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* All health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against ‘no-vax’ sentiment.
* President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
* Belgian hospitals have been ordered to reserve 60% of their intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients as a third wave of infections takes hold, doctors said.
* European Union states are expected to receive 107 million doses of vaccines by the end of March, hitting a revised-down target but far below initial plans.
* Brazil has detected a new COVID-19 variant that is similar to the one first seen in South Africa, the head of Sao Paulo’s Butantan institute said.
* Brazil health regulator Anvisa said it approved emergency use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while it rejected a request from the government to import doses of Covaxin, citing a lack of safety data and documentation.
* Japan’s first doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine are coming from plants in the United States, not Europe as initially expected, the company said.
* South Korea said it will issue so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports to immunized citizens.
* Nigeria hopes to receive up to 70 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this year through the African Union, its primary healthcare chief told Reuters, amid concerns about delayed deliveries of AstraZeneca shots.
* Egypt received 854,400 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine as part of the global COVAX agreement, the health ministry said.
* Israel plans to administer the Pfizer vaccine to adolescents upon FDA approval, the health minister said. ...
