The World Health Organization has said safety is paramount in vaccine clinical trials and temporary suspensions are not unusual, after AstraZeneca suspended its global coronavirus vaccine trial because of an unexplained illness in a participant.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.
* Eikon users, see MacroVitals cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
EUROPE
* Spanish bar, restaurant and nightclub owners gathered in central Madrid to ask the government for tax cuts and support.
* Germany is likely to switch to coronavirus travel warnings for individual countries after Oct. 1, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
* The Czech Republic reported its largest one-day surge in infections, with 1,164 new cases.
* Georgia has banned weddings and other types of public ceremony from Sept. 10 and postponed theatre and cinema openings.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Indonesia’s capital will reinstate widespread social restrictions as cases and deaths increase and hospitals fill up, its governor said.
* Yoshihide Suga, on course to become Japan’s next prime minister, said he would maintain incumbent premier Shinzo Abe’s policy of prioritising economic growth over efforts to fix battered state finances.
* Malaysia expanded its entry ban to the United States, Britain and France among others, the Bernama news agency reported.
AMERICAS
* Deaths in the United States were approaching 190,000 on Wednesday as new cases jumped, with states such as Iowa and South Dakota emerging as new hotspots.
* Mexico’s finance minister said the government’s 2021 growth estimate of 4.6% was not over-optimistic, and did not depend on the development of a vaccine.
* In Argentina, where there have been more than 500,000 cases, the pandemic is rippling out from the capital to less well-equipped provinces.
* Venezuela’s president proposed administering a Russian vaccine to nearly 15,000 candidates in upcoming legislative elections so that they can campaign safely.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* A deal signed by the Kenyan government to lease medical equipment in a $580 million deal was a “criminal enterprise” that flooded hospitals with overpriced, unnecessary equipment, a senate committee said in a report.
* Zimbabwe’s biggest nurses’ union said it was encouraging its members to end a pay strike that started in June and forced major hospitals to turn away patients.
* A Lagos charity is trying to salvage slum schooling in Nigeria, while authorities say schools – shut in March – could soon begin a phased reopening.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* All countries should join hands in a global effort to procure and distribute potential vaccines, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
* The European Commission said it had entered final-stage talks with BioNTech-Pfizer to buy up to 300 million doses of a potential vaccine.
* Russia’s sovereign wealth fund will sell 32 million doses of the potential vaccine ‘Sputnik-V’ to a top pharmaceutical company in Mexico, a source said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global equity benchmarks rebounded and the dollar dipped Wednesday after a three-day sell-off in U.S. tech stocks that erased more than 10% from the Nasdaq Composite Index.
* Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a record high, a U.N. report showed, as the economic slowdown had little long-term effect.
* The stalling of a global economic recovery is leading to a fresh build-up of oil supplies, pushing traders to book tankers to store millions of barrels of crude oil and refined fuels at sea again.
(Compiled by Sarah Morland; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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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