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February 24, 2021 (Wednesday)
3.1 minutes to read
Armed conflicts and attacks
Arts and culture
The South African city of Port Elizabeth is formally renamed "Gqeberha" ([ᶢǃʱɛ̀ɓéːxà]), the Xhosa name for the Baakens River which flows through the city. Port Elizabeth International Airport is also renamed Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport, after David Stuurman. These name changes are part of a wider campaign to remove colonial and apartheid-era names in the Eastern Cape.
Health and environment
Moderna announces that they will ship their vaccine candidate for testing against the 501.V2 variant that originated in South Africa.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah receive their first doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine as the country officially begins its national immunisation programme.
Pakistan lifts their COVID-19-related restrictions, allowing indoor dining and wedding ceremonies to resume on March 15. Time limits for shopping centres, markets, and amusement parks are also lifted.
Vietnam receives their first shipment of 117,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine from South Korea.
The government announces the easing of national COVID-19 restrictions, with shops reopening on March 1. Schools in some areas will also reopen on March 1, but with classes at 50% capacity.
Health Minister Olivier Véran announces that the government will impose a weekend lockdown in Dunkirk beginning this weekend due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 infections.
The Polish Health Ministry bans the use of scarves, bandanas and face shields and requires people to only wear surgical masks as of February 27 due to the spread of variants of SARS-CoV-2.
The government announces that it will allow non-essential shops, museums and outdoor sporting facilities to reopen on March 1 as part of an easing of social distancing restrictions. In addition, outdoor gatherings up to 15 people will also be allowed.
Alaska reports their first case of the Lineage P.1 variant first detected in Brazil in a person from Anchorage with no known travel history.
North Carolina governor Roy Cooper announces that some stay-at-home and curfew restrictions will be lifted on February 26, such as allowing bars to reopen indoors, increasing the number of people in gatherings, and extending the alcohol sale cutoff to 11:00 p.m.
Johnson & Johnson's single-shot COVID-19 vaccine candidate meets the standards for emergency use authorization, according to analysis from a committee within the FDA, though formal authorization will not be determined until February 26. The vaccine is 66% effective in combating the virus and can be stored in normal refrigerators.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy tests positive for COVID-19 following a brief period of isolation after suspected exposure.
The cabinet extends the curfew to 10 p.m. , and orders all businesses to close at 9 p.m. local time beginning tomorrow due to the spread of the Lineage B.1.1.7 variant. The cabinet also reimposes a Friday lockdown.
Ghana becomes the first country in the world to receive vaccines distributed through the COVAX initiative, with 600,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine.
Mayor of Washington D.C. Muriel Bowser's sister, Merica Bowser, dies from COVID-19 as it surpasses 1,000 total deaths.
California surpasses 50,000 deaths of COVID-19, becomes the first U.S. state to do so.
International relations
Nicolás Maduro's government declares European Union Ambassador to Venezuela Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa a persona non grata and gives her 72 hours to leave the country following new sanctions by the EU against 19 Venezuelan officials.
Law and crime
Authorities in Germany and Belgium seize more than 23,000 kilograms (50,700 pounds) of cocaine, worth billions of dollars, in an international operation that resulted in one arrest. Authorities consider this to be the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Europe. The containers came on a ship from Paraguay, via Tangier and Rotterdam, the police said.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi asks the United Nations and the UN World Food Programme to open an investigation into the attack that killed Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio and two other people.
A mishandled sting operation between the national police and the country's drug enforcement agency in Quezon City results in the deaths of two police officers following a shootout between the two parties.
Science and technology
Scientists discover Dzharatitanis kingi, a Diplodocus-like dinosaur fossil, in Uzbekistan. It is the first dinosaur of its kind to be discovered in Asia.
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