Germany urged the European Union to limit vaccine exports as a standoff with AstraZeneca Plc over delivery delays worsened. France decided not to delay second doses of the shot from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, shunning the advice of its health authority and citing risks of new variants.

The U.K. government is expected to announce plans for quarantining travelers, and New Zealand is likely to keep its borders closed to the world through most of 2021.

A report found that drugmakers ignored other viruses that mostly affect poorer countries as they mounted their unprecedented response to Covid-19 last year. Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world risks more coronavirus mutations by not pushing for vaccines in developing nations.

Key Developments:

• Global Tracker: Cases exceed 99.8 million; deaths pass 2.1 million
• Vaccine Tracker: More than 68.1 million shots given worldwide
• Vaccine Is now a weapon in Europe’s enduring eastern conflict
• U.S. states ease Covid restrictions even as variants take hold
• Trailing the first vaccines, next generation turns to variants
• Why delaying the second Covid vaccine shot is messy: QuickTake

Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.

J&J Upbeat Guidance Doesn’t Include Vaccine (7:38 a.m. NY)

Johnson & Johnson issued a stronger forecast for its 2021 financial results than Wall Street expected, though it doesn’t include any predictions for the company’s Covid-19 vaccine. Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview that the company expects to have data on the shot’s efficacy by early next week.

Iran Approves Russia’s Sputnik Vaccine (7:34 a.m. NY)

Iranian health officials approved Russia’s Sputnik coronavirus vaccine, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced during a visit to Moscow on Tuesday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

The Islamic Republic has yet to start vaccinations. Officials said on Monday the first batch of imported doses could be from AstraZeneca.

Iran recorded 79 deaths from Covid-19 over the last 24 hours. That’s down from 98 on Monday, which marked the country’s biggest jump in two weeks. The number of known infections rose by 6,420 to 1,385,706, the Health Ministry reported.

Norway May Refine Vaccine Plan After Elderly Deaths: PM (7:05 a.m. NY)

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said her country may fine-tune the vaccination of its oldest, sickest citizens as it tries to make sense of a recent spate of deaths. Norway revealed this month that more than 30 people -- all over 70 and all already sick -- died not long after being vaccinated. Intense global interest in the news was “exaggerated,” Solberg said.

“We don’t believe there’s any problem with the safety of the vaccines,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg Live.

Drug Industry’s Covid Push Didn’t Extend to Other Viruses (6:30 a.m. NY)

As drugmakers mounted an unprecedented response to Covid-19 last year, they ignored other viruses that mostly affect poorer countries, a report found. The pipeline of potential drugs and vaccines against the new coronavirus went from zero to 63 projects through June 2020, according to the Access to Medicine Foundation.

Meanwhile, none of the companies was working on 10 of 16 other emerging infectious diseases flagged by the World Health Organization as a risk of pandemic or serious epidemic.

WHO Experts Recommend 28-Day Moderna Shot Interval (6:30 a.m. NY)

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine should be given in two doses with an interval of 28 days, the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization said in an interim recommendation. In exceptional circumstances, the interval may be extended to 42 days, though the evidence for this isn’t strong, it said. SAGE doesn’t recommend halving the dose.

Separately, France decided not to delay second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, shunning the advice of its health authority and citing risks and uncertainties in the face of new variants.

Israel Vaccination Results (6:53 p.m. HK)

Of the 428,000 people who were eligible for a “green passport” -- meaning at least a week had passed after their second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine -- only 63, or about 0.014%, have been diagnosed with coronavirus, Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said at a parliamentary committee meeting. Some 30% of the population has received a first dose and more than 13% a second one.

Malaysia Vaccine Agreements (6:42 p.m. HK)

Malaysia signed agreements with two Covid-19 vaccine distributors for the supply of 18.4 million doses, enough to cover almost 29% of the population, according to a statement from the health ministry. Pharmaniaga will supply 12 million doses developed by China’s Sinovac starting in April, while Duopharma will supply 6.4 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V toward the end of March.

German Ministry: Report on AstraZeneca Shot Confused (6:38 p.m. HK)

Germany’s health ministry said it can’t confirm a report in Handelsblatt newspaper that AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is only effective for 8% of people older than 65. Hanno Kautz, a ministry spokesman, says Handelsblatt appears to have confused the fact that around 8% of the test subjects were between 56 and 69 years old, and only 3% to 4% were over 70.

Colombia Defense Minister Dies (6:20 p.m. HK)

“It is with deep pain and sadness that I have received the news of the death of our Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, who died at dawn today, after complications in his health while he was battling Covid-19,” President Ivan Duque said in a tweet.

England & Wales Covid Deaths Surge to Highest Since April (6:04 p.m. HK)

Deaths linked to Covid-19 in England & Wales rose to the highest since the first wave of the disease amid government warnings that the U.K. strain of the virus may be more deadly than first thought.

The number of fatalities involving the disease rose almost 20% to 7,245 in the week ending Jan. 15, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday, the third-highest toll of the pandemic. Fatalities in London, which is at the center of the current outbreak, are running at more than 84% above the five-year average for the second straight week, the data show.

Germany Touts Vaccine Export Limits (5:30 p.m. HK)

An export limitation for vaccines produced in the EU would make sense, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said in an interview on German television. Vaccines leaving the bloc “need a license, so we know at least what’s produced in Europe and what leaves Europe, where it goes, and if there’s fair distribution,” he said. “This isn’t about EU first, but Europe’s fair share.”

The European Commission on Monday proposed requiring drugmakers to flag exports of vaccines in advance. The “transparency mechanism” follows a disclosure by AstraZeneca that planned deliveries of its shot would face delays. The EU’s executive arm says that this would mean significantly fewer deliveries this quarter than what was foreseen in its advance purchase agreement. Disruption at a Pfizer factory in Belgium reduced deliveries to member countries last week.

The U.K.’s vaccine minister warned the EU against engaging in “vaccine nationalism,” but said Britain remains confident of hitting a mid-February target to inoculate its most vulnerable citizens.

Vaccination Results ‘Very Encouraging’: Israeli HMO (4:20 p.m. HK)

Only 20 people out of some 128,600 inoculated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine contracted coronavirus after getting the second shot, according to the Israeli health-maintenance organization Maccabi Healthcare Services. Out of the 20 people infected, half suffered from a chronic illness before the vaccination. All of the 20 have thus far experienced only a mild illness. While the data is preliminary, it is “very encouraging,” Maccabi said.

U.K. to Decide on Flight Quarantine (4:15 p.m. HK)

Boris Johnson is expected to announce the government’s plan for quarantining travelers arriving in the U.K. to stop the spread of new strains from overseas. The prime minister will chair a meeting of senior ministers on Tuesday to weigh up options for requiring new arrivals to isolate in hotels.

U.K. Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi warned that it is too early for people to think about booking summer holidays. “As we vaccinate more people, it becomes more and more important that we protect against any new variants coming in,” he said on Sky News.

Ireland’s Lockdown to Be Extended (3:22 p.m. HK)

Ireland’s strict lockdown is set to be extended until at least March 5, deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in an interview with broadcaster RTE. Schools, bars, non-essential stores and personal services will remain closed. In addition, more curbs on international travel will be introduced, but the government is continuing to resist mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals.

Ireland is seeing “continued rapid improvement” in the incidence of the coronavirus, a top government adviser said earlier as the nation reported a further drop in new cases. Hospitalizations are now plateauing and may start to fall, Philip Nolan told reporters in Dublin.

Merkel Says Pandemic Has ‘Slipped Out of Control’: Bild (3:01 p.m. HK)

Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues that Germany’s management of the coronavirus pandemic has “slipped out of control” and stricter curbs are needed to prevent a new wave of the disease, Bild newspaper reported.

“We have to get stricter or in 14 days we’ll be back where we were before,” Merkel added, according to the paper.

The nation has embarked on a push to find out how prevalent the more contagious strains are among those infected, relying on a new test that promises quicker results than genome sequencing.

Thailand Reports 959 Covid-19 Cases; New Daily Record (1:01 p.m. HK)

Thailand reported 959 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a record daily tally, as authorities ramped up testing at a coastal province that’s emerged as the nation’s virus hotspot. Samut Sakhon province reported 914 cases in the past 24 hours with 795 of them migrant workers, according to health ministry data.

New Zealand Likely Won’t Open Border This Year (12:43 p.m. HK)

New Zealand is likely to keep its border closed to the world through most of 2021 amid uncertainty over the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

“We will continue to pursue travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific, but the rest of the world simply poses too great a risk to our health and our economy to take a risk at this stage,” Ardern told a news conference Tuesday in Wellington.

Lam Asks China for Vaccine, Citing ‘Hiccup’ in Orders (10:30 a.m. HK)

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she had asked Beijing to supply China-produced vaccines to the Asian financial hub due to a “hiccup” in the other three vaccines it procured in advance, in response to a question on requesting Sinopharm vaccines from the mainland.

Lam told a weekly briefing on Tuesday that “we have a desperate need” to vaccinate high-risk groups, including cross-border workers. She didn’t elaborate further, saying she didn’t want to preempt considerations of the Chinese government. China has been supportive in helping Hong Kong tackle the virus, Lam added.

Netherlands Riots Rage for Third Night (4:40 a.m. HK)

Groups of rioters confronted police for a third consecutive evening in Dutch cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Zwolle in incidents that started Saturday when a curfew began.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier on Monday condemned the unrest, labeling it “criminal violence.” The curfew runs between 9 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. in coming weeks and is on top of existing lockdown measures in place until at least Feb. 9.

— With assistance by Aaron Clark