New COVID-19 cases continue to decline in North America, but in Latin America infections are still rising, particularly in Brazil where a resurgence has caused record daily deaths.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* England’s $32 billion test and trace system has not made a significant impact on the COVID-19 pandemic and failed its key goals despite its “unimaginable” cost, a British parliamentary committee said.
* The daily number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose on Wednesday to the highest level this year, ten days after President Tayyip Erdogan announced an easing of measures to curb the pandemic.
* The French government is working on a COVID-19 health pass, its spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
* The Maltese government ordered non-essential shops and schools to close amid a surge in COVID-19 cases on the Mediterranean island.
* France reported 30,303 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, rising above 30,000 for the first time in two weeks.
* Bulgaria reported 3,502 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily tally in three months, prompting some regions to again tighten measures to tame the third wave of the pandemic.
* Britain denied an accusation on Wednesday by the European Union that it had banned exports of COVID-19 vaccines, and summoned an EU diplomat to complain.
* The French health ministry said the number of people treated in intensive care units for COVID-19 was unchanged at 3,918, halting a five-day-long increase.
AMERICAS
* The proportion of Americans detained in local jails – where people are locked up awaiting trial or serving sentences for minor crimes – fell to a three-decade low last year as officials raced to ease crowding as COVID-19 spread across the country.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* In a handful of South Korean hospitals, designated nurses are using specially designed syringes to squeeze extra doses of vaccine out of each vial in a bid to stretch the still limited number of vials to cover more people.
* Japan has decided to stage this summer’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics without overseas spectators due to public concern about COVID-19, two government sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Mauritius has gone into lockdown and suspended flights in and out of the island for two weeks following the discovery of 15 more cases of COVID-19, the Mauritius state tourism agency said on Wednesday.
* Morocco and Kenya have approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Preliminary data from a study in Brazil indicates that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd is effective against the P1 variant of the virus first discovered in Brazil, Sao Paulo’s state governor Joao Doria said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in U.S. history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.
(Compiled by Amy Caren Daniel; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta)
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
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