KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

Pos   /   Country   /   New Daily cases   /   Total Deaths   /        Daily Deaths /           Active Cases   /           Deaths/1M Pop.

               World    16,23,824            /             59,24,051            /             8,658     /             6,61,46,100               /             760

1             USA        61,863   /             9,63,371              /             1,558     /             2,71,07,363        /               2,883

2             Germany              1,58,507              /             1,22,369              /             329        /               37,19,193            /             1,453

3             Russia    1,35,172              /             3,47,031              /             796        /             26,53,872               /             2,376

4             France   97,382   /             1,37,276              /             285        /             25,23,803            /               2,095

5             Netherlands        34,665   /             21,507   /             18           /             22,08,950            /               1,251

6             Brazil     1,01,285              /             6,45,534              /             839        /             22,00,358               /             3,002

7             Spain     22,194   /             98,635   /             173        /             19,04,563            /               2,108

8             UK          41,130   /             1,60,815              /             205        /             16,16,123            /               2,349

9             Italy       60,029   /             1,53,512              /             322        /             12,91,793            /               2,545

10           S. Korea               99,550   /             7,508     /             58           /             12,13,335            /               146

11           Norway 17,749   /             1,549     /                            /             10,78,536            /             282

12           Chile      18,380   /             41,526   /             35           /             9,30,503              /               2,142

13           Japan     55,903   /             22,000   /             179        /             8,19,855              /             175

14           Belgium               5,984     /             30,015   /             30           /             8,14,878              /               2,571

15           Switzerland         12,572   /             13,171   /             1             /             7,41,681              /               1,504

16           Turkey   86,070   /             92,990   /             271        /             7,28,692              /               1,083

17           Ukraine 24,440   /             1,04,932              /             287        /             6,68,240              /               2,423

18           Finland  2,746     /             2,329     /                            /             5,77,134              /             419

19           Indonesia            57,491   /             1,46,798              /             257        /             5,49,431               /             528

20           Vietnam               55,879   /             39,682   /             77           /             5,45,759              /               402

39           India      15,102   /             5,12,622              /             239        /             1,64,522              /               366

46           Bangladesh         1,595     /             28,990   /             16           /             1,36,232              /               173

62           Pakistan               961        /             30,053   /             13           /             66,227   /             132

66           Philippines           1,019     /             55,776   /             13           /             56,668   /             498

101        Sri Lanka              1,254     /             16,055   /             31           /             15,916   /             745

RUSSIA FACES SANCTIONS AFTER PUTIN MOVE

Russia faced the prospect of harsh new sanctions on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered the deployment of troops there, deepening Western fears of a major war in Europe.

Ukraine said two soldiers had been killed and 12 wounded in shelling by pro-Russian separatists in the east in the past 24 hours and reported new hostilities on Tuesday morning.

A military convoy of more than 100 trucks with soldiers was seen heading in the direction of the Ukrainian border in Russia’s Belgorod region, a witness told Reuters on Tuesday.

"This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine," U.S. President Joe Biden said, referring to Putin's declared plans to send troops deep into the Donbas region in southeast Ukraine.

"He's setting up a rationale to take more territory by force," Biden said in a nationwide address from the White House.

"And if we listened to his speech last night... he's setting up a rationale to go much further," Biden said.

The United States will impose its “first tranche" of sanctions on Russia in response to what Biden said was the beginning of an invasion of Ukraine.

Biden signed an executive order prohibiting "new investment" by Americans, wherever they are located, and the "importation into the United States, directly or indirectly, of any goods, services, or technology from the covered regions."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country may break off diplomatic relations with Moscow.

Several countries around the world readied themselves to issue sanctions against Russia.

Britain on Tuesday imposed sanctions against five banks and three individuals — Gennady Timchenko and two other billionaires with close links to Putin.

Germany on Tuesday halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany, after Russia formally recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was necessary to “send a clear signal to Moscow that such actions won’t remain without consequences.”

The EU agreed to impose new sanctions that will blacklist more politicians, lawmakers and officials, ban EU investors from trading in Russian State bonds, and target imports and exports with separatist entities.

Canada also announced sanctions that include banning Canadians from all financial dealings with the breakaway states known as Luhansk and Donetsk. Canadians also will be barred from purchasing Russian sovereign debt and dealing with two state-backed Russian banks. Moreover, Ottawa will also sanction members of the Russian parliament who voted to recognize the separatist regions.

Australia's sanctions will target banks, transport, energy, oil, gas and telecommunications.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has announced sanctions against Russia that it will suspend the issuance of visas and freeze the assets of individuals linked to the pro-Russian regions. He said a trade ban will also be imposed.

EXPLAINED: UKRAINE'S SEPARATIST REGIONS

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognised the independence of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine - Donetsk, and Lugansk.

The two self-proclaimed rebel republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose independence Moscow recognised on Monday, are situated in the rust belt in eastern Ukraine. They are collectively part of the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine.

Donbass is an industrial hub based around mining. Donetsk is the main city in the mining basin of Donbass. Lugansk, the former Voroshilovgrad, is also an industrial city of 1.5 million inhabitants. Russian-backed separatists have controlled Donetsk and Luhansk enclaves since 2014 following Moscow's annexation of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin's recognition of the separatist republics effectively buries a fragile 2015 peace plan for the conflict and opens the door for direct Russian military involvement. The boundary between separatist-held areas and Ukrainian forces is called the 'Line of Contact'. Each of the two republics is seeking full autonomy from the central government and has their self-proclaimed presidents. Donbass is also at the heart of a cultural battle between Kyiv and Moscow, which says that the region, a large part of eastern Ukraine, region, is Russian speaking and needs to be protected from Ukrainian nationalism.

OMICRON VARIANT NO MORE SEVERE THAN ORIGINAL STRAIN: WHO

The BA.2 variant of the Omicron coronavirus strain is not more severe than the original, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Based on a sample of people from various countries, "we are not seeing a difference in severity of BA.1 compared to BA.2," Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior WHO official, said in an online question and answer session.

"So this is a similar level of severity as it relates to risk of hospitalisation. And this is really important, because in many countries they've had a substantial amount of circulation, both of BA.1 and BA.2," she said.

Van Kerkhove, who leads the technical side of the WHO's Covid-19 response team, was reporting the findings of a committee of experts tracking the evolution of the virus.

Their conclusions will come as a relief to countries such as Denmark, where the BA.2 variant of Omicron has circulated widely.

The WHO said in a statement that initial data suggests the new BA2 variant "appears inherently more transmissible than BA.1," and that further studies are ongoing to discover why this is the case.

"However the global circulation of all variants is reportedly declining," it added.

CANADA GOVERNMENT EXTENDS EMERGENCY POWERS

Canadian lawmakers voted on Monday night to extend the emergency powers that police can invoke to quell any potential restart of blockades by those opposed to Covid-19 restrictions.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 185 to 151 to affirm the powers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier that the powers were still needed despite police ending the occupation of the nation’s capital by truckers over the weekend and police ending border blockades before that.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said the protesters were going for the “lifeblood of this nation, which is trade with the United States”.

Trudeau noted there were some truckers just outside Ottawa who might be planning further blockades or occupations.

HONG KONG ORDERS MANDATORY COVID TEST FOR ALL RESIDENTS

Hong Kong will test its entire population of 7.5 million people for Covid-19 in March, the city’s leader said on Tuesday, as it grapples with its worst outbreak driven by the omicron variant.

The population will be tested three times in March, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. She said testing capacity would be boosted to 1 million a day or more. “Since we have a population of some 7 million people, testing will take about seven days,” she said.

Hong Kong has reported about 5,000 new daily infections since February 15, with the cases threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system.

COLOMBIA COURT LEGALISES ABORTION UP TO 24 WEEKS

Having an abortion is no longer a crime under Colombian law, the country’s top court ruled on Monday, in a decision that paves the way for the procedure to become widely available across this historically conservative, Catholic country. The court’s decision decriminalises abortions in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and means that any woman should be able to seek the procedure from a health professional without fear of criminal prosecution. The ruling by Colombia’s constitutional court follows years of organising by women across Latin America for greater protections and more rights. Mexico’s SC decriminalised abortion in September and Argentina in 2020. It comes as the US has been moving in the opposite direction, with abortion restrictions multiplying across the country, and the SC considering a case that could overturn a 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion.

‘CHINA, RUSSIA ARMING MYANMAR JUNTA’

UN Security Council members China and Russia, as well as Serbia have continued supplying Myanmar’s junta with weapons used to attack civilians, a UN rights expert said on Tuesday.

UN Special Rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, urged the Security Council to convene an emergency session “to debate and vote on a resolution to, at a minimum, ban those arms transfers.”

“UNSC members Russia and China continue to provide the Myanmar military with fighter jets, armoured vehicles, and in the case of Russia, the promise of further arms,” he said.