(Reuters) – Some of Shanghai’s 25 million people managed to get out on Tuesday for short walks and shopping after enduring more than a month under a COVID-19 lockdown, while China’s capital, Beijing, focused on mass tests and said it would keep schools closed.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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EUROPE
* The four main parties to negotiations on an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines have prepared an “outcome document” for approval by the broader membership, the WTO said on Tuesday, with its chief hoping for a final deal by June.
* Poland has no “coherent rationale” to invoke force majeure in an existing contract in order to stop paying for more COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, a European Commission official told Reuters.
AMERICAS
* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday recommended travelers continue to wear masks in airplanes, trains and airports despite a judge’s April 18 order declaring the 14-month-old transportation mask mandate unlawful.
* Costa Rica will offer a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to the immunocompromised and to those over 50.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* The central Chinese city of Zhengzhou announced on Tuesday it would impose new COVID-related movement curbs for May 4-10.
* Beijing will postpone school reopening for at least one week after the labour day holiday, an official said at a press briefing on Tuesday. The date when schools can resume will be decided after studying the COVID situation in the city.
* Taiwan announced on Tuesday it was cutting to seven days from 10 mandatory quarantine for all arrivals, its latest relaxation of the rules to try to live with COVID-19 and resume normal life even as the number of domestic infections spikes.
* India registered about 475,000 more total deaths in 2020 than the previous year, government data released months ahead of schedule on Tuesday showed, as the World Health Organization readies its estimates of excess COVID-19 deaths whose methodology New Delhi has opposed.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
* 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
* Asthma in children may worsen after an infection with the coronavirus, doctors warn.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Pfizer Inc maintained sales forecasts for its pandemic products on Tuesday after a series of hikes to revenue projections for its COVID-19 vaccine last year, in a sign that dizzying growth has slowed.
* Oil prices fell by more than 2% on Tuesday as demand worries stemming from China’s prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns outweighed the prospect of a European embargo on Russian crude.
* Shanghai authorities helped Tesla transport over 6,000 workers and carry out necessary disinfection work to reopen its factory last month amid the city’s lockdown, according to a letter that Tesla sent to local officials and seen by Reuters.
(Compiled by Shailesh Kuber and Sherry Jacob-Phillips; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Anil D’Silva)
