EUROPE
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* Belgium will remove almost all its coronavirus restrictions from Monday.
* US drugmaker Eli Lilly said it would facilitate a $1.8 million supply of baricitinib, used to treat COVID-19 complications, to an aid organisation in Ukraine, as several other firms pledged medical support for refugees.
* COVID-19 cases in Sweden are falling sharply, less than a month after nearly all pandemic-related restrictions were lifted in the country.
AMERICAS
* US President Joe Biden's administration unveiled a $32.5 billion emergency plan to help Ukraine respond to Russia's military invasion and provide more money to fight the pandemic, sparking a new partisan battle in Congress.
* The United States is waiving a requirement for negative COVID-19 tests from Americans leaving Belarus or Russia to travel home.
* Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said around 93 per cent of the population live in places where COVID levels are low enough that people do not need to wear masks indoors.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* COVID-19-related restrictions on people's movements and interactions may be linked to a sharp decline in cases of mosquito-borne dengue fever in 2020, offering new insight into how it might be controlled, according to a study.
* As Hong Kong clings to its "zero-COVID" policy, frustrations in the city are boiling over, workplace morale is being hit hard and families are splitting as a growing number of people, especially expatriates, abandon the hub.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
* South Africa may destroy about 100,000 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March, due to slow uptake by citizens and doses expiring.
* The World Health Organisation said that it does not expect an immediate impact on vaccine supply to Africa due to the fighting in Ukraine and that Russia's Sputnik COVID-19 vaccines were a minimal component of imports to the continent.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Almost a third of people report at least one ongoing symptom between six and 12 months after their coronavirus infection, a survey of 152,000 people in Denmark has found.
* Ocugen Inc said US regulators have declined to issue an emergency use authorisation (EUA) for Covaxin, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by its Indian partner Bharat Biotech, for use in individuals aged two to 18 years.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Data showing a vibrant US jobs market strengthened the dollar and spurred commodity prices higher, but the war in Ukraine overshadowed the blowout report as the euro plunged on the worsening outlook for slower European economic growth.
* In the two years since the pandemic upended the US economy, the labour market has rebounded far faster than most had predicted after roughly 22 million jobs were wiped out in the space of two months in the spring of 2020.
Australian Associated Press
