Australia will now recognise the vaccine status of travellers who have received two doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, according to the country’s drug regulatory body on Monday. Currently, non-citizens entering the border need to be fully vaccinated. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it obtained more information showing Sputnik V provided “protection and…

YouTube confirmed it acted incorrectly when it removed a video of a speech by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) when he disparaged Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine rollout. “We sometimes make mistakes, and when flagged we work as quickly as possible to address it,” YouTube said in a statement to the Washington Times on Wednesday. The Epoch Times has…

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he would have to spend “a few days” in self-isolation after dozens of people in his entourage fell ill with COVID-19, the TASS news agency reported. Putin was speaking via a video link at a summit of a Russia-led security bloc being held in Tajikistan which he had…

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said China’s anti-COVID-19 vaccine did not fully work and questioned whether Russia’s Sputnik jab would ever get approval from European regulators. “The Chinese vaccine … has shown itself not to be adequate. You can see that from Chile’s experience of tackling the epidemic,” Draghi told reporters at the end of…

MOSCOW—Russia’s state statistical service says the number of deaths nationwide in the first three months of 2021 was more than 25 percent higher than the same period a year ago, and it reported thousands more deaths due to COVID-19 in March than tallied by the country’s coronavirus task force. More than 583,000 people died in…

PARIS—A French cabinet minister urged EU countries on Friday not to use the Russian or Chinese COVID-19 vaccines unless they are approved by the bloc’s medicines regulator, warning of a risk to the bloc’s unity and public health. After a fitful start to the European Union’s vaccination campaign which has left the bloc lagging other…

BUDAPEST—Restaurant workers were among hundreds of people protesting against coronavirus lockdown measures on Sunday in Budapest, and at least 100 restaurants planned to re-open even as the government threatened them with heavy fines. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has said it could only start easing the measures if the number of coronavirus cases falls sharply,…

MOSCOW—Russia’s president Vladimir Putin will receive the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state TV channel on Sunday. “He said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed,” the spokesman was quoted as saying to Rossiya 1 TV Channel on…

MOSCOW—Russia’s president Vladimir Putin will receive the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state TV channel on Sunday. “He said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed,” the spokesman was quoted as saying to Rossiya 1 TV Channel on…