(Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday China will strive to provide 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to other countries in 2021, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
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
* Russia has administered COVID-19 vaccines to 38.9 million people, about 27% of its population, health minister Mikhail Murashko said on Thursday.
* France’s highest court upheld a new law requiring the public to hold a health pass to access bars and restaurants and health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-September, saying it complied with the republic’s founding charter.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* The Indian government has asked state authorities to impose restrictions ahead of festivals across the country, warning that overcrowding could lead to “super spreader” events and a new surge in infections.
* Some members of a Japanese government expert panel warned that a recent surge in COVID-19 cases was severe enough to impose a nationwide state of emergency.
AMERICAS
* The number of new COVID-19 cases climbed to a six-month high in the United States, with more than 100,000 infections reported on Wednesday as the Delta variant ravages Florida and other states with lower vaccination rates.
* Brazil’s northeastern states suspended plans to import Russia COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V due to the conditions set by the country’s health regulator Anvisa, Piauí state’s governor, Wellington Dias, said on Thursday.
* The United States is working to give additional COVID-19 booster shots to Americans with compromised immune systems as quickly as possible, as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Senegal’s Institut Pasteur of Dakar (IPD) has reached a deal with U.S. company MedInstill for the bottling of COVID-19 shots, an EU document shows, marking a step to becoming a fully-fledged maker of coronavirus vaccines for Africa.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* In vaccinated patients with “breakthrough” COVID-19 infections, the disease may not affect the lungs as much as in unvaccinated patients, new data from India suggests.
* Moderna Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine was about 93% effective through six months after the second dose, showing hardly any change from the 94% efficacy reported in its original clinical trial.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Oil prices rose more than 1% on Thursday on increasing Middle East tensions, but gains were capped as fresh restrictions to counter a surge in COVID-19 cases threatened the global energy demand recovery.
* A key architect of the Federal Reserve’s new policy strategy said he feels the conditions for raising interest rates could be met by the end of 2022.
* Indonesia’s economy grew 7.07% in the April-June quarter compared with a year earlier, beating market estimates and marking its first expansion in five quarters.
(Compiled by Ramakrishnan M., Devika Syamnath, Anita Kobylinska and Shinjini Ganguli; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Maju Samuel)
