Some European countries are drawing fewer than the approved six doses from Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine vials, while the United States surpassed 400,000 deaths from the virus on Tuesday.

The European Union wants to set up a mechanism that would allow the sharing of surplus COVID-19 vaccines with poorer neighbouring states and Africa, the EU health chief said, in a move that may undercut a WHO-led global scheme.

As a team from the World Health Organization works in China to investigate the origins of COVID-19, the following factbox looks at what we know about how the pandemic began.

The global coronavirus death toll surpassed 2 million, as nations worldwide try to procure multiple vaccines and detect new COVID-19 variants.

China has put millions of people in lockdown in response to new outbreaks of COVID-19 in the north and northeast, with Hebei province reporting the first new coronavirus death on the mainland since May last year.

New efficacy data from Brazil on Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine, for which there are now four widely different success rates, raised more questions than answers, as many developing countries pin their hopes on the CoronaVac to end the pandemic.

Governments across Europe announced tighter and longer coronavirus lockdowns and curbs against the backdrop of fears of a fast-spreading variant first detected in Britain, with vaccinations not expected to help much until the spring.

Malaysia declared a state of emergency on Tuesday to try to rein in coronavirus infections and suspended parliament in a move that helps Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin avoid an immediate challenge to his leadership.

Britain plans to give the first shot of a coronavirus vaccine to 15 million members of the highest priority groups by mid-February, and to tens of millions more by the spring, to enable it to loosen restrictions imposed to stem a soaring infection rate.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appeared to work against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.