(Reuters) – Disruptions in basic health services such as vaccination programmes and treatment of diseases like AIDS were reported in 92% of 129 countries, a World Health Organization survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic showed on Monday.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* Sweden has decided to lift entry restrictions for foreign nationals travelling to the country from Nordic countries and the rest of the European Union and European Economic Area from Wednesday.
* Several German states are planning to loosen coronavirus restrictions despite rising infections, officials said.
AMERICAS
* Police in Canada’s capital said on Monday they had seized thousands of litres of fuel and removed an oil tanker as part of a crackdown to end an 11-day protest against COVID-19 measures, adding truck and protester numbers had fallen significantly.
* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against travel to six countries including Japan, Cuba, Libya, Armenia, Oman and the Democratic Republic of Congo over COVID-19 cases.
* Mexico’s health ministry reported on Monday 9,242 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 206 more deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the country since the pandemic began to 5,160,767 and the death toll to 309,752.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday the Asian financial hub would stick to a “dynamic zero” COVID-19 strategy to contain the virus as authorities face their biggest test yet to control a record number of infections.
* The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee said on Tuesday that a total of six new COVID-19 cases were detected among games-related personnel on Feb. 7.
* Australia’s COVID-19 hospital cases and people admitted to intensive care continued to trend lower on Tuesday as authorities urged people to get their vaccine boosters to prevent serious illness and deaths from the coronavirus.
* The COVID-19 pandemic will not end with the Omicron variant and New Zealand will have to prepare for more variants of the virus this year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday in her first parliamentary speech for 2022.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
* Botswana’s 2021-22 budget deficit has widened to 5.1% of GDP as the country uses funds to finance its recovery from the pandemic, its finance minister said, adding the economy’s rebound remained strong.
* Nigeria has received 2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine from Finland, Greece and Slovenia, with more EU donations set to arrive in the coming weeks, government officials said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Novavax Inc said on Monday U.S. government funding for its COVID-19 vaccine had been expanded to cover a late-stage study in adolescents with a booster component.
* Restoring normal population mobility to “COVID-zero regions” like China will cause some 2 million deaths in a year and the key to controlling the virus is developing vaccines that are better at preventing infection, Chinese researchers said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares reversed early gains, with investors in Chinese stocks unsettled by U.S. moves against 33 Chinese entities, with markets otherwise waiting for U.S inflation data that could influence how fast the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. [MKTS/GLOB]
* British consumers slowed the pace of their spending last month as the Omicron COVID-19 wave hit fuel sales and kept people away from bars and restaurants, according to a survey which also pointed to the impact of rising inflation.
* Supplies of vegetables were running low in Hong Kong on Tuesday, with shoppers scrambling to buy whatever they could find, as the government blamed a resurgence of COVID-19 for a drop in deliveries of fresh produce from the mainland.
* The major aluminium-producing Chinese city of Baise reported on Tuesday its third straight day of rising local COVID-19 infections with the outbreak in the locked-down city likely to compound worries about disruption to supplies of the metal.
(Compiled by Shailesh Kuber and Krishna Chandra Eluri; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Arun Koyyur)
