(Reuters) – Early data from trials of three potential vaccines showed promise of fighting COVID-19 without serious side effects, while leaders in the United States and European Union pushed for massive stimulus to cushion the economic blow from the pandemic.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.
* Eikon users, see MacroVitals (cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098) for a case tracker and a summary of developments.
EUROPE
* Coronavirus cases in Spain have risen three-fold over the last three weeks as authorities struggle to contain a rash of fresh clusters.
* Sweden’s health agency said on Monday it was changing its COVID-19 contact-tracing guidelines so that tracing is done to a larger extent by the individuals infected.
* The Ballon d’Or will not be awarded this year for the first time in its 64-year history after the pandemic wreaked havoc on the football calendar, organisers France Football magazine said.
AMERICAS
* The city of Chicago reimposed some restrictions and the state of Florida reported more than 10,000 new cases for the sixth day in a row.
* The Florida Education Association sued the state, claiming the planned restart of classroom instruction next month during the pandemic would jeopardize the health of its members and students.
* Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro’s low approval ratings rose for a third consecutive month as the perception of his handling of the coronavirus crisis and the economy’s direction continued to improve gradually.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Some cinemas in Chinese cities from Shanghai to Chengdu reopened after a six-month closure.
* Malaysia is considering making face masks compulsory in public following the emergence of 13 new clusters since the government relaxed broad curbs last month.
* Indian police have arrested 14 people on suspicion of selling locally made doses of Gilead Sciences Inc’s remdesivir at five times the maximum retail price.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Israel’s parliament voted to allow the country’s domestic intelligence agency to track the cellphones of coronavirus carriers for the rest of the year.
* COVID-19 has caused a spike in poaching, threatening the habitat of more than half the world’s mountain gorillas, Congo’s Virunga National Park authorities said, just as rangers are forced to reduce their presence.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Here are five takeaways from Monday’s developments, drawn in part from an editorial in The Lancet medical journal.
* An experimental vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University against the new coronavirus produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials.
* German biotech BioNTech and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc said data from an early-stage trial of their experimental coronavirus vaccine showed that it prompted an immune response and was well-tolerated.
* A vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc and China’s military research unit has shown to be safe and induced immune responses in most of the recipients who got one shot.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* Global equity markets rebounded on Monday on optimism the European Union would approve a recovery fund to help revive regional economies hit by the coronavirus, but worries about the pandemic’s economic and human toll pushed gold prices higher. [MKTS/GLOB]
* The New Development Bank of the “BRICS” group of leading emerging economies will lend Brazil $1 billion to help combat the economic damage from the crisis.
* Japan’s exports plunged at a double-digit pace for the fourth month in a row in June, raising the spectre of a longer and more painful global downturn.
(Compiled by Sarah Morland and Ramakrishnan M; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Anil D’Silva)
