China has reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Oct 15 up from 10 a day earlier, the country's health authority said.

All of the new infections were imported, according to a statement by the National Health Commission.

China reported 18 new asymptomatic patients, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, down from 25 day earlier. Fifteen of those infections were imported, with the rest originating in Yunnan province and the Xinjiang region, according to Reuters.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that it will accept mixed-dose coronavirus vaccines from international travellers, a boost to travelers from Canada and other places.

The CDC said last week that it would accept any vaccine authorised for use by US regulators or the World Health Organisation, according to a Reuters report.

“While CDC has not recommended mixing types of vaccine in a primary series, we recognise that this is increasingly common in other countries so should be accepted for the interpretation of vaccine records,” a CDC spokeswoman said.

A top US Food and Drug Administration official has said that the agency is considering lowering the recommended age for who should receive booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to as young as 40 years old, based on data from Israel suggesting the vaccine's efficacy is waning.

Israeli scientists presented “data that seemed compelling in the 40 and up age range,” DrPeter Marks, Director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said, speaking to the agency's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

Sindh has reported 423 new coronavirus cases and five deaths over the past 24 hours, according to a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office.

A total of 18,622 tests were conducted during this period and 10,877 Covid-19 patients recovered in the province.

The province's infection tally now stands at 464,261 and the death toll has climbed to 7,525.

Italy has reported 42 more coronavirus-related deaths, up from 40 the previous day, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections has fallen to 2,732 from 2,668.

According to Reuters, Italy has registered 131,503 deaths linked to Covid-19 since the outbreak in February last year. It has the second-highest toll in Europe behind Britain and the ninth highest in the world. The country has reported 4.71 million cases to date.

Healthcare systems across Canada are still very fragile from efforts needed to fight Covid-19, even as signs suggest a fourth wave is starting to recede, a top medical official said.

Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said it was important for health workers to get vaccinated and prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.

“Everybody's exhausted. And if healthcare workers have to go into quarantine for example, after exposure, the system simply isn't going to be sustainable,” she told a briefing. “Our health systems are still very fragile.”

Official data show that as of Oct 8, 81 per cent of Canadians aged 12 and over have received two shots against Covid-19, Reuters reports.

The US is shipping an additional 9.6 million doses of Pfizer vaccines through the Covax facility to Pakistan, according to a statement issued by the US embassy in Islamabad.

The delivery will bring the total number of Covid-19 vaccines given by the US government to Pakistan to more than 25 million, the statement said.

“The United States is proud to partner with Pakistan to get effective, life-saving Pfizer vaccinations into the arms of Pakistanis, and Pakistan has done a great job of distributing our donated vaccines,” said US Embassy Chargé d’affaires Angela P. Aggeler.