California became the first US state to require that all teachers and school personnel get vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. US health officials stepped up calls for pregnant women to get vaccinated as new evidence showed no increased risk of miscarriage.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reaffirmed his decision to ban school districts from instituting mask mandates as students begin classes. Moderna plans to double enrollment in a trial of its Covid vaccine in children under age 12, following a request from US regulators to collect additional safety data.

South Korea surpassed 2,000 daily infections for the first time as the Delta variant runs rampant across much of Asia, setting off anti-government protests in Thailand and leading to the lockdown of another city in Australia.

Key developments

• Global Tracker: Cases top 204.3 million; deaths pass 4.3 million
• Vaccine Tracker: More than 4.51 billion doses administered
• Real-time data suggest Asia’s economy already feeling Delta hit
• Understanding the debate over booster shots: QuickTake
• Global travel during Covid-19: Where you can and can’t go
• Restarting cruises has been a game of ‘whack-a-mole’

McDonald’s mandates shots for office workers

McDonald’s said it had decided to transition from “strongly encouraging vaccinations” to “requiring vaccinations” for all US-based office workers, according to an internal note obtained by Bloomberg. All US-based employees should get fully vaccinated as soon as possible, by Sepember 27 at the latest, it said. The company also pushed back the official office reopening date to October 11 from September 7

California issues shot mandate for teachers

All California teachers and public school employees must be vaccinated against Covid-19 or submit to regular testing, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday.

The decision came after the San Francisco, Long Beach and Oakland school districts set similar mandates. The rule makes California the first state in the nation to mandate vaccines for all school employees, including bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria workers.

Moderna doubles trial size in young children

Moderna plans to double enrollment in a trial of its Covid vaccine in children under the age of 12, following a request from US regulators to collect additional safety data.

Moderna’s study will enroll an estimated 13,275 participants aged six months to 12 years, according to a listing on the clinicaltrials.gov website. In a post from late July, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said it would seek to enroll about 7,000.

US urges shots for pregnant women

US health officials stepped up calls for pregnant women to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as new evidence showed no increased risk of miscarriage from the shots.

Women who received messenger RNA Covid vaccines before 20 weeks of pregnancy have no increased risk of miscarriage or other safety concerns, according to an analysis of an agency registry. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its message to recommend shots for pregnant women; it had previously said they were eligible.

Lisbon Web Summit to meet in person

The Web Summit, which describes itself as the biggest gathering of startups on the globe, will be held in person in Lisbon in November after the event was held online last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Web Summit Chief Executive Officer Paddy Cosgrave said on Twitter on Wednesday the event had been given the “full green light”. The announcement takes place as the Portuguese government began easing Covid-19 restrictions as the latest surge of coronavirus infections in the country shows signs of slowing.

Hundreds of speakers and startups are expected to attend the summit, which will take place from November 1-4.

DeSantis digs in on mask-mandate ban

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis doubled down on his decision to ban school districts from instituting mask mandates as students begin classes across the Sunshine State.

“Our view is of course this is a decision for the parent to make, just given the uncertainty about what it means particularity for a lot of the young kids to be in that,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday in Pinellas County, surrounded by local teachers and school leaders. “We believe the parent rather than the government should ultimately be able to make that decision.”

Late last month, DeSantis issued an executive order that threatened to withhold state funding from school districts that required students to wear masks. Some districts rebuked the governor and are insisting on a face-covering mandate as virus cases continue to swell. Carlee Simon, superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said that her district will continue to mandate masks in order to best protect the community, she wrote in a Washington Post editorial on Monday.

DeSantis said that should the Biden administration institute a nationwide mask mandate for students, “that is something we would fight back ferociously against”. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said he doesn’t think he has the power to overrule governors on the subject, but his administration is “checking on that”.

WHO to assess more vaccine candidates

While Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is still undergoing assessment by the World Health Organization, India’s Bharat shot may have a final evaluation in September, Mariangela Simao, assistant director-general for drug access, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, said on Wednesday.

Five other vaccine candidates are beginning assessment in August, including the Novavax shot manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and the Sinopharm vaccine being made in Wuhan, China.

The more vaccines get the WHO’s green light, the more can be shipped via the Covax facility, which aims to distribute Covid inoculations equitably around the world. At the current trajectory, the world could pass 300 million reported cases early next year, according to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The WHO has already approved several vaccines, including those made by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Switzerland may end free testing

Switzerland may stop offering free Covid tests for the public starting on October 1, as the government struggles to boost the vaccination rate. With just half the population fully inoculated and people returning from summer holidays, the caseload has been rising.

The government decided against further loosening restrictions, such as the requirement for masks in public areas. It said it would make a final decision on the Covid tests on August 25. Currently, tests are available at pharmacies and testing sites free of charge, and are required for entry to nightclubs and other large events.

Japan mulls over wider State of Emergency

The Japanese government is considering widening its State of Emergency to additional areas and keeping it in force through September, rather than the end of this month, the Sankei newspaper reported, without attribution. It plans to decide on the expansion as soon as next week.

Macron defends handling of crisis

French President Emmanuel Macron rebuffed accusations that he’s handling the Covid-19 crisis in an authoritarian way and renewed his call for people to get vaccinated.

“Never before in our history was a crisis of such magnitude fought in such a democratic way,” Macron said at the beginning of a virtual defence Cabinet meeting broadcast on French TV. The president blasted opponents, without naming them, for exploiting the pandemic “to win political market share”.

Macron’s comments followed a fourth consecutive weekend of demonstrations in major French cities against new measures that make access to restaurants, museums and virtually all activities conditional on proof of vaccination or a recent negative test.

Lesotho prime minister tests positive

Lesotho Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro tested positive for Covid-19 before a private trip he had planned. He’s isolating at home and not showing any symptoms, spokesman Buta Moseme said in a statement on Wednesday. The landlocked southern African country of 2.1 million people has reported 13,845 cases and 391 deaths.

UK school safety measures cut infections

Less than 1% of UK school pupils and staff tested positive for Covid-19 in June, significantly lower than last autumn, a study released by the Office for National Statistics found. Infection rates were lower in children in schools than among those in the wider population.

The findings give credibility to the government’s plan to put learners into “bubbles” and ask those with symptoms to stay home. That may bolster the effort of ministers to convince parents to send children back to school when the academic year begins next month.

Iran cases, deaths spike

Iran saw a record number of new coronavirus cases, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei describing the latest surge as “the country’s number one problem”.

The Health Ministry recorded 42,541 cases and 536 deaths overnight, bringing the country’s total reported figures to more than 4.2 million infections and 95,647 fatalities. The country broke its own record for deaths twice earlier this week as vaccination rates lag. Iran has fully inoculated around 4% of its population.

Macron says situation in Guadeloupe urgent

The coronavirus situation is urgent in the French overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique, where vaccine take-up is “very low” and hospitals are already saturated, President Emmanuel Macron said at the start of a defence Cabinet meeting broadcast on TV on Wednesday.

Only about 20% of those aged 12 and above are fully vaccinated in the West Indies, compared with almost 66% in mainland France, Macron said. Meanwhile, four French regions – Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest being the latest – launched a special hospital plan to help manage a spike in Delta cases. DM

–With assistance from Romy Varghese, Josh Wingrove, Mario Parker, Michael B. Marois, Malavika Kaur Makol, Irina Anghel, Catherine Bosley, Go Onomitsu, Corinne Gretler, Danielle Moran and Henrique Almeida.