Factbox: Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus
(Reuters) - Singapore confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in Britain, while Irish health chiefs said the mutation was present in Ireland though it was not solely responsible for the disease's rapid spread.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
EUROPE
* Britain's transport minister said he had ordered flights and arrivals from South Africa to be halted after a potentially more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 had spread to Britain.
* Spain will receive 350,000 doses per week of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine starting on Saturday, Health Minister Salvador Illa said.
* Irish health chiefs believe a new variant of COVID-19 found in neighbouring Britain is present in Ireland, but not solely responsible for a rapid spread of the disease.
* Around 500 relatives of people who died of COVID-19 in Italy said they were initiating legal action against regional and national authorities, seeking 100 million euros ($122 million) in damages.
AMERICAS
* Millions of COVID-19 vaccines are sitting unused in U.S. hospitals and elsewhere a week into the massive inoculation campaign, putting the government's target for 20 million vaccinations this month in doubt.
* Merck & Co said it would supply about 60,000-100,000 doses of its experimental COVID-19 treatment to the U.S. government for up to about $356 million.
* Canada approved Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine, the second country to do so, paving the way for health authorities to step up an inoculation campaign against a worsening second wave.
* Mexico plans to begin inoculating health workers against COVID-19 on Thursday with the arrival of the first vaccines.
* Argentina has granted emergency approval for use of Russia's Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said .
* The first batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer will reach Costa Rica on Wednesday night, with inoculations set to begin on Thursday, President Carlos Alvarado told a news conference.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Singapore confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom, while 11 others who were already in quarantine had returned preliminarily positive results for the new strain.
* South Korea has signed deals with Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen to secure coronavirus vaccines for 10 million people and 6 million, respectively.
* Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said it would make and sell U.S.-based COVAXX's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for supply in India and to the United Nations Children's Fund under a licensing deal.
* Taiwan's tourism department on Wednesday cancelled an annual New Year celebration at the northeastern tip of the island, after a report of the first locally transmitted COVID-19 case since April 12.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Israel has detected four cases of the new, highly infectious variant that has emerged in Britain.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Moderna Inc expects that the immunity induced by its COVID-19 vaccine would be protective against the coronavirus variants reported in the UK.
* Altimmune Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had put a clinical hold on its application to begin human testing of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, AdCOVID.
* Brazilian researchers said the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech is more than 50% effective based on preliminary data, but withheld full results of their late-stage trial again at Sinovac's request.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares and the British pound rose on Thursday ahead of the Christmas break, as Britain and the European Union closed in on a free-trade deal and investors placed bets on global economic recovery prospects.
(Compiled by Bartosz Dabrowski, Aditya Soni and Krishna Chandra Eluri and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Maju Samuel and Subhranshu Sahu)
