Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:
- Coronavirus 'will remain' -The world should be prepared for the coronavirus to continue to circulate long-term despite the roll-out of vaccines, the head of the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says.
"It seems very well adapted to humans. So we should be prepared that it will remain with us," Andrea Ammon tells AFP. "It wouldn't be the first virus that is with us forever, so it's not an unusual feature for a virus."
- Origins hypotheses open -The head of the World Health Organisation says all hypotheses on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic remain on the table, following an investigation in China.
The WHO's mission to Wuhan, where the first cases were identified, failed to identify the source of the virus, but dismissed the theory that it leaked from the city's virology laboratory.
- Britain approaches vaccines target -Britain closes in on a mid-February target to offer coronavirus vaccinations to 15 million of its most vulnerable people, raising hopes that its lockdown can be eased.
More than 13.5 million people have been given a jab since the world-first immunisation programme began in early December.
- Record shrinkage -Britain's economy shrank by a record 9.9 percent last year on the fallout from the pandemic.
- One dose for recovered -France becomes the first country to recommend that people who have already recovered from Covid-19 receive a single vaccine dose.
- Australia snap lockdown -Authorities order a snap five-day lockdown in Melbourne to contain an outbreak, but the Australian Open tennis tournament continues with players competing in a biosecure "bubble" without fans.
- Hungary first -Hungary becomes the first EU nation to start using Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, the country's chief medical officer says.
- Italy tightens curbs -Italy extends a domestic travel ban until 25 February and tightens restrictions in four regions amid rising concern about the spread of more infectious coronavirus variants.
- EU looks at CureVac -The European Union's medicines regulator starts a "rolling review" of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by German firm CureVac, the first step towards a possible authorisation in the bloc.
- S.African variant case -Doctors in France treat a critically ill patient infected with the South African coronavirus variant, four months after he recovered from Covid-19, in what study authors say is the first case of its kind.
- Algerian president back home -Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune returns to Algiers after a one-month stay in Germany where he underwent surgery following post-Covid-19 complications in his foot, state television said.
- Infection rate slows by nearly half -The rate of new Covid-19 infections has slowed by nearly half - or 44.5 percent - over the past month, according to a specialised AFP database.
The virus has killed at least 368 493 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Friday.
The US is the worst-affected country with 475 449 deaths followed by Brazil with 236 201, Mexico with 171 234, India with 155 360 and the UK with 115 529.
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