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 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.
EUROPE
* France's vaccines chief Alain Fischer told France Info radio that
he hoped the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be available in France
in April.
* Poland is raising the maximum age limit for people receiving the
AstraZeneca vaccine to 65, the minister in charge of the vaccination
programme said.
* Montenegro and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have approved
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for use, Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth
fund said.
* The European Commission has so far approved all requests for the
export of vaccines, including to Britain, the United States, China
and Japan, since it set up a mechanism to monitor vaccine flows on
Jan. 30.
AMERICAS
* A variant identified in the Brazilian Amazon may be three times
more contagious that original coronavirus but early analysis
suggests vaccines are still effective against it, the country's
health minister said on Thursday, without providing evidence for the
claims.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Japanese retail group Aeon said it will offer its shopping malls
throughout the country for vaccinations in response to a government
request.
* The first batch of Pfizer's vaccine arrived in Japan, media
reported, with official approval expected within days as the country
races to control a third wave of infections ahead of the Olympic
Games.
* New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday the
country's inoculation program will likely begin on Feb. 20, brought
forward by the earlier receipt of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than
originally anticipated.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* South Africa has secured millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson
and Pfizer vaccines to fight the highly infectious variant that is
dominant in the country.
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 * Kenya is going ahead with its
plan to inoculate its citizens using
AstraZeneca's vaccine, while Zimbabwe has bought
600,000 shots from China's Sinopharm, in
addition to 200,000 China has donated.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* AstraZeneca's vaccine is not perfect, but will
have a big impact on the pandemic, its chief
executive officer predicted, as the drugmaker
pledged to double output by April and the
African Union gave its backing.
* Roche's arthritis drug tocilizumab cuts the risk of death among
patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19, also shortening the time
to recovery and reducing the need for mechanical ventilation.
* Merck said it was in talks with governments and companies to
potentially help with manufacturing of vaccines that have been
already authorized.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with a bipartisan group of
mayors and governors on Friday as he continues to push for approval
of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan to bolster economic
growth and help millions of unemployed workers.
* Britain's coronavirus-ravaged economy slumped 9.9% in 2020, the
biggest annual crash in output in more than 300 years, but it
avoided heading back towards recession at the end of last year and
looks to be on course for a recovery in 2021.
* Turkey's current account tumbled to a deficit of $36.72 billion
last year from a $6.76 billion surplus in 2019, as the pandemic hit
tourism and Turks snapped up record amounts of gold, central bank
data showed.
* Japan's core machinery orders likely fell in December for the
first time in three months, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, and
renewed restrictions to curb coronavirus infections could prompt
firms to rein in capital spending further.
(Compiled by Veronica Snoj and Ramakrishnan M; Edited by Anil
D'Silva and Shounak Dasgupta)
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