1. The global COVID-19 death toll surpassed 2.5 million on Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
2. The global death toll rose to 2,501,626, as of 12.24 p.m. local time, Xinhua reported citing CSSE. Countries with over 80,000 fatalities also include India, Britain, Italy, France, and Russia.
3. The US is the worst-hit nation with 28,348,259 cases and 506,500 deaths, accounting for more than 25 percent of the global caseload and more than 20 percent of the global death toll.
4. South Korea on Friday administered its first available shots of coronavirus vaccines to people at long-term care facilities, launching a mass immunization campaign that health authorities hope will restore some level of normalcy by the end of the year.
5. New Zealand has reported one new community case of Covid-19, though the infected person has been in quarantine since February 23.
6. Brazil recorded 249,957 deaths. Mexico replaced India to become the country with the world’s third-largest fatalities of 182,815.
7. India reported 16,577 new COVID-19 cases, 12,179 discharges and 120 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry.
8. Mainland China reported six new Covid cases had been identified on Thursday, down from seven cases a day earlier.
9. France will impose measures including weekend lockdowns in Paris and 19 other regions from the start of March if signs of the coronavirus accelerating persist, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday, The Guardian reported.
10. Bahrain became the first nation to authorise Johnson & Johnson’s new single-dose coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, the government announced.