Israelis receive a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from medical professionals at a vaccination center set up on a mall parking lot in Givataim, Israel, during a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus, on Jan. 20. Oded Balilty/AP hide caption
With the sun setting off the coast of northern Honduras, Ella Guity watches her daughters, Jirian and Eleny, swim in the warm Caribbean waters of the village of Rio Esteban, home to a group with African and indigenous roots known as the Garifuna. Ella had left years earlier for life in the big city, but the pandemic led her back home. Tomas Ayuso for NPR hide caption
A handheld ultraviolet-C wand is waved over the surface of a computer keyboard. Michele Abercrombie/NPR hide caption
European medical officials say that authorizing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will "help to bring the pandemic under control and protect the citizens of the EU." Ulrich Baumgarten/via Getty Images hide caption
The Khaliq Dina Hall and Library building in Karachi, Pakistan, has been converted into a COVID-19 vaccination center. Akhtar Soomro/Reuters hide caption
A health care worker from the Medical University of South Carolina administers a coronavirus test this month in Charleston, S.C. U.S. health authorities said Thursday that the first U.S. cases of the variant that emerged from South Africa were detected in South Carolina. Micah Green/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
The Sinovac vaccine is produced at this newly built factory in China. Sinovac is one of 11 Chinese companies carrying out clinical trials of potential COVID-19 vaccines. Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Indigenous health care workers treat patients last week at a campaign hospital set up in the Parque das Tribos neighborhood of Manaus, Brazil. Oxygen shortages at hospitals in Brazil's Amazon prompted authorities to airlift patients to other states. Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Stella Kyriakides, European commissioner for health and food safety, said that in the future all companies producing COVID-19 vaccines in the EU "will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries." John Thys/POOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was one of many global health leaders who spoke bluntly about the coronavirus pandemic at annual meetings that conclude on Tuesday. Discussing the lack of priority given to vaccines for poor countries, he stated, "The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure." Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Moderna will test new COVID-19 vaccine booster doses, saying that while its vaccine should protect against variants found in the U.K. and South Africa, it isn't as effective against the South African strain. Here, a bus in London carries a sign telling people, "Act Like You've Got It" — to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Thomas Krych/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption
Pharmaceutical company Merck says it is shelving its two COVID-19 vaccine candidates, saying that the results of clinical trials fell short of its goals. Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption
A woman walks in a park along Yangtze River in Wuhan on Jan. 19, 2021. Residents of the city of 11 million, which was the first epicenter of COVID-19, have conflicting emotions as they reckon with the aftermath of the virus and their 76-day lockdown. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images hide caption