Australia's most populous state of New South Wales expanded its Covid-19 lockdown to the rural town of Tamworth on Monday due to concerns that the coronavirus might have spread from Sydney into the countryside.

Europe

* France's health minister on Sunday appealed for volunteer doctors and nurses to travel to the overseas territories of Guadalupe and Martinique as a wave of Covid-19 infections overwhelms hospitals on the two Caribbean islands.

* Britain on Sunday reported 27,429 new cases of Covid-19 and 39 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Asia-Pacific 

* Tokyo Olympics organisers reported on Monday 28 new Games-related Covid-19 cases, bringing the total since July 1 to 458 cases.

* China reported more Covid-19 cases as it entered the third week of its current outbreak on Monday, while some cities added rounds of mass testing in the effort to stamp out locally-transmitted infections.

* South Korea begins opening Covid-19 vaccine reservations for all adults over 18 for the first time on Monday as it scrambles to stave off a rise in sporadic outbreaks, many of them among young, unvaccinated residents.

* Australia's Victoria state on Monday reported 11 locally acquired cases of Covid-19, the same number as a day earlier, as the state's near seven million population goes through a snap one-week lockdown, its sixth since the pandemic began.

* Vietnam's health ministry reported 9,690 coronavirus infections on Sunday, a record daily increase.

* Malaysia will relax some Covid-19 restrictions for fully vaccinated people in eight states that have met criteria such as reduced case numbers and higher vaccination rates, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Sunday.

* Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in a video released Saturday that Covid-19 infections have started to surge outside the populous Java-Bali islands, and that movement restrictions are needed to stem transmission.

Americas 

* Covid-19 vaccinations should be required for U.S. teachers to protect students who are too young to be inoculated, the head of the nation's second-largest teachers' union said on Sunday, shifting course to back mandated shots as more children fall ill.

Middle East and Africa 

* More than half a million Tunisians received vaccinations on Sunday as part of a national campaign to control the outbreak of Covid-19 after the country received more than 6 million vaccine doses from Western and Arab countries.

Medical Developments 

* Covid-19 increases patients' risks for heart attack and stroke, suggests a study from Sweden that compared 86,742 individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 in 2020 and 348,481 people without the virus.

* No causal link between Covid-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders has been found so far, Europe's drugs regulator said on Friday, separately recommending that three new conditions be added as possible side-effects of J&J's coronavirus shot.

Economic Impact

* Asian shares wobbled on Monday amid sharp losses in gold and oil prices, while the dollar reached four-month highs on the euro after an upbeat US jobs report lifted bond yields.

* China's export growth unexpectedly slowed in July following outbreaks of Covid-19 cases, while imports also lost momentum, pointing to a slowdown in the country's industrial sector in the second half even as easing global lockdowns boost commerce.