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Japan begins a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 beginning with 40,000 health workers.
2021-02-17

The Japanese House of Councillors passes a law that will introduce fines for people and businesses that do not comply with restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
2021-02-3

The government expands the state of emergency to seven prefectures, including Aichi, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Kyoto, as the country surpasses 300,000 cases of COVID-19.
2021-01-13

Prime Minister Jean Castex announces in a televised interview on TF1 that the government would introduce a ban on the sale of all 'non-essential' items in supermarkets from November 3 as part of a lockdown measure to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
2020-11-1

Kiribati announces it will keep its borders closed until the end of the year to keep the country free of COVID-19. The presidential office announces some exceptions, including repatriation flights, with 20 I-Kiribati arriving soon from the Marshall Islands.
2020-09-10

Patriarch Filaret, former honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, founder and current Patriarch of once again the second non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate, was confirmed to be a positive case of COVID-19. He becomes the first independent and non-canonical autocephalous leader or patriarch in the Eastern Orthodox faith to contract the disease. Months earlier, he had stated that the pandemic was God's punishment for same-sex marriage, which is currently not legally-recognized in Ukraine. Activists say homophobia is still widespread in the national culture.
2020-09-8

Brazil's Ministry of Health reports 54,771 new cases and that there are now 1,032,913 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, becoming the second country in the world, after the United States, to surpass one million cases.
2020-06-19

Fifty crew members on the cruise ship "Costa Atlantica" test positive for COVID-19 after it docks in Nagasaki, Japan.
2020-04-23

The President of the Japan Football Association and deputy Olympic Committee chief Kozo Tashima tests positive for COVID-19. Japan insists the 2020 Summer Olympics will still go ahead as planned.
2020-03-17