COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 20 August

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 210 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.40 million. More than 4.84 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended a nationwide lockdown on Friday as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country jumped and the outbreak widened beyond its largest city, Auckland, to the capital, Wellington. Ardern extended the lockdown until midnight on 24 August.

Two million residents of Sydney will be under nightly curfew from next week to slow the highly infectious Delta variant of coronavirus that is spreading across New South Wales state, authorities said on Friday as they extended lockdown orders.

The United States has administered 359,623,380 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Thursday morning and distributed 422,175,735 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

South Africa will open up COVID-19 vaccinations to those aged between 18 and 35 years old from Friday, the government said in a statement, as it tries to ramp up its immunization drive.

Thailand's coronavirus cases passed the 1 million mark on Friday, 97% of which were recorded in the past five months, as the country struggles to get on top of one of Asia's most severe COVID-19 outbreaks.

Mexico is battling a new wave of coronavirus infections as daily cases hit record highs and the official death toll passed 250,000, one of the highest worldwide.

The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, West Africa is facing new outbreaks of the viral haemorrhagic fevers Marburg and Ebola, risking huge strains on ill-equipped health systems.

The new outbreaks show the multitude of challenges governments are fighting in parallel with the COVID-19 pandemic, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, told a news conference on Thursday.

"We are particularly concerned about West Africa," Moeti said. "Fighting multiple outbreaks is a complex challenge."

Côte d'Ivoire declared its first case of Ebola since 1994. Authorities said it was an isolated case of an 18-year-old girl who travelled from neighbouring Guinea.

Africa faces more infectious disease outbreaks every year than any other region, Moeti said.

Health systems in West Africa, in particular, are weaker than in other parts of the continent, she added, although the WHO did not give specific numbers regarding staffing levels or hospital bed occupancy rates across the region.

Meanwhile, WHO data shows that West Africa in the past month recorded the highest number of COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began, and COVID-19 cases are surging in Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, and Nigeria, all three of which have recently been hit with other outbreaks.

Separately, Côte d'Ivoire has identified an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu near the commercial capital Abidjan and has taken steps to curb its spread, the government said on Thursday.

"Facing three outbreaks at the same time, for any health system, it's a very difficult situation," Mamadou Samba, Côte d'Ivoire's Director General of Health, told the same news conference.