FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

The Venice film festival opens on Wednesday with the return of Hollywood stars who largely deserted the event last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as cinema looks forward to shaking off the crisis triggered by the global health emergency. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news EUROPE

* German companies will not be granted the right to find out whether their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19, although provisions could be made for some particularly risky workplaces, the labor minister said. * Italy has broadened usage of its Green Pass health document, making it obligatory for people to have it when traveling on high-speed trains, planes, ferries, and inter-regional coaches.

* France aims to have administered a third vaccine shot to some 18 million people by early 2022, a health ministry official said. ASIA-PACIFIC

* Japan reported a fresh contamination case involving Moderna's vaccine, the fourth such incident in less than a week, threatening to slow the country's sputtering inoculation campaign. * Australian authorities extended the lockdown in Melbourne for another three weeks, as they shift their focus to rapid vaccination drives and move away from a suppression strategy to bring cases down to zero.

* Thailand allowed shopping malls in the capital Bangkok to reopen and restaurants to operate at half capacity, after nearly three months of tough restrictions aimed at containing the country's worst coronavirus outbreak. * Scores of healthcare workers protested in the Philippine capital to demand an end to what they called government neglect and unpaid benefits, as pressure builds at hospitals fighting one of Asia's longest-running coronavirus epidemics.

* A group of drone enthusiasts in Indonesia is using their aerial skills to help during the pandemic by providing a contactless medicine and food delivery service to COVID-19 patients isolating at home. AMERICAS

* Two women have been charged with selling forged COVID-19 vaccination cards through an Instagram account and entering the names of customers into New York state's immunization database, prosecutors said. * Walmart became the latest U.S. retailer to say that it is ready to administer millions of COVID-19 booster vaccine doses this fall if U.S. health officials endorse such a shot to improve fading immunity against the coronavirus.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * After mandating vaccinations for workers and many students - and offering prize money - to nudge a skeptical public to get the jab, Palestinian officials report a big boost in vaccine uptake they hope will stem a surge in COVID-19 infections.

* Nigeria is prioritizing the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the official heading the country's COVID-19 vaccination campaign said when asked whether the Sinopharm shot would be used in the country. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Brazilian researchers have found that a molecule in the venom of a type of snake inhibited coronavirus reproduction in monkey cells, a possible first step toward a drug to combat the virus causing COVID-19. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* World shares climbed on Wednesday, shrugging off economic data that pointed to weak economic growth and starting September on the front foot, while the dollar struggled to move away from three-week lows.