Danish officials on Saturday reported two cases of blood clots and cerebral hemorrhage in people who had recently received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination.

The Capital Region of Denmark, the authority that runs public hospitals in Copenhagen, said that one of the people had died. Both were hospital staff and had received the AstraZeneca vaccine less than two weeks before becoming ill, it said. It was not reported when the people had developed the symptoms.

Denmark put use of the vaccine on hold on March 11 and has not yet resumed use, unlike several other countries that temporarily suspended use of the vaccine over blood clotting fears.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO), based in Geneva, Switzerland, said countries should keep using the AstraZeneca vaccine, stressing once again that the jab's benefits outweigh the risks.

"COVID-19 is a deadly disease and the AstraZeneca vaccine can prevent it," the UN agency's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at an online press briefing.

The WHO's backing for the British-developed serum comes after EU regulators confirmed it was safe after an emergency probe into links with blood clotting.

Europe

Anti-lockdown protests have taken place in several European cities. In Kassel, Germany, police used to water cannon when a demonstration involving some 20,000 people turned violent. The march was organized by the "Querdenker" or Lateral Thinkers online conspiracy movement.

In London, 33 people were arrested during a similar protest. Several thousand people were estimated to have gathered at Hyde Park, in defiance of coronavirus curbs.

Anti-lockdown protesters were also held in the Serbian capital Belgrade and Bucharest, Romania, where prominent members of a new extreme right-wing party were in the crowd.

France on Saturday reported a record spike for 2021 in the number of COVID-19 patients admitted into intensive care units, even as nearly a third of the country's population entered a month-long lockdown. 

The total number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units in French hospitals rose by 66 to 4,353, according to data from the Health Ministry. 

France has registered a total of 4.25 million infections and 92,167 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

As of Saturday, 6.14 million people have received their first COVID-19 vaccine shot, the ministry said in a statement.

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine may not be cleared for use in Europe until the end of summer, according to the head of the country's state direct investment fund.

"If it is approved [by EU regulators] — probably after June — we could deliver about 100 million doses for 50 million people in the EU within three, four months," Kirill Dmitriev told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. 

On Friday, German Health Minister Jens Spahn raised the possibility of Germany going it alone and acquiring the Russian doses outside of the EU's joint procurement scheme. However, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she would prefer a European acquisition program.

Germany's Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported 16,033 new COVID-19 cases and 207 new deaths on Saturday. The rate of infection in the past seven days increased to 99.9 infections per 100,000 people. On Friday, the rate was 95.6.

The government has said it will implement an "emergency brake" — to halt the easing of lockdown restrictions — if the rate of infection stays above 100 for three days.

Britain says half of all adults in the country have now received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. 

"The vaccine is a national success story and our way out of this pandemic," said Health Secretary Matt Hancock, adding that he was "delighted."

He said a record 660,276 shots were administered on Friday to reach the milestone.

Americas

German car giant Volkswagen has halted production at its plants in Brazil. Already one of the worse-hit countries on Earth, Brazil is struggling with case numbers at present. On Friday, the Health Ministry announced a single-day record number of new infections, and the second-highest number of deaths recorded in a day.

The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, has been spending time golfing at his Florida Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago.

But now the venue has been partially closed because of a COVID-19 outbreak. US media reports quoted sources familiar with club operations as saying that some workers had been quarantined "out of an abundance of caution" and "a section of the club" had been shuttered.

Africa

Kenya is facing criticism for offering free COVID-19 vaccines to all diplomats based there, including thousands of United Nations staff, even though it has not completed inoculating its own health workers, other frontline staff or elderly.

The offer was made in a March 18 letter sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to diplomatic missions and seen by Reuters.

"I think the government should focus on getting the priority population vaccinated ... before opening up to diplomats," said Elizabeth Gitau, a Kenyan physician and the chief executive officer of the Kenya Medical Association (KMA).

Asia

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for COVID-19 two days after receiving a vaccination against the disease.

Health Minister Faisal Sultan said in a tweet that Khan, 68, was "self-isolating at home."

The premier has attended frequent meetings in the past weeks, including a security conference in the capital where a large number of people were present.

mm, tj,jf/sri (AFP, dpa, Reuters)