Austria imposed a lockdown on people unvaccinated against the coronavirus on Monday as winter approaches and infections rise across Europe, with Germany considering tighter curbs and Britain expanding its booster programme to younger adults.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* Britain's booster vaccine rollout is to be extended to people aged between 40 and 49, officials said, in a bid to boost waning immunity in the population ahead of the colder winter months.
* Dutch hospitals are feeling the strain from a surge in COVID-19 patients but the worst has yet to come, the head of the country's hospital association said.
* Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel said that the world needs to be better prepared to probe the origins of diseases and welcomed the creation of a new World Health Organization advisory group on dangerous pathogens.
* International travel to Spain will likely recover some two thirds of its pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of this year, the tourism minister Reyes Maroto said.
* Russia reported 1,211 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, close to an all-time high of 1,241 reported last week, as well as 38,420 new cases.
AMERICAS
* Florida lawmakers will meet in a special legislative session, called by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates.
* U.S. President Joe Biden's vaccine requirements are prompting more Americans to get COVID-19 shots, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Singapore will allow vaccinated arrivals from five more countries, including Indonesia and India, to access the country without quarantine via its travel lanes from Nov. 29, its transport minister said.
* Japan will promote the establishment of production bases for semiconductors, COVID-19 vaccines and drugs as part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's economic stimulus, a draft plan seen by Reuters showed.
* A Maori tribe that claims New Zealand's most famous haka as its heritage told anti-vaccine protesters to stop using the traditional performance to promote their message.
* China is battling the spread of its biggest outbreak, according to the latest numbers, with travellers from a city where infections have grown faster than elsewhere in the country subject to tough quarantine rules in nearby areas.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* A ban on public sector employees entering their offices if they are unvaccinated and untested for COVID-19 took effect in Egypt on Monday as the government pushes to accelerate vaccination rates in the final weeks of the year.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Spain's medicines agency has authorised Catalonia-based pharmaceutical group Hipra to test a COVID-19 vaccine it is developing on more than 1,000 volunteers, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* U.S. stock market investors shook off inflation jitters in early trading Monday, sending equities higher while oil slipped.
* Japan's economy contracted much faster than expected in the third quarter as global supply disruptions hit exports and business spending while new COVID-19 cases soured the consumer mood, undermining efforts to stoke a virtuous growth cycle.
