More countries detected the mutated variant of the coronavirus, with India reporting its first few cases, while the US House of Representatives approved President Donald Trump’s $2 000 COVID-19 relief checks demand.
EUROPE
* Britain must vaccinate 2 million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has concluded.
* Germany’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign has been overshadowed by an overdose mishap in the north and problems with the transportation of the vaccine in the south which lead to 1 000 shots being sent back.
* The distribution of an initial 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech across the European Union will be completed by September, a spokesperson for the EU Commission said.
AMERICAS
* The US House of Representatives voted 275-134 to meet President Donald Trump’s demand for $2 000 COVID-19 relief checks.
* Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said a COVID-19 vaccine would be available in the country within five days of being approved by federal health regulator Anvisa.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Indian health authorities said they had found six people who had returned from Britain in recent weeks positive for the new more infectious strain of the coronavirus.
* Japan detected a coronavirus variant found in South Africa, the government said.
* International visitors will be barred from entering Indonesia for a two-week period to try to keep out the potentially more contagious variant of the virus.
* South Korea, which saw a record daily death toll on Tuesday, unveiled a fresh 9.3 trillion won ($8.49 billion) package to support small businesses and those vulnerable to unemployment due to COVID-19.
* The Philippines will ban travellers from 19 countries and territories until mid-January to keep out a new variant of the coronavirus.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* South Africa tightened COVID-19 restrictions, banning alcohol sales and extending a nationwide curfew, as infections shot through the 1 million mark owing to a faster-spreading variant of the disease discovered in the country.
* Lebanon has secured about 2 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, which will cover 20% of the country’s nationals, the health minister said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Russia will begin trials of antibody treatment for COVID-19 patients next year, according to the head of the Moscow institute that developed the country’s first vaccine against the disease, Sputnik V.
* Novavax Inc has begun a large late-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, the drug developer said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares jumped on Tuesday, with Japanese stocks hitting a 30-year high, as hopes that a long-awaited U.S. pandemic relief package would be expanded, while a Brexit trade deal supported investor’s risk appetite.
