Another mutated version of the coronavirus has popped up in New York City, and experts reacted to the the news with a mixture of caution and concern.

The new variant first appeared in the New York area in late November, and has since cropped up in neighboring states, according to researchers at the California Institute of Technology, one of two teams to share their work this week.

Violet light bathed the club stage as 300 people, masked and socially distanced, erupted in gentle applause. For the first time since the pandemic began, Israeli musician Aviv Geffen stepped to his electric piano and began to play for an audience seated right in front of him.

"A miracle is happening here tonight," Geffen told the crowd.

South Korea administered its first available shots of coronavirus vaccines to people at long-term care facilities Friday, launching a mass immunization campaign that health authorities hope will restore some level of normalcy by the end of the year.

The rollout of vaccines come at a critical time for the country, which has seen its hard-won gains against the virus get wiped out by a winter surge and is struggling to mitigate the pandemic's economic shock that decimated service sector jobs.

EU leaders warned Thursday that tight restrictions on non-essential travel must remain in place as the bloc ramps up vaccine supplies and faces the threat of new coronavirus variants.  

EU chief Charles Michel admitted Thursday that Europe's coronavirus vaccine rollout could continue to struggle for momentum in the coming weeks before picking up speed.

Britain asked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to vote on a resolution on Covid vaccination in countries enduring conflict or poverty, diplomats said.

Israel's defense minister on Thursday called for an immediate halt in plans to ship surplus coronavirus vaccines to a group of allied nations, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of acting without oversight or transparency.

Syria's health minister on Thursday said his government procured coronavirus vaccines from a friendly country which he declined to name, adding that frontline health workers would be the first to be inoculated starting next week.

It was not clear why Hassan Ghabbash declined to name the country that provided the vaccines. He spoke at a press conference where only reporters from local media outlets were invited.

EU leaders met Thursday under the specter of Europe's sluggish vaccine drive as Pfizer said its Covid jab proved 94 percent effective, raising hopes for mass immunization campaigns to help end the pandemic.

A man in a navy suit grinned as he left an airbase in Guinea's capital Conakry on Wednesday after being vaccinated for Ebola, one of the first to receive the jab since the deadly disease re-emerged in the West African country.