Record Daily Deaths; Hong Kong Set for Pfizer Nod: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Joe Biden plans to re-engage with the World Health Organization and will dispatch the government’s top infectious-disease expert to speak to the group this week. The new president’s team is worried that a more-transmissible strain of the virus threatens his plans to contain the outbreak.

Hong Kong is set to grant emergency approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an unidentified government source. The move would mark the first approval for any Covid-19 vaccine in the Asian financial hub. Meanwhile, Singapore plans to host a tennis tournament next month.

The U.K. suffered its deadliest day, prompting one official to compare some hospitals there to “a war zone.” Spain reported the most new cases since the pandemic began. A new daily record was set for global deaths.

Key Developments:

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New Record Set for Deadliest Day of Covid-19 Pandemic (12:33 p.m. HK)

Global deaths topped 17,500 on January 20, according to Johns Hopkins data, the highest daily total of the Covid-19 pandemic to date, the latest example of how the pandemic continues to rage around the world even as vaccines begin to be deployed. The previous high was on Jan. 8 at 17,454.

Indonesia’s Inoculation (11:32 a.m. HK)

Indonesia has given the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines to 60,815 people in the first week of its mass inoculation program. The Southeast Asian nation aims to inoculate 181.5 million people, about two-thirds of its population, by the end of the year to curb an infection that has sickened over 900,000 people across the country and killed more than 26,000, the highest in the region.

Singapore to Host Tennis Tournament (10:11 a.m. HK)

Singapore will host an ATP 250 tennis tournament next month. The city-state will ensure strict implementation of safe management measures at the venue, as well as travel protocol for players and officials. Authorities are monitoring the situation at the Australian Open where the majority of players will be coming to Singapore from.

ATP, the governing body of men’s professional tennis, awarded single-year licences for the 2021 season to Singapore and Spain’s Marbella.

China’s District Lockdown (9:38 a.m. HK)

China’s latest Covid-19 outbreak continued to swell with the total number of domestic infections reported this year surpassing 1,300. Two domestic cases reported in Beijing’s Daxing district are due to a virus variant found in the U.K., and not related to any domestic or imported cases so far detected from China, local authorities said. To curb the spread in China’s most politically significant city, the district has imposed a lockdown of some 1.7 million residents effective Wednesday.

In the country’s northeastern provinces, numbers surged even faster triggering lockdowns in some cities. Heilongjiang province reported 68 cases on Thursday, and Jilin reported 33.

As lockdowns spread in the country ahead of the Chinese New Year travel rush, some 1.7 billion trips are set to take place during the travel period, transport official said. That would be over 40% less than the same period two years ago. JPMorgan has cut its oil demand estimates for China, citing risks “are clearly to the downside”.

Hong Kong Set to Approve Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine: SCMP (8:23 a.m. HK)

Hong Kong is set to grant emergency approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an unidentified government source.

The move would mark the first approval for any Covid-19 vaccine in the city, and clear the way for inoculations to begin as the city seeks to stamp out a winter outbreak. The vaccine could be approved by the government this week, the SCMP report said.

Biden’s Team Worries About New Strain (6:25 a.m. HK)

U.S. President Joe Biden’s team is increasingly worried the coronavirus pandemic is spiraling out of control -- imperiling his promise to contain the outbreak -- as cases and deaths mount, vaccinations lag and a more-transmissible strain emerges, according to people familiar with the matter.

As they learned more about the federal response to the pandemic, Biden’s transition team grew alarmed at a lack of coordination with states, the people said. Biden himself has warned of a “dark winter” and has flatly said the pandemic will worsen before it improves.

The stakes are escalating. U.S. hospitalizations are at near-record levels, and daily cases and deaths have doubled since Election Day on Nov. 3. While blame has fallen on the Trump administration for its failure to develop a national testing or vaccination strategy or encourage widespread mask-wearing, Biden’s team -- which keeps adding new experts -- now inherits the job of containing the pandemic.

Texas Posts Most New Cases in 2 Weeks (5:17 a.m. HK)

Texas recorded more than 25,000 new virus cases, the highest daily total since Jan. 5, state health department figures showed. Fatalities increased by 310.

The new-case tally was the state’s third-highest since the pandemic emerged. Hospitalizations were virtually unchanged at almost 14,000, the data showed. Three Texas hospital regions with a combined population of almost 1 million had zero intensive-care beds available.

Cuomo Warns of Looming N.Y. Shortage (4:35 a.m. HK)

New York state is averaging 65,000 vaccinations a day as it works to ensure the shots are fairly distributed, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The federal government plans to send about 250,000 shots to New York next week, well below the 329,849 shots allocated last week, Cuomo said Wednesday at a press briefing. He has been urging the U.S. to increase supply, and said his attempt to purchase the vaccine directly from Pfizer Inc. isn’t allowed under federal emergency-use guidelines.

Statewide, nearly 1.2 million doses have been administered, or 86% of those received, Cuomo said. The state has about 145,780 doses left, he said.

“At this rate we’re going to be out in two days,” the governor said.

Amazon Offers Help With Vaccinations (4 a.m. HK)

Amazon.com Inc. is offering to help the Biden administration accelerate the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, including to its own employees.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Dave Clark, the incoming chief executive officer of Amazon’s retail unit, offered his congratulations to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He reiterated a request Amazon made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month asking that the company’s more than 800,000 U.S. front-line workers receive vaccines at the “earliest appropriate time.”

Clark said Amazon has a contract with an occupational health provider to administer vaccines at its facilities. “We are prepared to move quickly once vaccines are available,” he wrote.

“Additionally, we are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts,” Clark went on. “Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately” in the fight against the disease, he wrote.

France’s ‘Lost’ Ski Season (3:34 a.m. HK)

France is unlikely to reopen ski lifts this season due to the risks posed by the pandemic, Tourism Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said Wednesday.

“We are moving toward a lost season,” he said at a press conference. The government will continue to provide financial support to the industry and possibly to suppliers to mountain resorts.

France reported 26,784 new virus cases over the past 24 hours, 13% more than the previous day.

California Tops 3 Million Cases (3:18 a.m. HK)

California has surpassed 3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, state health department data show. That’s the most of any U.S. state and exceeds the reported infections in countries including France, Italy, Spain and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than a million cases are in Los Angeles County, home to about a quarter of the state’s residents.

California reported 694 new deaths Wednesday, the second-highest daily tally since the pandemic began. Still, there are signs that the state’s outbreak is improving after a record surge that strained health-care systems and spurred new lockdowns. Hospitalizations have dropped 8.9% from a Jan. 6 peak, while the 14-day average rate of positive tests has fallen to 11.3% from 12.9% two weeks ago.

Spain Reports Record New Cases (2 a.m. HK)

Spain reported 18,500 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the most since the pandemic began, reflecting the relaxation of restrictions during the holiday period.

New cases rose from 15,578 on Tuesday as the country recorded 464 deaths in the past 24 hours. The infection rate rose to 736 per 100,000 while the rate of hospitalization also increased to 20%.

Spain’s regions eased some restrictions during Christmas, allowing people to meet indoors in limited numbers. Even though some regions have since tightened the rules, the country hasn’t brought back a national lockdown like the ones seen in France or the U.K.

U.K. Suffers Deadliest Day (1:30 a.m. HK)

The U.K. suffered its worst day in the pandemic, with more than 1,800 deaths recorded in 24 hours, as Boris Johnson’s chief scientific adviser warned some hospitals now look “like a war zone.”

The record daily toll takes the total number of people who have died within 28 days of a positive test in the U.K. to 93,290. Almost 40,000 patients are now receiving treatment in U.K. hospitals.

The average number of new cases has been falling since early January, an indication that the number of people dying will follow soon.

Some Moderna Shipments Replaced (12:43 a.m. HK)

Some shipments of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine are being replaced after they became too cold in transit, pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp. said in a statement Wednesday.

McKesson, which is distributing Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S., learned Monday that some of the deliveries it sent Sunday were too cold upon arrival. The company attributed the issue to gel packs used in shipping the shots getting too cold.

NYC Delays Vaccinations After Shortage (11:27 p.m. HK)

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is rescheduling 23,000 vaccine appointments because of a supply shortage.

The mayor cited Moderna Inc. specifically, saying the drug manufacturer and its distributor told the city the 103,000 doses it was expected to receive Tuesday will be delayed by a number of days. About half of that supply was intended to be given as second doses.

“We have an immediate and profound problem,” de Blasio said in a Wednesday briefing.

New York still plans to hit its goal of 1 million vaccinations by the end of the month. “We can do it if we get the vaccine,” de Blasio said.

Biden to Repair U.S. Ties to WHO (9:59 p.m. HK)

Biden plans to send Anthony Fauci to speak to the World Health Organization in a strong repudiation of Donald Trump’s snubs since the start of the pandemic.

The incoming administration plans to participate in the WHO executive board meeting this week, with Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, heading the delegation and speaking. Once the U.S. resumes its engagement with the WHO, the new administration will work with the body to strengthen and reform the group, according to a fact sheet released by the Biden transition team.

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