(Bloomberg) — Singapore sent 500,000 vaccine doses to Australia in a swap deal that would provide the city-state with booster shots in December, even as the island nation battles a current outbreak. In Ireland, the cabinet will meet today to discuss a proposal to end most Covid restrictions.
South African scientists said they identified a new variant that has a concerning number of mutations. Moderna Inc. fell as Japan investigates the deaths of two people who received its Covid-19 shots. GlaxoSmithKline Plc and South Korean drugmaker SK Bioscience Co. are starting final trials for another vaccine candidate.
European Union countries voted to reimpose restrictions on non-essential travel from the U.S.
Key Developments:
- Global Tracker: Cases top 216.9 million; deaths pass 4.5 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 5.26 billion doses administered
- Delta is starting to ruin trade’s epic run on Bloomberg Tracker
- Back-to-school blues hit Europe’s airlines ahead of long winter
- Southeast Asia added 70 million online consumers during pandemic
- Where we are hunting for the coronavirus’s origin: QuickTake
- Call for Covid probe sparked a hacking nightmare in Australia
Ireland Plans End of Most Restrictions (2:28 p.m. HK)
Ireland’s cabinet will meet today to consider a proposal that would end almost all Covid-19 restrictions by Oct. 22. The proposal includes a phased return to the workplace from Sept. 20, according to national broadcaster RTE.
The unwinding of restrictions from Sept. 6 would be contingent on the level of Covid cases and on 90% of adults being fully vaccinated. Measures would include indoor venues being able to use up to 60% and outdoor venues 75% of capacity for those who are fully vaccinated. Masks are still likely to be required in the health and retail sectors and on public transport, RTE said.
SK Bioscience, Glaxo Start Final Testing of Vaccine (2 p.m. HK)
South Korean drugmaker SK Bioscience and GlaxoSmithKline are beginning a final stage clinical trial on another vaccine candidate. The study will enroll 4,000 participants and compare the shot to that of AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University, Glaxo said Tuesday. The U.K. drugmaker is providing an adjuvant, which is a substance that can enhance the response to vaccines.
India Death Toll May Be 10 Times Official Rate: Study (12:52 p.m. HKT)
India’s total death toll from the virus could be about 4.5 million, according to a new study by the U.S.-based National Bureau of Economic Research, which estimated Covid mortality in India from February 2020 to May 2021.
That’s compared with the latest official total of 438,560 deaths, released by the federal health ministry today. India added 30,941 new cases on Tuesday, pushing total infections to almost 32.8 million, the ministry said. More than 640 million vaccine shots have been administered.
The NBER report is the latest estimate to question whether the government has been under-reporting deaths in the world’s second-worst-hit nation.
Duterte to Revise Philippine Strategy as Cases Surge (12:15 p.m. HK)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he plans to revise the nation’s pandemic response after coronavirus cases surged by to a record on Monday. “We need to recalibrate our response,” Duterte said in a televised briefing. The government is studying “whether granular or localized lockdowns will work best.”
Cases will continue to rise in the country and will likely peak in mid-September, the Health Department said, after daily infections hit 22,366 on Monday. The rise in cases has slowed in the capital region in the past two weeks following a strict lockdown, but infections in areas outside Metro Manila are increasing due mainly to the delta variant. Only about 18% of the country’s adult population have been fully vaccinated.
Singapore Prepares for Boosters by Year End (11:30 a.m. HK)
Singapore, which has fully vaccinated more than 80% of its population, is sending 500,000 Pfizer shots to Australia this week in return for receiving the same number back in December, when “they will have more potential use for us as booster shots,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a Facebook post.
Singapore has the best vaccination rate in the world among economies of more than 1 million people and is pursuing a policy of gradually opening its trade-dependent economy while trying to minimize deaths or serious illness from Covid. Australia’s inoculation rate is well behind, with just 27% fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Delta Hits China’s Services Sector (10:23 a.m. HK)
China’s economy took a knock from the delta virus outbreak in August, with the services industry contracting for the first time since February last year and manufacturing hit by supply-chain problems.
The official non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, which measures activity in the construction and services sectors, slumped to 47.5, signaling a contraction for the first time since the initial virus cases in the first quarter last year.
New Zealand Cases Fall a Second Day (9:22 a.m. HK)
New Zealand added another 49 new cases, bringing the total in a community outbreak to 612, the health ministry said. It’s the second straight day the number of new infections has fallen, giving hope to the government’s lockdown to pursue a zero-Covid policy.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said restrictions will be partially eased outside of Auckland, the epicenter of the outbreak, amid signs that the spread of the virus is being brought under control.
Australia Outbreak Worsens (9:00 a.m. HK)
Australia’s months-long outbreak of delta variant cases is worsening, despite half the nation’s population being in lockdown.
New South Wales state, the nation’s largest, recorded its fourth straight day of over 1,000 cases. More than 21,200 people have been infected since mid-June after authorities failed to contain a surge seeded from an unvaccinated chauffeur who was transporting flight crew in Sydney.
Australia’s capital Canberra extended its lockdown by two weeks until at least Sept. 17, after recording 13 cases on Tuesday. The tiny territory, located inside New South Wales state, issued stay-at-home orders on Aug. 12 after finding its first virus case in over a year.
Victoria state will deliver on Wednesday a plan to introduce “modest changes” to begin reopening after a monthlong lockdown, state Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Thai Cases Decline, Rules Relaxed (8:59 a.m. HK)
Thailand’s 14,666 new cases on Tuesday are the lowest since July 27, and the fourth straight day of declines. From tomorrow, the country’s strictest restrictions in 29 provinces, including Bangkok, will be relaxed. Restaurants will be allowed to offer dine-in services, more businesses in shopping malls will reopen and domestic flights will resume.
The Thai government last week approved a “living with Covid” strategy, allowing the economy to reopen provided that the healthcare system doesn’t get overwhelmed. The nation still has 171,368 active cases, with just over 5,000 in critical condition.
Paramount Sues Insurer Over ‘Mission Impossible’ (6:10 a.m. HK)
Paramount Pictures Corp. is the latest entertainment company to go after its insurer over Covid-19-related coverage, suing a Chubb Ltd. unit for failing to fully pay claims related to delays and interruptions caused by the pandemic in the production of “Mission: Impossible 7.” Chubb said it’s company policy not to comment on pending legal matters.
U.S. Raises Germany, Canada Travel Warning (4:25 a.m. HK)
The U.S. State Department told residents to reconsider travel to Germany and Canada amid a “high level” of Covid-19 in the two countries. It raised their travel advisories, separately, by one notch to Level 3.
Brazil Overtakes U.S. in First Doses (3:30 a.m. HK)
Brazil became the latest major country to pass the U.S. in the percentage of its citizens who have had at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, as the government’s inoculation campaign picks up speed and resistance to the shots fades away.
About 63% of Brazilians have now received at least one dose, versus 62% of people in the U.S., according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker.
White Houses Urges Shot Incentives for Poor (3:15 a.m. HK)
The Biden administration is encouraging states to offer gift cards or similar incentives to low-income people on Medicaid who get the Covid-19 vaccine, in a bid to boost inoculation rates that trail the broader public.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued new guidance Monday to state Medicaid directors, offering federal funding and other assistance to boost vaccination rates among people covered by the health plan. There’s been confusion about whether federal funding can support vaccination efforts in the program, an official familiar with the matter said.
Anti-Vax Talk Show Host Dies of Covid (2:20 a.m. HK)
A conservative talk radio host in Florida who said he wouldn’t get vaccinated has died from Covid-19, making him the third on-air personality who voiced skepticism about the shots to die in August, the New York Post reported.
Marc Bernier, 65, who had characterized himself as “Mr. Anti-Vax” on his weekday WNDB radio show from Daytona Beach, died after a three-week fight against the virus, station officials announced.
Bernier died about a week after Tennessee conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine, 61, died from a protracted battle against the virus. Newsmax anchor and radio host Dick Farrel died from the virus on Aug. 4.
Africa’s Low Immunity Raises Variant Risk (1:50 a.m. HK)
The large number of people in Africa with a weakened immune system makes it ripe for the development of variants, the head of a South African genomics institute said.
The study of an individual with advanced HIV and limited adherence to anti-retroviral treatment showed that a Covid-19 infection persisted for more than 200 days and “multimutational escape variants” developed, said Tulio de Oliveira, head of the institute.
Africa is home to the bulk of the world’s HIV infections, with South Africa alone having about 7.7 million affected individuals.
EU Votes to Reimpose Travel Curbs on U.S. (11:45 p.m. HK)
European Union countries voted to reimpose restrictions on non-essential travel from the U.S. amid a surge in new cases, dealing a fresh blow to the tourism industry. A qualified majority of ambassadors voted to reintroduce the curbs, which had been lifted in June, according to an EU statement.
The U.S. had 588 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the two weeks ending Aug. 22, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, well above the limit of 75 set out in the EU guidelines.
The EU guidance is a recommendation and any decision on who to let in, and what restrictions to impose, ultimately rests with the governments of each member state.
BHP May Make Vaccination Mandatory in Mines (9 p.m. HK)
BHP Group is considering making Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory at its operations in Australia, and will help the national rollout by offering jabs on-site as the country grapples with its worst outbreak of the virus.
The global miner said it would complete a technical assessment of the policy in September and likely start enforcing it in early 2022, once people have had the opportunity to get fully vaccinated.
South Africa Identifies New Variant (7:09 p.m. HK)
South African scientists said they identified a new coronavirus variant that has a concerning number of mutations.
The so-called C.1.2. variant was first found in May in the provinces of Mpumalanga and Gauteng, where Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria, are situated, the scientists said in a research paper published by groups including the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. The variant has since been found in seven other countries in Africa, Oceania, Asia and Europe.
The mutations “are associated with increased transmissibility” and an increased ability to evade antibodies, the scientists said.
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