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A healthcare worker receives his COVID-19 vaccine along with other social care workers at the International Center for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England, on Saturday. Photo: AFP
Pope Francis and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II became the latest prominent figures to join the global coronavirus vaccination campaign, as the UK reported it had surpassed more than 3 million cases since the pandemic began. over a year ago.
More than 1.9 million people around the world have died from the virus, with new variants adding to the increase in cases and prompting the reintroduction of movement restrictions around the world, even as some countries begin anti-virus campaigns. massive inoculation.
Pope Francis urged people to get vaccinated, calling opposition to the jab “suicidal denial” and saying that he himself would be inoculated against the virus next week when the Vatican began its campaign.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, received their COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said, in a rare public comment on the monarch’s long-standing private health issues.
A source told the national news agency Press Association that the 94-year-old queen and 99-year-old Philip received the injections from a royal house doctor at Windsor Castle.
So far, more than 1.5 million people in Britain have received virus injections, as the largest immunization program in its history is implemented with priority for the elderly, their carers and health workers.
Countries around the world are doing the same, launching mass vaccination campaigns with various coronavirus vaccines approved so far, including those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna and domestically-made coups from Russia and China.
Britain, which has so far administered two types of vaccines, is rushing to inoculate as many people as possible, as a new variant believed to be more contagious drives infections and deaths to unprecedented levels.
British health authorities said on Saturday that the country had recorded more than 3 million coronavirus infections since the pandemic began in 2020.
The country also recorded another 1,035 deaths from the virus, bringing the total number of deaths to 80,868, one of the highest in Europe along with Italy.
Cases also continue to rise in the United States, the worst-affected country in the world, which recorded more than 272,000 new cases on Saturday.
More than 22 million people have been infected and 372,051 have died from COVID-19 in the US since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.
India will launch one of the world’s most ambitious coronavirus-free vaccination campaigns on Saturday, aiming to reach 300 million people by July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Cuba, meanwhile, said it would test its most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Iran, after Tehran banned the importation of proven vaccines produced in the United States and Britain.
