FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

* Shortfalls in COVID-19 vaccine deliveries from U.S. drugmaker Moderna have spread across Europe, as Italy joined France and Switzerland in announcing the company's shipments for February would miss expectations. * Germany will impose restrictions on travel from Brazil, Britain, Portugal and South Africa.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo allowed New York City's restaurants to resume limited indoor dining, while hotspots of COVID-19 infection in the European Union will be labelled "dark red" zones to discourage all but essential travel.

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 * Europe's medicines regulator approved AstraZeneca and Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18.

* The European Commission's contract with AstraZeneca to supply COVID-19 vaccines includes Britain along with the EU as places where the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker should make its best efforts to manufacture vaccines for the EU. * Shortfalls in COVID-19 vaccine deliveries from U.S. drugmaker Moderna have spread across Europe, as Italy joined France and Switzerland in announcing the company's shipments for February would miss expectations.

* Germany will impose restrictions on travel from Brazil, Britain, Portugal and South Africa. * Ambulances under police escort rushed three intensive-care patients from overstretched Lisbon hospitals to a military base to be airlifted to the island of Madeira.

* Italy would ease coronavirus restrictions across much of the country from Monday, despite warnings from health experts that the move was risky. ASIA-PACIFIC

* A World Health Organization-led team of experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited a hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was one of the first to treat patients in the early days of the outbreak. * Thailand's plan to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine locally is on track to be ready to begin mass inoculations in June.

AMERICAS * Canada's major airlines have agreed to suspend all flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30.

* Power outages in Rio de Janeiro may have spoiled hundreds of doses of COVID-19 vaccines, city health officials told Reuters. * Ecuador's chief prosecutor's office opened an investigation into Health Minister Juan Carlos Zevallos for alleged influence peddling in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination.

* Bolivian doctors are demanding a nationwide lockdown and threatening to stop taking in new patients as a surge in cases strains hospitals to breaking point. 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.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * Johnson & Johnson said its single-dose vaccine was 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 in a large global trial against multiple variants.

* Swiss drugmaker Novartis has signed an initial agreement to fill vials for Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine. * The European Commission is in negotiations with Novavax about the number of vaccines it is going to order from the U.S. company.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * Global stocks fell as a battle on Wall Street between hedge funds and retail investors and a row over COVID-19 vaccine supply in Europe cooled risk appetite.

* U.S. President Joe Biden said Congress needs to take immediate action on his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal, adding that most economists believe additional economic stimulus is needed. * U.S. consumer spending fell for a second straight month in December amid renewed business restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 and a temporary expiration of government-funded benefits for millions of unemployed Americans.

(Compiled by Aditya Soni, Veronica Snoj and Charles Regnier; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)