(Reuters) – COVID-19 cases crept up in parts of the United States, pushing Philadelphia to bring back mask mandates in indoor settings, while the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai eased some of its curbs and allowed residents in some areas to step out of homes.
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.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Some residents of Shanghai stepped out of their homes for the first time in more than two weeks on Tuesday, as the city took tentative steps towards easing a COVID-19 lockdown amid worries over the economic impact of the curbs.
* Taiwan expects daily domestic infections to top 1,000 a day by the end of the month, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said, calling on people not to panic about a wave that is causing few serious cases.
AMERICAS
* The U.S. Justice Department on Monday asked a federal appeals court to allow the Biden administration to resume enforcing a federal employee vaccine mandate that had been blocked by a lower-court judge in January.
* Philadelphia will again require masks in indoor public settings such as restaurants, schools and businesses starting next week, responding to what appears to be a fresh wave of coronavirus transmissions.
* The United States Supreme Court will stop allowing the public to attend courtroom sessions in person during the month of April as coronavirus cases rise in the District of Columbia.
* The U.S. State Department on Monday ordered non-emergency U.S. government workers to leave the consulate in Shanghai due to a surge in COVID cases and China’s measures to control the virus.
EUROPE
* Britain will expand access to Pfizer’s oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment to thousands more people by adding it to a trial to assess how best to use the drug in its highly vaccinated population, the health ministry said.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
* Saudi Arabia will let up to 1 million people join the Haj pilgrimage this year, greatly expanding the key event to participants from outside the kingdom after two years of tight COVID-19 restrictions, state media said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* An experimental drug being developed by RedHill Biopharma Ltd that improved outcomes in a randomized trial involving severely ill COVID-19 patients infected with earlier versions of the coronavirus is showing promise against the Omicron variant in test tube experiments, researchers said.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares were down while the U.S. dollar held strong on Tuesday, as Treasury yields spiked to a three-year high ahead of U.S. inflation data which could foreshadow even more aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. [MKTS/GLOB]
* New Zealand business confidence and demand worsened in the first quarter of this year due to the ongoing damage the COVID-19 outbreak is having on the economy, a private think tank said.
(Compiled by Uttaresh.V and Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Maju Samuel and Arun Koyyur)
