Hyderabad: The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 8,61,45,979 and killed over 18,61,559 people across the world. More than 6,11,05,194 people have recovered so far.
The US is the worst-hit nation with cases more than 2,13,53,051 and fatalities over 3,62,123.
US pharmaceutical company Moderna said it planned to produce at least 600 million doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 in 2021, not 500 million as previously announced.
"Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today provided a supply update for the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, increasing its base-case global production estimate from 500 to 600 million doses for 2021," the company said in a statement on its website.
"Moderna said it is continuing to invest and add staff to build up to potentially 1 billion doses for 2021," it said.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reimposed a lockdown in England on Monday as a more transmissible variant of Covid-19 fuels a surge in infections and hospitalizations across the country.
Johnson said, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic. In England alone, the number of COVID patients in hospitals has increased by nearly a third in the last week to almost 27,000 and that number is 40 per cent higher than the first peak in April.
Lebanon's Covid-19 ministerial committee has approved a 25-day lockdown set to start from Thursday until February 1 in an attempt to curb the spike in the number of new cases, which increased to an unprecedented level over the past few days.
All shops and restaurants will shut their doors down except for supermarkets and pharmacies, which will be allowed to remain open until 5 p.m.
Read: Moderna to make 600 million doses of Covid vaccine
