EU leaders will grapple Thursday with the threat of new coronavirus variants as wary countries push for a closure of Europe's internal borders to stop the spread.

New US President Joe Biden warned the worst of the pandemic is still to come, as the number of American coronavirus deaths surpassed the country's troop fatalities in World War II.

US President Joe Biden was expected Thursday to unveil his administration's plans to tackle the coronavirus crisis, as he starts his first full day in the White House with America confronting a slew of challenges.

The World Bank announced Thursday it will put $34 million into a program to provide coronavirus vaccines for more than two million people in Lebanon, which is experiencing a major surge in Covid-19 cases.

A coronavirus variant that emerged in England has swept through more than 60 nations including China, officials confirmed on Wednesday, as Joe Biden warned during his inauguration as U.S. president the deadliest phase of the contagion was yet to come.

The government of Dubai on Wednesday ordered all hospitals to cancel nonessential surgeries for the next month as coronavirus infections surge to unprecedented heights in the United Arab Emirates.

In a circular sent to government-run and private health centers across the emirate, Dubai's Health Authority announced that starting Thursday medical operations "may be allowed to continue only per medical urgency" as the city tries to keep its hospitals from becoming overrun.

Turkey has vaccinated more than one million people against the novel coronavirus in the first week of a national inoculation drive, according to health ministry figures issued Wednesday.

The UK coronavirus strain has been detected in at least 60 countries, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, 10 more than a week ago.

The race against the virus that causes COVID-19 has taken a new turn: Mutations are rapidly popping up, and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the more likely it is that a variant that can elude current tests, treatments and vaccines could emerge.

The coronavirus is becoming more genetically diverse, and health officials say the high rate of new cases is the main reason. Each new infection gives the virus a chance to mutate as it makes copies of itself, threatening to undo the progress made so far to control the pandemic.

Belgium on Monday prepared to fight the spread of the British variant of the coronavirus after outbreak reports in schools and retirement homes of the strain believed to be more infectious.