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Latest on worldwide spread of coronavirus

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Brazil is battling bureaucracy in China to free up exports of active ingredients for vaccines.
Camera IconBrazil is battling bureaucracy in China to free up exports of active ingredients for vaccines.

Some European countries are drawing fewer than the approved six doses from Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine vials, while the United States surpassed 400,000 deaths from the virus.

EUROPE

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germany may need to consider border-crossing curbs if other European countries do not act to halt the spread of coronavirus, particularly its new, more transmissible variants.

* Britain said it would give COVID-19 shots to up to 2,000 people working in vaccine supply chains, after AstraZeneca requested protection for its workers trying to deliver an ambitious vaccine rollout programme.

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* Portugal is living "one of the saddest moments", Prime Minister Antonio Costa said, as the daily death toll reached a record high.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* China's capital Beijing said it will investigate all individuals who entered the city from abroad from December 10 and shut down a subway station after reporting the biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks.

* South Korea may secure additional coronavirus vaccines for 20 million people from US firm Novavax, President Moon Jae-in said.

* India will start exporting vaccines from Wednesday, paving the way for many mid- and lower-income countries to get supplies of the easy-to-store AstraZeneca-Oxford University drug.

* China defended its early actions taken to fight the outbreak, saying it immediately notified the World Health Organization and took "the most comprehensive, thorough, strict prevention and control measures".

AMERICAS

* Abbott Laboratories' rapid antigen test is highly likely to correctly detect if people have ever contracted the virus and could help with earlier isolation, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

* Brazil is battling bureaucracy in China to free up exports of active ingredients for vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Sinovac, without which an immunisation push could soon slow.

* Mexico aims to administer 7.4 million doses of Sputnik V, a Russian-developed vaccine, by the end of March.

* Pfizer told Canada on Tuesday it will receive no coronavirus vaccines next week, officials said, an unexpected development that promises more pain for provinces already complaining about a shortage.

* The timeline has closed for Venezuela to join the COVAX facility for vaccines, an official with the Pan American Health Organization said, though the country was still negotiating for doses through other means.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Kuwait has registered its first cases of a more contagious coronavirus variant in two women who had been in Britain.

* Nigeria will seek to procure vaccines that are less dependent on cooling facilities, as more than 2600 Nigerian physicians have contracted COVID-19 and dozens have died.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Asian shares climbed to a record high as US Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen advocated for a hefty fiscal relief package to help the world's largest economy ride out a pandemic-driven slump.

* EU competition regulators plan to extend looser state aid rules until the end of 2021 to help European companies hit by the pandemic.

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