Latest on worldwide spread of coronavirus

ASIA-PACIFIC

* A hotel and casino resort in Macau was locked down by authorities with 700 people inside due to a COVID-19 on the property, local broadcaster TDM reported.

EUROPE

* British pilots at budget airline Ryanair have voted to accept a revised offer on post-COVID pay restoration, the British Airline Pilots Association trade union said on Monday.

* German hotels are still limping towards recovery after the pandemic, and politicians need to prepare now to be ready for the coming winter, the head of a leading hospitality body said.

AMERICAS

* People in socially and economically disadvantaged regions are about half as likely to receive an oral antiviral COVID-19 pill as residents in wealthier areas, according to a US government study.

* President Joe Biden said the United States has enough COVID funding to get through at least this year, but it needs more money to plan for the next pandemic.

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST

* The International Monetary Fund wants to start talks with Ethiopia for a funding program as soon as conditions permit, the IMF said, as COVID-19 and an armed conflict in Tigray, which has now subsided, has throttled the country's growth in the past two years.

* Saudi Arabia lifted coronavirus travel restrictions on Monday on its citizens travelling to Turkey, India, Ethiopia and Vietnam, state news agency SPA reported.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* A small Chinese study detailed in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal showed neutralising antibodies against some Omicron sub-variants were largely undetectable after two doses of a Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, with a booster shot only partly restoring them.

* A modified coronavirus vaccine that targets the Omicron variant can be administered as a booster dose to broaden immunity, a technical advisory group set up by the World Health Organisation said.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* China's electricity generation experienced rare declines in April and May compared with the same months a year earlier as lockdowns imposed to stop the spread of the virus curbed consumption.

* Japan's government cut its view on factory output for the first time in seven months in June due to the hit to manufacturers from China's tough pandemic response.

* Global airlines hit out at governments on Monday for what the industry's leading ambassador termed their "shambolic" handling of the COVID-19 crisis, and urged nations to rip up the playbook of widespread border closures for any future pandemics.

GLOBAL

DEATHS: 6,342,969

CASES: 545,551,840

RECOVERED: 520,608,781