What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

May 13 (Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the pandemic right now:

North Korea reports first COVID death as fever spreads 'explosively'

At least one person confirmed to have COVID has died in North Korea and hundreds of thousands have shown fever symptoms, state media said on Friday, offering hints at the potentially dire scale of the country's first confirmed outbreak of the pandemic.

The data represents an unprecedented admission of an "explosive" outbreak in a country that had reported no previous confirmed cases since the pandemic began, and could mark a grave public health, economic and political crisis for the isolated regime.

Shanghai aims to defeat COVID over next week as Beijing hunkers down

Locked-down Shanghai aims to ring-fence its COVID outbreak over the next week, officials said on Friday, while residents in China's capital Beijing largely heeded the advice of authorities to work from home to stem the virus' spread.

Easing weeks of punishing restrictions in the commercial hub would bring relief to China's battered economy, although there is growing concern that Beijing may yet take a similar course of action if it fails to get a nascent outbreak under control.

Shanghai's deputy mayor, Wu Qing, said the city of 25 million aims to eliminate COVID outside of quarantined zones within the next week or so.

U.S. will share vaccine technology, Biden tells global summit

The United States will share technologies used to make COVID vaccines through the World Health Organization and is working to expand rapid testing and antiviral treatments for hard-to-reach populations, President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

Speaking at the second global COVID summit, Biden called on Congress to provide additional funds so that the U.S. may contribute more to the global pandemic response.

South Africa's president says agencies should order Africa-made vaccines

International agencies and charitable foundations providing COVID vaccines for Africa should order African-made vaccines, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told the global COVID summit.

Ramaphosa's comments came after South African pharmaceutical company Aspen said it could slash its capacity to produce a COVID vaccine manufactured with drug substance from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) after getting no orders.

South Korea's Yoon pledges $300 million to global response initiative

South Korea's new President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged on Thursday to provide an additional $300 million won to a global initiative to fund COVID tests, treatments and vaccines for poorer countries.

His funding pledge would bring South Korea's total donations to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, sponsored by the World Health Organization and other aid groups, to $510 million.

Generic drugmakers to sell Pfizer's (PFE) Paxlovid for $25 or less in low-income countries

Several generic drugmakers that will produce versions of Pfizer's (PFE) COVID antiviral treatment Paxlovid have agreed to sell the medicine in low- and middle-income countries for $25 a course or less, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) said on Thursday.

CHAI said it could not disclose the names of the manufacturers who have agreed to the price ceiling, because they are still in the early stage of product development and have not received regulatory approval. (Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Hugh Lawson)