3 January 2021

• The US surpasses 350,000 deaths from COVID-19 as it reports nearly 300,000 daily cases. Source
• Viet Nam reports its first case of the coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 in a woman returning from Britain. Source
• Tokyo’s Governor, Yuriko Koike, asked Japan’s central government to declare a national state of emergency for the first time since April after a week of record-breaking daily coronavirus cases.Source
• Israel has the world’s highest coronavirus inoculation rate, having given the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to 10% of its population – over one million people. Sources 1,2
• Indonesia’s Ministry of Health announces plans to vaccinate 181.5 million people – at no charge – by March 2022, beginning in January, pending national regulatory approval of Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine. Source
• Eswatini’s acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, announced that the country has allocated 200 million emalangeni ($13.6 million) to purchase coronavirus vaccines for its entire population; rollout is expected to begin during Q1 2021. Source
• South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country has limited options for purchasing coronavirus vaccines (beyond its arrangement through COVAX, which only covers 10 percent of its population) due to “prohibitive prices” for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and a lack of available vaccines from Moderna and AstraZeneca (who directed the country to negotiate with its licensee, India’s Serum Institute). The country is in negotiations with J & J, which is conducting a clinical trial there, and has an agreement with Aspen Pharmacare Holdings to produce 300 million doses per year. Sources 1,2
• Botswana announces that its evening curfew will continue until to 31 January, after the emergence of a new and more transmissible coronavirus strain. Source

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