January 17 coronavirus news

According to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the United States, there have been at least 23,754,315 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 395,785 deaths.

On Saturday, Johns Hopkins reported 198,218 new cases and 3,286 new deaths. 

At least 31,161,075 vaccine doses have been distributed and at least 12,279,180 doses of the vaccine have been administered, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Friday, the CDC said new more contagious variants of the coronavirus will likely accelerate the spread of the virus and that means the US must double down on efforts to protect people.

A variant first identified in Britain known as B.1.1.7 is now being found in the US too, and modeling indicates it could worsen the already terrible spread of the virus across the country, the CDC researchers said.

That means people need to try harder to wear masks, avoid gatherings and stay socially distant from one another.

Los Angeles has become the first US county to report more than 1 million coronavirus cases, according to state officials.

Some 14,669 new cases were added Saturday taking the county's total to 1,003,923 cases and 13,741 confirmed virus-related deaths -- 253 reported on Saturday, Los Angeles County's Department of Public Health said in a news release.

The department also announced its first confirmed case of the UK Covid-19 B.1.1.7 variant Saturday, in a male who had traveled to L.A. County but is now isolating in Oregon.

The health department said it believed the more contagious UK variant was likely already spreading in the community and urged residents to "more diligently" follow safety measures.

The United Kingdom has vaccinated around 45% of people aged 80 and over, and is urging those who have been offered a vaccine to come forward as soon as possible, the country's Department of Health said Sunday.

The announcement comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday that there are now more than 37,000 Covid-19 patients in hospital across the UK. He said over 3.2 million people have been vaccinated.

The UK government is calling on the public to urge their family and friends aged 80 and over to get the Covid-19 vaccine to which they are now entitled.  

Hancock also called on people to sign up volunteer in the community and in clinical trials for vaccines and Covid-19 treatments, as the National Health Service – particularly in London – struggles with a surge in hospitalizations. 

The UK government aims to vaccinate the following four groups by February 15: those over the age of 70, care home residents and staff, NHS workers and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.

The United Kingdom will host this year’s G7 summit in Cornwall, in the country's southwest, Downing Street announced on Saturday.  

The annual summit will be held in the seaside village of Carbis Bay from June 11 to 13.

As well as the other G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA), leaders from Australia, India and South Korea have been invited to attend as guest countries “to deepen the expertise and experience around the table. Between them the 10 leaders represent over 60% of the people living in democracies around the world,” Downing Street said. 

During February, the UK will assume the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council, and later this year it will host COP26 in Glasgow. 

Brazil's health regulator has denied a request for the emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, saying it needs to see more data. 

In a statement published late Saturday, the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), said the request for emergency use by the pharmaceutical company Uniao Química was denied because it does not yet have data from Phase lll clinical trials.  

Uniao Química, in partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), filed a request for the emergency use of 10 million doses of the vaccine on Friday. As part of the partnership with União Química, RDIF said it "actively facilitated the transfer of technology to launch the production of Sputnik V in Brazil," according to a statement from RDIF on Friday. The collaboration included providing documents and biomaterials to the Brazilian company and local production of Sputnik V in Brazil began earlier this month. 

Anvisa explained that it is yet to grant authorization for Phase III trials of Sputnik V to Uniao Química, which is to run the trials, because the company had not responded to its requests for the appropriate documentation. 

"The documents (requesting emergency authorization) were sent back to the company after not meeting the minimum criteria, especially due to the lack of authorization for conducting Phase III clinical trials, a standard request, and issues relating to good manufacturing practices," said Anvisa.

Sputnik V has been approved under emergency use authorization procedure in a number of Latin America countries, including Argentina and Bolivia

CNN has reached out to Uniao Química and RDIF for comment. 

Brazil is yet to approve any vaccine for use against Covid-19.