Brazil reports a record 298,408 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 26.09 million. (Reuters)
South Africa's Afrigen Biologics uses the publicly available sequence of the mRNA-based Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to make its own version of the vaccine, which will become the world's first vaccine based on an existing vaccine once it is tested on humans later this year. (Al Jazeera)
Twenty people die and 74 others are hospitalized in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after consuming cocaine laced with poison or "cut" with another substance. Nine people are arrested. (BBC News)