FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

French medical regulator HAS said it had approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for France's vaccination rollout, while China will suspend direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely over fears of a new, more transmissible variant of the coronavirus, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

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 * French President Emmanuel Macron is showing no more symptoms of COVID-19, the Elysee office said.

* Russia reported a record one-day tally of 29,935 new cases on Thursday as well as 635 deaths from the virus, the most confirmed in a single 24-hour period since the pandemic began. * Denmark has identified 33 infections with the new variant of the coronavirus that has been spreading rapidly in parts of Britain.

* Prime Minister Ana Brnabic received Serbia's first COVID-19 vaccine shot, kicking off a mass inoculation drive with doses developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. * The prevalence of cases in England jumped again in the week to Dec. 18, with around 645,800 people, or 1-in-85, estimated to be infected, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

AMERICAS * Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives aim to win quick passage of legislation providing $2,000 in direct payments to Americans as part of a coronavirus economic relief initiative after President Donald Trump unexpectedly insisted on the provision.

* U.S. states, facing a backlog in administering coronavirus vaccines, are asking medical and nursing students, and even firefighters, to help give the shots and free up healthcare workers battling a raging pandemic at overcrowded hospitals. * The first 10,000 doses of a 10-million order of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine reached Chile on Thursday, with inoculations of health workers in the hardest-hit provinces to begin immediately.

* Mexico plans to begin inoculating health workers against COVID-19 on Thursday with the arrival of the first vaccines. ASIA-PACIFIC

* South Korea has signed deals with Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen to import coronavirus vaccines to cover up to 16 million people. * Indonesia has banned travellers from Britain and tightened the rules for those arriving from Europe and Australia to try to limit the spread of a new coronavirus variant.

* China's capital Beijing on Thursday issued a series of coronavirus-related advisories ahead of the peak travel season from New Year's Day to the Chinese Lunar New Year in February, but it stopped short of imposing draconian restrictions. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Israel will impose a third national lockdown to fight climbing COVID-19 infections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. * Eritrea has reported its first death from COVID-19, its information ministry said.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * Moderna Inc expects that the immunity induced by its COVID-19 vaccine would be protective against the coronavirus variants reported in Britain.

* Altimmune Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had put a clinical hold on its application to begin human testing of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, AdCOVID. * Brazilian researchers said the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech is more than 50% effective based on preliminary data, but withheld full results of their late-stage trial again at Sinovac's request.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * Stocks rallied and the British pound gained on Thursday as Britain and the European Union closed in on a free trade deal and investors wagered on a global economic recovery.

* Worries over a resurgent coronavirus pandemic and upcoming U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia are clouding the outlook for what has historically been a seasonally strong period for equities. (Compiled by Charles Regnier, Aditya Soni and Krishna Chandra Eluri and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Alex Richardson)