* Over 1.07 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in China as of Tuesday, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.
* Brazil has recorded over 18 million COVID-19 cases, including 87,822 infections in the past 24 hours, for a total of 18,054,653 positive cases, the Ministry of Health reported Tuesday. Meanwhile, 2,131 more deaths from COVID-19 were reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 504,717, said the ministry.
* India declared a new coronavirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases were detected in three states, while AstraZeneca's vaccine was found to be effective against Delta and Kappa variants first identified in the country.
* The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Biden's goal to deliver at least one vaccine to 70% of adults by July 4, with officials warning the Delta variant poses the greatest threat to US eradication efforts.
* Russia on Wednesday reported 548 coronavirus-related deaths, the most confirmed in a single day since February, amid a surge in new cases that authorities have blamed on the new Delta variant.
* Cambodia Wednesday reported a record high of 587 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national caseload to 44,711, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement. The new infections included 533 local cases and 54 imported cases, the MoH said.
* Thailand reported on Wednesday a new daily record of 51 COVID-19 fatalities, bringing total deaths to 1,744 since the pandemic started last year.
* Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades partially reshuffled his cabinet on Tuesday, replacing two ministers, the government's spokesman and deputy spokesman, and appointing a deputy minister, government spokesman Kyriakos Koushos announced.
* Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed the US central bank's intent to encourage a recovery of the job market, and not to raise interest rates too quickly based only on the fear of coming inflation.
* Sweden's economy will grow substantially faster than previously expected this year, as it bounces back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said on Wednesday. The government said gross domestic product would expand 4.7% in 2021 against 3.2% growth predicted in the previous forecast, made in April.
* The Hungarian central bank has become the first in the European Union to launch a cycle of rate hikes to combat growing price pressures in the aftermath of the pandemic.
* The European Union will take up an option under a supply contract with drugmaker Moderna that allows the bloc to order 150 million additional vaccines.
* UEFA has no plans to replace Wembley as host stadium of the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final, both of which will see crowd capacity increased to more than 60,000 fans.
* Novartis aims to help manufacture more than 50 million doses of BioNTech's vaccine in 2021 at its Stein, Switzerland fill-and-finish facility.
* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,016 to 3,723,798, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by 51 to 90,523, the tally showed.
* Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Tuesday appealed to young people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which he pointed out as the "great bet at this time" to contain the pandemic.
* Unlike many other countries that have started to vaccinate people from the age of 12, the Swedish Public Health Agency announced on Tuesday that it has decided to vaccinate the 16-17 year olds, not below, against COVID-19.
* As of next week, Italy is preparing to lift the outdoor face mask mandate as the country's main COVID-19 indicators appear to have stabilized.
* Turkey has kicked off Phase III trials for its vaccine, named "Turkovac" by President Tayyip Erdogan who said the shot should be available for use by the end of the year.
* Uganda on Tuesday announced the closure of parliament for two weeks as a virulent second wave of COVID-19 continues to devastate the country.
* Nigeria's president has asked parliament to approve NGN895.8 billion (US$2.18 billion) as extra budgetary provision to fund the purchase of vaccines.
* Zimbabwe expects to receive 2.5 million vaccines from China by the end of this month as it seeks to boost its inoculation drive after several centres ran out of doses.
