More than 130 people in Switzerland have contracted the coronavirus after receiving both shots of the vaccine, with 12 cases being fatal, according to the latest data provided by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) on Monday.

From January 1 to May 14, 134 vaccinees were infected with the deadly virus, with most of them aged 80 and over. Of those infected, 27 people were hospitalized and 12 died.

At least 132 countries and territories have administered more than 359 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far.

As per the data provided by Our World In Data cited by The New York Times, 359,460,397 doses have been administered and as many as 4.7 persons have been vaccinated per 100 people.
In the US, as many as 135,847,835 doses have been delivered and 109,081,860 doses have been administered.

As per a report by developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, claimed that it can reduce the transmission of COVID-19 virus, reported The Washington Post.

In a preprint of an article under review at the Lancet medical journal, the Oxford University vaccine developers report that was based on follow-up studies of their clinical trials found the vaccine safe and effective, there is also "the potential for the vaccine to reduce transmission of the virus".

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech on Thursday said that they have begun to test how well the third dose of their authorised vaccine stacks up against new coronavirus variants.

The study will evaluate up to 144 Phase 1 participants in two age cohorts, 18-55 and 65-85 years of age.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines appear to protect against COVID variants  B.1.617 and B.1.618  first identified in India, researchers have reported in a new pre-print paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, CNN reported.

Based on lab experiments involving cell cultures, the B.1.617 and B.1.618 variants seem to be partially resistant to the antibodies elicited by vaccination,

The Commission’s plan to introduce a “Digital Green Pass” for EU citizens threatens fundamental rights in several respects. While the European Pirates in the Greens/EFA Group support measures that aim at restoring the freedom of movement, they need to be proportionate.

Several proposals have emerged on how to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, but they fall short in ensuring that the vaccine is distributed fairly. A team of researchers suggests three ways to more fairly and effectively distribute the vaccine so that people in poor countries get the vaccine as soon as possible.

Russia has registered the world's first animal vaccine against Covid-19, said Konstantin Savenkov, the deputy head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) on Wednesday.

"Carnivak-Cov, a sorbate inactivated vaccine against the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) for carnivorous animals, developed by Rosselkhoznadzor's Federal Center for Animal Health, has been registered in Russia.

Russian's Sputnik V is 91.6 per cent effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to the result of an interim analysis of the phase 3 trials published by the journal Lancet on Tuesday.

 "In the interim efficacy analysis of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, where data on 19,866 volunteers were included in the efficacy analysis (14,964 of whom received the vaccine and 4,902 the placebo),

The Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has proven equally effective for all age groups, Alexander Gintsburg, the head of the Gamaleya research institute that developed the vaccine, said on Saturday.

"Sputnik V demonstrated the same level of efficacy in all age groups.

A single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine can limit household transmission by up to half, according to a study by Public Health England released on Wednesday, signalling the effectiveness of the vaccines at preventing spread.

According to The Hill, the research -- which has yet to be peer-reviewed -- found that people who got COVID-19 three weeks after receiving

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday issued emergency use authorization for Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for the one-shot dose to be used as part of the United Nation's international vaccine distribution effort.

According to The Hill, The go-ahead signal from WHO, which comes a day after the European Union approved the shot, means that countries that receive shots through the UN's COVAX effort, which promotes equitable distribution of vaccines, could cite the new endorsement in the distribution of the shot.

The rollout of vaccines in Europe is "unacceptably slow," the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, delivering a damning evaluation on the region's Covid response, amid a "worrying" surge in infections.

According to a statement from the body, Last week saw increasing transmission of COVID-19 in the majority of countries in the WHO European Region, with 1.6 million new cases and close to 24 000 deaths.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday of the danger of buying overpriced vaccines from intermediaries, reminding those countries should buy vaccines certified by the WHO and make sure to identify the origin of the product.

"We have received concerns regarding other vaccines...

Highlighting the gap of vaccinations between high-income countries and low and lower-middle countries, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said that the world is at risk of 'vaccine apartheid'.

Speaking at the Paris Peace Forum Spring Meeting, Ghebreyesus said: "I think I would go one step further and say not just that the world is at risk of vaccine apartheid; the world is in vaccine apartheid."