A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 94.2 million people worldwide and killed over 2 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here's how the news developed this week. All times Eastern.
Jan 11, 2021, 10:42 AM EST
Palestinian health ministry approves Russian vaccine
Sputnik V, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Russia, has been registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Health for emergency use in Palestinian self-ruled territory, Russia's sovereign wealth fund announced Monday.
The first shipment of doses is expected to arrive next month, according to a press release from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is responsible for worldwide marketing of the vaccine.
A Palestinian health worker takes a swab sample from a woman to test for COVID-19 in the West Bank village of Dura, southwest of Hebron, on Jan. 8, 2021.
Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images
The RDIF didn't say how many doses would be shipped to the Palestinian Authority -- which governs parts of the West Bank under interim peace deals with Israel -- but that supplies would be facilitated by manufacturing partners in India, China, South Korea and other countries.
As of Jan. 5, the World Health Organization had recorded more than 157,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the occupied Palestinian territories, including at least 1,578 deaths.
ABC News' Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
Jan 11, 2021, 9:29 AM EST
Moderna vaccine doses arrive in France
More than 50,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. biotechnology company Moderna are expected to arrive in France on Monday, according to a statement from the country's health ministry.
France should have nearly 8 million doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of June, the health ministry said.
Last week, the European Medicines Agency authorized the Moderna vaccine for use across the European Union. Another COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was approved two weeks earlier. Both vaccines are administered in two doses.
Health care workers, who are over 50 years old, receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at an vaccination center in Sarcelles, near Paris, France, on Jan. 10, 2021.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
French Health Minister Olivier Veran told Europe 1 radio that the Moderna doses will then be sent to towns and cities with the highest virus circulation. The doses should reach vaccination centers by Wednesday, he said.
By the end of the weekend, Veran said, more than 100,000 people should have received a first dose of the vaccine.
France has faced criticism for a slow vaccine rollout compared to its EU neighbours.
ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.
Jan 11, 2021, 7:24 AM EST
Mexico detects 1st case of UK variant
A new, more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom has now been discovered in Mexico.
The strain, called B117, was confirmed in a 56-year-old foreign citizen who had traveled from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Dec. 28, and then to the northeastern city of Matamoros the following day. The individual was asymptomatic when he arrived in the country, according to Mexico's director general of epidemiology, Jose Luis Alomia Zegarra.
After testing positive for COVID-19, the man was admitted to a Mexican hospital last week where he remains intubated, Zegarra said.
Humberto Xoyatla, a paramedic of the Mexican Red Cross, is sanitized after transporting a COVID-19 patient to the emergency room in Toluca, Mexico, on Jan. 8, 2021.
Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images
Genomic sequencing of the patient's sample that tested positive for COVID-19 revealed its B117 lineage. More than 500 suspected cases of the U.K. variant have been tested in Mexico, but this is the country's first verified case, according to Zegarra.
Mexican health authorities are tracking contacts of the patient, including people who traveled on the same flight. Two individuals who showed symptoms have since tested negative for COVID-19, while another 31 are asymptomatic and remain in isolation. Officials have been unable to locate 12 others, Zegarra said.
The highly contagious strain has become prevalent in London and other parts of southeast England, after first being identified in the English county of Kent in September. The B117 variant has since been detected in over a dozen other countries.
Jan 11, 2021, 6:40 AM EST
Seychelles becomes 1st African nation to roll out COVID-19 vaccine
Seychelles, an island nation of just under 100,000 people, has begun immunizing its population against COVID-19 with a vaccine developed by China’s state-owned pharmaceutical company, Sinopharm.
Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan became the first African head of state to receive the Sinopharm vaccine on Sunday, as the country officially launched a national COVID-19 immunization campaign -- the first in Africa to do so. The Seychelles Ministry of Health began administering the shot to priority groups on Monday, starting with health care professionals and other front-line workers, according to a press release from the president’s office.
Last month, China authorized Sinopharm's vaccine for general use after the company announced that preliminary data from late-stage trials had shown it to be 79.3% effective. The shot is administered in two doses.
Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan receives the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm at a hospital in the capital Victoria on Jan. 10, 2021.
Rassin Vannier/AFP via Getty Images
The United Arab Emirates donated 50,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Seychelles. India offered 100,000 doses of another COVID-19 vaccine developed by England’s University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which are due to arrive in Seychelles at the end of the month, according to the president's office.
“With such a robust vaccination campaign, Seychelles aims to be the first country in the world to vaccinate at least 70% of its over 18 population,” Ramkalawan said in a statement Sunday. “From there, we will be able to declare Seychelles as being COVID safe. This will allow us to reopen our economy.”
Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago located off the coast of East Africa, has reported 508 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least one death, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
