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 UK calls for conflict zone ceasefires to roll out vaccines
Britain will on Wednesday call for a United Nations resolution to
help negotiate ceasefires so that people in conflict zones can be
vaccinated against COVID-19, saying member states have a moral duty
to protect the vulnerable.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will chair a virtual meeting of the
U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to discuss the threat facing the
more than 160 million people living in areas of instability and
conflict, such as Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Victoria state to end snap lockdown, allow fans at Australian Open
A five-day snap lockdown in Australia's Victoria state will end on
Wednesday, officials said as they reported no new cases in a cluster
linked to a quarantine hotel in the city of Melbourne. State Premier
Daniel Andrews said most mobility restrictions will be lifted at
midnight, but masks will remain mandatory both indoors and outdoors
when social distancing rules cannot be followed.
The lifting of restrictions will allow at least some spectators at
the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, where players
have competed in empty stadiums during the lockdown.
Japan kicks off vaccination, amid heightened Olympic fears
Japan launched its COVID-19 inoculation drive on Wednesday,
administering the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine to Tokyo hospital workers,
as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attempts to defy the odds and host
the Olympics this summer.
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 Separately, the governor of
Japan's Shimane prefecture said on Wednesday the
Olympics torch relay should be reconsidered,
adding he was against the Games being held and
worried about coronavirus infections.
NZ reports 2 new local coronavirus cases, will
lift lockdown
New Zealand will lift a COVID-19 lockdown in its
largest city of Auckland and ease restrictions
in the rest of the country from midnight on
Wednesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said,
even though two new locally transmitted cases
have been identified. Auckland's
nearly 2 million residents were plunged into a snap three-day
lockdown on Monday, after a more contagious COVID-19 variant that
first emerged in Britain was detected in a family of three - two
adults and a child. The two latest cases are siblings studying at
the same school as the child, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris
Hipkins told members of a health select committee.
UK could give two doses of vaccine to all adults by Sept
The United Kingdom could give two doses of COVID-19 vaccine to all
adults by August or September, helped by its portfolio approach of
buying from several different producers, the interim head of the
country's vaccine taskforce told Sky News on Tuesday.
 Britain has vaccinated 15.6 million people with a first dose and
546,165 with a second dose, the fastest roll-out per capita of any
large country so far.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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