The Latest: EU agency OKs Moderna vaccine site in France

Visitors take a break outside the Louvre Museum courtyard, in Paris, Wednesday, June 9, 2021. France is back in business as a tourist destination after opening its borders Wednesday to foreign visitors who are inoculated against the coronavirus with vaccines approved by the European Union's medicines agency. France's acceptance of only the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines means that tourism is still barred for would-be visitors from China and other countries that use other vaccines. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A medial personal prepares the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for members of local fire departments at a temporary mass vaccination center at a former Tsukiji fish market site set up by Tokyo metropolitan government in Tokyo Tuesday, June 8, 2021. Tsukiji site will be a facility which houses and manages vehicles related to the Tokyo 2020 Games. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Government employees wait their turn to receive the Convidecia COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Nishtar hall, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

A government employee receives the Convidecia COVID-19 vaccine from a health worker while others wait their turn at a vaccination center in the Nishtar hall, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

Health workers collect nasal swabs from local residents for the coronavirus testing at a market in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A health worker administers the Covishield, Serum Institute of India's version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, during a special vaccination drive for students traveling overseas, in Hyderabad, India, Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

People carry their child wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus head to a kindergarten in Beijing on June 9, 2021. If China is to meet its tentative goal of vaccinating 80% of its population against the coronavirus by the end of the year, tens of millions of children may have to start rolling up their sleeves. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Local residents line up, waiting for the coronavirus testing at a market in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, June 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A volunteer carries containers with rice, chicken and salad to be given to residents at the San Antonio de Padua soup kitchen in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 10, 2021, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A woman and child wearing period costumes pass by a bus providing COVID-19 vaccination outside the Forbidden City in Beijing on April 14, 2021. If China is to meet its tentative goal of vaccinating 80% of its population against the coronavirus by the end of the year, tens of millions of children may have to start rolling up their sleeves. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

In this photo released by Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF), Spain's national soccer team pose after being vaccinated against COVID at Las Rozas Sports City in Madrid, Spain, Friday, June 11, 2021. Worried that a coronavirus outbreak could derail its chances at the European Championship, Spain sent in the army on Friday to vaccinate the national soccer team three days before its opening match at the tournament. Medics from Spain's Armed Forces administered the shots at the team's training facility near Madrid. (Pablo Garcia/RFEF via AP)

Ambulance Doctor Vladimir Canal enters a home to attend a COVID-19 patient with oxygen problems after an emergency call to the residence during his night shift in Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, late Thursday, June 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Eighty seven year old Catherine Daries receives her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center, at the Karl Bremer Hospital, in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, June 11, 2021. South Africa technically entered the third wave of coronavirus infections as the national seven-day moving average incidence now exceeds the new wave threshold as defined by the Ministerial Advisory Committee. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

A protester dressed in a protective suit holds slogans during a rally against the G7 summit outside the British Embassy in Taguig, Philippines on Friday, June 11, 2021. The group called on G7 Summit member nations for debt cancellation for poor countries facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

LONDON — The European Medicines Agency has approved a new manufacturing site for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, in a move that could substantially boost production for the European Union.

In a statement on Friday, the EU drug regulator says it had approved a site in Monts, France, operated by Recipharm. In addition to the new site approval, the EMA authorized several other sites to conduct batch control and testing.

This month, two locations in the U.S. were approved for production of vaccines destined for the 27-nation EU bloc. Any medicines or vaccines authorized for the EU market must first have their production facilities approved by the EMA.

The EMA says these new approved sites are expected to result in an additional 1 to 2 million vials of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine every month.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— China’s children may be next in line for COVID-19 vaccines

— Leaders of G-7 nations gather to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world

— New federal COVID-19 safety rules exempt most U.S. employers

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— Follow more of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s government says a two-week nationwide lockdown due to end Monday will be extended for another two weeks as new daily infections remain high at more than 6,000.

Senior Minister Ismail Sabri said the National Security Council made the decision at its meeting Friday. Although daily cases have dropped from its peak of above 9,000 just before the lockdown, he said average daily cases since the lockdown was still high.

The health ministry on Friday reported 6,849 new infections, bringing the country’s confirmed total tally to 646,411. Another 84 deaths raised the confirmed death toll to 3,768.

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BERLIN — Germany is lifting a blanket travel warning for countries with high coronavirus infection rates starting July 1.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says “after many months of lockdown, we can look forward to greater normalcy, that includes travel.”

The general travel warning will be lifted next month for all countries that have fewer than 200 newly confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week.

But Maas cautioned that the pandemic isn’t over yet and the rise of new variants means risks remain.

Countries with infection rates above 200 or a large share of concerning variants among new cases, like Britain, will remain on the government’s list of risk areas. Germans are discouraged from traveling to such countries and people arriving in Germany from there will need to go into quarantine.

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LONDON — The European Medicines Agency says it’s recommending that people who have had a rare blood vessel syndrome not be immunized with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.

In a statement on Friday, the EU drug regulator said it reviewed cases of six people who had capillary leak syndrome after they had received a shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The vaccine has previously been linked to rare blood clots, but health officials say its benefits still outweigh the small risks.

EMA experts also concluded that the capillary leak condition should be added to the product information as a new side effect of the vaccine.

The agency said it is continuing its review of heart inflammation in a small number of people who developed conditions after getting immunized with the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Inc.

The EMA said it is studying cases of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, and pericarditis, inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart. Symptoms include shortness of breath and chest pain; the problems are usually temporary.

“Further analysis is needed to determine whether there is a causal link with the vaccines,” the EU agency said.

The EMA said it expects to finalize its review of such cases next month.

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MOSCOW -- Confirmed coronavirus cases are continuing to rise in Russia, where authorities on Friday reported 12,505 new infections -- a 25% increase from the number registered on Monday.

Moscow accounted for nearly half of the newly confirmed cases with 5,853, almost twice the number reported in Russia’s capital at the beginning of the week Despite the surge of infections, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin vowed earlier this week not to impose a lockdown.

In St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, hours-long lines of ambulances have been spotted this week near hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. The city hosted a massive economic forum last week and is scheduled to host several matches of soccer’s European Championship next week.

The Russian state coronavirus task force has reported a total of nearly 5.2 million virus cases and over 125,000 deaths in the pandemic. Most virus-related restrictions in Russia were lifted last summer, and authorities have shunned tough measures ever since.

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CARBIS BAY, England — Leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to sharing at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world — half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K.

Vaccine sharing commitments from U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set the stage for the G-7 meeting in southwest England, where leaders will pivot Friday from opening greetings and a “family photo” directly into a session on “Building Back Better From COVID-19.”

“We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners,” Biden said. The G-7 also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The leaders hope the meeting in the resort of Carbis Bay will also energize the global economy. On Friday, they are set to formally embrace a global minimum tax of at least 15% on corporations, following an agreement reached a week ago by their finance ministers. The minimum is meant to stop companies from using tax havens and other tools to avoid taxes.

It represents a potential win for the Biden administration, which has proposed a global minimum tax as a way to pay for infrastructure projects, in addition to creating an alternative that could remove some European countries’ digital services taxes that largely hit U.S. tech firms.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s King Harald V says he believes the coronavirus pandemic “is nearing its end” and people “should rejoice.”

During the pandemic, several members of the Norwegian royal family were protectively put in quarantine and either canceled official duties or performed them digitally.

Harald formally heads the Council of State with the government and during its meetings he is briefed about current affairs and signs laws. In March, he took part in such a meeting by telephone.

The Norwegian monarch, whose duties are largely ceremonial, said Thursday the pandemic has meant that he and his wife, Queen Sonja, are “seeing far less of you than we normally do.”

Norway has had one of Europe's lowest infection rates throughout the pandemic, chiefly because of the Scandinavian country's low population density. The Norwegian public's overall trust in government authorities also has been credited with keeping virus cases down.

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CHICAGO — Illinois is lifting all capacity limits on bars, restaurants, businesses and other venues as of Friday, nearly 15 months after the state's first stay-at-home order of the coronavirus pandemic.

Businesses still can have their own rules for capacity, masks and social distancing. Masks are still required on public transportation and in airports, schools and hospitals.

More than 68% of Illinois residents who are 18 or older have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 51% of adults are fully vaccinated, the state health department said, citing federal data.

The health department said 209 people with COVID-19 were in intensive care units statewide Thursday and 103 were on ventilators — “some of the lowest counts we’ve seen since the pandemic began.”

There have been at least 23,014 deaths in Illinois from COVID-19.

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MANILA, Philippines — Philippine officials have allowed the reopening of gyms, skating rinks, racket courts and museums in metropolitan Manila and adjacent provinces as a coronavirus surge continues to ease.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez says Filipinos 65 years old and above who have been restricted to home can now travel within the densely populated capital region two weeks after having been fully vaccinated.

He says gyms and similar indoor businesses with safety certificates can reopen up to 30% of their capacity.

Lopez has called for the further reopening of the battered economy to address unemployment and hunger. Museums and historical sites also can reopen at 20% capacity but guided tours remain prohibited.

The Philippines has reported the second highest number of COVID-19 infections in Southeast Asia at nearly 1.3 million with 22,312 dead. The government reimposed a lockdown in the capital region and four nearby provinces after infections surged in March.

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NEW DELHI — The Indian state of Bihar has increased its COVID-19 death toll after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases, raising concerns that many more fatalities were not officially recorded.

The health department in Bihar, one of the poorest states, on Thursday revised its COVID-19 fatality count to more than 9,429 from 5,424 — a jump of more than 70%.

Officials said the 3,951 unreported fatalities had occurred in May and reflect “deaths reported at private hospitals, in transit to health facilities, under home isolation and those dying of post COVID-19 complications.”

Health experts say many COVID-19 fatalities remain unrecorded in India. India’s federal ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have dismissed reports of undercounting as exaggerated and misleading.

Overall, India’s cases and deaths have fallen steadily in the past weeks.

The 91,702 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to more than 29.3 million on Friday, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry also reported 3,403 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 363,079.

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WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are investigating what appear to be higher than expected reports of heart inflammation in male teens and young adults after they get a second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

It’s not clear if the inflammation is caused by the shots and the reports still are rare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. The CDC is urging everyone 12 and older in the United States to get vaccinated.

A CDC official said Thursday that as of May 31, the agency had 275 preliminary reports of such inflammation in 16- to 24-year-olds,.That’s out of more than 12 million second-dose injections of the vaccines.

The official says the cases seem to occur more often in men and in younger people, and most already have fully recovered.

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BURLEY, Idaho — School district officials in Idaho have started offering a full summer school program to help students who may have fallen behind academically during the coronavirus pandemic catch up.

In previous years, the Cassia County School District district offered limited summer school to migrant programs or after-school programs, district spokesperson Debbie Critchfield told the Times-News.

“The Cassia School District hasn’t offered open and full summer school programs for any student in more than 20 years and perhaps longer. Those around now can’t recall it outside very specific schools or student participation,” Critchfield said.

Raft River Elementary School Principal Melina Ficek, who is coordinating the full summer program for the district, said it was launched because students who recently returned to school were “further behind than before.”

Officials said 840 students signed up out of an average student population of 5,500 across the district.

White Pine Elementary School Principal Diana Gill said parents were thrilled when the decision was made to hold a summer program. About one in six students out of the school’s 600 students showed up for the first day of summer school Monday.

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LOS ANGELES — Businesses in California remain baffled by the shifting rules over who needs to wear masks and where as the nation’s largest state fully reopens from the pandemic on Tuesday.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom’s health agency has said vaccinated people won’t need to wear face coverings in many public places, state regulators — following several lengthy and hotly contested debates — are still drafting rules for workers.

That has some business leaders clamoring for Newsom, who will likely face a recall election in the fall, to step in and order just one set of mask rules for California’s 40 million people.

“We asked the governor to issue an executive order to align the rules,” said Lucy Dunn, president and chief executive of the Orange County Business Council. “Otherwise it’s just terribly confusing.”

With vaccinations rising and coronavirus cases low, California will end most mask rules on June 15 for people who are vaccinated while continuing to require face coverings for unvaccinated people in indoor public settings and businesses. Everyone will need to remain masked in some places such as public transit and indoor school classes.

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WASHINGTON — Johnson & Johnson says U.S. health officials have extended the expiration date for millions of doses of its coronavirus vaccine by an extra six weeks.

The drug maker says the FDA approved a longer shelf-life for the one-dose shots. State officials recently warned that many unused doses would reach their original three-month expiration by the end of June.

The extension comes as the rate of new U.S. vaccinations continues to slip. The U.S. averaged about 800,000 injections per day last week. That’s down from a high of nearly 2 million per day two months ago.

President Joe Biden’s goal is 70% of American adults partially vaccinated by July 4. The CDC says about 64% of Americans 18 and above have received at least one dose.