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| - Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: The European Union's drug regulator approves the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for use on all adults, as a row with the EU over supplies of the jab escalates. However Germany's vaccine commission maintains its advice against using the vaccine on over 65s, citing lack of data. The EU executive launches a scheme to monitor and in some cases reject exports of vaccines produced in EU plants amid its row with AstraZeneca over delays in deliveries. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) says it expects Johnson & Johnson to submit an application for its coronavirus vaccine "shortly", after the firm says its single-shot vaccine has an overall efficacy of 66 percent. Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis says it will help produce the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19, as countries scramble to boost supplies. People arriving in Canada will have to quarantine in hotels for at least three days under strict supervision and at their own expense, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces. Germany's government bans from Saturday to February 17 most travellers from countries hit by new coronavirus variants: Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Brazil, South Africa as well as the southern African kingdoms of Lesotho and Eswatini. EU member state ambassadors approve a new map of coronavirus danger zones across the 27-nation bloc, allowing authorities to impose stricter regional travel restrictions. Italy eases coronavirus restrictions in all but five of its regions, despite warnings from public health experts that such a move may be rash. Stock markets end their worst week since October with new losses, on fears of surging infections, slow vaccine rollouts and the weak economic backdrop. Mexico's economy, the second largest in Latin America, shrank 8.5 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Experts from the World Health Organization visit a Wuhan hospital as fieldwork begins in a closely watched probe that will take in a food market presumed to be "ground zero" of the pandemic. US oil giant Chevron lost $5.5 billion in 2020, concluding a rocky year for oil companies as the coronavirus battered demand for petroleum products. At least 2,191,865 people have died of coronavirus since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally from official sources. More than 101,436,360 cases have been registered. The US has suffered the highest toll with 433,206 deaths, followed by Brazil with 221,547 and Mexico with 155,145. The number of deaths globally is underestimated. The toll is calculated from daily figures published by national health authorities and does not include later revisions by statistics agencies. Africa's biggest film festival, FESPACO, scheduled to run in Burkina Faso's capital from February 27 to March 6, is postponed because of the pandemic. burs-eab-jmy/dl
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