Photo: by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

May 13 (Reuters) – Nearly 40% of all global deaths from COVID-19 reported last week happened in the Americas, and nearly 80% of the region’s intensive care units are filled with COVID-19 patients, the Pan American Health Organization said.

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.

EUROPE * Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an inquiry next year into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that is likely to focus on why the United Kingdom suffered Europe’s worst death toll and was so slow initially to impose a lockdown.

AMERICAS

  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found more cases of potentially life-threatening blood clotting among people who received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and sees a “plausible causal association.”
  • U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she was pushing for a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights because the United States and drug makers have “an obligation to help save the world right now.”
  • U.S. President Joe Biden urged parents to get their children vaccinated after a government advisory panel authorized the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15.
  • Brazil will run out of raw materials to produce Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s COVID-19 vaccine by Friday, as a supply shipment has been held up in Chinese export clearance, authorities in the state of Sao Paulo said.

ASIA-PACIFIC

  • India had 362,727 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours while deaths climbed by 4,120, taking the toll to 258,317, health ministry data showed.
  • Dozens of Japanese towns have abandoned plans to accept overseas athletes competing in the Olympics from July due to concerns about inadequate resources amid a fourth wave of coronavirus infections, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
  • Technical problems derailed Japan’s coronavirus vaccination booking system, compounding frustration over the government’s handling of new outbreaks of infections and the inoculation drive.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said that economic growth was projected at 3.8% in 2021, down from an earlier estimate of 6.1%, owing to the impact of COVID-19 on multiple sectors of the economy.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

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  • More clinical and real-world data is needed on how well and for how long COVID-19 vaccines are protective before any decisions should be made on offering third or booster doses, Europe’s drug regulators said.
  • Australia is in “active talks” with COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna Inc to establish a domestic manufacturing facility for shots, Health Minister Greg Hunt said, a day after securing 25 million doses from the company.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

  • Asian shares slipped to seven-week lows after a dismaying rise in U.S. inflation bludgeoned Wall Street and sent bond yields surging on worries the Federal Reserve might have to move early on tightening.
  • Oil prices pulled back from an eight-week high as concerns about the coronavirus crisis in India, the world’s third-biggest importer of crude, tempered a rally driven by IEA and OPEC predictions that demand is coming back strongly.
  • Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pledged to maintain steps to cushion the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that risks to the economic outlook were skewed down amid a resurgence of infections and new state of emergency curbs.
  • Japan’s bank lending slowed sharply in April as corporate fund demand stabilised from last year’s pandemic-driven spike, data showed, a sign the wall of money pumped by the central bank is working its way through the economy.

(Compiled by Aditya Soni, Federico Maccioni and Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Sriraj Kalluvila and Anil D’Silva)