FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

Three U.S. studies suggest COVID-19 vaccines offer strong protection against hospitalization and death, even in the face of the highly transmissible Delta variant, but vaccine protection appears to be waning among older populations, especially among those 75 and older. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

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* Former French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn has been put under formal investigation over her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a court official told Reuters. * Germany removed the Greek regions of Crete and the southern Aegean as well as the French regions of Corsica and Occitania from its list of regions where there is a high risk of contracting COVID-19, the public health agency said.

* Italy's medicines agency AIFA warned against the misuse of an unlicensed antiviral drug as a COVID-19 therapy, calling it a potential danger to people's health. ASIA-PACIFIC

* Singapore's health ministry reported 568 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest since August 2020. * China will give three more million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam by the end of this year, raising China's total vaccine donations to the Southeast Asian country to 5.7 million doses, the Vietnamese government said.

AMERICAS * President Joe Biden wants the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to have all the resources it will need to enforce the employer vaccine mandate he unveiled on Thursday, the White House said.

* Republicans vowed to fight U.S. President Joe Biden's new vaccine mandate covering big companies and federal employees, but business groups that often agree with them on issues like taxes are not joining in. * U.S. heath regulators said children in clinical trials testing COVID-19 vaccines should be monitored for at least two months for side effects, suggesting that the agency is considering a quicker path to authorize the shot for emergency use than full approval.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * The United Arab Emirates said residents who had been fully vaccinated with a shot approved by the WHO could return as of Sept. 12 from a list of previously suspended countries.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * BioNTech is set to request approval across the globe to use its COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as five over the next few weeks and preparations for a launch are on track, the biotech firm's two top executives told Der Spiegel.

ECONOMIC IMPACT * Wall Street main indexes reversed early gains on Friday after data showing persistent U.S. inflation offset expectations of an easing in U.S.-China tensions after a call between President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping.

* U.S. producer prices increased solidly in August, leading to the biggest annual gain in nearly 11 years, suggesting that high inflation is likely to persist for a while as the unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic continues to pressure supply chains. (Compiled by Amy Caren Daniel; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)