FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

* Austria's lockdown for people not fully vaccinated will end on Monday because the pressure on hospitals has eased, the government said. ASIA-PACIFIC * South Korea's daily new cases exceeded 13,000 for the first time, as the government seeks to revise its anti-virus response to focus on Omicron. * Hong Kong may not reopen until early 2024 because of its strict COVID-19 policies, which could trigger an exodus of foreign firms and staff and jeopardise the city's role as a financial hub, its European Chamber of Commerce said in a draft report.

Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania all hit their highest coronavirus infection rates of the pandemic, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, but were reluctant to impose sweeping curbs to limit the spread. 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. AMERICAS

* New cases of COVID-19 in the Americas in the past week have been the highest since the pandemic began and the fast spreading Omicron variant has clearly become the predominant version of the virus, the Pan American Health Organization said. * The United States has shipped 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses as part of its earlier pledge to donate about 1.2 billion doses to low-income countries, the White House said.

EUROPE * British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected opposition calls to resign for attending parties during lockdown but accepted that a rule that ministers should lose their jobs if they had knowingly misled parliament applied to him.

* The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, which has become dominant in Denmark, appears more contagious than the BA.1 subvariant, the country's health minister said. * German lawmakers agonised over whether to impose compulsory COVID-19 shots, as record daily infections and the country's stuttering vaccination campaign forced them into an ethical and constitutional dilemma.

* The French vaccine strategy council told the French government that giving people a fourth vaccine dose would not bring significant advantages, newspaper Le Monde reported. * Sweden will extend its current pandemic measures by another two weeks, the minister for health said, as the Omicron variant is spreading at record speed.

* Denmark aims to scrap all remaining domestic restrictions next week. * Austria's lockdown for people not fully vaccinated will end on Monday because the pressure on hospitals has eased, the government said.

ASIA-PACIFIC * South Korea's daily new cases exceeded 13,000 for the first time, as the government seeks to revise its anti-virus response to focus on Omicron.

* Hong Kong may not reopen until early 2024 because of its strict COVID-19 policies, which could trigger an exodus of foreign firms and staff and jeopardise the city's role as a financial hub, its European Chamber of Commerce said in a draft report. * Beijing reported 14 local confirmed cases, the highest daily count in its current outbreak, just over a week before the start of the Winter Olympics there.

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST * Turkey recorded 77,434 new cases, just shy of the record touched two weeks ago.

* Uganda wants to curb its borrowing and boost exports in sectors such as meat and dairy as the East African country lifts restrictions triggered by the pandemic, President Yoweri Museveni and government officials told Reuters. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* The world's first medical trial authorised to deliberately expose participants to the coronavirus is seeking more volunteers as it steps up efforts to help develop better vaccines. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* U.S. stocks rebounded in initial trading ahead of a Federal Reserve policy update. * The Bank of Canada will soon starting hiking interest rates from record lows to combat inflation, Governor Tiff Macklem announced, saying the economy no longer needed help to deal with the effects of the pandemic.

* OPEC+ will probably stick with a planned increase in its oil output target for March when it meets on Wednesday next week, several sources from the producer group said, as it sees demand recovering despite downside risks from the pandemic and looming interest rate rises.