FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

Total U.S. COVID-19 cases surpassed 18 million on Tuesday as health officials tried to tamp down fears about a new, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

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 * France will reopen its borders to passengers from England on Wednesday, ending a blockade intended to stop the spread of a new coronavirus variant, but which has held up thousands of lorries before Christmas.

* Sweden's government is rushing to put forward a temporary pandemic bill that would give it powers to shut shops, private museums and by law limit the number of people in gatherings, news agency TT reported. * Ireland will shut restaurants, pubs and some shops on Christmas Eve and they may not open again until early March amid "enormous concern" for older people from a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases, the government said.

AMERICAS * President Donald Trump signed a stopgap measure to fund U.S. agencies for another week while Congress passed a massive COVID-19 aid and government funding package aimed at bolstering the nation's pandemic response and its battered economy.

* The U.S. government does not intend to impose COVID-19 screenings for passengers traveling from Britain after the emergence of a highly infectious new coronavirus variant there, people briefed on the decision said. * Canada is introducing extra measures to screen people who have spent time in Britain to check for a fast-spreading mutated COVID-19 variant, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told a briefing.

* The first COVID-19 vaccine doses from U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc will arrive in Mexico on Wednesday, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said, paving the way for their application in the country. * Brazil's Sao Paulo state government announced only essential services are allowed to open between December 25 and 27 and between January 1 and 3, amid rising coronavirus cases.

ASIA-PACIFIC * India plans to track down everyone arriving from Britain over the past month, officials said, hoping to stop a more infectious strain of the coronavirus detected there spreading in a country battling the world's second highest COVID-19 tally.

* Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha blamed a spike in coronavirus cases on illegal migration, after the country's biggest outbreak yet saw more than 1,000 infections, mostly among workers from Myanmar at a seafood market near the capital. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Kenya's parliament voted to end tax cuts put in place in April to cushion the economy from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a move lawmakers said would help to plug revenue shortfalls but investors said would hamper a recovery. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc told Reuters its COVID-19 vaccine should be effective against the new coronavirus variant, adding that studies were under way to fully probe the impact of the mutation. * BioNTech is testing the effectiveness of the vaccine it developed with Pfizer against a highly infectious new strain of the coronavirus as it prepares to send 12.5 mln doses to European Union countries by the end of year.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * Lingering concerns over a new variant of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom weighed on a gauge of global equities on Tuesday and sent the euro, British pound and U.S. Treasury yields lower.

* Oil dropped towards $50 a barrel on Tuesday, adding to losses from the previous session, as a mutant variant of the coronavirus in Britain revived concerns over demand recovery. (Compiled by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Veronica Snoj and Jagoda Darlak; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Maju Samuel)