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NYC Fatalities Climbing; New Strain Wracks Europe: Virus Update
(Bloomberg) — The new SARS-CoV-2 strain that emerged in the U.K. is possibly already in Germany, France and Switzerland, officials in those countries said. Ireland imposed new restrictions to stem an “extraordinary growth” in cases, and said the nation should act on the assumption that the new variant has arrived.Pfizer Inc.’s partner BioNTech SE is exploring options to boost production capacity, and its chief executive officer said the companies’ vaccine will probably work against the new virus strain. Taiwan reported the first locally transmitted infection since April, ending what was the world’s longest stretch without a domestic case.The U.S. Senate passed a giant year-end spending bill combining $900 billion in Covid-19 relief aid with $1.4 trillion in regular government funding and a bevy of tax breaks for businesses.Key Developments:Global Tracker: Cases pass 77.5 million; deaths surpass 1.7 millionU.S. Hot Spots: Hospitals delguged as vaccine still months awayFirst-in-line shots go viral online to inspire wide supportLeading Indian Covid vaccine maker readies for ‘uphill’ roll outCovid wreaked havoc on airlines in 2020. Here’s how, in ChartsMore than 2.1 million people have been vaccinatedSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVIDNYC Deaths Surge 31% (10:35 a.m. NY)New York City lost 188 residents to Covid-19 in the week ended Dec. 21, up 31% from the average for the previous four weeks.While cases declined in the past week, hospitalizations and deaths increased. The seven-day average of confirmed and probable deaths has more than doubled this month, to 34 on Dec. 18. Mayor Bill de Blasio has urged residents to stay home for the holidays.The fatalities are nowhere near the 700-plus daily deaths New York City saw in April. Themost populous U.S. city has reported 387,361 confirmed and probable cases since the outbreak began, and 24,735 deaths.Denmark Says Other Variant Detected (9:20 a.m. NY)Denmark’s health authorities said that about 10% the country’s positive test results are now of the N439K mutation of the virus, calling the rate “concerning.” The mutation, which was first discovered in Romania in May, is different from the one spreading in the U.K. and also from the one that infected the Danish mink farms earlier this year, authorities said.Danes, Dutch Postpone Care to Deal With Virus (9:14 a.m. NY)Intensive-care units in Denmark’s capital region are now approaching full capacity, prompting health officials to postpone planned operations and seek assistance from hospitals outside the Copenhagen area. The development comes amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, though the daily tallies have lately been below a Dec. 18 spike of more than 4,500.Hospitals in the Netherlands also put all non-urgent health care on hold to be able to attend to a large influx of Covid patients, according to national press agency ANP. More patients are being transferred to neighbor Germany.Switzerland Gets First 107,000 Vaccine Doses (9:02 a.m. NY)Switzerland received the first 107,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and will start individual shots this month before an official national rollout on Jan. 4. The country will prioritize people age 75 and up, as well as adults with highest-risk chronic illnesses.The country analyzes only 1% of the about 30,000 cases per week, and hadn’t found the mutated virus strain as of Dec. 10. However, it’s probable that the variant has already been brought into Switzerland by multiple people on flights from the U.K., according to the Swiss Covid-19 science taskforce.EU Calls on Member States to Reopen Transport Links to U.K. (9 a.m. NY)The European Commission called on member states to reopen critical trade and passenger transport links to the U.K. while discouraging non-essential travel, a step toward ending the chaos at Britain’s busiest port.The British government is desperately trying to reopen trade routes to France after a day of cross-Channel political bartering failed to end the impasse. France shut down freight traffic from Dover in southeast England at midnight on Sunday because of fear over the mutant strain of Covid-19 that forced the U.K. government to impose a strict lockdown on London and surrounding areas.More than 40 countries are restricting flights and effectively isolating the U.K.New Irish Curbs to Stem ‘Extraordinary’ Virus Growth (8:24 a.m. NY)Ireland will bring in a raft of new restrictions to control the coronavirus, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said in a national address, citing “extraordinary growth” in the virus there.Pubs and restaurants will close from Dec. 24 until Jan. 12, while inter-county travel will be effectively banned. Non-essential stores can remain open, but the government has asked that January sales be postponed. While there is no “firm evidence” that the new strain of the virus is in Ireland, “the most responsible thing is to proceed on the assumption that it is already here,” Martin said.“We may now be seeing a daily growth rate of approximately 10%,” Martin said. That “is simply not sustainable.”IMF Warns Euro-Area Recovery May Slow, Stimulus Needed (8 a.m. NY)The euro area is in danger of seeing a slower economic recovery in 2021 than previously expected, and may need more stimulus as a resurgent coronavirus sweeps through the continent, the International Monetary Fund said.Sweden Wants New Covid Laws in Force by January (7:57 a.m. NY)Sweden plans to enact new pandemic laws on Jan. 15 that will give it the right to shutter businesses and public transport to help tackle a spike in cases. Despite a resurgence of infections, Sweden has so far stopped short of a full lockdown partly because it lacked the legal framework to do more.Romanians Reluctant to Have Vaccine (7:12 a.m. NY)Romanians remain reluctant to have a Covid-19 vaccine. Only 30% said they were willing to have the shot, while 29% of people said they definitely wouldn’t, according to a survey by the Avangarde polling company, cited by G4Media. The rest of the population was still undecided, the poll showed.South Africa Pays Deposit to Access Covax Program (6:25 p.m. HK)South Africa has made a $19.2 million deposit to secure access to the Covax facility, the global effort to ensure that countries get equal access to vaccines.Iran Deaths Surpass 54,000 (6:17 p.m. HK)Iran’s total death count from the coronavirus surpassed 54,000 on Tuesday, with 187 more fatalities in the last 24 hours. The country’s total known infections reached 1.17 million, with 6,208 new cases overnight, up from 6,151 a day earlier, the Health Ministry reported.U.K. Mutation Likely Already in Germany: RKI (5:30 p.m. HK)A variant of the coronavirus that prompted an emergency lockdown in London is very likely already in Germany, according to the head of the nation’s RKI public health institute. RKI President Lothar Wieler said that while the variant hasn’t yet been identified in Germany, it’s only a matter of time.“I would estimate that the likelihood that it’s already in Germany but not yet detected is very, very high,” Wieler said.Separately, France’s health minister said it’s also possible that the English variant is circulating there, though there is currently no information to suggest that’s the case. France is carrying out genetic sequencing of strains identified in people who have tested positive, and “experts have told me they didn’t find this variant in the last 500 they carried out,” Olivier Veran told reporters.German Ban on U.K., South African Travelers Takes Effect (5 p.m. HK)Germany’s ban on inbound travelers from Britain, Northern Ireland and South Africa took effect Tuesday, including all direct air, rail, bus and ship routes. The ban, which lasts until at least Jan. 6, is designed to prevent “dangerous” coronavirus mutations spreading into continental Europe, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in an emailed statement.People with a residency permit for Germany will be allowed to travel there from the U.K. and South Africa from Jan. 1, as long as they have permission from the Interior Ministry.More Restrictions on U.K. Travelers (4:57 p.m. HK)Singapore will block all travelers from the U.K. from entering the country. The restrictions will be in place from 11:59 p.m. local time on Dec. 23. Citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to return from Britain, and they will have to undergo a PCR test at the start of their 14-day quarantine period.Greece will extend the quarantine requirement for anyone arriving from the U.K. to 10 days, after increasing it to seven days from three on Monday. The move is effective at 6 a.m. local time on Christmas day until Jan. 7. In order to leave quarantine, people will need to show another negative PCR result. U.K. travelers already need to have a negative result no more than 72 hours before arrival.Italy ordered anyone who traveled from the U.K. in the past two weeks, before flights were banned, to contact authorities and get tested. There could be as many as 44,000, according to newspaper Corriere della Sera.Switzerland Searches for 10,000 Britons (4:30 p.m. HK)Switzerland is trying to locate about 10,000 Britons who entered the country after Dec. 14 and must now quarantine for 10 days after the Alpine nation blocked borders for tourists coming from the U.K., according to Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger. The government will use passenger logs for about 92 flights to track down the visitors, many of whom traveled to ski resorts in southwestern Switzerland.Hotels are still awaiting more guidance on how to manage the logistics of quarantining guests. The government is due to announce more details of the plan on Tuesday and also outline how its own citizens in Britain can come home.Japanese Urged to Wear Masks at Home (2:08 p.m. HK)Japan’s struggle to contain the coronavirus ahead of the holiday season has prompted some local leaders to ask more vulnerable residents to embrace a more extreme precaution: wearing masks at home.Japan is in the grips of a fresh wave of Covid-19 as winter sets in, with daily cases in Tokyo hovering at record levels.Thailand’s Outbreak (2:07 p.m. HK)Thailand’s coronavirus infections continued to climb following an outbreak in a coastal province near the capital last weekend, as the nation’s premier ordered stricter border surveillance to catch illegal entrants from neighboring countries including Myanmar.The Southeast Asian nation reported 427 new cases on Tuesday, as a cluster in Samut Sakhon province outside of Bangkok expanded around workers at seafood processing plants. Thailand hadn’t reported more than 100 cases in any day since early April until the new outbreak was found on Dec. 17.Taiwan Case Ends World’s Longest Virus-Free Streak (2:01 p.m. HK)An unidentified patient was confirmed to have caught Covid-19 in Taiwan, according to an official from Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. While it has seen cases in travelers arriving from outside, Taiwan’s last infection within the community was April 12. The woman had contact with a foreign pilot previously confirmed as an imported case.The reemergence of a local outbreak threatens to derail one of the standout success stories in the global fight against the pandemic. Taiwan has managed to keep its total number of cases to 766, with just seven deaths, through a combination of restricting travel into the island early in the outbreak and implementing a strict quarantine and contact tracing strategy.Pfizer Partner BioNTech Ready to Boost Vaccine Capacity for 2021 (1:15 p.m. HK)BioNTech SE is pursuing all its options to make more Covid-19 vaccine doses than the 1.3 billion the companies have promised to produce next year, according to the German company’s chief executive officer.The companies will probably know by January or February whether and how many additional doses can be produced, Ugur Sahin said Monday. “I am confident that we will be able to increase our network capacity, but we don’t have numbers yet,” he said in an interview.The vaccine’s EU approval and an inoculation campaign set to start there on Dec. 27 promise to further draw on stocks.Sahin also said the vaccine will probably work against the new SARS-CoV-2 strain that has emerged in the U.K. Lab tests of the vaccine’s performance have already been done against 20 mutant versions; the same tests will now be run against the new U.K. version, and should take about two weeks, he said.U.K. Covid Testing Capacity Seen Falling Short (12:18 p.m. HK)Demand for the U.K.’s coronavirus test kits will outweigh supply in coming weeks, the Financial Times reported, citing an internal government document it has seen.Demand for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests used by health authorities predicted to outnumber supply in the week to Christmas by up to 50,000 tests a day, according to government calculations made last week, the FT reported.Airlines Flying From the U.K. to N.Y. to Test Passengers (9:05 a.m. HK)All three airlines that fly from the U.K. to New York have agreed to test for Covid-19, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. British Airways, Delta and Virgin Airlines all will require passenger testing, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said on Twitter.Cuomo on Monday said he had asked the three airlines to add the state to a list of 120 countries requiring pre-boarding Covid tests. Cuomo blasted the U.S. government for not enacting a travel ban from the U.K. or requiring testing. The new strain of the virus that has been discovered in the U.K. “is flying around the world,” he said.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
