COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 28 February

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 435.4 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.94 million. More than 10.7 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

South Korea will temporarily lift a requirement for vaccine passes or negative COVID-19 tests at a number of businesses to ease the strain on testing centres, authorities have said.

The UAE has ended a requirement to wear face masks outdoors and obligatory quarantine for COVID-19 contact cases. Fully-vaccinated passengers arriving in the country will also no longer require PCR tests.

The advisory committee to the European Union's drug regulator said on Friday it had recommended reducing the interval between the second and booster doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine from six months to three.

The estimated range of England's COVID-19 reproduction "R" number is between 0.7 and 1.0, roughly steady compared to the previous week's range of 0.8 to 1.0, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday.

New findings suggest that patients with severe COVID-19, who develop diabetes while hospitalized might only have a temporary form of the disease and their blood sugar levels may return to normal afterwards.

Germany does not have leeway to ease COVID-19 restrictions more quickly, and Germans should not think that the pandemic is over as the number of new daily infections is still very high, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on Friday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) significantly eased its COVID-19 guidelines for masks, including in schools, on Friday. The move means that 72% of the population reside in communities where indoor face coverings are no longer recommended.

The new masking guidelines shift from a focus on the rate of COVID-19 transmission to monitoring local hospitalizations, hospital capacity and infection rates.

Under the prior guidelines, 95% of U.S. counties were considered to be experiencing high transmission, leaving just 5% of U.S. counties meeting the agency's criteria for dropping indoor mask requirements.

"We're in a stronger place today as a nation with more tools to protect ourselves and our community from COVID-19," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a media briefing on Friday. She cited the availability of vaccines and boosters, broader access to testing, the availability of high quality masks and the accessibility to new treatments and improved ventilation.

Hong Kong, SAR, China, reported a record 26,026 new daily confirmed COVID-19 infections on Sunday and a further 83 deaths. The current outbreak is threatening healthcare facilities and proving hard to control.

The financial hub has introduced stringent measures in an effort to cope with the current spike in COVID-19 cases.

With many major cities seeking to live with the virus, Hong Kong is following the Chinese mainland with a 'dynamic zero-COVID' strategy aimed at eradicating the disease. The current outbreak has inundated the healthcare system, however.

“We are very worried,” Albert Au of Hong Kong's department of health told a news conference. "Case numbers are still on the rise, and we expect that there will be a rising trend for the foreseeable future."