The World Trade Organization said risks from the uneven roll-out of coronavirus vaccination campaigns and the possible emergence of vaccine-resistant strains clouded the outlook for the global trade in goods, while raising its growth forecast slightly.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
EUROPE
* All health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against 'no-vax' sentiment.
* President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
* Belgian hospitals have been ordered to reserve 60% of their intensive care beds for COVID-19 patients as a third wave of infections takes hold, doctors said.
* European Union states are expected to receive 107 million doses of vaccines by the end of March, hitting a revised-down target but far below initial plans.
AMERICAS
* Brazil has detected a new COVID-19 variant that is similar to the one first seen in South Africa, the head of Sao Paulo's Butantan institute said.
* Brazil health regulator Anvisa said it approved emergency use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while it rejected a request from the government to import doses of Covaxin, citing a lack of safety data and documentation.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Japan's first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine are coming from plants in the United States, not Europe as initially expected, the company said.
* South Korea said it will issue so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports to immunized citizens.
* India opened up its coronavirus inoculation programme to people above 45 as infections surge, in a move that will delay vaccine exports from the world's biggest vaccine maker.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Nigeria hopes to receive up to 70 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this year through the African Union, its primary healthcare chief told Reuters, amid concerns about delayed deliveries of AstraZeneca shots.
* Egypt received 854,400 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine as part of the global COVAX agreement, the health ministry said.
* Israel plans to administer the Pfizer vaccine to adolescents upon FDA approval, the health minister said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Rates of stillbirth and maternal deaths rose by around a third during the pandemic, with pregnancy outcomes getting worse overall for both babies and mothers worldwide, according to an international data review.
* China's CanSino Biologics said the efficacy rate for its single-dose vaccine may fall over time although it should still have a rate of 50% or more five to six months after inoculation.
* Johnson & Johnson said it had found a problem with a batch of the drug substance for its vaccine being produced by Emergent Biosolutions, and said the batch did not advance to the final fill-and-finish stage.
* Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine was safe and effective and produced robust antibody responses in those aged 12 to 15, paving the way for them to seek approval in the United States and Europe in weeks.
* Europe's medicines regulator said it had not yet identified any risk factors such as age, sex or a previous history of blood clotting disorders, for clotting cases reported after inoculation with AstraZeneca's vaccine.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian stocks were set to edge higher early on Thursday after big tech rallied on Wall Street and as President Joe Biden announced a $2.3 trillion infrastructure investment plan. [MKTS/GLOB]
(Compiled by Veronica Snoj and Milla Nissi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
