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The White House said on Wednesday that the United States would send three million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to Brazil on Thursday. The country’s virus cases and fatalities are surging again, with a death toll above 500,000. Less than a third of the country’s population has had at least one shot, and an average of 74,490 new cases per day were reported in the country in the last week — an increase of 26 percent from the average two weeks ago. (6/24)

Brazil registered a single-day record of 115,228 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, as its outbreak shows new signs of accelerating despite long-delayed vaccination efforts finally gaining steam. Brazil has recorded the world's highest COVID-19 death toll outside the United States, with more than half a million lives lost, according to the ministry's official tally. (6/23)

Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest, a programme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) for fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up, internal documents seen by Reuters show. The COVAX programme is far short of its target of delivering 2 billion doses by the end of the year, but does expect a big increase in supplies by early 2022, and wants to make sure that those, at least, reach the countries in direst need. (Guarascio, 6/23)

A key Latin American development bank is helping countries secure Covid-19 vaccines and can deploy about $500 million to fight the pandemic in the world’s most affected region. The Inter-American Development Bank is in talks with Argentina and Panama and vaccine makers to provide credit for purchases of about $50 million to $100 million for each country, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Washington-based institution. They would be the first countries to use an IDB initiative rolled out in March to help resolve vaccine indemnity obligations in contract negotiations with vaccine makers. (Martin, 6/23)

The Covid-19 outbreak at the US Embassy in Kabul has grown to 159 cases, according to a diplomatic cable sent Tuesday, as a devastating third wave of the deadly disease continues to hit Afghanistan. A source familiar with the cable said it noted that several people at the diplomatic mission are on oxygen or have been medically evacuated from the post, which was put under immediate lockdown last week to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus. (Hansler and Atwood, 6/23)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel received a Moderna coronavirus vaccine as her second jab, after getting the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. The 66-year-old took her first dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in April, more than two weeks after German authorities recommended the use of the jab only for people aged 60 and above. (6/22)

An influential firebrand cleric was sentenced to another four years in prison in Indonesia on Thursday for concealing information about his coronavirus test result. The three-judge panel at East Jakarta District Court, which was under heavy police and military guard, ruled that Rizieq Shihab had lied about his COVID-19 test result, which made contact tracing more difficult. (Karmini and Alangkara, 6/24)

Federal authorities have seized at U.S. airports unauthorized versions of the Covid-19 treatment remdesivir destined for distribution in Mexico, the latest effort by the government to root out criminal activity related to the pandemic. Counterfeit or generic versions of remdesivir, an antiviral manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc., are arriving in the U.S. by plane from Bangladesh and India and being smuggled by individuals to Mexico for patients willing to pay top dollar for the drugs, people familiar with the investigation said. (Hopkins, 6/23)

The European Space Agency says it was “blown away” by the record number of applicants — more than 22,000 — hoping to become the continent’s next generation of space travelers, including more women than ever and some 200 people with disabilities. ... ESA specifically sought out people with physical disabilities, for a first-of-its-kind effort to determine what adaptations would be necessary to space stations to accommodate them. (6/23)