Australia has secured 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which 50 million will be made locally.

“We are still working and still expect to get those other 3.8 million, and we may yet get more in coming weeks,” Professor Murphy said.

Source: First locally made AstraZeneca COVID vaccine doses rolling out from March 22 – ABC News

Myanmar’s military rulers attempted to move about $1 billion held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York days after seizing power on Feb. 1, prompting U.S. officials to put a freeze on the funds, according to three people familiar with the matter, including one U.S. government official.

Source: Exclusive: U.S. blocked Myanmar junta attempt to empty $1 billion New York Fed account – sources | Reuters

Target, Costco, Sprouts, Whole Foods and Walmart are among the grocery and big-box stores that will continue to mandate masks inside stores. Source: Target, Costco among big retailers keeping mask mandate in Texas | WTRF

Carlos Tavares, chief executive officer of the recently formed Stellantis NV, said the company was engaged in dialogue with the Cherokee Nation over its use of the name. Jeep has two models, the Cherokee compact sport-utility vehicle and larger Grand Cherokee, that it sells in the U.S. and beyond.

Source: Jeep is open to dropping Cherokee name, says CEO | Fox Business

But with more than 43,000 dead in Texas — including her husband — is wearing a mask in public too much to ask? At the least, it could take pressure off the medical systems and help prevent more people from dying, she said.

“It’s not about taking away anybody’s job or making anybody else suffer financially because everybody has their families to take care of,” said Ramos, who lost her husband Ricardo Ramos to the coronavirus last year.

“People can go pick up groceries, people can go into a restaurant and people can shop around the mall in masks,” she said.

Abbott’s Tuesday declaration that it was time to “open Texas” has been decried by local officials and health experts, who say it’s too soon to become lax with coronavirus restrictions, as just 7% of the state’s residents have been fully inoculated against the virus. President Joe Biden likened the decision to “Neanderthal thinking,” and an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it’s not the time to loosen precautions.

But the announcement hit harder with Ramos, and others who have lost spouses, parents or friends to the virus — in some cases, making them wonder if the deaths of their loved ones meant nothing.

Source: Inoreader – For some Texans who lost loved ones to the coronavirus, lifting the mask mandate is a “slap in the face”