Workers are seen at Sinopharm's packaging workshop for the inactivated SARS-Cov-2 vaccine in Sinopharm's headquarters in Beijing during a media tour organized by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on February 26, 2021. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

At least 17,000 health workers have died from COVID-19 over the last year, said Amnesty International, Public Services International (PSI) and UNI Global Union in a new analysis, as the organizations called for urgent action to speed up the vaccination of millions of frontline health workers around the world. 

In Germany, many more people could be working from home. This is the result of a recent study conducted by the ifo Institute, according to which only around 30 percent of employees worked at least some hours from home in February. “An immense 56 percent of potential for remote working remains untapped by companies and employees.

Workers unload a shipment of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from a plane at Felix Houphouet Boigny airport of Abidjan on February 26, 2021. - Ivory Coast has received 504.000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on February 26. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Several proposals have emerged on how to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, but they fall short in ensuring that the vaccine is distributed fairly. A team of researchers suggests three ways to more fairly and effectively distribute the vaccine so that people in poor countries get the vaccine as soon as possible.

Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on February 23, 2021. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

The European Union (EU) has strongly condemned the military coup in Myanmar and is considering sanctions against the individuals responsible for ousting the country's civilian government, the EU Council said on Monday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivering remarks during a press conference on February 12, 2021 in Geneva. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

World Health Organization (WHO) experts investigating the pandemic's origins suggest that ferret badgers and rabbits, which were sold at a Wuhan market in China, could have played a role in spreading the novel coronavirus to humans, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Facebook was branded "arrogant" and "unconscionable" for banning Australian users from sharing news on February 18, 2021, as its defiant response to government regulation inadvertently crippled the pages of several emergency services. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Facebook on Wednesday (local time) said that Australia will no longer find news on the social media app.

According to a report by CNN, Facebook announced the decision to not allow users in Australia to share news in response to proposed legislation in Australia that would force tech platforms to pay news publishers for content.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on February 17, 2021 that the world "urgently needs a global vaccination plan" to stop wealthy countries leaving poorer nations behind in the coronavirus fightback, while the US climbed back aboard at the World Health Organization bringing $200 million in dues. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday (local time) slammed the "wildly uneven and unfair" distribution of coronavirus vaccines and said that only 10 countries have administered 75 per cent of all vaccinations and demanding a global effort to get all people in every nation inoculated as soon as possible.

Responding to the conviction and sentencing of veteran human rights lawyer, Eren Keskin to six years in jail on absurd grounds of ‘membership of an armed terrorist organization’, Amnesty International’s Turkey Campaigner, Milena Buyum, said:
 
“Today a human rights lawyer who has spoken out against injustice for more than three decades has become the victim of injustice herself.

Europe's oldest person aged 117-year-old has survived the coronavirus after living through two world wars as well as the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.
 
Sister Andre, a nun who was born in 1904, tested positive for the virus on January 16, according to David Tavella, communications director at the Sainte Catherine Laboure nursing home in Toulon, southern France, where she lives, CNN reported.

File photo of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt at Naval Base Guam on May 15, 2020. LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Amid China's growing power and influence, the United States is conducting a joint exercise with Australia and Japan on Guam, an island territory in Micronesia, to conduct disaster relief operations, as well as to conduct large force employment and combat air forces training. 

The annual exercise at the Andersen Air Force Base (COPE North 21) scheduled until February 19, is seen in view of "increasing vulnerability" to attack from China or Russia, South China Morning Post reported.