Overview: Biden administration plans to extend requirements for travellers to wear masks on public transport, and overseas developments

Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus The Biden administration plans to extend requirements for travellers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address COVID-19 risks, three sources told Reuters. Reuters Staff U.S.

(Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to extend requirements for travellers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address COVID-19 risks, three sources told Reuters.

Other developoments:

* Britain’s health regulator has approved Moderna’s vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 17 years, weeks after Pfizer’s shot was given the green light for deployment ahead of schools reopening.

* Shopping malls in Paris and large parts of France now have to ask customers to show a health pass, as the government increases pressure on people to get vaccinated.

* New Zealand said that an additional four cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the country overnight, including an Auckland hospital worker.

* Japan extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and announced new measures covering seven more prefectures to counter a spike in infections that is threatening the medical system.

* The Canadian province of Ontario will begin offering third COVID-19 vaccine doses to vulnerable people as early as this week.

* Cuba has turned to the military to provide oxygen amid a surge of the coronavirus even as doctors rush to administer locally developed vaccines to the population....

* The United States is sending nearly half a million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to Rwanda, including the first doses from the Biden administration’s 500 million global pledge this summer, the White House said.

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