(Reuters) – Nearly a dozen countries resumed use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots on Friday as EU and British regulators said its benefits outweighed any risks. Reports of rare instances of blood clotting had temporarily halted inoculations.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* Germany’s health minister said rising infections could mean that curbs to slow the spread of the virus may have to be re-imposed.
* A French government spokesman said there was no reason for France to reject the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, as Paris and parts of the north entered a month-long lockdown.
* French prime minister will get the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday.
* Hungary can start the first stage of easing restrictions once another million citizens have been vaccinated, the prime minister said.
* Greece considers lifting some restrictions as part of a plan for gradually re-opening its fragile economy.
* Britain will slow its vaccine rollout next month due to a supply crunch caused by a delay in a shipment of millions of AstraZeneca shots from India and the need to test a large batch.
AMERICAS
* The United States plans to send roughly 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, bowing to pressure to share vaccine with its allies.
* The Canadian province of Ontario is entering a third wave of the pandemic, Chief Medical Officer David Williams said, though he added that it was not clear how quickly infections would rise.
* Cuba’s drug regulatory authority on Thursday approved a second COVID-19 vaccine candidate for late-stage clinical trials.
* As Brazil’s outbreak spirals out of control, the country is facing a dangerous new shortage, threatening to drive fatalities even higher: lack of staff in intensive care units.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia welcomed the European drug regulator’s decision to back the AstraZeneca vaccine after a safety investigation as authorities ramp up the country’s immunisation drive next week.
* India’s infections surged to more than a three-month high, led by a record daily increase in the western state of Maharashtra.
* South Korea’s capital, Seoul, will scrap a controversial order for all foreign workers to be tested, after an outcry sparked complaints by embassies and a human rights probe.
* The Philippines recorded a record daily increase in infections, as authorities tightened curbs in Manila and approved Russia’s Sputnik V for emergency use. A first batch will be supplied in the first half of April.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Tanzania’s new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, said the country should unite and avoid pointing fingers after the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, a COVID-19 sceptic.
* The African Union said African countries should continue to use AstraZeneca’s vaccine, echoing WHO by saying the shot’s benefits outweighed risks.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* The European Medicines Agency said it had concluded the AstraZeneca vaccine’s benefits outweighed possible risks, but said a link between the shot and rare cases of brain blood clots could not be definitively ruled out.
* India’s Stelis Biopharma has partnered with Russia’s sovereign fund to make at least 200 million doses of Sputnik V.
* Johnson & Johnson is developing several next-generation vaccines against emerging variants of the virus, its CEO said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* U.S. bond yields edged off the 14-month highs reached the day before as markets looked to a U.S. economic recovery, while oil stabilised after a 7% slide. [MKTS/GLOB]
(Compiled by Federico Maccioni, Milla Nissi and Aditya Soni; editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Larry King)
