Coronavirus outbreak update: Feb. 5, 2021

Here are the latest updates from Japan and beyond on the coronavirus outbreak:

As of 11 p.m., Friday, Feb. 5

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologized Friday for the health ministry's failure to discover a technical glitch that has rendered its smartphone app for COVID-19 contact tracing useless for Android users since September last year.
Taiwan will be among the first recipients internationally of the first round of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by a platform co-led by the World Health Organization to ensure equitable global access, local media reported on Friday.
Britain's AstraZeneca Plc said Friday it has formally filed a request for Japan's health ministry to approve its novel coronavirus vaccine, making it the second drugmaker to do so after U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

As of 11 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 4

A Japanese comedian has decided not to take part in this year's Olympic torch relay, saying remarks by the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee to hold the Summer Games in any state of the coronavirus pandemic are "incomprehensible."
An expert from the World Health Organization tasked with tracing the origins of the novel coronavirus in China has argued it is difficult to imagine it was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, Russia's state-run media reported Thursday.
With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled to open a year from Thursday, concerns are growing over another wave of novel coronavirus infections in China, along with the threat of a games boycott by some countries over human rights issues.
Many nonregular workers at large companies in Japan have not received compensation from their employers despite being forced to take leave amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, prompting Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to vow Thursday to end such discriminatory treatment.
A scaled back Sapporo Snow Festival opened online Thursday, revealing the four ice statutes featured in this year's coronavirus pandemic-hit event, normally one of Japan's largest winter celebrations.
The number of crimes recorded in Japan in 2020 hit the lowest level in the postwar era for the sixth straight year, with a sharp decline in street crime as people stayed home during the coronavirus pandemic, police data showed Thursday.