Moderna and Sweden are donating vaccines to the COVAX Facility, and an African trial is investigating a combination of nitazoxanide and ciclesonide in people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

The World Health Organization has updated progress with evaluations of two Chinese vaccines and Russia's Sputnik V, the UK has ordered 60 million more Pfizer/BioNTech doses, and the European Medicines Agency is looking at the use of baricitinib in COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen.

The lack of availability of coronavirus vaccines in many less well off parts of the world is an open invitation to criminals seeking to sell falsified or substandard versions. Many instances of vaccine theft and diversion have also been found.

Amid a case of re-infection of a vaccinated healthcare worker in western China’s Xi’an city, and ongoing debate over domestic vaccines' efficacy, increasing attention is being paid in China to raising inoculation rates for COVID-19 and moving towards herd immunity.