Monday, August 2, 2021

China suffering from Delta Variant in 14 of 32 provinces

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(Bloomberg) -- China is confronting its broadest coronavirus outbreak since the pathogen emerged in late 2019, with cases now in 14 of 32 provinces. The wide spread, which indicates that the variant has been on the loose for some time, is alarming officials.

a group of people walking on a city street: Japan, U.K. Plan Booster Jabs; India at Risk Again: Virus Update© Bloomberg Japan, U.K. Plan Booster Jabs; India at Risk Again: Virus Update

Israel’s public health officials are beginning to see signs of more serious disease among the vaccinated elderly. India is likely to see a new, though smaller, wave of infections, according to the forecaster who accurately predicted India’s Covid peak earlier this year. Southeast Asia reported the largest regional weekly death toll by population rate.

Cases in Australia’s hot spot of Sydney matched an all-time high and Brisbane extended its lockdown. And the Olympics bubble appears to be holding up even amid a surge in cases in Tokyo.

Key Developments:

Global Tracker: Cases top 198.3 million; deaths pass 4.2 millionVaccine Tracker: More than 4.13 billion doses administeredIn Provincetown, Covid hits 14 friends in show of delta’s mightU.K.’s delta rollercoaster flips between virus horror and hopeAre Covid shots working? What the real world tells us: QuickTakeHere’s what major U.S. companies have said about latest policies

China’s Broadest Outbreak Since Wuhan (1:38 p.m. HK)

China is confronting its broadest coronavirus outbreak since the pathogen emerged in late 2019 after the delta variant broke through the country’s defenses, with cases now in 14 of 32 provinces.

While the overall number of infections -- more than 300 so far -- is much lower than outbreaks elsewhere, the wide spread indicates that the variant has been on the loose for some time and is alarming officials.

It’s the biggest challenge for the world’s second-largest economy since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. China’s strict regulations, including mass testing, aggressive contact tracing, quarantines and occasional lockdowns, crushed more than 30 previous flareups.

The arrival of the more infectious delta variant, however, is testing that approach. The new strain may be exploiting the population’s recent willingness to lower their guards when it comes to masking and distancing, since much of the country has been Covid-free for months.

Philippines to Get Shots From U.S., U.K. (1:28 p.m. HK)

The Philippines will get more than three million Moderna shots donated by the U.S. and 415,000 AstraZeneca doses this week, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said. The Southeast Asian nation plans to speed up vaccinations as the capital goes on a two-week lockdown from Aug. 6. The lockdown is seen to lower the average daily infections in the capital to just over 700, from the initial projection of 15,000 without the strict curbs, the Health Department said.

India Adds Over 40,000 Daily Cases (1:20 p.m. HK)

India added 40,134 Covid-19 cases Monday, taking the total tally to 31.7 million. It has administered 472.2 million vaccine shots so far but only 7.6% of the country’s population is fully inoculated against the virus, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. Covid-related deaths rose by 422 in a day to 424,773, according to latest data from the Indian health ministry.

Southeast Asia Rocked by Virus (12:45 p.m. HK)

Southeast Asia surpassed Latin America in reporting the world’s largest weekly death toll per million people in the seven days through Aug. 1, the Southeast Asian region recorded 28.8 deaths per 1 million people, versus 28.5 in Latin America and the Caribbean region, according to Bloomberg analysis based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Southeast Asia’s total fatalities since the pandemic started are still just a fraction of Latin America’s, but the change shows how the more transmissible delta variant is raging as the vaccination rate remains low. Indonesia had the majority of the jump in deaths in the region, reporting 12,444 in the past week. Myanmar and Malaysia saw the second and third largest weekly death tolls at 2,620 and 1,030, respectively.

Taiwan Considers Easing Restrictions Soon (11:45 a.m. HK)

Taiwan may further ease its Covid curbs after Aug. 10. The local pandemic situation remains stable after Taiwan downgraded its Covid-19 alert level from July 27, Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng said in a text message statement, citing Premier Su Tseng-chang.

Border control will need to remain tight given the pandemic is spreading in neighboring countries, Su said.

Olympics Bubble Is Holding Up as Tokyo Cases Surge (9:50 a.m. HK)

The Tokyo summer Olympic Games have reported over 250 cases among athletes and related personnel, but experts say the bubble system created to separate the sporting event from the Japanese capital appears to be working -- so far.

Outside the Olympic venues, the city of Tokyo is seeing a surge in Covid-19 infections and reported a record 4,058 new cases on Saturday. Yet, among athletes and stakeholders of the Olympics, the positivity rate has been only 0.02% with over 400,000 tests conducted so far, organizers said on Sunday. Of the over 40,000 tests performed at the airport for games participants, only 35 have been positive.

“The testing and bubble protocol appears to be functioning well,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an infectious disease physician on Thursday. “Since the organizers bafflingly did not mandate vaccination as a condition of participation and the unvaccinated were welcomed, these numbers seem within expectations,” he said of the positive cases reported so far at the games.

Thailand Death Toll Tops 5,000 (9:46 a.m. HK)

Thailand’s Covid-19 death toll surpassed 5,000 on Monday when the country reported 178 fatalities amid a relentless surge of infections fueled by the more contagious delta variant. The Southeast Asian nation reported 17,970 new infections on Monday, taking the cumulative cases to 633,284.

The spike in infections and hospitalizations has overwhelmed the public health system in a country where only 5.6% of the population have been fully inoculated. There are currently more than 200,000 active cases, with 4,768 patients in critical condition.

Brisbane Extends Lockdown as It Struggles With Delta (8:31 a.m. HK)

Brisbane will remain in lockdown until at least Sunday as Australia’s third-largest city struggles to contain an outbreak of the delta variant of the coronavirus, which has also seen stay-at-home orders enforced in Sydney.

The lockdown in Brisbane and surrounding regions in the southeast of Queensland state, announced on Saturday, was due to end on Tuesday. It will be extended after authorities detected 13 new cases in the local community on Monday from the day before, Deputy Premier Steven Miles told reporters.


Video: Nanjing Covid outbreak worst since Wuhan, Chinese state media says (NBC News)

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The announcement comes after Sydney’s delta-outbreak cases forced Australia’s largest city into a lockdown that will be implemented for at least nine weeks until Aug. 28. Sydney reported a record-matching 239 new local cases of Covid-19 over the 24 hours to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Pfizer in Talks for Japan Trial of Oral Covid Drug (8:15 a.m. HK)

Pfizer is in talks with Japanese authorities to start a trial of its orally taken Covid-19 drug in the nation, Nikkei reported, without attribution.

Pfizer Inc. said in March that it has begun human safety testing of a new pill to treat the coronavirus that could be used at the first sign of illness.

Japan Reportedly Plans to Recommend Booster Shots in 2022 (7:22 a.m. HK)

The Japanese government is considering urging those fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to receive a third booster shot next year as concerns emerge over variants that are more contagious than previous ones, Nikkei reported without attribution. The minister in charge of vaccine rollout, Taro Kono, said in a television program aired Sunday that a third dose would be recommended next year, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.

Japan may start charging patients for the vaccines if their efficacies are maintained to certain levels against new variants, the report said.

U.S. Reports Strong Week for First Shots (6:18 a.m. HK)

The White House said the past week has been the best for administering first shots since early June.

On Sunday, 816,000 doses were administered, one of the highest in the past month. Vaccinations have been trending higher since mid-July, with several states with the worst outbreaks picking up pace.

India Likely Faces New Wave: Expert (5:15 a.m. HK)

The forecaster who accurately predicted India’s Covid peak earlier this year said the country is likely to see a rise in infections building into a new, though smaller, wave.

The new surge may peak in October, with less than 100,000 cases a day in a best-case scenario, according to estimates by researchers led by Mathukumalli Vidyasagar and Manindra Agrawal at Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad and Kanpur respectively.

U.K. Set to Deliver Boosters in Sept. (5:00 p.m. NY)

The U.K. government is planning to deliver booster shots to 32 million people starting early next month, The Telegraph reported. Adults aged 50 and above, as well as the immuno-suppressed, will be offered these shots.

Ministers are considering giving people a different booster vaccine than what they received for their existing dose, as studies have showed mixing brands could enhance protection. That could lead to a significant reduction in the use of AstraZeneca jabs, the newspaper said.

Chicago Mayor Praises Lollapalooza (12 p.m. NY)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the Lollapalooza music festival, which attracts as many as 100,000 fans a night, is a model for gatherings despite rising infections in the city.

“Ninety percent of people at Lolla have been vaccinated, and hundreds of people who either haven’t been vaccinated or haven’t shown a negative test within 72 hours have been turned away,” Lightfoot told reporters Sunday. Organizers of the four-day festival “have done a an incredible job,” she said.

Lightfoot said she has no plans to mandate masks or impose tighter lockdown on Chicago, although last week the city recommended that people wear masks in public indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

Israel Sees Waning Vaccine Effectiveness (11:45 a.m. NY)

Half of the infections in Israel now are among the fully vaccinated, and public health officials are beginning to see signs of more serious disease among them, said Sharon Alroy-Preis, the nation’s Director of Public Health Services.

She said that infections for people vaccinated in January are double those vaccinated in March, an apparent decrease in effectiveness over time that has led Israel to begin booster shots. She said infections were particularly problematic for people 60 and older.

“It’s not just the fact that we’re seeing more disease, but they’re getting to severe and critical conditions,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

U.K. Vaccine Progress (10:54 a.m. NY)

More than 88% of adult Britons have received one vaccine dose, and more than 38 million people have been double-jabbed -- the equivalent of 72% of the adult population, according to the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care.

From the end of September, people will be required to prove they’ve had both doses to enter nightclubs and music events, and from Aug. 16, fully vaccinated people will no longer be legally required to self-isolate if they are identified as a close contact of a positive case of Covid-19.

Fauci Says Shots Work (10:13 a.m. NY)

Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious disease doctor, said Covid-19 vaccines work extremely well and that a return to the lockdowns of 2020 is unlikely despite reports of outbreaks among fully vaccinated people.

“The likelihood of your getting a severe outcome of the infection is very low,” Fauci said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Higher Vaccine Prices (9:03 a.m. NY)

Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. have increased the prices of their Covid-19 vaccines in the latest supply contracts with the European Union, the Financial Times reported.

The price rises come as the bloc deals with supply disruptions and side-effect concerns from other shots, the FT said.

German Vaccination Progress (8:57 a.m. NY)

Germany’s government will recommend the vaccine for all 12- to 17-year-olds on Monday, the Associated Press reported, citing a draft resolution ahead of a planned meeting of state-level health ministers.

Eastern Chinese City Halts Flights (6:05 a.m. NY)

Yangzhou, a city neighboring Nanjing where there’s been an outbreak of delta-variant cases, suspended all passenger flights in and out of the local airport starting Saturday. It also stopped bus, cab and ride-hailing services in the city from Sunday.

The city found 12 local confirmed cases on July 31 and 10 on July 30, an increase compared with a total of 6 cases reported July 20-29, according to the city government’s Weibo postings.

Beijing Tightens Measures (5:45 p.m. HK)

Beijing reported two confirmed local cases and 1 asymptomatic infection in the city as of 4 p.m. Sunday, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who spoke at a briefing. The cases were from the same family who recently traveled to the central Chinese tourist city of Zhangjiajie.

The Chinese capital will step up efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, including suspension of flights, trains and buses from regions with Covid cases, according to a post on the city’s WeChat account.

German Cases Rise (5:28 p.m. HK)

Germany’s weekly case average of 2,195 was the highest since July 12, the Robert Koch-Institut said. The seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants rose to 17.5, the 26th consecutive gain.

Thai Measures Expanded (5:12 p.m. HK)

Thailand is set to expand its quasi-lockdown measures to its regions that are hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic and home to about 40% of the population.

The most stringent restrictions in 13 provinces, including the capital Bangkok and its surrounding regions, will be extended to Aug. 31, and those curbs will be expanded to 16 additional provinces, the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration said on Sunday.

Uber’s U.K. Vaccine Incentives (4:06 p.m. HK)

Several food and travel companies in the U.K. will start giving incentives and offering discounts to urge Britons to get vaccinated, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Uber Technologies Inc. will send users a vaccine reminder and give lower rates for young adults who get the shot. Bolt, another ride-share company, is offering free ride credits to vaccine centers, and Deliveroo Plc and Pizza Pilgrims are also aiding the drive.

Over 600,000 people were vaccinated at walk-in clinics last weekend and more sites have been made available this week, the department said.

Support for N.Z.’s Ardern Slips Amid Virus (3:57 p.m. HK)

Support for New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party has slipped by almost 10 percentage points amid increasing scrutiny of the government’s response to the coronavirus, according to a poll by Newshub-Reid Research.

Labour’s support fell to 43% compared with a May survey, while New Zealand National Party’s backing rose to almost 29% and ACT Party’s increased to about 11%, Newshub-Reid found. Ardern was still preferred Prime Minister by a large margin.

The research was conducted July 22 to 29 and had a margin of error of 3.3%, according to Newshub-Reid.

Ho Chi Minh City Curbs (2:24 p.m. HK)

Vietnam authorities extended the stay-at-home order covering most of the nation’s southern region, including the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, for two weeks.

The extension is directed at 19 localities and is part of the government’s aggressive anti-virus measures to contain the nation’s worst coronavirus outbreak, which began in late April.

The country reported a total 150,060 virus cases and 1,306 deaths as of Saturday, with 97% of infections recorded from late April, according to the health ministry. Ho Chi Minh City accounts for about 63% of infections in the current outbreak.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 

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