More countries around the world continued to report detecting the mutated variant of the COVID-19 virus.
Health authorities in India announced that they discovered six people who returned from Britain to be positive for the new and easily transmissible COVID-19 strain.
The Japanese government also said they detected a COVID-19 variant found in South Africa. Indonesia announced that it closed its doors to international visitors for two weeks to prevent the entry of the more contagious variant, while the Philippine government also announced it will ban travelers from 19 countries and territories from entering the country until the middle of January 2021.
South Korea also announced a fresh financial support package for small businesses in the country, including those vulnerable to unemployment because of the COVID-19, totaling 9.3 trillion Won (US$8.49 billion).
In Europe, the UK’s London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has reportedly said in a study that the country needs to vaccinate at least 2 million people weekly to avoid a third wave of the outbreak.
In Germany, on the other hand, their vaccination efforts were hit by a snag because of a reported overdose incident in the north, including transport issues of the vaccine in the south.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the EU Commission said that the distribution of an initial 200 million doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine across the EU will be completed by September.