U.K. ‘Pingdemic’ Costs; Australian City Protests: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. economy faces a loss of more than 4.6 billion pounds ($6.3 billions) from self-isolating staff unable to work from home, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. In Australia, thousands of people demonstrated against lockdown measures in the nation’s biggest cities, leading to arrests after some clashes with police.

Meanwhile, The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to investigate New York State’s handling of Covid infections in its nursing homes. U.S. government health officials believe the elderly and those with compromised immune systems may need booster shots against Covid, the New York Times reported.

The St. Louis area joined Los Angeles in requiring residents to wear masks indoors, even if they’ve been vaccinated, as the delta variant spreads. Texas hospitals are starting to run low on beds for the sickest virus patients as caseloads bloom.

Key Developments:

U.K. Faces $6.3 Billion Hit From Pingdemic, CEBR Says (6:15 a.m. NY)

The U.K. economy could face a loss of more than 4.6 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) in just four weeks if rules on self-isolation following a “ping” from the NHS app aren’t relaxed, according to data from Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Russia Says Unvaccinated Workers Can Be Suspended (4:30 p.m. HK)

Russia’s Ministry of Labor, together with the public health regulator
Rospotrebnadzor, recommended that employers be allowed to suspend employees without pay for refusing to get vaccinated, except for medical reasons. The recommendations say an employer can allow an unvaccinated employee to work remotely. They also clarify that herd immunity at a company means that 80% of employees either have been vaccinated or had Covid.

Over the past day, 23,947 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Russia and 799 deaths.

Curfew Extended in Philippine Capital Region (4:22 p.m. HK)

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has extended the Philippine capital region’s curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. starting July 25 due to the threat of the more transmissible delta variant, CNN Philippines reported. Currently, the curfew starts midnight and ends at 4 a.m.

The Philippines recorded 6,216 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the total confirmed cases to more than 1.5 million since the pandemic began. Covid-19 deaths rose by 241.

Dozens Arrested in Anti-Lockdown Protests in Australia (4:03 p.m. HK)

More than 50 people were arrested and being charged with offenses after anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police in Sydney. Demonstrations in cities across Australia attracted several thousand people Saturday, who defied orders to remain at home and to wear masks outdoors.

Tunisia Reports Record Level of Deaths (3:35 p.m. HK)

Tunisia reported today 317 deaths from the coronavirus, a new daily record, according to the data of Health Ministry. The country reported 5,624 new cases.

Hong Kong Said to Delay Antibody Tests to Cut Quarantine (2:50 p.m. HK)

Hong Kong will postpone for at least two weeks a plan to start antibody testing at the airport for fully vaccinated people arriving from some areas, people familiar with the matter said, a setback in easing one of the strictest quarantine restrictions in the world.

The delay in the second phase of its antibody-testing plan was a result of rising infections overseas sparked by the delta variant, the people said. There’s no definite timeline for introducing the tests.

Hong Kong has faced criticism from its expatriate community and business people from some countries who are required to quarantine at a hotel for two weeks at their own expense and undergo multiple tests when arriving in the city, even if they are fully vaccinated.

Astra Mulls Vaccine Imports to SE Asia as Thai Supply Hit (2:36 p.m. HK)

AstraZeneca Plc is planning to import Covid-19 vaccines to Southeast Asia as its only manufacturing facility in the region struggles to ramp up output to meet demand from countries hit hard by the delta variant. The drugmaker is scouring more than 20 supply chains in its global manufacturing network to find additional vaccines for Southeast Asia, including Thailand, James Teague, managing director for AstraZeneca Thailand, said in an open letter Saturday.

“A global supply crunch for Covid-19 vaccines and shortages of the materials and components required to produce the vaccine, make it difficult to provide certainty today, but we are hopeful of importing additional doses in the months ahead,” Teague said.

Anger is growing against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government as Thailand struggles with a record wave of infections and a shortage of available vaccines. AstraZeneca’s inability to scale up production has contributed to the slow vaccination rate in countries including Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, which are in line to receive shots made by its Thai partner Siam Bioscience Plc, a company linked to the Thai monarchy. Thailand has said it’s in talks to procure additional vaccines from companies including China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. to fill the supply gap.

Jakarta Study Shows Lower Post-Vaccine Mortality Rate (12:17 p.m. HK)

The Covid-19 mortality rate is lower among fully inoculated residents of Jakarta, where 78% of the population has received at least one vaccine dose, the government said.

In a study conducted Jan. 12-July 9, almost 17,000 out of a total of 5.16 million people under observation got infected despite receiving at least their first jab, the Information Ministry said on Twitter late Friday. Of the approximately 15,000 who had received just one shot, about 50 people died. Among almost 2,000 fully vaccinated people who got infected, only four died from the disease, showing a case fatality rate of 0.21%.

“Vaccines are effective in bringing down fatality rates,” the ministry said. “The assessment also shows that vaccinated population has smaller chance of getting infected.”

The study compares with health ministry data that showed the weekly Covid-19 death rate in the city of 10 million people fell to 0.61% in the second week of July from 0.96% a month earlier, and 2.78% in mid-May. Indonesia is mostly using vaccines made by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

Vulnerable People May Need Booster Shot: NYT (11:59 a.m. HK)

U.S. government health officials increasingly think vulnerable people will need Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, the New York Times reported, without saying where it got the information.

People who are 65 and older or who have issues with their immune systems most likely will require a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, according to the newspaper. That came just a few weeks after the administration said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to back booster shots, the newspaper reported.

S. Korea Extra Budget Includes Handouts for Households (11:44 a.m. HK)

South Korea passed its sixth extra budget of the pandemic, seeking to shore up the economy as the country’s worst virus wave so far shows little sign of abating. The 34.9 trillion-won ($30.3 billion) spending plan approved by lawmakers early Saturday includes a 250,000-won cash handout for most people, blunting the economic damage from a semi-lockdown affecting half the population.

About 11 trillion won will be used for handouts to lower-earning households, while 12.6 trillion won will be funneled to support regional economies and 5.3 trillion won will go toward compensating small businesses that suffered from pandemic restrictions. The government will set aside 4.9 trillion won for vaccination and to boost quarantine measures, and will use 2.5 trillion won to support jobs, including vocational training.

U.S. Weekly Cases Surge (10 a.m. HK)

The U.S. had its worst Covid week in three months, as weekly cases surged fourfold to 347,784 from a month earlier with the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

Florida made up about one in five cases as the number of infections rose to 73,199 from 45,584 for the week ending Thursday, after almost doubling in the previous seven days. Along with Texas and Missouri, the three states accounted for 40% of cases this week.

Texas hospitals have started to run low on beds for the sickest virus patients as caseloads climb. Almost half of the state’s so-called trauma service areas have 10 or fewer intensive-care beds available, and one zone has zero, state health department figures showed. Texas recorded more than 5,000 new virus cases in the past 24 hours and hospitalizations swelled for the 21st consecutive day, state data showed.

An increase in cases and hospitalizations in Missouri prompted St. Louis to require masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, mirroring a similar order already in place in Los Angeles. The state of Louisiana, where infections are rising at the fastest pace in the U.S., is recommending face coverings indoors if people can’t be six feet apart.

Hanoi Tightens Anti-Virus Measures (9:55 a.m. HK)

Vietnam’s capital city tightened anti-virus measures, imposing stricter stay-home orders for 15 days starting Saturday, after seeing more than 400 infections since late April. Hanoi reported five new cases Saturday morning.

People should leave home only for work, to buy food and medicine or for urgent medical assistance, according to a statement on the government’s website. People are asked to keep at least two meters apart and can’t gather in groups of more than two people outside of offices, schools, hospitals and public places.

Local authorities are ordered to ensure virus-prevention measures are followed at industrial parks, while ensuring production can go ahead without disruption. Businesses providing non-essential services will remain suspended.

U.S. Won’t Probe New York Nursing Home Deaths (9:43 a.m. HK)

The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to investigate New York State’s handling of Covid infections in its nursing homes, the department said in a letter Friday to a Republican opponent of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Deputy Assistant General Joe Gaeta wrote to Representative Lee Zeldin that the department’s Civil Rights Division had asked for information from the Cuomo administration last August. Based on its findings, the department decided not to open an “investigation of any public nursing facility within New York at this time,” Gaeta said.

Critics say the Cuomo administration forced nursing homes to take coronavirus patients from hospitals and undercounted deaths to make the state look more successful. A report released in January by Attorney General Letitia James found that “a larger number of nursing home residents died from Covid-19 than the New York State Department of Health’s published nursing home data reflected and may have been undercounted by as much as 50%.”

Zeldin criticized the Justice Department’s decision. The New York State Assembly has been conducting its own inquiry into allegations that the administration undercounted virus deaths at nursing homes.

Australia Vaccine Plan Aims to Avoid Lockdowns (9:03 a.m. HK)

Australia plans to set new vaccination targets that would allow the country to respond to future Covid-19 outbreaks without the need for lockdowns, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The government will set the targets in coming weeks, Morrison said in a speech Saturday. When Australia moves to a second stage of its vaccination program, lockdowns would occur only “in extreme circumstances,” and would not be implemented at all once the nation progress to a third stage, he said.

Millions of people in Sydney and Melbourne are currently living under lockdown measures. The country has administered enough doses for just 21% of its population, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Hong Kong Sets Daily Vaccination Record (8:56 a.m. HK)

Hong Kong administered 70,600 coronavirus vaccine shots Friday, according to a government statement, a record since the rollout started in February. Most of the timeslots at community centers for BioNTech SE vaccinations are full, the government website shows. Vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. also are available in the city. About 3 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine in Hong Kong, which has a population of around 7.5 million.

Nanjing Sees Infections Among Those Vaccinated (8:36 a.m. HK)

Most new infections in the Chinese city of Nanjing have been in vaccinated people, according to Yang Yi, director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at Zhongda Hospital Southeast University. Still, the vaccine does provide protection, as patients observed in two other provinces generally had only mild symptoms and their cases weren’t likely to become severe, Yang told jschina.com.cn, a news website sponsored by the Jiangsu provincial government.

Nanjing has reported 23 infection cases -- most with mild symptoms -- and 14 silent virus carriers in its latest outbreak.

Singapore Restaurant Owners Vent (8 a.m. HK)

Some of Singapore’s top chefs are fed up with the government’s on-again, off-again measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, which include a temporary shutdown of in-person dining.

Faced with a surge of cases from clusters related to karaoke lounges and a fishery port, authorities announced tighter controls, including a prohibition on eating in restaurants until Aug. 18. That ban took effect Thursday -- just a month after dining-in had been re-allowed -- dealing another blow to an industry that has struggled for more than a year to navigate changing rules, policies that eat into revenue and tight scrutiny.

London Mayor Urges Johnson to Ease Isolation Rule (7:45 a.m. HK)

London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged Boris Johnson’s government to relax isolation rules for vaccinated people who come in contact with a Covid-19 case as the U.K. capital faces major disruption.

Johnson has come under fire over the government’s self-isolation policy, with the final easing of pandemic restrictions this month being overshadowed by a surge in people being “pinged” by the National Health Service Covid-tracing app and told to self-isolate for 10 days. Nearly 620,000 people in England and Wales received alerts from the app last week.

Hospitality businesses such as pubs and restaurants face staff shortages and some are having to close due to the so-called pingdemic, Khan wrote to Johnson on Saturday. People should be exempt from self-isolating if they’ve had both vaccine doses and a negative PCR test, he said.

Brazil Cases Double (7:15 a.m. HK)

Brazil reported 108,732 cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, double the amount from the previous day and the second-highest number of daily infections since the pandemic started, according to Health Ministry data. The government attributed the sharp rise in daily infections to delayed notification of 63,000 cases from Rio Grande do Sul state.

Latin America’s largest country confirmed 135 cases of infection by the delta variant as of July 22, including 87 in Rio de Janeiro, the Health Ministry said.

NFL Assistant Coach Fired for Refusing Vaccine (4:15 p.m. NY)

The National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings fired assistant coach Rick Dennison after he refused to get a Covid-19 vaccination, ESPN reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The NFL mandates vaccines for all so-called Tier 1 staff including coaches, front-office executives, equipment managers and scouts, according to ESPN. Players can skip shots but will have to face restrictions that don’t apply to vaccinated peers.

U.S. Delivers J&J Shots to Lesotho (2:20 p.m. NY)

The U.S. delivered more than 300,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to Lesotho in collaboration with the WHO-backed Covax program and other groups, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet.

“Together we are closer to restoring societies, economies and health systems globally,” he said.

Mexico City to Retreat to Orange Alert (1:30 p.m. NY)

Mexico City will regress to the orange Covid-19 alert as of Monday for at least two weeks, local authorities said Friday.

The city’s hospital occupancy for Covid-19 beds is at 63%, with about 3,000 beds available to be reconverted if needed. Meanwhile, an increase in cases among young people hasn’t translated into a spike in hospitalizations.

State Worker Safety Agencies Adopt Standard (1:17 p.m. NY)

Nineteen of the 21 U.S. states with their own occupational safety agencies covering private and public workplaces, plus Puerto Rico, have told federal OSHA that they’ll adopt the agency’s rules for protecting most medical workers from Covid-19. That leaves only Utah and South Carolina workers without that regulatory shield.

Also signing on are four states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, whose safety agencies cover only state and local government workers.

Turkey Cases Climb to Highest Since Mid-May (1 p.m. NY)

Turkey reported 11,094 new coronavirus cases Friday, the highest since May 19, as the country urged those age 18 and above to get vaccinated.

The health ministry said 60 people died over the past 24 hours, around one-quarter of the daily death toll seen two months ago when daily infection figures were similar. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said new case numbers will become irrelevant when herd immunity is reached.

More than 63% of Turkey’s adult population has received at least one shot of Covid-19 vaccines, and almost 36% have gotten both doses.

De Blasio Urges Vaccine Requirement (12:21 p.m. NY)

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged private companies to institute Covid-19 vaccine mandates for their workers, while stopping short of imposing a citywide requirement for municipal employees.

“If anyone is asking my advice, particularly large employers, move toward vaccine mandates now,” de Blasio said during a WNYC radio interview. “I urge every employer to go to any form of mandate that you’re comfortable with.”

The mayor’s comments came two days after he said workers in public hospitals and clinics would be compelled to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing for the virus. The city missed its goal of fully vaccinating 5 million New Yorkers by the end of June -- the total stood at less than 4.5 million as of July 22 -- and administered fewer than 7,000 doses yesterday, far below its record of more than 120,000 on April 8.

More Republicans Backing Shots (12:20 p.m. NY)

Senator Bill Cassidy said his Republican colleagues are increasingly voicing support for Covid-19 vaccines amid an increase in cases across the U.S.

“More Republicans are coming my way on vaccination, in part driven by tragedy,” Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, told Bloomberg Television. “There are people who should not be dying who are dying of Covid infection.”

People with any qualms about the vaccines should speak with their doctors, he added, and shouldn’t make decisions based on information on social-media platforms.

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