FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

Europe's fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies intensified on Thursday when the European Union warned drug companies such as AstraZeneca AZN.L that it would use all legal means or even block exports unless they agreed to deliver shots as promised.

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 * The World Health Organization's Europe director said vaccine manufacturers were working non-stop to plug shortfalls in supplies to countries struggling to contain the pandemic, and urged them not to jostle for deliveries.

* Multiple French regional agencies suspended first inoculation appointments amid shortages, while the health minister said a curfew was not sufficient. * Switzerland said Moderna had warned of vaccine delivery delays, leading to shortfalls in February that it expects Moderna to make up in March.

* Germany is preparing entry bans for travellers from Britain, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa. * British police detained a man after a suspicious package was sent to one of AstraZeneca's supply partners.

ASIA-PACIFIC * India's prime minister said the country would release more locally made vaccines as New Delhi continues to save lives in other countries by exporting medicines and vaccines.

* Vietnam's worst single-day coronavirus outbreak, its first cases for nearly two months, gatecrashed the Communist Party's coronation congress. * A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the pandemic left quarantine in Wuhan to begin field work, two weeks after arriving.

AMERICAS * U.S. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will begin work on a COVID-19 relief package as early as next week.

* Mexico's president is doing "very well" and is in the process of "full recovery", a few days after he tested positive for the virus, the interior minister said. * Chile received a first shipment of almost two million Sinovac vaccine doses and plans to roll it out across the country next week.

* Russia dispatched 240,000 Sputnik V vaccine doses, with most heading to Argentina and the rest bound for Bolivia. * Domestic flights to and from Colombia's Amazonas capital Leticia will be suspended for two weeks over concerns about a new coronavirus strain circulating in Brazil.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * The African Union secured another 400 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine in a push to immunize 60% of the continent's population over a three-year period.

* The more contagious UK variant has been detected in Senegal, just as measures appeared to have stalled a recent surge. * A man was killed in Lebanon's Tripoli in clashes between security forces and protesters angry over a strict lockdown.

* Bahrain received its first delivery of AstraZeneca's vaccine, state media said. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* The EU is recommending a second dose of Pfizer's vaccine be given three weeks after the first, as countries look to stretch scarce supplies. * AstraZeneca's vaccine provides reassuring immune responses in elderly people, England's health authority said, after Germany recommended the shot be given only to under-65s.

* AstraZeneca is prepared to publish its EU vaccine contract, FAZ reported. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Wall Street headed for a mixed start with investors preparing for the latest snapshot of economic growth and any signs that a big squeeze in shorted stocks has more to run. * The U.S. economy contracted at its sharpest pace since World War Two in 2020 as COVID-19 depressed consumer spending and business investment, pushing millions of Americans out of work and into poverty.

* Global debt likely reached 98% of economic output at end-2020 as governments poured in nearly $14 trillion in fiscal support, the IMF said, while urging that fiscal support stay in place until recovery is firmly underway. (Compiled by Sarah Morland; Editing by Mark Heinrich)