Overview: COVID-19 International brief developments

Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus The head of the World Health Organization-led team in Wuhan that is investigating the origins of COVID-19 said that cold chain transmission of the virus was a possibility and warranted further investigation. Reuters Staff U.S.

* Germany is planning to spend nearly 9 billion euros this year to buy up to 635.1 million COVID-19 vaccines as part of the European Union’s procurement scheme and national deals.

* Hungary will start vaccinating people suffering no chronic diseases with Russia’s Sputnik vaccine soon, the surgeon general said, becoming the first European Union country to use it.

* Ukraine’s plan to roll out a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine from next month faces possible delay because of regulatory hold-ups, according to a letter written by the importer, in a further risk to the country’s slow-moving vaccination programme.

* Britain is looking at expanded testing of people who have arrived from abroad while they are self-isolating to defend against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

* Spain’s government announced it had extended controls along its border with Portugal until March 1.

* India’s government has ordered 10 million more doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India.

* South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called on restaurant and other business owners in the greater Seoul area to cooperate with social distancing rules to head off a spread of COVID-19 during the Lunar New Year holiday.

* Fewer than 3% of COVID-19 deaths in Israel over the past month were people who had been vaccinated against the disease, the prime minister said, as his government attempted to boost turnout for the Pfizer shots.

* Iran launched a vaccination drive, focussing initially on hospital intensive care personnel, as the hardest-hit country in the Middle East awaits enough vaccines for its general population.

* Ethiopia has secured nine million doses of COVID-19 vaccines up until April and hopes to inoculate at least a fifth of its 110 million people by the end of the year, the health minister said.

* Russia’s Sputnik-V has become the third COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by Pakistan for emergency use, the country’s health minister said. ...

ALSO SEE:   Associated Press International and US roundup.