French drugmaker Sanofi will help rivals Pfizer and BioNTech manufacture 125 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for the European Union, the company announced Wednesday.

The news comes as the E.U. struggles with the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, falling behind other parts of the world, including the U.S. and the neighboring U.K.

Sanofi will manufacture the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in its Frankfurt facility this summer.

“We are very conscious that the earlier vaccine doses are available, the more lives can potentially be saved,”  Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said. “We have made the decision to support BioNTech and Pfizer in manufacturing their Covid-19 vaccine in order to help address global needs, given that we have the technology and facilities to do so.”

The U.S. has counted 80,677 reported Covid-19 deaths in January as of Wednesday morning, more than December's 77,124 dead and the the most in any month of pandemic, according to an NBC News tally. 

On Tuesday, the country counted 169,687 cases and 3,718 reported deaths, bringing the totals to 25.5 million cases and 426,586 deaths as of Wednesday morning.

The U.S. has averaged 3,367 deaths and 169,687 cases per day in the last week. Four weeks ago, that number was 2,615 deaths and 224,938 cases.

These states set single-day records:

• Alabama, 234 dead
• Hawaii, 59 dead
• Tennessee, 192 dead

Three new completely at-home Covid-19 tests are hitting the market soon, promising to deliver results within minutes.

The BinaxNow, Lucira and Ellume tests all offer slight variations on a similar approach: swab, insert and get results without even leaving your kitchen table, in 30 minutes or less.

The tests offer promising accessibility: No visits to a doctor or clinic, or scheduling a drive-through at a pharmacy. And, since patients don’t have to leave home, it's easier for them to take the test, decreasing the risk they might infect others.

“If millions of Americans tested themselves at home twice a week we would start to see dramatic reductions in cases within a month or two,” said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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BEIJING — China has given more than 22 million coronavirus vaccine shots to date as it carries out a drive ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, health authorities said Wednesday.

The effort, which began six weeks ago, targets key groups such as medical and transport workers and has accelerated vaccinations in China. About 1.6 million doses had been given over several months before the campaign began.

“The carrying out of vaccination has been ongoing in a steady and orderly manner,” Zeng Yixin, vice chairman of the National Health Commission Said at a news conference.

He said that 22.76 million doses had been administered as of Tuesday. It’s not clear how many people that represents since the vaccine is given in two doses, and some may have received their second shot.

China, which largely stopped the spread of the virus last spring, has seen fresh outbreaks this winter in four northern provinces. About 1,800 new cases have been reported since mid-December, including two deaths.

Authorities are strongly discouraging people from traveling during the Lunar New Year holiday, a time when Chinese traditionally return to their hometowns for family gatherings.

Poorer countries face a best-case scenario of a 6 to 8 month lag behind richer nations in getting access to Covid-19 vaccines to protect their populations against the pandemic disease, the philanthropist Bill Gates said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Reuters, Gates called the rollout of the first Covid-19 shots a "super hard allocation problem" that was putting pressure on global institutions, governments and drugmakers.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has so far committed some $1.75 billion to the global response to the pandemic, including via funds for the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative co-led by the World Health Organization, and via direct support for some vaccine makers. It hopes to start some deliveries next month.

"The total number of doses that GAVI (and COVAX) will have in the first half of the year is still very modest," he said. "Yes, they will get some doses out, but if you compare when they will reach the same percentage of coverage as the rich countries — that's where I'd say it's six to eight months, best case."

Around 900 people who survived the Holocaust died from Covid-19 in Israel during the pandemic, according to the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

The figures were released Tuesday, a day ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day of remembrance to honor the millions of European Jews and other groups killed during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945.

Some 5,300 Holocaust survivors contracted the virus last year, Israel reported. All Holocaust survivors are over the age of 75 — World War II ended 75 years ago — and approximately 17 percent are over 90. There are around 179,600 survivors living in Israel.