A hospital worker looks out the window as nurses gather outside of Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan on March 16, 2021, as they hold a rally demanding that Albany lawmakers pass "Safe Staffing" on what is the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 lockdown in New York. File photo: AFP

The total number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide has increased to 2,669,612 with the global confirmed cases reaching 120,638,813 as of 8:30 am BJT on Wednesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Current status (data as of 8:30 am BJT, March 17):

Indonesia has temporarily postponed the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Oxford University in collaboration with a British multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca following reports of blood clots in several European countries, an official said on Tuesday.

Chile on Tuesday marked the milestone of having vaccinated more than 5 million people against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since a mass vaccination campaign was launched Feb. 3, the Ministry of Health said.

The United Nations is grateful for China's pledge to donate 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to UN peacekeepers, said a spokesman on Tuesday.

American drugmaker Moderna announced Tuesday that the first group of children participants have been vaccinated in its COVID-19 vaccine trial.

The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to accelerate the delivery of ten million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for the second quarter of 2021.

Some 13 cities in Brazil's southeast state of Sao Paulo on Tuesday announced five-day total lockdowns starting Wednesday to reduce cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which have led to the collapse of area hospitals.