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Israel will begin vaccinating pregnant women against COVID-19 after several medical groups within the country’s health ministry stressed the risks the virus poses to pregnancy. The news comes amid reports of 10 pregnant women being listed in serious condition due to the illness. On Tuesday, the Israeli Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology along with physicians from the National Council for Gynecology and Genetics and the Israeli Society for Maternal and Fetal Medicine published a paper stating that the virus can cause great harm to pregnancies, possibly resulting in premature birth, as well as cause severe illness in mothers. (Friling, 1/19)

Frustration visibly boiled over with some Canadian leaders Tuesday as Pfizer told Canada that it would not receive any vaccine doses next week due to the continuing manufacturing disruptions at its facility in Belgium. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to reassure Canadians that vaccine deliveries would pick up again in a few weeks and that the overall goal, to have every willing Canadian vaccinated by September, would remain on track. (Newton, 1/20)

Japan aims to vaccinate the majority of its population against Covid-19 by July, according to a report, meaning most of its more than 125 million residents could be inoculated by the time the Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin. The country plans to complete vaccination of 50 million people in high-priority tiers, including the elderly and health-care workers, by April, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, citing multiple unidentified people. Japan then plans to begin inoculation of the general public as early as May, depending on the availability of doses, the report said. (Reidy, 1/20)

China is rushing to build a massive quarantine camp that can house more than 4,000 people, after an outbreak of Covid-19 this month that has left tens of millions of people under strict lockdown. The quarantine camp is located on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei province, which surrounds the country's capital, Beijing. (Yeung, 1/20)

A coronavirus antibody test that China has made mandatory for arriving travelers has provoked concerns over its effectiveness after one of a team of international health experts was briefly denied entry last week following a positive result. Although the British expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) subsequently tested negative, it was not immediately clear if the earlier result was a false positive, or the result of previous infection or a COVID-19 vaccination. (1/20)

A group of European Union leaders pressed the bloc’s drugs regulator to green light coronavirus vaccines faster, after its executive arm recommended a target for inoculating at least 70% of the region’s adult population by summer. The EU’s 27 government heads must “send out a strong signal to the European Medicines Agency on Thursday to ensure the approval procedure for vaccine candidates is as efficient as possible,” the leaders of Greece, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Austria said in a joint letter to summit chair Charles Michel. He will host a Jan. 21 EU video conference on the pandemic. (Stearns and Chrysoloras, 1/19)