(Reuters) – The U.S. agency in charge of the Biden administration’s new rules requiring COVID-19 vaccination at many private workplaces faces stiff challenges in developing and enforcing the mandate.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals here for a case tracker and summary of news
AMERICAS
** Additional COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are not needed for the general population, leading scientists including two departing senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials and several from the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an article published in a medical journal on Monday
** The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday warned against travel to Afghanistan, Albania, Serbia, Belize, Lithuania and four other destinations because of COVID-19 concerns.
EUROPE
* Britain is set to expand the offer of a COVID-19 vaccine to all 12- to 15-year-olds, after top medical advisers said on Monday that children would benefit from reduced disruption to their education.
* Russia will resume passenger flights with Spain, Iraq, Kenya and Slovakia from Sept. 21, and will increase the number of airports with flights to Turkey and Egypt.
* Slovenia will, from this week, require that all people who enter indoor spaces, with few exceptions, be vaccinated against COVID-19 or show negative tests unless they have had the disease in the previous six months.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Singapore’s number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients doubled to a record 54 on Sunday from two days before, raising unexpected hurdles to reopening plans for the vaccination frontrunner, where 81% of the population is fully vaccinated.
* India is worried that growing complacency as infection rates and deaths decline could lead to people skipping their second vaccine shots, leaving communities vulnerable to the virus, said two health experts briefed on the matter.
* Vietnam’s outbreak epicentre Ho Chi Minh City will extend its restrictions, state media reported, as Hanoi and several provinces sought an easing of curbs and the aviation authority proposed domestic flights resume.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi has received his first dose of the Moderna vaccine, after a six-month wait caused by his unwillingness to take the AstraZeneca shot.
* South Africa will ease restrictions and shorten its nationwide curfew after a decline in infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Drugmaker Merck & Co Inc said on Monday it sees potential U.S. emergency use authorization for its experimental COVID-19 antiviral treatment, molnupiravir, before year-end.
* Shanghai-based Everest Medicines 1952.HK said it signed a licence agreement with Providence Therapeutics to make and sell the Canadian biotechnology company’s potential mRNA COVID vaccines in some Asian countries including China.
* Valneva shares plunged 35% after the French drugmaker said the British government had ended a 1.4 billion euro COVID-19 vaccine supply deal.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* World stock markets edged lower on Monday on worries over inflation and moves to tax the world’s biggest companies, as investors awaited U.S. consumer inflation data due out Tuesday. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Oil prices rose to six-week highs on Monday as U.S. output remains slow to return two weeks after Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast and worries another storm could affect output in Texas this week.
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