(Reuters) – Sweden and Denmark said they will pause the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for younger age groups after reports of possible rare side effects, while Pfizer will study the effectiveness of its vaccine by inoculating the entire population over the age of 12 in a town in southern Brazil.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* Germany will hold talks on whether it needs to make bulk purchases of Merck & Co’s promising oral antiviral drug for the treatment of COVID-19, its health minister said.
* Russia reported 929 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, the largest single-day death toll it has recorded since the pandemic began.
* Poland’s daily COVID-19 cases have risen by around 70% in the past week to over 2,000, a government official said, warning the country that a fourth wave of the outbreak is gathering steam.
* The Czech Republic reported more than 1,000 new cases in one day for first the time since May 18, data from the health ministry showed.
AMERICAS
* Surging demand for COVID-19 tests from U.S. employers has exacerbated a nationwide shortage of rapid tests in recent weeks and is driving up costs for state and local testing programs, according to industry executives and state officials.
* El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said the country would facilitate a third dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 for those age 18 or older.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* India’s school closures and its children’s lack of smartphone and internet facilities during the pandemic have worsened an educational divide, the U.N. cultural agency said, flagging risks to young people’s futures.
* South Korea has secured 20,000 courses of an experimental antiviral pill developed by Merck & Co for COVID-19 treatment, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said, joining other Asian nations rushing to snap up supplies.
* New daily cases in Australia’s Victoria and New South Wales states fell as authorities look to start easing tough restrictions.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* The United Arab Emirates has authorised the Russia-developed one-shot Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine as both a standalone dose and a booster shot, Russia’s sovereign fund RDIF said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Bharat Biotech said it had submitted data from its COVID-19 vaccine trial in children ages 2 to 18 years to India’s drug regulator, becoming the country’s first company to have tested its shot in very young children.
* AstraZeneca has requested emergency approval from U.S. regulators for its antibody cocktail, another potential major step in the global fight to combat the virus.
* Merck said it signed a supply and purchase agreement that will provide Singapore with access to its experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, as countries move to try to snap up supplies.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Shares fell and government bond yields rose across the world on Wednesday as oil prices hit their highest in seven years, fuelling concerns about rising inflation. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Ireland’s unemployment rate, including people receiving temporary COVID-19 jobless benefits, fell to a fresh pandemic low of 10% in September from 12.4% in August.
* New Zealand’s central bank hiked interest rates for the first time in seven years and signalled further tightening to come, as it looks to get on top of inflationary pressures and cool a red-hot housing market.
(Compiled by Anita Kobylinska and Ramakrishnan M.; Editing by Sriraj and Bill Berkrot)
