FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

The European Union is pushing AstraZeneca to supply the bloc with more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine after the company announced delivery delays, while global coronavirus cases surpass 100 million.

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 * Switzerland will require negative coronavirus tests from people entering the country from high-risk areas as of Feb. 8, the government said, while cranking up spending to help cushion the pandemic's economic blow.

* A factory in Wales that produces AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine was partially evacuated after it received a suspicious package and police said a bomb disposal unit was dealing with the incident. * The coronavirus pandemic is on the decline in Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said as he abolished some COVID-19 restrictions, allowing bars, restaurants and nightclubs to open overnight.

* A meeting between AstraZeneca and the European Union to discuss COVID-19 vaccine supplies scheduled for Wednesday was postponed by the firm by a day, Austria's health minister said. ASIA-PACIFIC

* The city of Beijing tightened curbs on inbound travellers ahead of the peak Lunar New Year travel season kicking off on Thursday, requiring negative COVID-19 test results even from individuals arriving from China's low-risk areas. * Pakistan will launch its vaccination drive next week, starting with front-line health workers, a government minister said.

* Japan's vaccination roll-out faces logistical hurdles that could further delay the slow-moving campaign, experts and officials say, complicating plans to deliver wide-scale coronavirus inoculations in time for the Olympics. * Nepal launched its largest immunisation campaign with its first coronavirus vaccinations for medical workers, following a gift of one million doses from neighbour India.

* China recorded its lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases in more than two weeks, with the country administering about 22.8 million doses of coronavirus vaccines. AMERICAS

* The Biden administration is "actively looking" at expanding mandatory COVID-19 testing to travelers on U.S. domestic flights, a senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said. * Chile's health regulator approved the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use among its population by a unanimous vote of its advisory board.

* Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said emergency use of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine should be authorized within days. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Bahrain will suspend dine-in services at restaurants and cafes and move public and private schools to remote learning for three weeks to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the health ministry said. * South Africa has given fast-track approval to AstraZeneca's vaccine for emergency use and is reviewing applications by rival manufacturers Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson , the medicines regulator said.

* President John Magufuli said that Tanzania did not need a coronavirus lockdown because God would protect his people and homespun precautions such as steam inhalation were better than dangerous foreign vaccines. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* AstraZeneca Plc will license Japanese biotechnology company JCR Pharmaceutical, to produce some 90 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to help Japan avoid shortages and delays, the Nikkei newspaper reported. * The COVAX vaccine sharing platform expects to have 25 million vaccine doses for the Eastern Mediterranean region in March, rising to 355 million doses by December, a World Health Organization official said.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * Stocks fell and the dollar rose as investors turned more cautious about COVID-19 and stretched stock valuations, with the U.S Federal Reserve meeting and a glut of corporate earnings also in focus.

* Oil prices ticked up as a massive drawdown in U.S. crude inventories countered persistent concerns about the coronavirus pandemic weakening fuel demand. (Compiled by Bartosz Dabrowski and Jagoda Darlak)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)