The Latest: Algeria to start producing Russian vaccine

Nurses read instructions for injecting doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at a Bernal public school, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, as the country begins to vaccinate healthcare workers against the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Vivenka Ivanovich and her 6-year-old son Mateo Blanco, wait for the start of a movie at the Cinepolis cinema on the first day after the COVID-19 lockdown in Santiago, Chile, Feb. 18, 2021. The cinemas authorized to open are those located in the communes that are in the intermediate phases of sanitary restrictions. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

This May 12, 2020 file photo shows Carnegie Hall in New York. Carnegie Hall will miss an entire season for the first time for the first time in its 130-year history. Carnegie canceled performances from April 6 through July at its three venues, extending a closure that started last March 13 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Over eighty-year-olds wait to be administered a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, in a tent set up at the Baggio military hospital in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In this Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021 file photo, a now hiring sign is displayed at a CD One Price Cleaners in Schaumburg, Ill. The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week to 861,000, evidence that layoffs remain painfully high despite a steady drop in the number of confirmed viral infections. Applications from laid-off workers rose 13,000 from the previous week, which was revised sharply higher, the Labor Department said Thursday, Feb. 18. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Migrant laborers wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus leave for work in Kochi, Kerala state, India, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. The southern state, which had previously been hailed as a blueprint for tackling the virus now accounts for nearly half of India's current COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/R S Iyer)

Sanar Yokhana, foreground, and Richard Lewandowski pray in front of a statue of St. Anthony during an Ash Wednesday service at the St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Detroit. The ashes, a symbol of penance, are made from palm leaves used in last year's Palm Sunday liturgy and were sprinkled on their head. The sprinkling, because of the pandemic, is a departure from the usual practice of making the sign of the cross on the forehead and follows an ancient method still common in parts of the world today. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

People wait after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against the COVID-19 in a vaccination center in the Lyon sports arena, central France, Thursday, Fev. 18, 2021. French Health Minister Olivier Veran promised stepped-up testing and vaccinations, but the government has resisted calls from some local doctors and leaders for a new lockdown. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Los Angeles Unified School District employees wait in the school gym before getting their first dose of the Moderna vaccine, as LAUSD's first vaccination site opened at the Roybal Learning Center, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Los Angeles. Superintendent Austin Beutner was there in the morning to meet with the vaccination team and the first district employees to receive their vaccines at this site. (Dean Musgrove/The Orange County Register/SCNG via AP)

People walk their dogs next to a snowman decorated with a face mask in a snow-covered park, in Jerusalem, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Music teacher, Nikos Karadosidis, right, listens to prison school director Petros Damianos before recording lessons at a classroom of Avlona's prison school, north of Athens, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. With Greece's schools shut due to the pandemic, all lessons have gone online. But the online world isn't within reach of everyone _ and particularly not within reach of the students of Avlona Special Youth Detention Center, where internet devices are banned by law from the cells. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A health worker prepares a shot of COVID-19 vaccine during a mass vaccination for traders at Tanah Abang Market in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Public workers, people over 60 and traders and security personnel are next in line for COVID-19 shots in Indonesia, after more 1.1 million mostly health workers received the vaccine in the first phase of inoculation. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Chart shows the change in estimated life expectancy in the U.S. from 2019 to 2020

Health care workers look through a window at a hospital in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa during the roll out of the first batch of Johnson and Johnson vaccines in the country. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was among the first in his country to receive a COVID-19 vaccination to launch the inoculation drive. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

Federal police officers stand at a rest area on motorway 17 as part of border controls carried out by the Federal Police at the German-Czech border in Bad Gottleuba, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. On the same day, Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer plans to inform himself about the temporary border controls. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)

ALGIERS, Algeria — President Abdelmadjid Tebboune says Algeria will start producing Russia's Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine in six or seven months.

The announcement came Thursday in a televised address. Health Minister Abderahmane Benbouzid said earlier this week that the vaccine will be produced by state laboratory Saidal. They did not provide details about production plans.

Algeria, a longtime Russian ally, used Sputnik to launch its vaccination campaign last month.

But some doctors have complained that initial deliveries of 50,000 doses of Sputnik and 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine fall far short of need.

Algeria is also expecting deliveries of China’s vaccines and is eligible to receive vaccines through the COVAX global program for developing countries.

New infections in the country have stabilized in recent weeks, and the government slightly relaxed curfew rules last week to let hairdressers, gyms and some stores to reopen.

___

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— U.S. life expectancy drops by a year in pandemic, the most since World War II

— Crippling winter weather in U.S. hampers vaccine deliveries, distribution

— New York's governor faces mounting pressure over COVID deaths at nursing homes

— One Good Thing: When coronavirus lockdowns shut down classes in a youth prison, a Greek math teacher created a DIY TV channel that broadcasts lessons 24 hours a day

— Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

PORTLAND, Ore. — Multiple vaccination locations in the Portland area have been forced to close Friday and Saturday because of snowy and icy weather.

That means about 10,000 appointments must be rescheduled. In addition, COVID-19 shipments to the state have been delayed due to weather.

___

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Vaccine developer Novavax has agreed to provide 1.1 billion doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine for use in more than 190 low- and middle-income countries.

The company said Thursday it has reached agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to provide the doses to the COVAX Facility, a project led by Gavi, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

They’re working with groups including UNICEF, the World Bank and charities to guarantee equitable access to vaccines against the coronavirus to all countries.

Novavax Inc., of Gaithersburg, and the Serum Institute of India, a top maker of vaccines for poor countries, will manufacture and distribute the Novavax vaccine. It’s still in two late-stage studies, one in the U.S. and Mexico and the other in the UK.

Novavax said testing has found the shot works against the original COVID-19 strain and two variants first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa and now circulating widely.

___

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana will expand coronavirus vaccine access next week to another half-million people.

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Thursday that he’s allowing teachers, child care workers and older people with certain medical conditions to get the shots.

The full list of who will be newly eligible starting includes K-12 school teachers, administrators and support staff; employees at day care centers, early learning facilities and other sites that provide child care; pregnant women; and people age 55 to 64 who have one of a dozen preexisting conditions.

With those additions, more than 1.6 million of Louisiana’s 4.6 million residents will have access to the vaccine if they can get appointments.

___

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia's health department says the commonwealth is seeing delays in this week’s COVID-19 vaccine shipments because of severe winter weather.

Multiple vaccination events scheduled in the coming days have been postponed due to weather conditions in Virginia, parts of which were covered in sleet, ice and snow Thursday.

The department said that if additional events are canceled due to weather or shipment delays, providers will contact individuals about updated appointments.

It warned that additional delays could be possible for vaccine orders placed this week, also due to weather.

Virginia had been expecting about 120,000 doses this week.

___

NEW YORK — Drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech have begun a nine-country study of the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women.

The companies said Thursday that the first volunteers have received shots in the study, which is to enroll about 4,000 healthy pregnant women aged 18 and older.

Women in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mozambique, South Africa, Spain and the UK will be included.

Dr. William Gruber, Pfizer’s head of vaccine clinical research and development, said in a statement that “pregnant women have an increased risk of complications and developing severe COVID-19,” and “it is critical that we develop a vaccine that is safe and effective” for them.

The study will assess effects on the infants for about six months, checking for safety and whether they received potentially protective antibodies from their mothers.

___

CARSON CITY, Nevada — Health officials have confirmed the first known case in Nevada of a coronavirus variant that was first identified in South Africa.

The Nevada State Public Health Laboratory said Thursday that the mutated version of the virus was confirmed a day earlier in a sample traced to a person who traveled from South Africa and began showing symptoms of COVID-19 after arriving in Reno.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the variant has been detected in 10 states thus far, not including Nevada’s case.

___

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia’s government has failed to agree on a plan to acquire Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to speed up the vaccination program in one of the hardest-hit European Union nations.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic says one of the four partners in his coalition government, the center-right For People party, vetoed such a move on Thursday.

Matovic says the plan called for Slovakia to receive 160,000 doses of Sputnik V next week.

___

MADRID — Spanish health authorities say they expect the curve of coronavirus contagion to continue flattening after the two-week incidence rate dropped Thursday to 320 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, from a peak of nearly 900 at the end of January.

Spain has logged 3.1 million confirmed virus cases overall and more than 66,000 deaths, including 14,515 new cases and 388 new fatalities in the previous 24 hours.

Fernando Simón, who heads the country's pandemic response, says authorities estimate that a new variant first detected in Britain makes up 20% to 25% of all new cases.

He says “that reflects the expected progression according to what we are seeing in other countries.”

___

PARIS — France's health minister says the coronavirus variant dominant in Britain accounts for about 36% of infections in his country and a majority of cases in some areas, and other variants account for 5% of new cases.

Olivier Veran tells reporters that as a result, the government will extend its recommended quarantine period for people who test positive from seven days to 10 days.

He said Thursday that the growing proportion of more contagious variants may be why France’s 12-hour-a-day curfew and other restrictions aren’t bringing overall infections and hospitalizations down.

“We need to hang on together. We need to get out of the danger zone,” Veran said. “It’s not the time to relax our efforts, it’s not over.”

___

NEW YORK — Carnegie Hall will miss an entire season for the first time in its 130-year history.

The storied Manhattan concert venue has canceled performances from April 6 through July, extending a closure that started last March 13 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Carnegie hopes to reopen in October for its 2021-22 season.

The pandemic also caused the Metropolitan Opera to miss a season for the first time, and Broadway theaters have been closed since March. The arts shutdowns have contributed to a major hit to New York City’s economy.

___

ROME — Officials have postponed a main event commemorating the first anniversary of the start of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak after clusters of new infections traced to the variant first detected in Britain forced localized lockdowns in hardest-hit Lombardy and around the country.

Brescia’s public hospital, which was overwhelmed during the initial outbreak, had planned a daylong conference Saturday on lessons learned from the pandemic. It was to feature the intensive care doctor who diagnosed Italy’s first locally transmitted case, as well as the opening of a commemorative art exhibit dedicated to health care workers worldwide.

But the hospital announced Thursday that it was postponing the event “considering the rapid evolution of the epidemiological situation.”

___

BOSTON — With delivery of COVID-19 vaccines earmarked for Massachusetts being disrupted by winter storms, Gov. Charlie Baker says he would consider sending the National Guard to southern states to collect shipments.

The Republican governor says the state “may have some real issues with supply delivery this week,” and “we have been told it would be a few days late, based on some of the issues around weather in other parts of the country.”

Baker says he needs to make sure the federal government would allow Guard troops to be used this way.

___

LONDON — A major study suggests coronavirus infection rates in London have plunged by 80% in the past month as lockdown measures curb the spread of the virus.

Imperial College London researchers tested 85,000 people across England Feb. 4-13. The study found that about 1 in 200 people were infected, a drop of two-thirds from the month before.

The decline varied across the country and was steepest in London, where a new and more contagious strain of the virus was identified late last year. In January an estimated 1 in 30 people in London had the virus. That has now fallen to about 1 in 185.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the decline is “encouraging … but we must not drop our guard.”

Britain has recorded more than 118,000 deaths from the coronavirus and is in lockdown as a mass vaccination program pushes ahead at the fastest rate in Europe. So far some 16 million people have received a first dose, about a quarter of the population.

___

ROME — The Vatican is taking Pope Francis’ pro-vaccine stance very seriously: Any employee of the Holy See who refuses to get a coronavirus shot without a valid medical reason risks being fired.

A Feb. 8 decree signed by the governor of the Vatican City State sparked heated debate Thursday, since its provisions go well beyond the generally voluntary nature of COVID-19 vaccinations in Italy and much of the rest of the world.

The decree cited the need to protect employees, as well as guidelines by Francis’ own COVID-19 commission of advisers who said there is a moral obligation since “refusing a vaccine can constitute a risk for others.”

The Vatican employes about 5,000 people and operates independently of Italian law and Italian labor protections. Francis has received the vaccine.

___

PHOENIX — Arizona has reported 1,143 new COVID-19 cases and 213 deaths, as bad weather delays vaccination deliveries in some areas causing cancellations and rescheduling of some appointments.

The latest figures released by the Department of Health Services on Thursday increased Arizona’s pandemic totals to 802,198 cases and 15,276 deaths.

Arizona continues to see declines in hospitalizations and seven-day rolling averages of confirmed cases and deaths.

___

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week to 861,000, evidence that layoffs remain painfully high despite a steady drop in confirmed viral infections.

Applications from laid-off workers rose 13,000 from the previous week, which was revised sharply higher, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Before the virus erupted in the United States last March, weekly applications for unemployment benefits had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

___

GENEVA — The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago is calling on the World Health Organization to convene an “international convention of the world’s people’s representatives” to commit to the fair sharing of coronavirus vaccines.

Keith Rowley said Thursday that small nations in the Caribbean and elsewhere have made “huge sacrifices in an endeavor to protect our populations from the worst ravages of the virus” and global leaders should make vaccines available to people everywhere, “not just the privileged, well-heeled few.”

To date, 75% of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in just 10 countries and nearly 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose.

___

BERLIN — Germany’s top security official says about a fifth of the people checked at the Czech and Austrian borders since the introduction of strict controls have been turned back.

Germany implemented the border restrictions in a bid to reduce the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants.

It is limiting entry to citizens and residents of Germany, truck drivers, transport and health service workers and a few others including cross-border commuters working in “systemically relevant sectors.” All have to show a negative coronavirus test.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said during a visit to the Czech border Thursday that 50,000 checks have been conducted so far and 10,000 of them resulted in people being turned back.