N Korea pursues weapons despite Covid blockade; EU could start review of Merck’s Covid pill ‘in days’: Russia reports record daily coronavirus deaths

Moscow: Russia on Tuesday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll as cases linked to the Delta variant spike amid a lacklustre vaccination drive and few anti-virus restrictions.

A government tally reported 895 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a record in Russia since the start of the pandemic. The new figure brings total deaths from Covid-19 to 211,696 -- the highest in Europe.

Authorities have been accused of playing down the severity of the outbreak. The surging infections have come without any real pandemic restrictions to limit the spread. Russia, the world’s fifth worst-hit country with more than seven million infections, has seen cases climb as vaccinations stall.

Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, has experienced a spike over the past few weeks, with officials warning of rising hospital admissions. Authorities say that the highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for all of the cases in the Russian capital. Free jabs have been available since early December, but authorities have struggled to convince a vaccine-sceptic population to get immunised.

Independent polling shows that more than half of Russians do not plan on getting a shot. As of Tuesday, only 29 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies Covid data from the regions.

Under a broader definition for deaths linked to the coronavirus, statistics agency Rosstat reported in August that Russia had seen more than 350,000 fatalities.Meanwhile, Greece on Tuesday named a new head to the state health watchdog that oversees the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as the country’s death toll neared 15,000.

The health ministry said the new head of the Eody agency is Theoklis Zaoutis, a former chief of the division of paediatric infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. As of Monday, the virus had claimed more than 14,990 lives with an average age of 78, according to Eody.

Main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday said he had demanded answers from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in parliament on the course of the pandemic. "We are among the first in deaths per million residents in Europe," Tsipras said, adding that Greece "ranks 20th in vaccinations among 30 European states."

The government spokesman retorted Tuesday that the "overwhelming majority" of Greeks have been vaccinated. According to Eody data, nearly 6.2 million people have received two vaccine doses in the country of 11 million. More than 12.2 million vaccinations have been administered overall.

In a related development, North Korea has continued to pursue its weapons development programmes despite facing a worsening economic situation due to its self-imposed coronavirus blockade, a new UN report has said.

Pyongyang is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, which have seen rapid progress under current leader Kim Jong Un. The report’s publication comes after Pyongyang sparked international concern with a series of missile tests in the span of a few weeks, prompting the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting.

"Despite the country’s focus on its worsening economic travails, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continued to maintain and develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs," said the report, compiled by a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on the isolated country.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of the North, which like the South last month saw the 30th anniversary of their simultaneous admission to the United Nations.

Pyongyang has not carried out an intercontinental ballistic missile launch or nuclear test since 2017 but the report said tests "combining ballistic and guidance technologies" were conducted while activity continued at key sites related to the nuclear programme.

In early 2020 the country closed its borders to try to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in neighbouring China, but has nonetheless "continued its illicit efforts to procure specific components from overseas and to seek opportunities to transfer its own products to its partners", the report added.

Meantime, the EU’s medicines watchdog could start a review within days of an oral Covid drug produced by the US pharmaceutical firm Merck, a senior official said Tuesday. Merck said last week that its drug molnupiravir was shown to reduce hospitalisations by 50 percent, bringing closer the dream of a simple pill to treat the coronavirus pandemic.

"What I can say is that indeed we will be considering whether to start a rolling review for this compound in the next days," Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the European Medicines Agency, told journalists. Cavaleri said the Amsterdam-based agency was aware of some "top-line results that are being communicated by the company" about its new drug.