FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

* Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine was 73.2% effective in preventing COVID-19 among children aged 6 months through four years, new data from the companies showed on Tuesday, two months after the U.S. rollout of the shots began for that age group. * Moderna on Tuesday sought U.S. authorization for its COVID-19 booster shot tailored against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron and said if cleared it would be ready to deliver the doses in September.

China's unemployment insurance payouts rose 256.6% year-on-year, hitting a record high in June and adding to signs of a struggling labour market as the economy has been badly hit by COVID-19 outbreaks and a property crisis. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* Eikon users, click on COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news. cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098 EUROPE

* German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach ruled out further lockdowns or school closures this autumn, as the government approved stricter mask rules on trains and planes from October. * AstraZeneca may not stay in the vaccine business in the long run, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday, showing how quickly fortunes have changed for the drugmaker that produced one of the first COVID-19 shots but has since lost out to rivals.

ASIA-PACIFIC * China will unveil more measures to support the economy, including increasing funding support for infrastructure projects and ramping up support for private firms and technology companies, state media quoted the Cabinet as saying.

* Japan will waive pre-departure COVID-19 tests for vaccinated travellers to the country, but daily caps on entrants will remain in place, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. * Singapore will do away with requirements to wear masks indoors starting Aug. 29, as the country sees its COVID-19 situation stabilise further, the health minister said on Wednesday.

AMERICAS * U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce that the government will forgive $10,000 in student loans for many of the country's debt-saddled college-goers, sources inside and outside the administration say.

* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 accounted for 4.3% and 88.9% of the total COVID-19 cases in the United States, as of the week ended Aug. 20. * The United Nations-backed COVAX vaccine program has offered Mexico 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 shots for children after the country's president vowed to complain to the U.N. over delays, a senior Mexican official said on Tuesday.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * Oragenics announced favourable preliminary toxicology data for intranasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate

* The European Medicines Agency will hold an extraordinary meeting on Sept. 1 to discuss applications from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc for vaccine boosters modified to target the Omicron variant, the regulator said on Tuesday. * Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine was 73.2% effective in preventing COVID-19 among children aged 6 months through four years, new data from the companies showed on Tuesday, two months after the U.S. rollout of the shots began for that age group.

* Moderna on Tuesday sought U.S. authorization for its COVID-19 booster shot tailored against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron and said if cleared it would be ready to deliver the doses in September. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* The pandemic has set back the fight against poverty in the Asia-Pacific region by at least two years, and many nations will find it harder to escape poverty, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday. * The White House on Tuesday revised down its projected fiscal 2022 deficit to $1.032 trillion, a $383 billion reduction from its budget forecast in March, reflecting stronger-than-expected revenues offset by new spending and technical re-estimates of healthcare and other outlays.

(Compiled by Carlo Giovanni Boffa and Subhranshu Sahu; Edited by Jonathan Oatis)