Factbox-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

Reuters
Updated ·3 min read
A person wearing a protective face mask travels on a London Underground train in London

(Reuters) - Cases of COVID-19 have spiked in some areas of China and Japan, while a large mask-free public event was held in North Korea for the first time since May.

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.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Authorities in Macau reported no new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday for the first time since mid-June.

* A district in China's financial hub of Shanghai has ordered a three-day lockdown of some of its steel warehouses from July 26 after a residential neighborhood in the district was classified as high risk following the detection of a coronavirus case there.

* China's central metropolis of Wuhan temporarily shut some businesses and public transport in a district with almost a million people, as the city where the pandemic first emerged raised vigilance after several new infections.

* Toyota Motor suspended night shift operations at one production line of its Takaoka factory in central Japan because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

* North Korea held a large mask-free public event for the first time since declaring a COVID-19 emergency in May, honouring veterans of the 1950-53 Korean war just days after saying its coronavirus crisis was nearly over.

* New Zealand said new COVID-19 cases were trending down and it looked likely the country would avoid a feared worst-case scenario of 20,000 infections daily.

EUROPE

* British employers are their most pessimistic about hiring and investment since the depths of the coronavirus pandemic crisis due to surging inflation and an acute shortage of workers to fill jobs, a survey showed.

AMERICAS

* U.S. President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning after getting infected last week.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said they had started a mid-stage study of a modified COVID-19 vaccine which targets both the original as well as the BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Better-than-expected earnings from a raft of U.S. and European companies helped steady global stock markets on Wednesday, cutting through gloom caused by rising interest rates and the threat of an energy crunch due to Russian gas supply cuts.[MKTS/GLOB]

* The U.S. Treasury said that it will allow state, local and tribal governments more flexibility to use COVID-19 rescue funds to boost the supply of affordable housing.

* Thailand's economy improved in June and the momentum should continue into the second half thanks to increased tourism and domestic consumption as pandemic curbs ease.

* North Korea's economy shrank in 2021 for a second straight year after suffering its biggest contraction in more than two decades the previous year amid U.N. sanctions and COVID-19 lockdowns, South Korea's central bank said on Wednesday.

(Compiled by Uttaresh.V, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Dina Kartit; Edited by Anil D'Silva, Shounak Dasgupta and Mark Heinrich)