Factbox-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

FILE PHOTO: A woman receives a dose of Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination centre in Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, Russia July 6, 2021. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

(Reuters) - YouTube will block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond its ban on false information about the coronavirus vaccines to include content that contains misinformation about other approved vaccines, it said in a blog post.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

EUROPE

* The EU's drugs regulator will decide on Monday whether to approve Pfizer's COVID-19 booster vaccine, but it is unlikely to give precise guidance on who should receive it, according to an internal document and two officials.

* Slovenia temporarily suspended the application of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccines after the death of a young woman, health minister Janez Poklukar was quoted as saying by the STA national news agency.

* Russia reported 857 new coronavirus-related deaths, the most in a single day since the pandemic began.

AMERICAS

* The Pan American Health Organization said it was in advanced talks with vaccine makers to buy additional COVID-19 shots for its member states to complement bilateral deals, donations, and doses they are receiving via COVAX.

* U.S. health regulators' decision on whether to approve Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 could spill over into November if needed, the nation's top infectious disease official said.

* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory to increase COVID-19 vaccinations among women who are pregnant, recently pregnant or trying to become pregnant, to prevent serious illness and death.

* Brazil's Butantan biomedical institute is in talks to sell a locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac to other countries in South America and Africa, as the federal government has not ordered more of the shots.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Tickets for the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics will be sold to spectators from mainland China only, while unvaccinated athletes must spend 21 days in quarantine ahead of the Games, the International Olympic Committee said.

* Australia's federal government will wind down emergency funding for people who lost work during COVID-19 shutdowns as vaccination rates increase across the country.

* Singapore's health ministry reported 2,268 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Poland sent over 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Egypt, the Polish foreign ministry said.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Laboratory studies show that Merck & Co's experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir, is likely to be effective against known variants of the coronavirus, including the dominant, highly transmissible Delta, the company said.

* At least one long-term COVID-19 symptom was found in 37% of patients three to six months after they were infected by the virus, a large study from Oxford University and the National Institute for Health Research showed.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Resolving "tension" between high inflation and still-elevated unemployment is the most urgent issue facing the Federal Reserve right now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said, acknowledging the central bank's two goals are in potential conflict.

* Japan's economy will continue to recover and could reach levels seen before the pandemic by the end of this year or early in 2022, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said.

* Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said he expected Britain's economy to recover its pre-pandemic level of output early next year, a little later than the central bank had predicted last month.

* Italy on Wednesday slashed its public debt forecast for this year to 153.5% of national output from its previous view of 159.8% set out in April, reflecting a stronger than expected economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

(Compiled by Anita Kobylinska, Juliette Portala and Vinay Dwivedi; Edited by Angus MacSwan and Shounak Dasgupta)

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