May 30 (Reuters) – Streets in Beijing were busier on Monday as residents in two districts were allowed to return to work, while Shanghai announced an end to its two-month-long COVID-19 lockdown, allowing most of the people in China’s largest city to leave their homes and drive their cars from Wednesday. read more

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

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ASIA-PACIFIC

* Shanghai will ease COVID testing requirements from June 1 for people who want to enter public areas or use public transport, a city official said, while its party secretary said the city would fully implement economic policies, and make every effort to accelerate the economic recovery. read more

* Beijing reported one new community COVID-19 infection during 15 hours to 3 p.m. local time (0700 GMT), after reporting zero such cases for three days, a disease control official said.

*India’s federal government will provide educational scholarships, mental health counselling and health insurance to children who have been orphaned by the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. read more

* Japan’s easing of a two-year ban on foreign tourists seeks to balance the enormous economic importance of tourism with concerns that travellers would trigger a COVID outbreak, insiders say. read more

* North Korea has lifted movement restrictions imposed in the capital Pyongyang after its first admission of a COVID-19 outbreak weeks ago, media reported, as the isolated country says the virus situation is now under control. read more

EUROPE

* Conservative lawmaker Jeremy Wright, a former British minister and attorney general, said he believed Prime Minister Boris Johnson should resign, after a damning official report published last week detailed a series of illegal parties at Johnson’s office during COVID-19 lockdowns. read more

* The Archbishop of Canterbury will no longer deliver a sermon at a service of thanksgiving to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee this week as he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has mild pneumonia, his office said. read more

AMERICAS

* After unprecedented revenue growth last year, digital platforms including Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), Snap Inc (SNAP.N) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) now face a sobering reality as pandemic-driven advertising trends dissipate, according to a report by research firm MoffettNathanson. read more

AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

* Fears over the possible side effects and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines have been the main drivers of hesitancy among thousands of South Africans, a government-backed online survey showed. read more

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* The World Health Organization said it does not believe the monkeypox outbreak outside Africa will lead to a pandemic as the United Nation’s health agency considers whether the outbreak should be assessed as a “potential public health emergency of international concern”, as was done for COVID-19 and Ebola. read more

* Patients who experience a recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms after completing treatment with Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid should isolate again for five days, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an advisory. read more

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* World share markets rose on Monday and the dollar was anchored at five-week lows on bets of a possible slowdown in U.S. monetary tightening and after an easing of COVID restrictions in China. read more

* China’s ‘zero-COVID’ policy of constantly monitoring, testing and isolating its citizens to prevent the spread of the coronavirus has battered much of the country’s economy, but it has created bubbles of growth in the medical, technology and construction sectors. read more

* Sweden’s economy slowed sharply in the first quarter of the year, data from the Statistics Office showed, confirming that the lingering effects of the pandemic and war in Ukraine have put the brakes on growth. read more

Compiled by Olivier Sorgho and Shailesh Kuber; Editing by Bernadette Baum

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