FILE PHOTO/REUTERS
The United States, Canada and Mexico are reporting overall reductions in COVID-19 cases and deaths, though overall new infections are on the rise again in the rest of the Americas, Carissa Etienne, head of the Pan American Health Organization, said on Wednesday.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was nothing in the data to suggest England's COVID restrictions couldn't end on June 21, but he remains cautious as it is unclear how protected the population would be against a new surge.
* It is too risky to lift France's COVID-19 restrictions more quickly than planned, since some regions are showing a big jump in COVID cases, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said.
* The number of new COVID-19 cases in France held below 10,000 for the second day in a row on Wednesday. French teenagers aged 12 to 18 will be allowed to get a COVID-19 vaccine injection from June 15.
* Spanish regions with a low coronavirus infection rate will be allowed to reopen nightlife before herd immunity is achieved, which is expected by mid-August, the health minister said.
* Portugal will allow restaurants to stay open past midnight from mid-June and will lift a work from home order.
* Britain is in talks with AstraZeneca for additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine that will have been modified to better target the Beta coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.
* Russia has administered at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to more than 18 million people, around 12% of the population, the TASS news agency cited Health Minister Mikhail Murashko as saying.
AMERICAS
* Canada's chief medical officers said the country should seek to administer second COVID-19 vaccine doses as soon as possible as inoculation supply rises and variants spread.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* More than 100 Jews from India's northeastern Manipur state have had to delay plans to emigrate to Israel as family members fell ill with COVID-19 and were placed in quarantine in New Delhi.
* Climbers returning from Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks are struggling to find a return flight back home after Nepal banned most air travel to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases, mountaineering operators and hikers said.
* Singapore will allow usage of the coronavirus vaccine of China's Sinovac Biotech under its special access route, the city-state said.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Kuwait has approved GSK and Vir Biotechnology's Sotrovimab as a treatment for coronavirus, state news KUNA reported.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) has the capacity to provide more than 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world beyond China in the second half of this year, the firm's chairman Liu Jingzhen said.
* The chairman of the GAVI vaccine alliance, Jose Manuel Barroso, said that a pledging summit secured nearly $2.4 billion, bringing total contributions nearly to $9.6 billion for the COVAX dose-sharing program to buy vaccines and deliver them to poorer nations.
* An inhalation version of CanSino Biologics' COVID-19 vaccine is being tested in a Phase II clinical trial, Chief Executive Yu Xuefeng said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* U.S. stocks seesawed as global equities markets firmed on Wednesday ahead of a closely watched Federal Reserve report investors will devour to glean insights into how companies are coping with rebounding consumer demand.
* Expectations for India's economic growth are being revised sharply lower as a surge in people losing their jobs and defaulting on debt suggest a more halting recovery from the financial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.
