USTRALIA CORORN(Reuters) – Health authorities in Australia’s Victoria state ramped up contact tracing and prepared for more mass testing of residents in Melbourne after a new COVID-19 cluster linked to a quarantine hotel grew to ten cases on Thursday.
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
* Germany will extend restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus until March 7, though schools and hair salons may open sooner, Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of the 16 federal states agreed on Wednesday.
* Germany is considering moving school teachers and daycare staff up the priority list for vaccinations against COVID-19.
* The first two cases of the new Brazilian variant of the coronavirus were detected in Portugal on Wednesday, broadcaster SIC said, two weeks after all flights to and from the South American nation were suspended.
* Spain said that people under the age of 55 without major health complications who have previously contracted coronavirus will have to wait six months from their diagnosis before receiving a vaccine.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* China reported the fewest number of new COVID-19 cases in over five months, official data showed on Thursday, after a combination of robust countermeasures helped stamp out a new wave of the disease in the northeast that emerged last month.
* Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has assured his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that India would do its best to supply Canada with vaccines to fight the pandemic.
AMERICAS
* Mexico has authorized emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac and CanSino COVID-19 vaccines.
* Argentina topped two million COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, health officials said, as the country scrambles to ramp up a vaccination program in a race against time to tame the virus ahead of the fast-approaching southern hemisphere autumn.
* President Joe Biden said he wants to know all the facts when asked about “punishing” China for possibly not fully disclosing information on the coronavirus.
* Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez asked the World Health Organization to make the Central American nation a priority in deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines, citing the devastating effects of two hurricanes.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Zimbabwe has purchased 600,000 COVID-19 vaccinations from China’s Sinopharm, in addition to 200,000 China has donated, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said.
* Pfizer said it could deliver its COVID-19 vaccine, which requires ultra-cold temperatures for storage and distribution, directly to points of vaccination in South Africa.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Merck & Co said it was in talks with governments and companies to potentially help with manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines that have been already authorized.
* Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is in talks with COVID-19 vaccine makers to co-produce some shots, Chief Executive Officer Kare Schultz told Reuters.
* Eli Lilly’s combination antibody therapy to fight COVID-19 has been granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares rested at record highs on Thursday as investors digested recent meaty gains, while bulls were sustained by the promise of endless free money after a benign reading on U.S. inflation and a dovish Federal Reserve outlook. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Malaysia’s economy fell at a faster-than-expected clip in the fourth quarter, as stricter coronavirus curbs crimped domestic consumption and slowed the pace of recovery.
(Compiled by Aditya Soni and Amy Caren Daniel; Edited by Anil D’Silva and Shounak Dasgupta)
