COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 17 March

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now passed 120.7 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 2.67 million. More than 381.34 million vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Russia's COVID-19 vaccines have proven effective against new variants of the coronavirus in trials, a scientist with Moscow’s consumer regulator said yesterday.

Brazil's economy created more than a quarter of million formal jobs in January, official figures showed on Tuesday. These were the strongest figures for January since comparable records began in 1992 - although pre-date a further wave of the pandemic that's struck the country. The news came as Brazil reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths yesterday.

New cases in India saw their highest daily jump since December, with recorded deaths also at their highest in two months. The western state of Maharashtra is the country’s worst affected, with 62% of infections in the last 24 hours.

Japanese households' financial assets hit a record near-2 quadrillion yen last year, in a sign the pandemic has encouraged people to save rather than spend.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said yesterday that the time had come for additional COVID-19 restrictions in and around Paris. “It seems to me that the time has come to consider new measures in the greater Paris region,” Castex said in an interview on BFM TV.

2. UN warning of pandemic impact on healthcare services

A new UN report has warned of the impact of disruptions to healthcare services in South Asia on maternal and infant health.

The report says these disruptions have led to an estimated 239,000 maternal and child deaths, according to the BBC. It looked at Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - home to some 1.8 billion people.

It estimates that disruptions to crucial services, from nutrition to immunization, has led to an additional 228,000 deaths of children under 5 in the six countries studied.

3. COVAX delivers first AstraZeneca vaccines to Nicaragua

Nicaragua has received its first batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses through the World Health Organization's vaccine-sharing facility, COVAX.

The country received an initial 135,000 doses, and the WHO's Americas branch, PAHO, said it would receive more shots through COVAX at the end of the month.

Nicaragua received a donation of Russia's Sputnik V vaccines in late February. India has also donated 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with a further 300,000 doses agreed.