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Japan’s top medical experts warned on Friday that holding the Olympics during the COVID-19 pandemic could increase infections, and said banning all spectators was the least risky option, setting up a possible collision with organisers. The report, led by top health adviser Shigeru Omi, was released after Tokyo 2020's organising committee chief told the Sankei newspaper she wanted to allow up to 10,000 spectators at stadiums for the global sport extravaganza, which kicks off on July 23. (Murakami, Swift and Sieg, 6/18)

Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization said Thursday people who got the AstraZeneca vaccine as their first dose should get Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna for their second shot. On June 1, committee had said AstraZeneca recipients “could" get Pfizer or Moderna for their second shot if they wanted, but Thursday went further to say an mRNA vaccine was the ”preferred" choice. (6/17)

Some 760,000 South Koreans who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca Plc's COVID-19 vaccine will be offered Pfizer Inc's vaccine as a second shot due to shipment delays by global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX, the government said. Several countries, including Canada and Spain, have already approved such dose-mixing mainly due to concerns about rare and potentially fatal blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine. (Cha, 6/18)

Starting Monday, every Indian adult can get a COVID-19 vaccine dose for free that was purchased by the federal government. The policy reversal, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, ends a complex system of buying vaccines that worsened inequities in administering the shots. India is a key supplier of vaccines around the world, and its missteps have left millions of people waiting unprotected. Only about 3.5% of Indians are fully vaccinated and while the policy change is likely to address inequality, questions remain. Moreover poor planning means vaccine shortages will continue. (Ghosal, 6/18)

AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing partner in Southeast Asia has missed a delivery target in Thailand and shipments to other countries in the region have been delayed, the latest setback for a shot that was meant to be the backbone of the global inoculation effort. Thailand was slated to receive and administer 6 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses in June but health authorities this week said they would be distributing only about 3.5 million of those shots this month. Pledging to still give out 6 million doses as planned, officials appear to be making up the shortfall with millions of shots from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (6/18)

Within days, China will reach a staggering 1 billion doses in its Covid-19 vaccination drive -- a scale and speed unrivaled by any other country in the world. As of Wednesday, China had administered more than 945 million doses -- three times the number delivered in the United States, and almost 40% of the 2.5 billion shots given globally. (Gan and He, 6/18)

Israel says it will transfer around 1 million doses of soon-to-expire coronavirus vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority. Under the agreement announced Friday, the PA will transfer doses to Israel once it receives them from a U.N.-backed program to supply vaccines to needy countries. (6/18)

Chinese officials are drawing up plans to further loosen birth restrictions and transition toward policies that explicitly encourage childbirth, according to people familiar with the matter, reflecting increased urgency in Beijing as economic growth slows and China’s population mix skews older. Policy makers are discussing the possibility of fully doing away with birth restrictions by 2025, the end of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s current five-year economic plan, according to one of the people. (Zhai, 6/18)