British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline and German biotech firm CureVac on Wednesday announced plans to jointly develop a coronavirus vaccine with the potential to counter multi-variants of Covid-19.

World Health Organization experts on Wednesday inspected a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan that some US officials said could have been the source of the coronavirus, as global vaccine hopes rose with strong results reported for Russia's Sputnik V jab.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday suspended entry from 20 countries, ranging from some neighboring states to the United States, in a bid to curb a jump in coronavirus infections.

The interior ministry announced the "temporary suspension" would be effective from 9.00 pm (1800 GMT) on Wednesday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that all of his countrymen who wanted a vaccine would be offered one "by the end of the summer."

The United States will begin to offer Covid-19 vaccines at pharmacies from February 11, part of efforts to rapidly increase the rate at which shots reach arms.

Human Rights Watch Tuesday urged support for aid groups to ensure "equitable" distribution of coronavirus vaccines across all of war-torn Syria, warning against any discriminatory approach by Damascus.

The World Health Organization mission probing the origins of Covid-19 in China was going "very well", one of its members said Tuesday, as the team visited an animal disease control centre in the city where the first cases were reported.

Chinese police have arrested more than 80 people who were making counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines, state media said, as China races to inoculate millions before the Lunar New Year holiday.

Dubai on Monday ordered bars to close until the end of the month to suppress a spike in coronavirus cases, after tourists flocked to the emirate over the holiday period.

The World Health Organization on Monday blasted critics of its investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and challenged those claiming to know better to come forward with the smoking gun.

A WHO investigative team is in Wuhan, China -- where the first cases were discovered in December 2019 -- trying to piece together how the virus jumped from animals to humans before going on to kill more than two million people.