BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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SAO PAULO -- The Brazilian Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported 309 deaths from the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 150,998.

Additionally, the ministry said that 10,220 new cases were reported, bringing the national count to 5,113,628.

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BEIJING -- Chinese health authority said Wednesday that it received reports of 20 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Tuesday, including six that were domestically transmitted and 14 imported.

All of the domestically-transmitted cases were from Shandong Province, the National Health Commission said in its daily report.

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BRASILIA -- The Janssen-Cilag company, the pharmaceutical division of U.S. multinational Johnson & Johnson, temporarily suspended clinical trials in Brazil of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the national health regulatory body Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) said on Tuesday.

Janssen-Cilag notified Anvisa that testing to determine the safety and efficacy of its vaccine VAC31518COV3001 "was temporarily suspended due to a serious adverse occurrence in a volunteer abroad."

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly said Tuesday it has paused its trial of a combination antibody treatment for COVID-19 for safety reasons.

The company said the trial's Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent group of medical experts who monitor clinical trials, recommended the pause.

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BRUSSELS -- The European Union (EU) member states on Tuesday adopted a common color code to define the level of risk related to the coronavirus outbreak, region by region, a move to avoid fragmentation and disruption.

"Travel restrictions have made it difficult for some of our citizens to get to work, to university or to visit their loved ones. It is our common duty to ensure coordination on any measures which affect free movement and to give our citizens all the information they need when deciding on their travel," said Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe at the German Federal Foreign Office. Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.

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JERUSALEM -- Israel's special cabinet for handling the COVID-19 pandemic decided on Tuesday to extend by five days the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.

The lockdown, which started on Sept. 18 and was originally supposed to be lifted on Wednesday, will be extended until midnight on Sunday, a government spokesperson told Xinhua.

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MEXICO CITY -- Mexico will earmark just over 1.6 billion U.S. dollars (about 35 billion pesos) to purchase vaccines against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for some 116 million people, top government officials said on Tuesday.

Before the end of the year, Mexico will make an initial advance payment of 321.21 million U.S. dollars for the vaccine, Finance Minister Arturo Herrera said while presenting the country's updated strategy to combat the pandemic.

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MAPUTO -- Mozambique's health minister Armindo Tiago has tested positive for COVID-19 but with no symptoms, said the minister in a statement sent to the press on Tuesday.

"I come to publicly reveal that my COVID-19 test was positive. I have no symptoms. I am physically and mentally well. I am infected, but not sick," said the minister in the statement. Enditem

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