(Reuters) – Australia will begin administering booster shots of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine from Monday as millions in its largest city, Sydney, woke up to more freedom amid an accelerating immunisation drive against the coronavirus.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* The three German parties working to agree on a coalition government by early December will present proposals to combat a raging fourth wave of the pandemic in the country on Monday, daily newspaper Die Welt said.
* Italy reported 31 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday compared with 51 the day before, the health ministry said. It reported 6,764 new infections, the exact same figure as the previous day.
* Russia on Saturday reported 41,335 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day case tally since the start of the pandemic.
AMERICAS
* The United States is preparing for long lines and delays on Monday when restrictions are lifted on non-U.S. citizen international travellers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, a senior official told Reuters on Friday.
* A U.S. federal appeals court issued a stay Saturday freezing the Biden administration’s efforts to require workers at U.S. companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested weekly, citing “grave statutory and constitutional” issues with the rule.
* Mexicans who need to cross the U.S. land border for work or school are scrambling to get approved COVID-19 vaccines ahead of new rules set to go into effect next week, 20 months after the United States shut crossings for non-essential trips.
* Costa Rican children aged five and up must get COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a new health ministry mandate, making the Central American country one of the first to adopt such a requirement for kids.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* New Zealand’s 206 new daily community infections on Saturday carried it past the double-hundred mark for the first time during the pandemic, as the nation scrambles to vaccinate its population of 5 million.
* South Korea has agreed to buy 70,000 courses of Pfizer’s experimental antiviral COVID-19 pill, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Saturday.
* Japan recorded no daily deaths from COVID-19 for the first time in more than a year on Sunday, according to local media.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Pfizer’s experimental antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 cut by 89% the chance of hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of severe disease, the company said on Friday, as its CEO vowed to make this promising new weapon in the fight against the pandemic available globally as quickly as possible.
* The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it had authorised the use of two more batches of Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose COVID-19 vaccine manufactured at the problem-plagued Baltimore factory of Emergent BioSolutions
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* China’s export growth slowed in October but beat forecasts, helped by booming global demand ahead of winter holiday seasons, an easing power crunch and an improvement in supply chains that had been badly disrupted by the pandemic.
(Compiled by Rashmi Aich; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta)
