(Reuters) – Beijing closed some public spaces and stepped up checks at others on Thursday, as most of the city’s 22 million residents embarked on more COVID-19 mass testing aimed at averting a Shanghai-like lockdown.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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ASIA-PACIFIC
* Shanghai is making more resources available to improve vaccination rates among the elderly as daily case numbers decline and it looks for a way out of four weeks of stringent lockdown restrictions.
* Malaysia will ease more COVID-19 curbs from the start of next month, including lifting restrictions on those who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus and scrapping the need to wear masks outdoors.
* Nepal is putting a 21st-century spin on a tourism sector dominated by activities unchanged for generations as it looks to boost a vital part of an economy decimated by the pandemic and soaring import bills.
EUROPE
* European Union governments should ramp up COVID-19 immunisations of children, the European Commission said while presenting its strategy to move away from the emergency phase of the pandemic, which includes plans to develop antivirals.
* The European Commission said that between 60% and 80% of the EU population was estimated to have been infected with COVID-19.
AMERICAS
* U.S. President Joe Biden will limit how much time he spends at the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner on Saturday as he works to limit his potential exposure to the coronavirus.
* Formula One race directors Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich have both tested positive for COVID-19, raising questions about who will take charge of next week’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix, British media reported.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Pfizer and BioNTech said that they had submitted an application to the U.S. health regulator for the authorisation of a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* The head of South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team said his government would compensate 5.5 million owners of small businesses for losses suffered from COVID-19 curbs.
* Industrial firms including GE, chipmakers such SK Hynix and automaker Mercedes Benz warned that China’s strict COVID-19 curbs were intensifying supply chain disruptions and raising uncertainty about the business outlook.
(Compiled by Aditya Soni, Vinay Dwivedi and Uttaresh.V; Edited by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta)
