* China carried out about 6.7 million vaccinations against COVID-19 on May 9, bringing the total number administered to 324.31 million, according to data released by the National Health Commission on Monday.
* India will recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system, the defence ministry said on Sunday, as the country grapples with record COVID-19 infections and deaths amid calls for a complete nationwide lockdown.
* Laos recorded its first death from coronavirus on Sunday, losing its place among the few countries yet to suffer a fatality, state media said.
* Nearly 1.7 million people from the Cuban capital Havana will receive doses of the homegrown COVID-19 vaccine candidates as part of an intervention study starting on Wednesday, according to local newspaper Tribuna de La Habana.
* The United States has undercounted the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, Anthony Fauci, top US infectious disease expert, said on Sunday. The United States reported a total of 32,707,359 cases with 581,752 deaths as of Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
* Germany is lifting the prioritisation for giving Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday, adding that any adult who wants it will be able to receive the shot on a doctor's advice.
* Israeli police and Palestinian worshipers clashed inside a flashpoint at a Jerusalem holy site on Monday morning, leaving at least dozens of Palestinians injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
* Stocks rose amid speculation that interest rates will remain low due to receding inflationary pressure, while oil and gas prices jumped after a cyber attack on a US pipeline operator unnerved markets.
* US President Joe Biden will join a virtual summit of eastern European NATO states held in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Monday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said, with a focus on security in the Black Sea region and Ukraine.
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has invited the leaders of the devolved nations to a summit on how "Team UK" can recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported Sunday.
* The French government has contributed EUR1 million (US$1.2 million) towards supporting the activities of the Trust Fund for Syria Missions at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said the OPCW on Monday.
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was opposed to waiving patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines as this could jeopardise the quality of shots against the disease.
* The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday said that some 600 illegal migrants have been rescued off Libya's western coast.
* The European Union has not made any new orders for AstraZeneca vaccines beyond June when their contract ends, European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said, after the EU signed a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech.
* Time is of the essence in the Vienna negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, adding talks were lengthy but conducted in a good atmosphere.
* Delicate negotiations are going on between the British government, European soccer's governing body UEFA and others about where the Champions League final should be played, senior British minister Michael Gove said on Sunday.
* Europe's medicines regulator is reviewing reports of a rare nerve-degenerating disorder in people who received AstraZeneca's shots, raising fresh questions about potential side effects of the vaccine.
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out on Monday the next phase of lockdown easing in England, giving the green light to "cautious hugging" and allowing pubs to serve customers pints inside after months of strict measures.
* Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) will ramp up COVID-19 vaccination as a mass vaccination center opened on Monday. Residents aged 40 to 49 can register interest for Pfizer vaccine from Monday afternoon, while people aged 50 and over can make an appointment for the AstraZeneca vaccine from Wednesday.
* The United Arab Emirates will bar entry for travelers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka starting Wednesday, as part of measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority said on its website on Monday.
* South Africa's health ministry said it had detected the first four cases of a new coronavirus variant that emerged in India and was responsible for a surge of infections and deaths in the Asian country.
