Pfizer and BioNTech, makers of a Covid-19 vaccine, said on Thursday that their product is effective against coronavirus variants that have emerged in Britain and South Africa.

World Health Organization experts emerged from quarantine in China Thursday to begin a long-awaited investigation into the origins of the devastating coronavirus pandemic, which has shown no signs of slowing down.

The United States wants a "robust and clear" international probe into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in China, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

Lebanon on Wednesday launched its Covid-19 vaccination plan, announcing that it is seeking to inoculate 80% of its residents in 2021.

British citizens returning home from roughly 30 countries deemed at "high risk" from new coronavirus variants could soon have to quarantine in hotels, reports said on Wednesday.

The announcement that the coronavirus strain sweeping Britain could be more deadly as well as more transmissible has raised fresh concerns about the variant that has spread to dozens of countries.   

More than 100 million Covid-19 cases have now been recorded worldwide, according to an AFP tally on Tuesday, as newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden pledged to ramp up the United States's struggling vaccine program.

Germany's health ministry on Tuesday joined AstraZeneca in rubbishing reports quoting unnamed government sources that claimed the British-Swedish company's Covid-19 vaccine showed little efficacy for people above 65.

Mexico's coronavirus death toll has surpassed 150,000, the government said Monday, a day after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced he had Covid-19.

New Zealand's borders are likely to remain closed for much of the year as health officials assess global vaccine rollouts, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned Tuesday.