(Reuters) – Hong Kong’s government aims to make an announcement soon on its controversial COVID-19 hotel quarantine policy for all arrivals, as it wants to keep the city connected with the rest of the world and allow an “orderly opening up”.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* Eikon users, click on COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news. https://amers2.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1775942723
ASIA-PACIFIC
* China’s government issued draft rules aimed at making it easier for some foreigners to enter the country for visits to tourism sites along the Chinese border.
* China reported 789 new COVID-19 infections for Sept. 19, compared with 990 new cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.
AMERICAS
* U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview aired on Sunday that “the pandemic is over,” even though the country continues to grapple with coronavirus infections that kill hundreds of Americans daily.
VACCINES, TREATMENTS
* Two COVID-19 antibody therapies are no longer recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), on the basis that Omicron and the variant’s latest offshoots have likely rendered them obsolete.
* Gilead Sciences said the WHO expanded recommendation for Veklury (Remdesivir) to patients with severe disease in the latest update to COVID-19 guidelines.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* China will speed up fund injections to expedite project construction and boost domestic consumption, China’s state planner said on Monday, even after the economy showed signs of renewed momentum last month.
* China kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged at a monthly fixing on Tuesday, as expected, as authorities appeared to hold off immediate monetary easing following rapid declines in the local currency and as central banks elsewhere tightened policy.
* Indian companies are hiring thousands of temporary workers, expanding to smaller cities and launching new products as the country prepares to celebrate its peak festive season without COVID restrictions for the first time in three years.
(Compiled by Devika Syamnath and Uttaresh V; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
