* The chairman of the Gavi vaccine alliance on Wednesday said an additional $US5.2 billion ($A7.2 billion) is needed to continue to deliver COVID-19 vaccines at scale, as more than three billion people in the world have yet to receive their first dose.

* Betting Omicron cases have peaked, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dropped COVID-19 rules in England, as he faces a revolt by his own lawmakers who are angry over a series of lockdown parties in Downing Street.

* Spain's infection rate fell for the second consecutive after 11 weeks of surges to record levels, raising hope among health authorities that the frenetic spread of the Omicron variant may be slowing.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Australia on Thursday passed the grim milestone of recording more than two million cases since the pandemic began.

* The Indian drug regulator's subject expert committee recommended full approval for Covishield and Covaxin, the two vaccines that have dominated the country's inoculation drive.

AMERICAS

* Infections continue to accelerate in the Americas, reaching new peaks, with 7.2 million new cases and more than 15,000 deaths in the last week, the Pan American Health Organisation said.

* People who had previously been infected were better protected against the Delta variant than those who were vaccinated alone, suggesting that natural immunity was a more potent shield than vaccines against that variant, California and New York health officials said.

* The US government will make 400 million non-surgical N95 masks from its strategic national stockpile available for free to the public starting next week, a White House official said.

* The US Supreme Court issued an unusual joint statement from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch denying a rift between them over wearing a face mask during oral arguments.

* The Canadian province of Ontario is starting to see "glimmers of hope" as the rate of new hospitalisations caused by Omicron slows, but challenges remain, health minister Christine Elliott said.

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

* South African-American businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong opened a new vaccine plant in Cape Town, intended to help his local NantSA company make vaccines in future and address the continent's deadly dearth of manufacturing capacity.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* When used in children, rapid antigen tests for detecting the coronavirus do not meet accuracy criteria set by the World Health Organisation and US and UK device regulators, according to researchers who reviewed 17 studies of the tests.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Strong US and European corporate results helped stock markets initially rebound on Wednesday, but rising crude prices kept inflation concerns alive and trading choppy even as bond yields eased after having touched fresh multi-year highs.

* Canada's Liberal government no longer needs to spend all of the stimulus it promised to help fight COVID-19 and if it does, the debt-to-GDP ratio will rise, an official spending watchdog said.

GLOBAL

DEATHS 5,582,179

CASES 338,921,991

RECOVERED 272,617,956

Australian Associated Press