(Reuters) – Australia will lift one of the toughest international border restrictions on its citizens next month, while neighbouring New Zealand logged more Delta coronavirus infections in its capital city.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* Russia reported 887 coronavirus-related deaths, the largest single-day death toll it has recorded since the pandemic began and the fourth day in a row it has set that record.
* Nine people died when a fire broke out in an intensive care unit at a Romanian hospital treating COVID-19 patients, officials said, the country’s third deadly hospital fire in less than a year.
* Pupils will from Oct. 4 no longer have to wear protective face masks in French primary schools in areas with a low COVID-19 infection rate, according to a government decree.
* The European Union will extend a mechanism to monitor and potentially limit the export of COVID-19 vaccines from the bloc, an EU official said.
AMERICAS
* Los Angeles officials signalled they would vote next week to prohibit unvaccinated people from entering most businesses in the United States’ second-largest city.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia’s Victoria state has included professional athletes in a vaccination mandate that will require about 1.25 million “authorised workers” to have two COVID-19 shots by the end of November.
* The Serum Institute of India, which produces the AstraZeneca vaccine, will resume small exports via the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX this month and raise it substantially by January, its head told The Telegraph.
* South Korea extended social distancing curbs for two weeks, offering more incentives to people to get vaccinated as it battles thousands of new cases each day.
* Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical said that “human error” caused metal contaminants to get into Moderna vaccine doses, leading to a recall.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has eased restrictions to the lowest alert level, as the country looks to open up its economy ahead of the summer holiday season.
* Egypt received 1.6 million doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer as a gift from the United States as part of the COVAX initiative, the first batch of a total of 5 million doses.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Israel’s Health Ministry has identified fewer than 10 cases of heart inflammation following a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine among millions administered, according to recently released data.
* Malaysia has given conditional approval for a vaccine made by China’s Sinovac to be used on young people aged between 12 and 17.
* It is safe for people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu shot at the same time and it does not negatively impact the immune response produced by either, a British study has found.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* European stocks sank to two-month lows on Friday after slides in Asia and on Wall Street, with euro zone inflation data expected to hit a 13-year high to compound investor fears over surging prices combining with stuttering growth.
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* Euro zone manufacturing growth remained strong in September but activity took a big hit from supply chain bottlenecks that are likely to persist and keep inflationary pressures high, a survey showed on Friday.
* Japan’s factory activity grew at the slowest rate in seven months in September as overall output and new orders shrank, even as a central bank survey showed business mood improved for the fifth straight quarter.
(Compiled by Veronica Snoj and Ramakrishnan M.; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Angus MacSwan)
