Coronavirus: Latest global developments

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

– Russia triples death toll

Russia admits to more than three times more coronavirus deaths — over 186,000 — than previously announced making it the nation with the third-highest number of fatalities.

-Vaccines

Belgium joins a growing list of countries to launch Covid vaccinations, a day after the EU began its immunisation campaign.

But Pfizer postpones the delivery of new batches of its vaccine to eight European nations including Spain, the Spanish health ministry says, due to a “problem in the loading and shipment process” at its plant in Belgium.

Meanwhile, Jordan orders one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with the first shipment expected at the end of January or early February.

– China jails journalist

A Chinese citizen journalist is jailed for four years for her reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak began, her lawyer says.

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, is sentenced at a brief hearing in a Shanghai court for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” during her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak.

– New variant in South Korea

Three cases of the particularly infectious virus variant that recently emerged in Britain have been confirmed in South Korea, health authorities say, in three members of a London-based family who arrived in the country on December 22.

– Trump signs relief bill

US President Donald Trump finally signs a massive $900 billion stimulus bill, in a long-sought boost for millions of Americans and businesses battered by the pandemic. The move helps US and European stocks into record territory.

– South African curbs

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announces a ban on alcohol sales and says mask-wearing will be mandatory in public as his country becomes the continent’s first to record one million coronavirus cases.

– 1.76 million dead

The coronavirus has killed at least 1.76 million people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally on Monday based on official sources.

At least 80 million cases have been registered.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 333,140 deaths, followed by Brazil with 191,139, India with 147,901 and Mexico with 122,426.

The tally does not take into account updated Russian figures.

– Mexican songwriter dies

Mexican singer-songwriter Armando Manzanero, one of the country’s best loved musicians, dies at the age of 86 after being hospitalised with the coronavirus.

– Neymar controversy

Brazil’s star footballer Neymar is at the centre of controversy after several of his country’s media report that he is organizing a huge New Year’s Eve party despite the coronavirus pandemic.