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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was rushed out of a school event in Christchurch on Thursday after protesters opposed to COVID restrictive measures thronged the venue and chased her car, while daily infection numbers hit record levels. New Zealand reported over 6,000 new cases of COVID-19, with 250 hospitalisations, and the government expects the outbreak to peak in mid-March. Having been lauded earlier for her success in keeping the country COVID-free, Ardern has been fiercely criticised recently for the slow unlocking of restrictive measures. (2/24)

Most women are still shunning Covid-19 vaccines in pregnancy despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows. Data from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford shows 73% of Asian women, 86% of black women and 65% of white women were unvaccinated at the time of giving birth in October 2021. (2/24)

Though new coronavirus cases and deaths are declining across the Americas, the Caribbean remains particularly vulnerable to the virus, in part because of vaccination struggles, World Health Organization officials warned on Wednesday. “Out of 13 countries and territories in the Americas that have not yet reached W.H.O.’s goal of 40 percent coverage, 10 are in the Caribbean,” Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said at a news conference, referring to shares of their populations that have been vaccinated. The organization Dr. Etienne heads is a regional arm of the W.H.O. (Politi, 2/23)

The World Health Organization is creating a global training center to help poorer countries make vaccines, antibodies and cancer treatments using the messenger RNA technology that has successfully been used to make COVID-19 vaccines. At a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new hub will be in South Korea and will share mRNA technology being developed by WHO and partners in South Africa, where scientists are working to recreate the COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna Inc. That effort is taking place without Moderna’s help. (2/23)