(Reuters) – China reported no new local COVID-19 cases for the first time in more than three weeks, while Japan is gauging the right time to restart a popular subsidised travel programme that was suspended last year.
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
* The European Union’s drugs regulator said people with weakened immune systems should get a third dose of a vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna, but left it to member states to decide if the wider population should get a booster.
* The Kremlin has implored people to get vaccinated, as Russian authorities mulled reintroducing health restrictions to cope with daily cases rising to their highest levels since January.
* Three members of the Vatican Swiss Guards, the elite colourfully dressed corps that protects the pope, have decided to resign rather than be vaccinated, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneva reported.
AMERICAS
* The summer spike in cases fuelled by the Delta variant is likely the last big COVID-19 wave in the United States, but the pandemic is far from over globally, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner has said.
* New York State’s largest healthcare provider has fired 1,400 employees who refused to get vaccinations.
* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday warned against travel to Armenia, Austria, Barbados, Croatia and Latvia.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia will buy 300,000 courses of Merck & Co’s experimental antiviral pill, as Victoria logged the highest number of daily infections of any state in the country since the pandemic began.
* New Zealand will start using vaccine certificates as proof of inoculation at large events and other high-risk settings from next month.
* Tens of thousands of people, mostly migrant workers, left Ho Chi Minh City over the weekend as the largest metropolis in Vietnam eased a months-long lockdown.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Senegal logged only two new daily infections, the lowest number since the pandemic reached the country and two months after the rate of new cases hovered at record highs.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* The effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in preventing infection dropped to 47% from 88% six months after the second dose, according to data that U.S. health agencies considered when deciding on the need for booster shots.
* AstraZeneca said it had submitted a request with U.S. health regulators to grant emergency use authorisation for a new treatment to prevent COVID-19.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares tracked a broad sell-off on Wall Street to weaken for a third straight session on Tuesday, as investors feared oil prices hitting multi-year highs would add to inflationary pressures caused by supply chain disruptions. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Japan’s services sector activity shrank for a 20th straight month in September as the pandemic continued to weigh on sentiment.
* Australia’s central bank held interest rates at a record low for an 11th straight month and sounded ready to keep them there for a few years even as pressure mounts for a hike to cool a red-hot housing market.
(Compiled by Ramakrishnan M., Shailesh Kuber and Juliette Portala; Edited by Lisa Shumaker, Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila)
