(Reuters) – Russia on Thursday reported 20,182 new COVID-19 cases, the most confirmed in a single day since Jan. 24, amid a wave of infections that authorities blame on the Delta variant and people’s reluctance to get vaccinated.
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
* Drugmaker Moderna hopes to be able to deliver the COVID-19 vaccines it has promised to Germany faster than originally planned, Dan Staner, its European head, was quoted as telling the WirtschaftsWoche weekly.
* Germany expects everyone willing to be vaccinated to have received a first dose of a COVID-19 shot by the end of July or early August, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff said.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, reported a double-digit rise in new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the third straight day as officials fight to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.
AMERICAS
* Mexico will donate over 400,000 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses on Thursday to the so-called Northern Triangle Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the Mexican foreign ministry said.
* Brazil registered a single-day record of 115,228 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, as its outbreak shows new signs of accelerating despite long-delayed vaccination efforts finally gaining steam.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* South Africa’s health regulator said it had received documentation for China’s Sinopharm vaccine and will evaluate the data to assess the efficacy of the shot.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* The U.S. National Institutes of Health said it had begun a study to evaluate the immune responses generated by COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant or postpartum women.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global shares edged up on Thursday, while the U.S. dollar steadied below an 11-week high as investors reassessed U.S. Federal Reserve statements on inflation and looked to upcoming data for direction. [MKTS/GLOB]
* German business morale rose by more than expected in June as companies’ assessment of current conditions improved and their optimism increased about the second half of the year in Europe’s largest economy, a survey showed.
* Austria’s economy will grow faster than expected this year as COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the end to pandemic restrictions are accelerating the recovery, the WIFO institute said, predicting a return to pre-crisis levels this summer.
* Japan’s corporate services prices rose at the fastest annual pace in eight months in May, data showed, adding to growing signs the world’s no. 3 economy is gradually emerging from last year’s devastating impact of the pandemic.
(Compiled by Jagoda Darlak and Aditya Soni; Edited by Arun Koyyur and Philippa Fletcher)
