(Reuters) – Germany weighed whether to allow a delay in administering a second dose of BioNTech and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to make scarce supplies go further, and Denmark approved a delay of up to six weeks.
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EUROPE
* Britain began vaccinating its population with AstraZeneca’s vaccine in a world first, and its prime minister is set to lay out further measures amid rising cases from the new variant.
* France’s health minister said “several thousand” people will be vaccinated on Monday versus just over 500 in total in the past week.
* Spain’s Catalonia region tightened restrictions, Scotland ordered people to stay at home and Germany headed towards extending its lockdown until Jan. 31.
* The European Commission is in talks with Pfizer and BioNTech about the possibility of ordering more vaccine doses.
AMERICAS
* Dozens of migrant refuges in Mexico have closed their doors or scaled back operations in recent weeks to curb ravages of the coronavirus, exposing people to greater peril with migration on the rise again.
* Private Brazilian clinics plan to buy 5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Indian company Bharat Biotech, their association said on Monday, one day after India’s health regulator gave it emergency use approval.
* Colombia’s capital Bogota will implement strict two-week quarantines in three neighbourhoods beginning on Tuesday to try to control a second wave.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Japan said it would consider declaring a state of emergency for the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area as cases climb, casting news doubts over whether it can push ahead with the Olympics and minimise economic damage.
* Indonesia’s mass vaccination programme is set to start next week, a senior minister said, pending authorisation as about 700,000 doses have already been widely distributed.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Parents worried as children queued through Nairobi’s biggest slum to enter classrooms for the first time since March, when the government closed schools after Kenya reported its first case.
* eSwatini aims to vaccinate all its 1.3 million people against COVID-19 and will set aside at least $14 million to do so, senior officials said.
* Dubai Airports and GMR Hyderabad have agreed a logistics deal for COVID-19 vaccine distribution to handle up to 300 tonnes of vaccines per day, the companies said.
* Coronavirus restrictions, reduced remittances, locusts, floods and significant underfunding of the 2020 aid response are exacerbating hunger in Yemen.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* British scientists expressed concern that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in Britain may not be able to protect against a new variant that emerged in South Africa and has spread internationally.
* The European Medicines Agency held early meetings that could decide to recommend approving Moderna’s vaccine, a spokesperson said.
* Moderna said would produce at least 600 million doses of its vaccine in 2021.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* World stock markets hit record highs on Monday, the first trading day of the new year, as investors hoped the rollout of vaccines would ultimately lift a global economy decimated by the pandemic. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Chile’s economic activity grew in November for the first time since the pandemic struck, the central bank said.
* The Bank of Israel expects the economy to rebound quickly in 2021 if the country’s fast start to vaccinating people is maintained, the central bank said.
* Egypt’s tourism sector is eying a gradual recovery after revenues plunged by nearly 70% in 2020, the tourism minister and travel companies said.
(Compiled by Sarah Morland; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
