1. Globally, cases crossed 9.8 crore with deaths passing 21 lakh as of Saturday morning.
2. With over 2.45 crore reported cases so far, the United States is the worst-affected country in the world. The US is followed by India, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom.
3. The U.K.’s new more contagious strain of coronavirus may be linked to higher mortality, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
4. The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday said it had reached an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and should be able to start delivering vaccines to poor and lower-middle income countries next month under its COVAX programme.
5. Hong Kong is locking down thousands of residents for the first time over the weekend in a bid to contain a worsening outbreak.
6. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state would on Friday run out of all the vaccines that had been delivered.
7. Sri Lanka’s health minister, who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to stop surging coronavirus infections in the island, has tested positive and will self-isolate, Reuters reports.
8. China on Saturday reported a slight increase in new cases of Covid-19 as it marks the anniversary of the world’s first coronavirus lockdown, in the city of Wuhan where the disease emerged in late 2019.
9. Thailand has reported 198 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total number of infections to 13,302 since the outbreak began last year, Reuters reports.
10. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 16,417 to 2,122,679, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.