The Special Republican Anti-Coronavirus Commission at the Feb. 11 meeting decided to certify the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in Uzbekistan and begin work on its registration, the Ministry of Health said.

The Uzbekistan authorities will have vaccinated 20% of the population from coronavirus before 2022, said Botirjon Kurbanov, the deputy chief of sanitary-epidemiological welfare and public health authority. 

On February 10, the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev had a telephone conversation with the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, the Uzbek presidency website said.

At the Wednesday government meeting, Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed to begin preparations for the public vaccination against coronavirus in Uzbekistan.

The Cabinet of Ministers issued a Resolution on February 8 creating Sudochye-Akpetki state nature sanctuary on ​​280.5 thousand hectares in Muynak district of Karakalpakstan, the State Committee for Ecology and Environmental Protection said.

Uzbekistan has completed the collection of bids for the purchase of the government’s stake in the Coca-Cola Ichimligi Uzbekiston company from companies from Asia, Europe, America and even Africa.

Tourist (hotel) tax will be introduced for each day of their stay in hotels and other accommodation facilities for Uzbek citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in Uzbekistan from March 1, 2021.

The Republic of Korea donated 275 robots and 350 teaching aids to Uzbekistan preschools. The handover ceremony for the Albert and Genibot smart robots, designed to teach children robotics and programming skills, took place on February 9, the Ministry of Preschool Education (MPE) said.

On February 8, the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev approved amendments and addenda to some regulations due to the improvement of electoral legislation. They were passed by the Legislative Chamber on January 29 and approved by the Senate on February 5.

The President Mirziyoyev signed Measures to Further Promote Domestic and Pilgrim Tourism in the Republic of Uzbekistan Decree introducing a 10-day visa-free for the nationals of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and China, including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau from March 1.

Minister of Public Education Sherzod Shermatov and U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum hosted a ceremony at Tashkent school #295 to welcome the newly-arrived group of 27 English teachers and visiting scholars from the United States, who will be teaching at schools and universities across Uzbekistan.  ​The group, which arrived in January and completed a two-week quarantine period and orientation, is the first group of U.S. exchange participants to arrive in Central Asia since the coronavirus pandemic started. 

On February 8, the seventh round of negotiations on the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between Uzbekistan and the European Union began to be held online within the framework of the working groups’ meeting on trade issues, Dunyo reports. The talks will reportedly last until February 12.

A 240 MW capacity thermal power plant will be built in the Tashkent province, according to the Feb. 2 presidential decree.

On January 29, officers of the Termez city police department of the Surkhandarya province arrested the blogger Otabek Sattoriy.

A joint action plan (Road Map) for the Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway project was adopted on February 2 in Tashkent following the Uzbek-Afghani-Pakistani talks, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade said in a statement.

According to the State Program for 2021, the second international legal forum Tashkent Law Spring will be held in the spring of this year. Unlike the first international law forum, the second forum will be held online.

On February 3, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on the State Program "Year of Support for Youth and Strengthening Public Health" worth  29.5 trillion soums, 2.6 billion dollars and 57.3 million euros to be contributed for its implementation (in 2020 - 18.2 trillion soums and 10.3 billion dollars). 

Officers of the State Security Service and the Anti-Corruption Agency have detained the senior investigator of the Andijan province police department and the head of the temporary detention center of thу department, Uzbekistan 24 TV channel reported.

The Bukhara city prosecutor Jasur Fozilov has been dismissed from his post, the General Prosecutor's Office said. He was dismissed from office at his own free will and is now reportedly awaiting to be moved to another role.

Students of Muhammad al-Khwarizmi IT School of Information Technology have developed a mobile app dedicated to the works of Alisher Navoi. His ghazals and rubais have been translated into 7 languages ​​and were added to an app. It will soon be available to download from the AppStore and Google Play Market.