(Reuters) – AstraZeneca <AZN.L> has resumed British clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development, after receiving the green light from safety watchdogs, the company said on Saturday.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.
* Eikon users, see MacroVitals cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who is set to become prime minister this week, said on Sunday there was no limit to the amount of bonds the government can issue to support an economy hit by the pandemic.
* India reported a record daily jump in coronavirus cases for a second consecutive day, logging 97,570 new infections on Saturday, data from the federal health ministry showed.
EUROPE
* France has had 10,561 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, health authorities said on Saturday, a new daily record as the number topped 10,000 for the first time. The jump highlights a resurgence of the disease in France.
* Authorities will reinforce restrictions on spectators on Tour de France climbs situated in coronavirus “red zones” to avoid mass gatherings, organisers said on Saturday.
* Princess Leonor, the heir to the Spanish throne, has gone into quarantine after a classmate at her school tested positive for COVID-19, the royal household said.
AMERICAS
* President Donald Trump’s administration has expelled about 8,800 unaccompanied migrant children intercepted at the U.S.-Mexico border since March 20 under rules seeking to limit the coronavirus spread in the United States, according to court documents filed Friday by the Justice Department.
* Cuban state media reported on Saturday interprovincial transportation would be shut down and a curfew in Havana extended until the end of the month as a surge in COVID-19 cases in the capital spreads to other areas.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* The U.N. refugee agency is stepping up efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 among tens of thousands of Syrians in camps in Jordan after the first cases were confirmed last week, the head of the agency in the country said on Saturday.
* The Iranian rial fell to a new low against the U.S. dollar on Saturday as the economy reels under the pandemic and U.S. sanctions.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> and BioNTech SE <22UAy.F> on Saturday proposed to the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand their Phase 3 pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial to about 44,000 participants while increasing the diversity of the trial population.
* U.S. hospitals have turned down about a third of their allocated supplies of the COVID-19 drug remdesivir since July as need for the costly antiviral wanes.
* U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co Inc <MRK.N> has begun recruiting participants to its early-stage COVID-19 vaccine study, according to the government database clinicaltrials.gov.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* As COVID-19 grounds swaths of airline fleets, companies that profit off the dismantling and trade of aircraft parts are seeing early signs of an expected rebound in activity as carriers accelerate plane retirements.
(Compiled by Frances Kerry)
