FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

The European Commission is working on legal proceedings against AstraZeneca after the drugmaker cut COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the European Union, sources familiar with the matter said, while India reported on Thursday 314,835 new cases of the coronavirus over the previous 24 hours, the highest daily increase recorded anywhere.

The European Commission is working on legal proceedings against AstraZeneca after the drugmaker cut COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the European Union, sources familiar with the matter said, while India reported on Thursday 314,835 new cases of the coronavirus over the previous 24 hours, the highest daily increase recorded anywhere.

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 the news. EUROPE

* The European Commission said it was considering all options to ensure that AstraZeneca met its commitments with the EU on deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines. * Germany wants to buy up to a total of 30 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in June, July and August as long as the European drugs regulator gives the shot the green light, the premier of the state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, said on Thursday in Moscow.

* Hungary is expected to reopen restaurant terraces and shorten a night curfew from Saturday as the vaccination campaign allows for a further reopening of the economy, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday. AMERICAS

* A U.S. plant that was making JNJ's vaccine must fix a long list of problems including peeling paint, shoddy cleanups and poorly-trained staff to resume operation, according to a highly critical report by the FDA. * U.S. President Joe Biden announced tax credits for certain businesses that pay employees who take time off to get vaccines.

ASIA-PACIFIC * Pfizer is in discussions with India and is committed to making its COVID-19 vaccine available for deployment in the country, the U.S. drugmaker said.

* Some hospitals in the Indian capital of New Delhi have run out of oxygen, putting lives at risk, the city's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said. * In Japan, three prefectures neighbouring Tokyo will request a renewed state of emergency to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.

* Japan is also expected to issue a third state of emergency in Tokyo itself and three western prefectures including Osaka and Kyoto that could last for about two weeks. * Malaysia's government enacted a new emergency law allowing it to use funds derived from oil and gas contributions to pay for vaccine procurement, as it looks to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination programme.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * Syria's government have received its first delivery of COVID-19 vaccines through the global COVAX initiative, with almost 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca shot, U.N officials said.

* South African researchers hope to next week resume a study using JNJ's vaccine to immunize healthcare workers, one of the scientists leading the programme said. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* India's only domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, has been found to be 78% effective in the second analysis of clinical trials done around the country, its makers said. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Global stocks ground higher while oil ebbed on Thursday as markets were torn between betting on economic recovery in the United States and other developed markets or worrying about a surge in COVID-19 cases in countries such as India. * Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced new tax measures to help the economy recover from the effects of the pandemic, cutting the basic business tax rate by two percentage points to 22% from next year.

 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)