* Hong Kong reopened gyms, beauty parlours, theme parks and cinemas for the first time in more than four months, as authorities relax some of the world's most stringent COVID-19 restrictions that have weighed on residents and businesses.

* Taiwan's government has approved a second COVID-19 booster vaccine dose for those 65 and older, and third boosters for the immunocompromised, as it looks to step up its fight against a spike in domestic infections.

* Eight people infected with the virus died in Shanghai on April 20, Chinese state television said.

* The local banking and insurance regulator in Shanghai said it will step up financial support to help with the resumption of production while the city battles a resurgence of COVID-19 infections.

EUROPE

* Quarantine hotel rooms for people travelling to the UK between April 2021 and March 2022 cost Stg 757 million ($A1.33 billion), with taxpayers footing about half the bill, the National Audit Office said.

AMERICAS

* The US Justice Department appealed a judge's ruling ending a mask mandate on public transport and aircraft, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the measure was still needed.

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

* Israel told its citizens they could stop wearing masks indoors, its second such revision after the measure was briefly dropped and then restored last year in response to a rise in cases.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Moderna plans to submit an application to the US health regulator for emergency use authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine among kids between the ages of six months and five years by end of the month, a company official said.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* A prolonged slowdown in China would have substantial global spillovers, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday. Beijing has room to adjust policy to provide support, she said.

* Irish consumer confidence suffered its second successive sharp monthly drop as concerns about living costs that hurt the macro economic outlook in March spread into a weakening of spending plans in April, a survey showed.

* New Zealand's consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in three decades last quarter, underlining the need for the central bank to stay on its hawkish course to contain price pressures without tipping the economy into recession.

* Peru's finance minister, Oscar Graham, said the country's cabinet has approved a bill that will be presented to Congress to impose restrictions on debt and fiscal deficit levels that were suspended during the pandemic.

GLOBAL

DEATHS: 6,232,236

CASES: 507,038,863

RECOVERED: 459,308,210

Australian Associated Press