* The European Union will take up an option under a supply contract with drugmaker Moderna that allows the bloc to order 150 million additional vaccines.

* UEFA has no plans to replace Wembley as host stadium of the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final, both of which will see crowd capacity increased to more than 60,000 fans.

* Switzerland has said children between 12 and 15 years old could be vaccinated with the shot from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

* Moscow's mayor has ordered bars and restaurants to serve people only if they have been vaccinated or had an infection indicating immunity.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* China plans to keep border restrictions in place for at least another year amid fears over the emergence of new variants and a calendar of sensitive events, the Wall Street Journal reported.

* NSW Australia reported its biggest daily increase in cases in nearly a week, while New Zealand paused quarantine-free travel with the state.

* A Thai medical committee has agreed to narrow the gap between AstraZeneca doses in places where there have been outbreaks of the Delta variant.

* India declared a new coronavirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases were detected in three states, while AstraZeneca's vaccine was found to be effective against Delta and Kappa variants first identified in the country.

AMERICAS

* The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Biden's goal to deliver at least one vaccine to 70 per cent of adults by July 4, with officials warning the Delta variant poses the greatest threat to US eradication efforts.

* Chile is studying the possibility of issuing a third, booster dose of vaccines amid questions about how effective the widely used Sinovac shot is against more transmissible variants.

* Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into a contract worth 1.6 billion reais ($A424 million) for 20 million doses of a vaccine made by India's Bharat Biotech.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Nigeria's president has asked parliament to approve 895.8 billion naira ($A2.89 billion) as extra budgetary provision to fund the purchase of vaccines.

* Zimbabwe expects to receive 2.5 million vaccines from China by the end of this month as it seeks to boost its inoculation drive after several centres ran out of doses.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Novartis aims to help manufacture more than 50 million doses of BioNTech's vaccine in 2021 at its Stein, Switzerland fill-and-finish facility.

* Turkey has kicked off Phase III trials for its vaccine, named "Turkovac" by President Tayyip Erdogan who said the shot should be available for use by the end of the year.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Wall Street ticked upward on Tuesday as investors prepared for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to flesh out his thinking on the US economy, while oil and the dollar both struggled to hold early gains.

* Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed the US central bank's intent to encourage a recovery of the job market, and not to raise interest rates too quickly based only on the fear of coming inflation.

* The Hungarian central bank has become the first in the European Union to launch a cycle of rate hikes to combat growing price pressures in the aftermath of the pandemic.

* US home sales fell for a fourth straight month in May as record-high prices amid low inventory frustrated potential buyers, with builders unable to deliver more houses because of expensive lumber.

GLOBAL

DEATHS 3,893,896

CASES 179,808,115

RECOVERED 164,448,550

Australian Associated Press