FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

* Taiwan is taking a cautious approach but at the moment sees only a "relatively small" impact on its economy from both COVID-19 lockdowns in eastern China around Shanghai and the war in Ukraine. * Malaysia will ease more COVID-19 curbs from the start of next month, including lifting restrictions on those who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus and scrapping the need to wear masks outdoors.

Millions of people in Beijing took their second COVID-19 tests of the week on Wednesday as the Chinese capital tried to keep an outbreak numbering in the dozens from spiralling into a crisis like the one the locked-down city of Shanghai is enduring. 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. ASIA-PACIFIC

* A leading lobby group for global financial services firms has urged Shanghai authorities to let hundreds of exhausted staff go home after a month-long strict COVID-19 lockdown that has kept them in office buildings. * Taiwan is taking a cautious approach but at the moment sees only a "relatively small" impact on its economy from both COVID-19 lockdowns in eastern China around Shanghai and the war in Ukraine.

* Malaysia will ease more COVID-19 curbs from the start of next month, including lifting restrictions on those who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus and scrapping the need to wear masks outdoors. * New Zealand's once lauded COVID-19 response took a hit when a High Court judge ruled a system used to allocate places in border quarantine facilities infringed on some citizens' right to return home.

EUROPE * European Union governments should ramp up COVID-19 immunisations of children, the European Commission said while presenting its strategy to move away from the emergency phase of the pandemic, which includes plans to develop antivirals.

* The European Commission said that between 60% and 80% of the EU population was estimated to have been infected with COVID-19. AMERICAS

* The Biden administration outlined its plan to tackle border security, pushing back against criticism that it is unprepared for a late-May deadline to lift COVID-19 restrictions that have blocked asylum seekers and other migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border since early 2020. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Pfizer and BioNTech said that they had submitted an application to the U.S. health regulator for the authorisation of a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Industrial firms including GE, chipmakers such SK Hynix and automaker Mercedes Benz warned that China's strict COVID-19 curbs were intensifying supply chain disruptions and raising uncertainty about the business outlook. * Profits at China's industrial firms grew at a faster pace in March from a year earlier, despite the negative impact on the economy from COVID-19 outbreaks and the Ukraine war. [nL2N2WP049

(Compiled by Aditya Soni and Vinay Dwivedi; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila)