FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

As AstraZeneca agreed to publication of its advance purchase agreement with the European Commission which states the company must use its "Best Reasonable Efforts" to manufacture the EU doses, Europe's medicines regulator recommended approving its vaccine for people over the age of 18.

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 * Germany will impose restrictions on travel from Brazil, Britain, Portugal and South Africa, the countries in which more infectious variants of the coronavirus are in wide circulation, according to a draft government regulation seen by Reuters.

* Sweden's centre-left government will spend 6.8 billion crowns ($817 million) this year to build up primary healthcare services and to train health workers amid ongoing strains caused by the pandemic. * Hungary has agreed to buy 5 million doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, becoming the first European country to do so.

ASIA-PACIFIC * AstraZeneca will file for Japanese approval of its vaccine as early as mid-February, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

* Thailand's plan to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine locally is on track to be ready to begin mass inoculations in June, with a capacity to make up to 18 million doses per month, a senior official said. AMERICAS

* Bolivian doctors are demanding a nationwide lockdown and threatening to stop taking in new patients as a surge in cases, which they say is killing an average of one medic per day, strains hospitals to breaking point. * Confidence in Brazil's services sector has fallen this month, a survey showed, due to a surging second wave of the pandemic and the abrupt end of government cash transfers to millions of poor and vulnerable families.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * Days before vaccinations start in South Africa, medical schemes have still not agreed how and to what extent they will contribute to the cost of inoculations for people without insurance cover, industry executives told Reuters.

* Russia's sovereign wealth fund said Guinea had approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for domestic use, becoming the second African country to do so. * Saudi Arabia has postponed the end of a ban on travel for its citizens and the reopening of its ports from March 31 to May 17, the state news agency SPA said.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * Johnson & Johnson said its single-dose vaccine was 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a large global trial against multiple variants, giving health officials another weapon to tackle the pandemic.

* The European Commission is in negotiations with Novavax about the number of vaccines it is going to order from the U.S. company, Germany's Health Minister Jens Spahn said. * Swiss drugmaker Novartis has signed an initial agreement to provide manufacturing capacity for Pfizer and Biontech's vaccine, a move aimed at helping boost production as supplies fall shy of demand.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * U.S. stock futures and European stocks fell on Friday while the safe-haven dollar held its ground as a Wall Street battle between hedge funds and retail investors and a row in Europe over COVID-19 vaccine supply cooled risk appetite.

* Oil prices edged up but traded in a tight range as demand concerns caused by new coronavirus variants and slow vaccine rollouts offset a cut in Saudi Arabian oil supply and falling U.S. oil inventories. * Exports of rough diamonds mined by the Debswana Diamond Company fell 30% in 2020, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed, as the pandemic hit demand and global travel restrictions impacted trading.

(Compiled by Veronica Snoj, Charles Regnier, and Aditya Soni; editing by Louise Heavens and Angus MacSwan)