Cuomo Says Holiday Surge Is Over; Astra-EU Talks: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union and drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc prepared for talks later on Wednesday, after a morning of confusion ended with the two sides agreeing to press ahead with a call on the pace of vaccine supply.

Sanofi, meanwhile, will produce millions of doses of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s coronavirus vaccine to speed the bloc’s lagging immunization efforts. Madrid has halted its vaccination campaign amid a supply shortage, according to a local report.

In France, the government is delaying a decision on whether to lock down the country, amid concern more restrictions could spark social unrest, while U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is tightening border rules after his country became the first in Europe with 100,000 deaths.

Key Developments:

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Cuomo Lifts Some Hot Spot Restrictions (12:07 p.m. NY)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying the “holiday surge is over,” lifted restrictions in hot spot areas across the state. He kept curbs in two areas of the Bronx, Manhattan’s Washington Heights, an area of Queens, and in Newburgh.

In those areas, known as “yellow zones,” non-residential gatherings are restricted to a maximum of 25 people, residential gatherings are limited to 10 people, and houses of worship can operate at 50% capacity. Nonessential businesses can remain open and indoor and outdoor dining is allowed with certain restrictions. Schools can remain open for in-person learning with increased testing.

Cuomo said he will be speaking with health officials and Mayor Bill de Blasio about potentially reopening indoor dining in the city. The state will announce a plan for city restaurants by the end of the week.

NYC Gets Vaccine Supply Boost (10 a.m. NY)

New York will receive 17,000 additional vaccine shots next week, increasing supply in a city that has the capacity to vaccinate 500,000 a week if it had enough doses, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The federal government should invoke the Defense Production Act to require Merck to start manufacturing vaccines created by Pfizer or Moderna, after Merck scrapped plans for its own shot, de Blasio said. He also called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to allow cities to use hundreds of thousands of vaccines now instead of keeping them in storage for second doses weeks away, the mayor said.

“The ability to use those second doses that can’t be used for weeks, let’s put them into play now,” the mayor said.

The city reported 279 Covid-19-related hospital admissions as of Monday an increase from 234 the previous day. New cases on a seven-day average totaled 4,621 as of Monday, down from 5,218 the previous day. The positivity rate from testing stood at 8.08% on a seven-day average, its lowest rate since late December.

Johnson Imposes Quarantine at U.K. Border (9:30 a.m. NY)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said schools will stay closed until at least March 8 as he tightened U.K. border rules to require all travelers arriving from virus hot spots to quarantine for 10 days.

The premier is drawing up a longer-term blueprint for lifting the lockdown, in which a return to face-to-face teaching will be prioritized.

France Holds Off On New Lockdown, Worries About Unrest (9:15 a.m. NY)

The French government is delaying a decision to lock down the country, hoping that a curfew will contain the virus. President Emmanuel Macron “has asked for additional analysis” before deciding on any new restrictions, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Wednesday.

Christophe Castaner, head of Macron’s party at the National Assembly, told Le Parisien newspaper there was a risk of “civil disobedience” in France, should a new lockdown be imposed.

Madrid Halts Vaccine Progam (9:10 a.m. NY)

The region of Madrid has halted its vaccination campaign after getting half the expected vials last week, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported, citing the regional government’s vice president.

Portugal Reports Record Fatalities (9:10 a.m. NY)

Battling one of the world’s worst outbreaks, Portugal documented 293 virus-linked fatalities, a daily record, taking the total to 11,305 deaths. The number of patients in intensive-care units rose by 18 to 783. The country’s national health service has a capacity of about 1,200 intensive-care beds.

Norway’s Pfizer Vaccine Deliveries to Resume, Report Says (8:55 a.m. NY)

Norwegian deliveries are set to return to the agreed rate starting next week after the country received 15% fewer doses this week, TV2 reported, citing Joachim Henriksen, a spokesman for Pfizer in Norway. Norway will receive doses faster than the initial estimates, TV2 said.

Astra, EU Call to Go Ahead (7:15 a.m. NY)

The European Commission said a crunch call with AstraZeneca over vaccine-delivery delays is going ahead on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the European Union’s executive arm had earlier told reporters in Brussels that Astra had pulled out of the call. The drugmaker’s spokesperson denied this was the case.

The confusion added to the spat over deliveries of life-saving shots, after the bloc and Astra clashed over accounts of the clauses in the vaccine supply contract.

Oman Delays Vaccine Rollout on Supply Delay (7 a.m. NY)

Oman postponed administration of the second-dose of Pfizer’s vaccine due to delays from the manufacturer, the Ministry of Health said. The postponement comes just 10 days after the nation started giving second jabs of the shot. The Persian Gulf country has so far administered about 34,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Japan Ousted From EU Travel ‘White List’ (6:19 a.m. NY)

The European Union shuts its door to visitors from Japan following a surge in coronavirus cases there, according to an EU official.

EU governments decided to remove Japan from their common list of countries whose residents should be allowed to visit the bloc during the pandemic, the official said on the condition of anonymity; the update of the EU’s recommended travel “white list” keeps the U.S. and most other nations off it.

The ouster of Japan -- approved by EU member-country envoys at a meeting in Brussels following a recommendation by experts -- shrinks the European list of permitted travel to residents of just seven states: Australia, China, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

EU Officials Say Astra Pulls Out of Crunch Call (6:30 p.m. HK)

AstraZeneca has pulled out of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday evening with the EU about the planned rollout of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to EU officials.

The EU is pressing Astra to reconsider the move because the bloc wants the company to explain delivery delays to member countries, one of the officials said on the condition of anonymity.

Paris Region Finds 9.4% of Cases Are U.K. Variant (6:18 p.m. HK)

The more contagious variant of Covid-19 first found in the U.K. is becoming more prevalent in the Paris region, according to data from hospital operator AP-HP. Analysis of 1,080 positive Covid tests between Jan. 11 and Jan. 21 found 9.4% were the U.K. strain.

The data was collected at eight testing sites and not representative of all Paris-region laboratories, but “what we can see is that there is still a tendency for the circulation of the English variant to increase since Jan. 1,” Anne-Geneviève Marcelin, a virologist at Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

China’s Zero-Tolerance Approach Now Includes Anal Swabs (4:01 p.m. HK)

China is ramping up efforts to neutralize the coronavirus as new outbreaks test its already stringent pandemic strategy, with another weapon added to an arsenal of border curbs, mass testing and hard lockdowns: anal swabs.

While there is no nationwide policy on use of the technique, some residents in China’s northern regions -- where the flare-up now amounts to more than 1,700 cases -- have been subjected to the anal swabs with little warning. It involves the insertion of a saline-soaked cotton swab about two-to-three centimeters into the anus, with the sample then tested for active traces of the virus.

Sanofi to Make Millions of BioNTech-Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine Doses (4 p.m. HK)

Sanofi’s agreement to produce BioNTech and Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine will yield more than 125 million doses for the European Union starting this summer.

The French drugmaker will give BioNTech access to a production facility in Frankfurt. Sanofi’s own effort to develop a vaccine with another big pharma firm, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, stumbled in clinical tests, meaning it won’t be ready by summer as expected. The production agreement allows the region to make up for some of the loss, accelerating the complex process of packaging and distributing a vaccine that needs to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures.

China Has Administered 23 Million Vaccine Doses (11:39 a.m. HK)

China has administered 23 million coronavirus vaccine doses, Zeng Yixin, vice head of the country’s National Health Commission, said at a briefing.

Peru Locks Down Lima, Other Regions (11:18 a.m. HK)

Peru locked down parts of the country after an explosion in new infections overwhelmed hospitals and pushed the death toll from the disease over 40,000.

The government will impose a strict lockdown on 10 regions including the Lima Metropolitan area for 15 days starting Jan. 31, President Francisco Sagasti said in a televised address. People are allowed only to leave home to buy food and medicine.

Japan to Proceed With Olympic Preparations (10:12 a.m. HK)

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said his government will proceed with preparations for hosting the Olympics this summer with the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo organizers as questions persist about holding the event during the pandemic. The government is examining specific measures to prevent the spread of the virus at the games, Suga told parliament.

South Korean Cases Rise (8:40 a.m. HK)

South Korea reported 559 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s website. That’s the biggest gain in almost two weeks.

Japan Likely to Extend State of Emergency, Kyodo Says (7:24 a.m. HK)

Japan is likely to extend its state of emergency set to expire Feb. 7, Kyodo reported, citing several unidentified people. An option being considered is to extend the emergency until the end of February.

The country will probably know in the next few days whether its emergency declaration to contain the virus has been effective, the head of an advisory panel on the pandemic told a parliamentary committee Wednesday.

Netherlands Quiet After Days of Unrest (5:45 a.m. HK)

Three straight days of riots in Dutch cities gave way to calm on Tuesday, as protests against a curfew and other restrictions led to only minor incidents in cities including Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

In Maastricht in the south of the country, soccer fans marched in the streets just before curfew to show support for the police.

Biden Pushes for Bigger Vaccine Supply (5:30 a.m. HK)

The Biden administration said it intends to order 100 million more doses each of Pfizer and Moderna Inc.’s coronavirus vaccines, and at least temporarily speed up shipments to states to about 10 million doses a week.

The new purchases would increase U.S. orders for the two approved vaccines by 50% to about 600 million shots, according to a senior administration official. Delivering 10 million doses to states would represent about a 16% increase from the current weekly pace, though the higher pace may only last three weeks.

N.J. Considers Relaxing Curbs (2:44 a.m. HK)

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he will consider easing restrictions if data continue to improve.

“We’re in the plateau,” Murphy, a first-term Democrat who is seeking re-election in November, said Tuesday during an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Murphy didn’t say what restrictions he may loosen. New Jersey was the second-hardest hit after New York in the initial wave of Covid-19 that struck in March. The resurgence that began with colder weather is showing signs of leveling off following a holiday surge.

EMA Chief Sees Pfizer Supply Boost in April (2:20 a.m. HK)

European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke signaled that Pfizer is gearing up to increase deliveries to European Union countries of the vaccine developed with BioNTech with production at more sites.

“They have already submitted a protocol to include additional sites and we expect those to come through during February-March,” Cooke told a European Parliament committee on Tuesday.

U.K. Surpasses 100,000 Deaths (1:01 a.m. HK)

More than 100,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.K., the first country in Europe to pass the threshold.

Deaths in London, which is at the center of the current outbreak, are running at 84% above the five-year average amid concerns a new strain of the virus is more fatal. There are 37,561 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 across the country.

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