Russians may soon be able to receive vaccines not registered in the country from clinics set up in a special economic zone, Russian Kommersant daily reported, as Russia reported another new record of deaths.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* Pupils will from Oct. 4 no longer have to wear protective face masks in French primary schools in areas with a low COVID-19 infection rate, according to a government decree.
* The number of daily new infections in Ukraine rose to almost 12,000 over the past 24 hours for the first time since April, health ministry data showed.
* The European Union will extend a mechanism to monitor and potentially limit the export of COVID-19 vaccines from the bloc, an EU official said on Wednesday.
AMERICAS
* Six Argentina players and two staff have been kicked out of the Rugby Championship for breaching its health rules after taking an unauthorised day trip to the New South Wales resort of Byron Bay, competition organisers said.
* Brazil's Butantan biomedical institute is in talks to sell a locally manufactured vaccine developed by China's Sinovac to other countries in South America and Africa.
* Los Angeles officials on Wednesday signalled they would vote next week to prohibit unvaccinated people from entering most businesses in the United States' second-largest city.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Singapore's health ministry reported 2,478 new cases on Thursday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.
* Malaysia said it would now be mandatory for all federal government employees to be vaccinated, with exceptions to be allowed only on health grounds.
* Vietnam's commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City will start relaxing its curbs, officials said, allowing more business and social activities.
* Melbourne's cases surged to record levels with officials blaming illegal home gatherings to watch a key sporting event for the spike.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Only 15 of Africa's 54 nations have fully vaccinated 10% of their populations against COVID-19 and many frontline health workers remain at risk, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Council of Nurses (ICN) said.
* Somalia's first public oxygen plant opened on Thursday, a ray of hope for a country where a lifesaving treatment for the coronavirus has been largely unavailable to patients during the pandemic.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* When the coronavirus infects cells, it not only impairs their activity but can also change their function, new findings suggest. Laboratory studies also show that Merck & Co's experimental oral antiviral drug is likely to be effective in patients infected with any of the known variants, researchers said on Wednesday.
* AstraZeneca's vaccine demonstrated 74% efficacy at preventing symptomatic disease, according to results of its U.S. clinical trial published on Wednesday.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global stock markets continued to regain ground on Thursday and the dollar stayed close to a one-year high on growing expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will tighten policy in the coming months.
* The European Commission proposed extending looser state aid rules for virus-hit companies for six months to June 2022 in a bid to slowly wean them off the billions of euros provided by governments across the European Union.
* The United Arab Emirates is set for a gradual economic recovery, thanks in part to its strong response to the coronavirus crisis and a rebound in tourism, but the risk of a pandemic resurgence clouds the outlook.
