FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

New Zealand's largest city of Auckland will remain in lockdown to beat the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, while Australia will expand its vaccination drive to include around one million children aged 12-15. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

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

* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out his plans to manage the pandemic in the winter months, announcing a decision to scrap the introduction of vaccine passports and steps to end some emergency powers. * Chancellor Angela Merkel implored Germans to make use of a week-long COVID-19 vaccination campaign in which people can get a free jab at mosques, shops, and football pitches.

ASIA-PACIFIC * The government of the Australian state of New South Wales said the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations had slowed as first-dose coverage neared 80% and urged the unvaccinated to get shots soon or risk missing out on freedoms when curbs ease.

* Indonesia reported its lowest daily COVID-19 cases since mid-May. AMERICAS

* U.S. President Joe Biden will announce new steps to slow the spread of COVID-19 before the U.N. General Assembly meets, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said. * Top U.S. health officials believe that Pfizer's vaccine could be authorized for children aged 5-11 years old by the end of October, two sources familiar with the situation said.

* Biden will get the COVID booster shot but will wait until it is widely available, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* South Africa will ease restrictions and shorten its nationwide curfew from Monday after a decline in infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address. * More than 2,000 Turks demonstrated in Istanbul on Saturday against official coronavirus-related mandates including vaccinations, tests, and masks, responding to new government measures, and an inoculation push.

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.

* 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. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Asian shares made a sluggish start on Monday to a week packed with major U.S. and Chinese economic data and the launch of Apple's latest iPhones, while the Nikkei was tantalizingly near heights last visited in 1990. * Japan's wholesale inflation hovered near a 13-year high in August as raw material imports continued to rise on solid global demand, data showed, putting pressure on companies to pass on higher costs to households.