(Reuters) – New Zealand’s borders fully reopened to visitors from around the world on Monday, for the first time since the pandemic closed them in March 2020.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* Eikon users, click on COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Macau will reopen public services and entertainment facilities, and allow dining-in at restaurants from Tuesday, authorities said, as the world’s biggest gambling hub seeks a return to normalcy after finding no COVID-19 cases for nine straight days.
* China reported 393 new coronavirus cases for July 31, of which 84 were symptomatic and 309 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.
* North Korea reported no new fever cases on Saturday for the first time since its acknowledgement of a COVID-19 outbreak in the isolated country in mid-May, state-run media reported.
EUROPE
* British employers are their most pessimistic about hiring and investment since the depths of the pandemic crisis due to surging inflation and an acute shortage of workers to fill jobs, a survey showed.
AMERICAS
* U.S. President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again on Saturday in what the White House doctor described as a “rebound” case seen in a small percentage of patients who take the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
* Moderna said it has signed an agreement with the U.S. government to supply 66 million doses of its bivalent booster vaccine that targets the Omicron variants of the coronavirus.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Spiez Laboratory was tasked last year by the World Health Organization to be the first in a global network of high-security laboratories that will grow, store and share newly discovered microbes that could unleash the next pandemic.
* People at high risk of severe disease who have yet to get a second COVID-19 booster should not wait for next-generation, Omicron-targeted vaccines expected in the fall, five vaccine experts told Reuters.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Japan’s manufacturing activity expanded at the weakest rate in 10 months in July, as pressure from rising prices and supply disruptions hurt output and new orders, suggesting a solid post-pandemic economic recovery is still some way off.
* China’s factory activity expanded at a slower pace in July, as growth momentum softened in output, new orders and employment, a private sector poll showed on Monday.
* Australian home prices slid for a third month in July and the pace quickened as Sydney suffered its worst decline in almost 40 years amid rising borrowing costs and a cost-of-living crisis.
* South Korea’s exports grew at a faster annual pace in July as robust demand from the United States offset weak sales to China, though the trade and broad economic outlook was clouded by slowing global growth amid rapidly rising borrowing costs.
(Compiled by Rashmi Aich; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta)
