Portal:Current events/2021 April 20

April 20, 2021 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Northern Chad offensive
- President Idriss Déby dies from wounds sustained while commanding forces against rebels in the north of the country. The Constitution is suspended, and a Transitional Military Council headed by Déby's son General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno will rule the country for an expected 18 months. (The Africa Report)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Oceania
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji
    - Fiji records its second community transmission case in the daughter of a woman who works a quarantine facility on the borders and that had tested positive for COVID-19. (RNZ)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
    - A worker at Auckland Airport tests positive a day after the country restarted reciprocal travel to Australia. (BBC)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in India
    - India reports a record 1,761 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide death toll to 180,530. (Firstpost)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal
    - Nepal grants a conditional emergency use approval to Russian Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. (The Kathmandu Post)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Yemen
    - Yemen begins their COVID-19 vaccination campaign by using the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca and University of Oxford. (Reuters)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt
  - Egypt signs an agreement to purchase 20 million doses of the Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV vaccine and expects a delivery of 500,000 doses this month. (Arab News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico
  - President Andrés Manuel López Obrador receives his first dose of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine. (Al Jazeera)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Romania
  - Romania reports a record 237 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours. (G4)
- COVID-19 vaccine
  - The European Medicines Agency publishes a report suggesting a "possible link" between usage of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine candidate and rare blood clots. The agency maintains, however, that the overall benefits of the shot "outweigh the risks of side effects." (MSN)

Law and crime

Quebec ban on religious symbols
- The Quebec Superior Court overturns certain provisions of Bill 21, which prohibits public sector employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols, on the basis that it violates Sections 3 and 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, the Court upholds most of the legislation. (Al Jazeera)