(Reuters) – South Korea said on Friday it would lift stringent anti-coronavirus curbs on social gatherings next week, as the country prepares to switch to a ‘living with COVID-19’ strategy amid rising vaccination levels.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* Fully vaccinated passengers arriving in England from low-risk countries from Oct. 24 will no longer have to take expensive COVID-19 tests, the British government said.
AMERICAS
* An Illinois nursing facility was fined more than $83,000 for failing to protect its staff from COVID-19, the Labor Department said, the largest penalty under a U.S. healthcare worker safety rule adopted during the pandemic.
* The United States has donated 3.6 million doses of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria, two months after it shipped Moderna vaccines to Africa’s most-populous nation, a local television station reported.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Sydney will allow in fully vaccinated travellers from overseas from Nov. 1 without the need for quarantine, the country’s most populous state said, although the easing of strict entry controls will initially benefit only citizens.
* COVID-19 cases in Australia’s Victoria hovered near record levels, even as authorities look set to lift lockdown restrictions next week in Melbourne.
* New Zealand reported 65 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, with all in locked-down Auckland, as the country readies for a mass immunisation drive on Saturday when it hopes to administer a record 100,000 vaccine doses.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Nigeria has received 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine from the French government through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, a senior health official said on Thursday.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* A panel of expert advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unanimously voted to recommend booster shots of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness or occupational exposure to the virus.
* A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. health regulator will meet late next month to discuss whether to authorize Merck & Co’s experimental COVID-19 antiviral drug, the agency said.
* A unit of Abbott Laboratories is recalling two COVID-19 test kits as they can potentially issue false positive results, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares advanced on Friday, warmed by the embers of a strong day on Wall Street which also supported risk-friendly currencies and hurt the safe-haven yen, though worries about the Chinese economy capped gains. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Federal COVID-19 relief funds provided to states and localities have prevented severe budget cuts and layoffs, bolstered pandemic response efforts and facilitated more longer-term investments across the country, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
* Japan’s economy likely grew at a slower pace than previously expected last quarter and faces ongoing risks from soaring raw material prices and coronavirus-linked production and supply disruptions, a Reuters poll of economists showed on Friday.
* China’s central bank rolled over maturing medium-term loans on Friday and kept their interest rates unchanged, heightening speculation policymakers might need to ease monetary settings to support the economy amid risks from stagflation.
(Compiled by Amy Caren Daniel; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
