DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* Bavaria's premier warned of a fourth wave in Germany this autumn, while Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to get vaccinated to avoid overwhelming the health care system.
* The German government will stop offering free coronavirus tests from Oct. 11 to encourage more vaccinations, sources said.
* Austria plans to start vaccine booster shots on Oct. 17, nine months after the first group of people to get the jabs received their second dose, its health minister said.
* Britain on Tuesday reported its highest daily COVID-19 death toll since March.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Police in Thailand fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who took to the streets of Bangkok amid anger over the government's handling of the pandemic, while the cabinet approved an additional $433.2 million support for frontliners.
* South Korea recorded more than 2,000 new coronavirus infections in the last 21 hours, Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday, an almost 50% increase from the previous day and a new record high.
* East Timor has recorded its first case of community transmission of the Delta variant.
* Australian authorities vowed to crank up policing of anti-COVID lockdown rules in Sydney, but dismissed suggestions that tougher measures, including a curfew, were needed after the city reported its biggest single-day new case number yet.
AMERICAS
* Two and a half million people so far have bought U.S. health insurance through online marketplaces after the Biden administration allowed more time to enrol amid COVID-19, the White House said.
* Senior U.S. and Mexican officials will meet on Tuesday to discuss plans to reopen their shared border, and Washington has agreed to send Mexico up to 8.5 million more vaccine doses, Mexico's foreign minister said.
* Moderna said it had agreed with the Canadian government to start domestic production of mRNA vaccines.
* France's overseas territory of Martinique will enter a tougher lockdown for three weeks from Tuesday.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* South Africa's national treasury is predicting a decline in the number of top taxpayers, as the pandemic spurs emigration from the debt-laden country.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* The U.S. National Institutes of Health said it had launched a new study to assess how patients on immunosuppressive therapy after kidney transplant, who did not respond to the first two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, respond to a third dose.
* South Korea gave vaccine developer SK Bioscience the green light on Tuesday for a Phase III study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate at a time of vaccine shortages, when a spurt in infections is fuelling demand.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global equity markets strengthened Tuesday, while anticipation of earlier tapering of bond buying by the Federal Reserve pushed U.S. 10-year Treasury yields to their longest rising run in six months.
* Investor sentiment in Germany deteriorated for the third month in a row in August on fears that rising COVID-19 infections and a fourth wave could hold back recovery, a survey showed.
* The Philippine economy grew at its fastest annual pace in over three decades in the second quarter, but tighter curbs are clouding the outlook, reinforcing an accommodative monetary stance.
