South Africa has surpassed the 16 million mark for total administered COVID-19 doses since the start of the country’s vaccination rollout programme.

In the United States, pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson said a second shot of its COVID-19 vaccine given two months after the first dose increased efficacy to 94%.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday topped the table of COVID-19 infections in the country, as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 393 cases and six COVID-19 related deaths.

R-value, which reflects how rapidly coronavirus pandemic is spreading, dropped to 0.92 by mid-September after spiralling over 1 by August-end.

People infected with the original strain of the coronavirus that caused Covid-19 early in the pandemic produced a consistent antibody response, making two main groups of antibodies to bind to the spike protein on the virus’s outer surface.

Spain’s economic recovery has been gathering pace in the third quarter, prompting a top international organization and the Bank of Spain to improve their forecasts on Tuesday while the Spanish government looked to a return to pre-pandemic activity levels by the end of 2021.

Two major U.S. retail industry groups on Tuesday asked the Biden administration for at least 90 days before imposing new rules that will require employees at larger firms to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing.

The data will help J&J make its case to U.S. regulators for a booster shot even as the company stresses the durability of its single-shot vaccine.

Kazakhstan has documented 215 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus.