization program in its history rolls out with priority given to elderly people, their carers and health workers.
Countries across the globe are following suit, starting up massive vaccination campaigns with several coronavirus shots approved so far, including those by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and domestically made jabs from Russia and China.
The UK, which has so far administered two types of vaccines, is racing to inoculate as many people as possible as a new variant believed to be more contagious pushes infections and deaths to unprecedented levels.
British health authorities on Saturday said the country had recorded more than 3 million coronavirus infections since the pandemic began last year, after the government announced another 59,937 new daily cases.
The country also recorded another 1,035 fatalities from the virus, taking the total death toll to 80,868, one of the highest in Europe alongside Italy.
Cases also continue to spiral in the US, the world’s worst-hit country, which recorded more than 272,000 new cases on Saturday.
More than 22 million people have been infected and 372,508 have died of COVID-19 in the US since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.
India is to launch one of the world’s most ambitious coronavirus vaccination drives on Saturday, aiming to reach 300 million people by July, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
India is the second worst-hit country, with more than 10 million cases, although the death rate is one of the world’s lowest.
Meanwhile, Cuba said it would test its most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Iran, after Tehran banned the import of already-proven US and British-produced vaccines.
Fears have been rising over new virus variants that emerged in the UK and South Africa, but BioNTech brought some relief on Friday, saying its vaccine was effective against a “key mutation” found in the strains.
Soaring infections are forcing governments once again to introduce restrictions that helped slow the spread of the virus last year, but battered the global economy and disrupted business, sports and cultural events worldwide.
France is to extend its COVID-19 curfews to a further eight departments, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday, citing a “tough and necessary” response.
After a rise in cases, Burundi is to close its land and lakeside borders from today and impose a seven-day quarantine on travelers arriving by plane, officials said.
On Saturday the streets of the Australian city of Brisbane were quiet, as its more than 2 million residents were ordered back into lockdown, after authorities detected a single infection of the new strain from the UK.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not