Coronavirus outbreak updates: Feb. 14, 2021

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

As of 11 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 14

The New Zealand government imposed a lockdown for three days in the country's largest city Auckland from midnight Sunday after the discovery of coronavirus infections in a family.
Japan formally approved Pfizer Inc.'s coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, the first to be greenlit for domestic use, and is set to start inoculating health workers in a matter of days.
As the Japanese government prepares to roll out novel coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday to fight the pandemic, skepticism in some sections of the public may hamper the effort.

As of 11 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 13

More than half of 78 listed Japanese regional banking groups and banks saw a decline in their net profits or incurred red ink in the April-December period, hit by the coronavirus pandemic, an analysis of their earnings reports showed Saturday.
Exports from six Southeast Asian countries fell 2.2 percent in 2020 from a year earlier to a combined $1.35 trillion, a relatively small decline despite the coronavirus pandemic hitting the region and other parts of the world, according to data from the Japan External Trade Organization.
Global air passenger traffic in 2020 sank a record 65.9 percent from the year before amid tighter border controls due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a rebound to around half of 2019 levels expected this year, an industry group said.
The debate about whether the Tokyo Olympics should go ahead this year has led some organizers to question their involvement, but for 3x3 basketball tournament coordinator Susumu Ebihara, it has clarified his mission to move forward and shine a spotlight on the sport.
Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven countries on Friday emphasized the importance of supporting pandemic-hit economies toward a recovery, with the United States calling for further fiscal aid and vowing to return to multilateralism.