FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

A World Health Organization report probing the origins of COVID-19 ruled out a Chinese lab leak, a claim that the Joe Biden-led U.S. administration has said it would scrutinize.

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

* Britain will require passengers arriving from countries where worrying coronavirus variants are spreading to pay for 10 days of quarantine in hotels, while rule-breakers will face heavy fines or jail terms.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to keep restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus in place until at least March 1, sources told Reuters.

* Austria will require those leaving its Alpine province of Tyrol to show a negative coronavirus test, in an effort to stem an outbreak of a coronavirus variant.

* Europe's oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, has survived COVID-19 and will celebrate her 117th birthday this week, her caregivers said.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* The Indian army is training dogs to find COVID-19 in its ranks by sniffing human sweat and urine.

* The number of newborns in China plummeted 15% in 2020 from a year earlier, with the onset of COVID-19 disrupting the economy and weighing on decisions to have a family.

AMERICAS

* The U.S. government will begin shipping vaccines directly to community health centres around the country next week to speed vaccination and ensure doses are reaching vulnerable populations.

* Canada will oblige citizens returning home overland from the United States to show they do not have COVID-19.

* Peru has launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign with newly arrived doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* South Africa is looking at ways to deploy AstraZeneca's vaccine after temporarily putting on hold plans to roll it out to healthcare workers.

* More than 97% of COVID-19 deaths in Israel over the past month were people who had not been vaccinated, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Johnson & Johnson has applied for a COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization in South Africa and according to a source, is in talks with private Indian drugmaker Biological E to possibly run local trials for its COVID-19 shot.

* A commonly used asthma treatment appears to reduce the need for hospitalizations as well as recovery time for COVID-19 patients, researchers at the University of Oxford said.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Global equity indexes were near unchanged on Tuesday, while bitcoin climbed to another all-time peak, extending gains in the wake of an endorsement from Tesla Inc.

* U.S. layoffs eased in December and job openings increased modestly, suggesting the decline in employment that month was largely due to companies cutting back on hiring amid uncertainty caused by a raging COVID-19 pandemic.

* German exports rose in December as solid trade with China and the United States helped Europe's largest economy as it struggles to grow under the restrictions of a lockdown.