(Reuters) – South Korea’s prime minister said on Friday the country will lift its quarantine requirement for foreign arrivals without vaccination from June 8 and also start lifting aviation regulations imposed for international flights.
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.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* North Korea reported 82,160 more people showing fever symptoms amid its nationwide lockdown to stop the impoverished economy’s first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, state media KCNA said on Friday.
* China reported 157 new coronavirus cases on June 2, of which 37 were symptomatic and 120 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
EUROPE
* Britain’s Prince Andrew has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss a thanksgiving service being held for Queen Elizabeth to mark her 70 years on the throne, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.
* Moderna said it has agreed to push back some COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the European Union by several months to later in 2022 or early next year.
AMERICAS
* The White House expects vaccinations of young children to begin in earnest as early as June 21, if federal authorities approve their use in coming weeks, White House COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha said.
* The United States supports international offers of humanitarian aid to help North Korea battle its COVID-19 outbreak, and will not link that to denuclearisation issues, a top U.S. diplomat said.
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
* The European Investment Bank (EIB) has committed 75 million euros ($80 million) to finance construction of a new facility in Senegal that will produce COVID-19 and other vaccines for use across Africa.
* Deaths on the African continent from COVID-19 are expected to fall by nearly 94 percent in 2022 compared to last year, modelling by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Pfizer Inc’s antiviral treatment Paxlovid reduces COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients 65 years and older, according to a new study in Israel conducted during the rise of the Omicron variant.
* Bristol Myers Squibb said on Thursday its drug Orencia did not show statistically significant results in speeding up recovery in COVID-19 patients versus a placebo in a late-stage study.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* California port leaders expect imports to rise as Shanghai, home to the world’s busiest seaport, emerges from a two-month COVID-19 lockdown.
(Compiled by Shailesh Kuber and Olivier Sorgho; Editing by Catherine Evans and Sriraj Kalluvila)
