(Reuters) – The World Health Organization called for all countries to work together to investigate the origins of the coronavirus that caused COVID-19, a day after China rejected plans for more checks on labs and markets in its territory.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* Hungary’s government has decided to make vaccinations mandatory for healthcare workers, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
* Riot police fired teargas at demonstrators who blocked the entrance to Slovakia’s parliament as deputies debated legislation that would give people who have been vaccinated easier access to public spaces and events than those who have not.
* Croatia has decided to tighten coronavirus controls along its Adriatic coast in an effort to safeguard its summer tourist season, the interior minister said.
* British plans to roll out daily contact testing within the food supply chain could cover up to 10,000 people, the environment minister said.
* The prevalence of infections in England is estimated to have risen to 1 in 75 people in the week to July 17, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said.
* Spain’s vaccine rollout has begun to slow the spread of infections and the country is getting ready for a booster third dose, the health minister said.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Tokyo Olympics organisers are grappling with a shortage of testing kits needed for their daily testing programme, broadcaster NHK reported.
* Indonesia reported a record daily number of deaths, but the government is already talking about relaxing social curbs enacted earlier this month.
* Vaccinated people accounted for three-quarters of Singapore’s infections in the last four weeks, government data showed.
* Vietnam will extend a strict lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City until August 1, state media reported.
* The Philippines will suspend travel from Malaysia and Thailand, as well as tighten restrictions in the Manila area, the presidential spokesperson said.
* China is delivering two million vaccine shots to Myanmar this week to help fight a growing outbreak in the border area, officials said.
* Australia’s New South Wales state reported 136 new infections, its biggest daily rise in new cases this year.
* New Zealand will pause its quarantine-free travel arrangement with Australia for at least eight weeks starting Friday night, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
AMERICAS
* Pfizer and German partner BioNTech said the U.S. government had purchased 200 million additional doses of their vaccine.
* The Kremlin said Russia would resolve delays in deliveries of the Sputnik V vaccine to Argentina, but that its priority was to satisfy domestic demand.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Turkey’s new cases have doubled in just over two weeks to 9,586 on Thursday, its highest since May 19, according to an official tally.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Sinopharm’s vaccine was less effective in offering protection against the disease among the elderly, according to the results of a Hungarian study.
* Bharat Biotech has terminated a memorandum of understanding to sell its vaccine Covaxin to Brazil’s Precisa Medicamentos, the Indian company said.
* Australia’s drug regulator has approved Pfizer’s vaccine for use with 12 to 15-year-olds, the federal health minister said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* World stock markets perked up after a volatile week in which sentiment over the global economic outlook waxed and waned with each new headline on the Delta variant.
* Sterling fell after a survey showed Britain’s economic rebound slowing sharply in July.
(Compiled by Juliette Portala and Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Frances Kerry)
