Coronavirus Updates

India on Tuesday registered 55,342 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest daily total since the middle of August, according to the Health Ministry.

A coronavirus vaccine trial run by Johnson & Johnson has been temporarily stopped after a participant got sick, AFP news agency reported Tuesday. The Phase 3 trial aims to enroll 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 sites in the United States and around the world.

Tedros Ghebreyesu, the head of the World Health Organization, on Monday rejected herd immunity as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, calling the approach of allowing the natural spread of the disease “scientifically and ethically problematic.”

Belgium saw almost 4,500 new daily coronavirus cases over the past week as hospitalizations and deaths also sharply increased, according to Belgian health authorities.

Israel’s total number of coronavirus deaths passed the 2,000 mark after the Health Ministry reported 16 additional fatalities on Monday, bringing the death count to 2,016. As of Tuesday afternoon local time, the number of deaths in Israel from the coronavirus stood at 2,021.

Iran’s health minister announced on Monday that a coronavirus vaccine was successfully tested on monkeys, saying that human trials would start “in the next couple of weeks,” according to Middle East Monitor.

Russia announced on Monday that human trials of its controversial coronavirus vaccine have begun in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is the second foreign country to trial the Sputnik V vaccine after Belarus.

Lebanon announced on Sunday that bars and nightclubs would shut down indefinitely as part of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

A total of 17 US states set records for new coronavirus cases on Monday using the seven-day rolling average, The Washington Post reports.