(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said measures currently in place to curb the virus remain sufficient, even as infection numbers tied to the spread of the delta variant are on the rise, but she urged continued vigilance. The number of U.K. workers going to the office is increasing.
Covid-19 test maker Qiagen NV is pushing to find out its employees’ vaccine status, saying that European privacy rules forbidding disclosure are a serious issue for the industry as demand for diagnostics increases. France said a third vaccine dose for the elderly may begin in early September. The acting head and the CFO of South Africa’s Department of Health have been arrested on charges of fraud, according to the Police Service.
Traffic on China’s typically busy city streets has shown signs of a recovery after the country quashed a resurgence in cases. A study said India may face an unprecedented 600,000 new infections a day if the nation fails to boost the pace of shots. Vaccine requirements were set by a wide range of U.S. groups — from Chevron Corp. to New York City schools to the Pentagon — after regulators gave full approval to the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE jab.
Key Developments:
- Global Tracker: Cases top 212 million; deaths pass 4.4 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 4.98 billion doses administered
- Covid optimists see U.S. nearing delta peak, but risks abound
- Pregnant, unvaccinated and intubated: Case surge alarms doctors
- How Sydney’s Covid Battle Became Class Warfare: David Fickling
Australians Urged to Exit Covid ‘Cave’ (11:30 a.m. HK)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is urging Australians to abandon Covid-19 precautions when vaccination rates hit thresholds later this year, even as academic modeling released Tuesday shows such a strategy could expose the nation to a wave of illness and death that it’s so far avoided.
Australia’s delta-fueled surge is showing little sign of slowing after 753 cases were reported by New South Wales state on Tuesday, slightly down from its record of 830 infections Sunday.
The virus is continuing to spread to other parts of Australia despite lockdown restrictions enforced on more than half the nation’s 26 million people. New Zealand is also enforcing stay-at-home orders after the outbreak that started in Sydney reached there.
China Reports Just One New Confirmed Local Case (11 a.m. HK)
China added only one confirmed local case in the central province of Henan, after zero new cases in the country a day earlier, containing one of the nation’s worst outbreaks since the virus first emerged in 2019.
A month of draconian measures appears to have ended the latest upsurge, but the question remains over how long the world’s second-largest economy can steer clear of the virus given the spread of the infectious delta variant overseas. The eastern city of Yangzhou, which was most affected by the latest outbreak, as well as Jiangsu province, no longer have any critical cases, according to local government statements.
Hong Kong will allow domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia to return in phases as the city will recognize vaccination records from other countries, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. In another development, Hong Kong banned passenger flights from Dubai and Bangkok operated by Emirates from Aug. 24 to Sept. 6 after five people on a flight tested positive.
Singapore Cases Jump on Dormitory Outbreak (8:27 a.m. HK)
Singapore’s daily tally of locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases rose to the highest since Aug. 5, after 59 infections were discovered linked to a dormitory for foreign workers in the north of the island.
The spike in cases comes as Singapore is seeking to add more countries to its vaccinated travel lane program. The nation has signaled that it is increasingly shifting away from a so-called Covid Zero strategy aimed at stamping out the virus. Singapore had fully vaccinated about 78% of its population by Saturday.
The country has urged all employers to consider implementing a differentiated policy for existing and new employees to get vaccinated or undergo regular testing, following the example set by the government. Employers can ask staff who choose not to be vaccinated to foot the bill for regular testing as well as exclude them from Covid-19 related medical benefits.
Vaccine Passports Keep Europe Flying (5:00 a.m. HK)
In the U.S., Southwest Airlines Co. is blaming the delta strain for a rash of canceled bookings and a slowdown in demand that may push it and several others to quarterly losses. After leading the industry’s recovery for much of last year, China is in retreat with airlines offering the fewest seats in six months as authorities attempt to stamp out an outbreak. Australia’s carriers are also in reverse with more than half of the country in lockdown.
New Zealand’s Ardern Defends Elimination Goal (4:45 a.m. HK)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern defended her Covid-19 elimination strategy as she further extended a strict, nationwide lockdown to counter a worsening outbreak of the delta strain of the virus.
The entire country will remain at Level 4 restrictions, the highest level of lockdown, until midnight Aug. 27, Ardern told a news conference Monday in Wellington. That means the lockdown, initially put in place for three days, will now be in force for at least 10 days. Largest city Auckland, the epicenter of the outbreak, will remain at Level 4 for at least two weeks until midnight Aug. 31. The country reported 41 new cases in the community on Tuesday, taking the total number to 148. All the cases are in Auckland or Wellington.
Malaysia Covid Surge to Worsen Chip Shortage (00:01 a.m. HK)
The number of Covid-19 infections is surging in Malaysia, threatening to aggravate shortages of semiconductors and other components that have hammered automakers for months.
The Southeast Asian country hasn’t historically had the kind of importance to technology supply chains that Taiwan, South Korea or Japan do. But in recent years, Malaysia emerged as a major center for chip testing and packaging, with Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and STMicroelectronics NVamong the key suppliers operating plants there.
Now infections are soaring in the country, jeopardizing plans to lift lockdowns and restore full production capacity. The seven-day average for reported daily infections has pushed past 20,000, up from just over 5,000 in late June.
Indonesia Eases More Restrictions (10 p.m. HK)
Indonesia will allow more cities, including greater Jakarta, to have dine-in services at restaurants with limited capacity and let export-oriented industries operate with a full workforce as it extends the curbs through Aug. 30. Three soccer matches will be allowed to go ahead this week with no spectators.
As the delta variant pushes Indonesia’s goal of reaching herd immunity out of reach, the government will maintain some form of virus curbs for as long as the pandemic is still happening, said Luhut Panjaitan, the coordinating minister in charge of the virus response.
Indonesia added 9,604 new cases on Monday, the fewest in more than two months, while daily deaths numbered 842, the lowest since July 10, as the government starts to ease restrictions for shopping malls and export-oriented industries. The country still tops the world’s tally of daily Covid-19 deaths. The government has already distributed nearly 90% of total vaccine supply.
U.S. Daily Death Toll Tops 1,000 (10 p.m. HK)
The U.S. is recording more than 1,000 deaths a day from Covid-19, with the daily toll more than tripling in a month. The seven-day average of fatalities topped 1,000 on Saturday and Sunday, crossing that level for two straight days for the first time since March, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg. More than 628,500 Americans have died from Covid since the pandemic began.
Thailand to Learn to Live With Virus (7 p.m. HK)
Thailand is preparing for life with Covid, with preliminary plans being drawn up to relax some restrictions and reopen its borders to vaccinated visitors even as new cases hover around 20,000 a day.
The National Communicable Disease Committee on Monday approved a shift in the country’s strategy to “learning to live with Covid-19,” recognizing the endemic nature of the virus, according to Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control.
The focus going forward will be on containing infections to a level that doesn’t exceed capacity of Thailand’s public-health system, with key measures being total vaccination coverage for vulnerable groups and faster case-tracing on the assumption that everyone can become infected and transmit the virus, he said. The country’s new case tally dropped to the lowest in four weeks.
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