(Reuters) – An official at the European Union’s drugs regulator said the COVID-19 pandemic was not over, contradicting U.S. President Joe Biden, and that a planned vaccination campaign in the region during the cold season was key to fighting it.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Japan’s government is considering allowing hotels to refuse entry to guests who do not wear masks and follow other measures to control infection during an outbreak, Fuji News Network said.
* China reported 747 new COVID-19 infections on Sept. 20, compared with 789 new cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.
AMERICAS
* Canada’s federal government will likely drop its COVID-19 vaccine requirement for people entering the country at the end of the month, a government source said.
* U.S. federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against 47 people they accuse of stealing about $250 million from a federal aid program meant to help feed children during the pandemic.
* The pandemic remains a global emergency but the end could be in sight if countries use the tools at their disposal, a spokesperson for the World Health Organisation said.
EUROPE
* France’s HAS health authority followed the European Union’s drug regulator and cleared two separate COVID-19 vaccine boosters updated to target the Omicron variant.
VACCINES, TREATMENTS
* Global vaccine alliance GAVI has set up financial instruments that will allow the group to immediately access pledged donor funding if it needs to buy vaccines for future pandemics, its chief executive told Reuters.
* Two COVID-19 antibody therapies are no longer recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), on the basis that Omicron and the variant’s latest offshoots have likely rendered them obsolete.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected on Wednesday to lift interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for a third straight time and signal how much further and how fast borrowing costs may need to rise to tame a potentially corrosive outbreak of inflation.
* Canada’s annual inflation rate eased more than expected in August even as food prices rose at their fastest pace in 41 years, data showed, with economists saying now smaller rate hikes may be best.
(Compiled by Devika Syamnath and Olivier Sorgho; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
