Medical workers conduct COVID-19 test at the Exhibition and Convention Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Jan. 25, 2021. Slovenia conducted mass testing of all teachers who will return to in-person teaching on Monday. Kindergartens and the first three grades of primary school will open as planned on Tuesday in nine of Slovenia's 12 regions, the prime minister's office confirmed to local media on Monday. (Photo: Xinhua)   

Indonesia surpassed one million coronavirus cases on Tuesday after it reported 13,094 new infections, the national COVID-19 task force said. The total number of coronavirus cases found in the country was 1,012,350. The task force also reported 336 new related deaths, taking the total to 28,468.

* The 9th round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting was held on the Chinese side of the Moldo-Chushul border meeting point Sunday, according to a joint press release.

* Russia will supply Mexico with 24 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine over the next two months, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said after a phone call on Monday with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

* China and New Zealand on Tuesday signed a protocol on upgrading their 12-year-old free trade agreement (FTA), which is expected to bring more benefits to the peoples of the two countries.

* US House delivered on Monday an impeachment article against Donald Trump to the Senate, charging the former president with inciting insurrection leading to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

* Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund signed a deal on Tuesday to supply the Sputnik V vaccine against the novel coronavirus to Malaysia, the TASS news agency cited Russia's embassy in Kuala Lumpur as saying.

* Moderna said it believes its COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants found in Britain and South Africa, although it will test a new booster shot aimed at the South Africa variant after concluding that the antibody response could be diminished.

* Several countries recorded higher COVID-19 cases, with Mexico's death toll surpassing 150,000, even as governments rush to lock up vaccines through deals with drugmakers and other nations.

* China reported a fall in new COVID-19 infections as the number of cases in two of the provinces particularly hard hit by the latest coronavirus wave fell to single digits.

* The United States has recorded more than 25.29 million COVID-19 cases with over 420,900 related deaths as of Monday night, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

* Russia on Tuesday reported 18,241 new COVID-19 cases, taking its official national tally to 3,756,931. Authorities also confirmed 564 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 70,482.

* The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Tuesday 1,173 new confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 516,166. The death toll climbed to 10,386 after 94 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.

* The number of people hospitalised in France for COVID-19 rose by more than a 1,000 over the last two days, a trend unseen since Nov. 16, and the number of patients in ICUs exceeded 3,000 for the first time since Dec. 9.

* Italy on Monday reported 8,562 new coronavirus cases, bringing total active infections to 491,630, according to the latest numbers posted by the Ministry of Health. This was down from 17,246 new cases recorded about 10 days ago, on Jan. 14.

* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was looking at toughening border quarantine rules because of the risk of "vaccine-busting" new variants.

* Portugal's firefighters, police, and people over 50 with pre-existing conditions will start getting COVID-19 vaccinations from next week.

* The Italian government sent a letter of formal notice to Pfizer calling on the company to respect its contractual commitments over its COVID-19 vaccine deliveries.

* New Zealand may approve a COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

* Laboratory testing by the Minnesota Department of Health has confirmed the first known COVID-19 case in the United States associated with a more contagious variant of the coronavirus originally seen in Brazil.

* Mexico's death toll passed 150,000 on Monday following a surge in infections in recent weeks.

* Ukraine expects to receive 100,000 to 200,000 doses of vaccines from Pfizer under the COVAX scheme in February and vaccinate the first 367,000 people against the coronavirus in first stage, Ukrainain Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Tuesday.

* Sweden has decided to extend its advice against non-essential travel to all countries outside the Europe until April 15, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

* Turkey received 6.5 million further doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech, several local media reports said.

* Drugmaker Merck & Co said it would stop development of its two COVID-19 vaccines and focus pandemic research on treatments.

* Some 8.8% of global working hours were lost last year due to the pandemic, roughly four times the number lost in the 2009 financial crisis, but there are "tentative signs" of recovery, the International Labour Organisation said.

Xinhua, Reuters