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| - These are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: The World Health Organization gives emergency use approval to AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines, allowing distribution to some of the world's poorest countries to begin. The AstraZeneca shot will account for almost all the doses set to be shipped under Covax, an international programme designed to ensure that the world's poor do not miss out. Britain intends to seek a "cautious but irreversible" ending of its lockdown restrictions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson says. The announcement comes as the government introduces mandatory hotel quarantine rules for arrivals from dozens of countries deemed "high risk" for coronavirus variants. New Zealand's biggest city begins a snap three-day lockdown, forcing two million people to stay at home, as authorities scramble to contain the nation's first outbreak of the highly contagious UK variant. The European Commission urges better coordination between EU members, after Germany imposes border measures on Austria and the Czech Republic to stem the spread of the new variants and warns it might do the same with France. Iraq will re-impose partial lockdown measures until early March after detecting the UK strain of the coronavirus, including among children, its health minister announces. Children go back to school across South Africa after the continent's hardest-hit country emerges from a second wave of the virus. More than 177.6 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered around the world, according to an AFP count based on official sources on Monday at 1800 GMT. The Palestinian Authority pushes back the rollout of its coronavirus vaccination campaign due to a delay in deliveries. Jordan launches a Covid-19 vaccination drive in its huge Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees, in what a UN spokesman says is a world first. The virus has caused at least 2,400,543 deaths since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Monday. The United States is the worst-affected country with 485,337 deaths followed by Brazil with 239,245, Mexico with 174,207, India with 155,732 and Britain with 117,166. burs-eab-jmy/kjl
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