(Reuters) – China’s commercial capital of Shanghai was dealt a blow on Monday as authorities reported 58 new COVID-19 cases outside quarantine areas while Beijing pressed on with testing millions of its people on a May Day holiday few were celebrating.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* The protracted lockdown in Shanghai is slowing China’s normally booming meat trade, with stringent COVID-19 measures causing logistics logjams across the food industry in a sign of the broadening disruptions to business.
* China’s lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19 are “cruel” and Taiwan will not follow suit, Premier Su Tseng-chang said.
EUROPE
* Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats said they intend to strengthen unemployment benefit in 2022, an election year, at a cost of around 5 billion Swedish crowns ($509.2 million) by making some temporary benefits introduced during the pandemic permanent.
* Greece lifted COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday for foreign and domestic flights, its civil aviation authority said, ahead of the summer tourism season that officials hope will see revenues bouncing back from the pandemic slump.
AMERICAS
* Giant online retailer Amazon.com Inc will end its paid time-off policy for employees with COVID-19 from May 2, the company told U.S.-based staff.
* U.S. President Joe Biden had “constructive” talks with Mexican counterpart President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the White House said, as officials on both sides of the shared border fret about lapsing immigration restrictions.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
* U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday urged debt relief for African countries and more investment to help their economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and weather the impacts of the Ukraine war.
* Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccination plant, touted last year as a trailblazer for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts, risks shutting down after receiving not a single order, a company executive said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Moderna Inc’s chief medical officer said the company’s vaccine for children under 6 years old will be ready for review by a Food and Drug Administration panel when it meets in June.
* Pfizer Inc said a large trial found that its COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid was not effective at preventing coronavirus infection in people living with someone infected with the virus.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Japan’s manufacturing activity grew at a slower pace from the previous month in April as supply chain disruptions and strict Chinese coronavirus lockdown measures hurt overseas demand.
* China’s factory activity shrank at the sharpest pace in 26 months in April amid escalating COVID-19 lockdowns, a private-sector survey showed, adding to the gloom facing the world’s second-largest economy.
(Compiled by Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
