FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

The head of the World Health Organization-led team in Wuhan that is investigating the origins of COVID-19 said that cold chain transmission of the virus was a possibility and warranted further investigation.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.

EUROPE * Germany is planning to spend nearly 9 billion euros this year to buy up to 635.1 million COVID-19 vaccines as part of the European Union's procurement scheme and national deals.

* Hungary will start vaccinating people suffering no chronic diseases with Russia's Sputnik vaccine soon, the surgeon general said, becoming the first European Union country to use it. * Ukraine's plan to roll out a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine from next month faces possible delay because of regulatory hold-ups, according to a letter written by the importer, in a further risk to the country's slow-moving vaccination programme.

* Britain is looking at expanded testing of people who have arrived from abroad while they are self-isolating to defend against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. * Spain's government announced it had extended controls along its border with Portugal until March 1.

ASIA-PACIFIC * India's government has ordered 10 million more doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India.

* South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called on restaurant and other business owners in the greater Seoul area to cooperate with social distancing rules to head off a spread of COVID-19 during the Lunar New Year holiday. AMERICAS

* Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stressed he was working to ensure more vaccine shipments. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Fewer than 3% of COVID-19 deaths in Israel over the past month were people who had been vaccinated against the disease, the prime minister said, as his government attempted to boost turnout for the Pfizer shots. * Iran launched a vaccination drive, focussing initially on hospital intensive care personnel, as the hardest-hit country in the Middle East awaits enough vaccines for its general population.

* Ethiopia has secured nine million doses of COVID-19 vaccines up until April and hopes to inoculate at least a fifth of its 110 million people by the end of the year, the health minister said. * Russia's Sputnik-V has become the third COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by Pakistan for emergency use, the country's health minister said.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * It is not yet clear whether the world needs a new set of vaccines to fight different variants of the novel coronavirus, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said, adding there was no reason for alarm as scientists were working on new ones.

* Kremlin spokesman said that demand from abroad for Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was very high, and that Moscow would take measures necessary to satisfy it once domestic needs had been met. * Health officials around the world gave their backing to the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, after a study showing it had little effect against mild disease caused by the variant now spreading quickly in South Africa rang global alarm.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * Global stocks rose for a seventh day to reach a record high on Tuesday, while bitcoin hit a fresh peak of $48,000, extending gains after an endorsement from Tesla Inc TSLA.O.

* Chinese banks saw the size of their bad loans shrinking at the end of last year, statistics from the country's top banking and insurance watchdog showed on Tuesday, as businesses' recovery from the pandemic gathered steam. * The number of newborns in China plummeted 15% in 2020 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Public Security, with the onset of the novel coronavirus disrupting the economy and weighing on decisions to have a family.