(Reuters) – Some regions in Asia sought to ease COVID-19 restrictions after a steep fall in infections, while some vaccine makers flagged positive outcomes from their Omicron-specific booster doses.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
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ASIA-PACIFIC
* Pakistan’s aviation regulator has made masks mandatory on domestic flights given a gradual rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country.
* Beijing said on Saturday it would allow primary and secondary schools to resume in-person classes and Shanghai’s top party boss declared victory over COVID-19 after the city reported zero new local cases for the first time in two months.
* Shanghai will gradually resume dining-in at restaurants from June 29 in low-risk areas and areas without any community-level spread of COVID-19 during the previous week.
* Macau launched a third round of mandatory COVID-19 testing for its more than 600,000 residents, in a push to curb a rise in infections in the world’s biggest gambling hub.
EUROPE
* French people should start wearing masks again in crowded areas, especially in public transport, as France has to deal with a new wave of COVID-19 infections fuelled by new variants of the disease.
AMERICAS
* Pfizer and BioNTech said a booster dose of updated versions of their COVID-19 vaccine, modified specifically to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant, generated a higher immune response against that variant.
AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST
* China’s Sinovac Biotech said South Africa’s health products regulator granted conditional registration to its coronavirus vaccine, CoronaVac, for people aged 18 and above.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals said a booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate significantly increased antibody response against the Omicron coronavirus variant from levels seen after two primary shots.
* Late-stage data on an experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Sanofi and GSK has showed the shot confers protection against the Omicron variant of the virus, the companies said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Profits at China’s industrial firms shrank at a slower pace in May following a sharp fall in April, as activity in major manufacturing hubs resumed, but COVID-19 restrictions still weighed on factory production and squeezed factory margins.
* H&M has shut its flagship Shanghai store, its latest closure in China where consumer demand has slumped amid COVID-19 lockdowns and the fast-fashion retailer has borne the brunt of a backlash against companies that refuse to use Xinjiang cotton.
(Compiled by Uttaresh.V and Aditya Soni; Edited by Subhranshu Sahu and Shounak Dasgupta)
