(Reuters) – The Biden administration will no longer enforce a U.S. mask mandate on public transportation, after a federal judge in Florida on Monday ruled that the 14-month-old directive was unlawful, overturning a key White House effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Shanghai authorities on Tuesday pleaded for public cooperation with a massive new push to test most of the population for COVID-19 as the city steps up efforts to bring community transmission down to zero after nearly three weeks of lockdown.
* Shanghai said seven people infected with COVID-19 died on Monday.
* Talks on Taiwan buying the child version of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have stalled as Pfizer does not have the right to sell it and BioNTech and its Chinese partner do not make it, a Taiwanese minister said.
EUROPE
* Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has tested positive for COVID-19 and ministers will replace him on a trip to Africa this week for deals to cut his country’s reliance on Russian gas, his office said.
AMERICAS
* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had dropped its “Do Not Travel” COVID-19 recommendations for about 90 international destinations.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
* Africa is experiencing its longest-running decline in weekly COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Unvaccinated people infected with the Omicron variant are unlikely to develop immune responses that will protect them against other variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests.
* A Japanese Health Ministry committee said it has approved Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, setting the stage for full approval of the country’s fourth shot for the coronavirus.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* China’s accommodation and catering sector contracted in January-March from a year earlier for the first time since 2020, pointing to increasingly flagging consumption weakened by COVID-19 curbs on travel and social-distancing rules.
* China will step up financial support for industries, firms and people affected by COVID-19 outbreaks, the central bank said on Monday, as part of steps to cushion economic slowdown.
* South Korea’s central bank governor nominee Rhee Chang-yong said although inflation is likely to strengthen over the next year or two, growth headwinds from the Ukraine crisis, U.S. monetary policy, and COVID-19 resurgence in China will also need to be closely monitored and factored in policy decisions.
(Compiled by Sherry Jacob-Phillips; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta)
