May 17 (Reuters) – Some Indian states said they would extend lockdowns, at a time when daily deaths in the country continue to be high, while Singapore has warned that the new coronavirus variants — such as the one first detected in India — were affecting more children.

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

  • England’s ministers will make a decision on June 14 about whether or not to proceed with the final phase of lockdown easing.
  • Spanish police said they cleared 9,000 revellers from Barcelona’s city centre streets and the nearby beach on Sunday to prevent dangerous overcrowding on the first full weekend after restrictions were lifted.

AMERICAS

  • Trinidad and Tobago will impose a state of emergency from midnight to contain an increase of cases and related deaths.
  • Brazil recorded 40,941 additional cases in the past 24 hours, along with 1,036 deaths from COVID-19.

ASIA-PACIFIC

  • Singapore plans to shut most schools from this week and draws up plans to vaccinate youngsters.
  • A top Indian virologist has resigned from a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government to detect variants of the coronavirus, he told Reuters, weeks after questioning the authorities’ handling of the pandemic.
  • Indonesia has suspended distribution of a batch of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to run tests for sterility and toxicity following the death of a 22-year-old man a day after immunisation
  • A surge of infections in Taiwan has left it scrambling to get vaccines as its stock of 300,000 doses starts running out with only about 1% of its 23 million people vaccinated.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

  • Turkey will start easing its strict lockdown on Monday by allowing movement during the day while keeping overnight and weekend curfews in place.
  • Saudi Arabia said foreign visitors arriving by air from most countries will no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated.
  • South Africa will launch phase two of its vaccine rollout on Monday with the aim of inoculating five million citizens aged over 60 by the end of June.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

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  • An experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline showed a robust immune response in early-stage clinical trial results, enabling them to move to a late-stage study.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

  • Asian share markets turned mixed as Chinese retail sales missed expectations and Singapore moved to close schools, while more evidence of global inflation pressures helped gold to a three-month peak.
  • Thailand’s economy improved in the first quarter, but a third wave has clouded the outlook for the tourism-dependent country.
  • Nearly half of smaller British manufacturers expect to recover to their pre-pandemic health in the coming months, with investment and hiring plans on the rise, a survey showed.
  • Japan’s wholesale prices rose in April at their fastest annual pace in six and a half years, data showed.

(Compiled by Devika Syamnath; editing by Uttaresh.V)