CDC Backs Booster Shots; Thailand Eases Quarantine: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed booster shots from Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. 

New Zealand set a Covid-19 vaccination target of 90% for Auckland to exit lockdown and for more freedoms to be restored around the rest of the country. Melbourne is set to reopen after more than 260 cumulative days under stay-home orders, while Victoria state will drop quarantine requirements for vaccinated international travelers.  

Thailand will soon allow inoculated travelers from the U.S., U.K. and most of Europe to enter without quarantining, boosting its tourism-dependent economy. Cases doubled in China from a day earlier.

Key Developments:

• Virus Tracker: Cases top 242.3 million; deaths surpass 4.92 million
• Vaccine Tracker: More than 6.78 billion shots given
• Europe confronts another winter of hard choices
• Lockdowns are back as Eastern Europe pays for low vaccination rates
• As U.K. cases surge, Israel offers a lesson in boosters
• How Delta Is Bolstering the Case for Covid Boosters

South Korea May Lift Measures on Restaurant, Cafe Hours (12 p.m. HK)

South Korea is considering lifting restrictions on operating hours at restaurants and coffee shops from early Nov., a health ministry official told a daily briefing. 

The country, which will on Oct. 29 announce plans for a “gradual return to normal life,” is also mulling requiring vaccine certificates for people entering high risk and adult entertainment venues.

Thailand Drops Quarantine for Swath of Travelers (10:33 a.m. HK)

Thailand plans to allow fully inoculated travelers from the U.S., U.K. and most of Europe to enter without quarantining, bolstering an economy dependent on tourism. 

They are among 46 countries -- including China, Australia and Singapore -- to be added to the quarantine-free travel list from Nov. 1, the government said. Anighttime curfew in 17 provinces, including Bangkok and resort Phuket, will liftd from Oct. 31. 

A decline in active cases and increase in vaccinations over the past several weeks has allowed the government to gradually relax restrictions for businesses to reopen and travel to resume, part of its “living with Covid” strategy.

China Cases Double From Day Earlier (10:18 a.m. HK)

Covid infections doubled in China from a day earlier as the country’s ongoing delta outbreak worsens, with a total of 35 cases were reported on Friday, mostly in the northwestern provinces. Infections spread among tourists and those who crossed paths with them, and the virus was further relayed across the mainland as people traveled home. 

So far at least eight provinces have reported cases in less than a week, underscoring how quickly delta spreads -- and the challenges of controlling it. Beijing reported four more infections, fueling concerns that more tough measures could be introduced to prevent Covid from further penetrating into the tightly guarded Chinese capital.

Victoria Ends Quarantine for Vaccinated Global Arrivals (9:56 a.m. HK)

Australia’s Victoria state, home of Melbourne, will drop quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated international arrivals from Nov. 1, Premier Daniel Andrews said.

The arrivals will need to demonstrate their vaccination status with a shot approved or recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

CDC Endorses Advisory Panel’s Booster Recommendation (8:17 a.m. HK)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’s recommendation for booster shots from Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. There are now booster recommendations for all three available Covid vaccines in the U.S. 

The CDC also said those eligible people will be able to choose a different booster from the vaccine they originally received, allowing greater flexibility for patients and doctors as the U.S. tries to stave off another wave of infections. 

N.Z. Sets Target for Curbs to Ease (5:44 a.m. HK)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern set a vaccination target of 90% for Auckland to exit lockdown and for more freedoms to be restored around the rest of the country. It came as new Covid cases hit another record Friday, with 129 infections reported, including 120 in Auckland.

Once 90% of the eligible population aged 12 and over is fully vaccinated, the government will begin to ease restrictions and introduce a new traffic-light system to gauge the level of risk in each region, Ardern told a news conference Friday in Wellington. The government will measure vaccination rates for each District Health Board around the country, she said. 

“A target of 90% fully vaccinated across each DHB region has been set as the milestone to trigger moving the country into the new system,” Ardern said. “This target ensures good regional spread across the country and will also help address equity issues within each region.”

Auckland, the nation’s largest city, has been in lockdown for more than two months while mask-wearing and social distancing is required throughout New Zealand. The country had pursued a strict elimination strategy but has been unable to beat an outbreak of the delta variant in Auckland, with daily new case numbers climbing in recent weeks.

Wyoming Inmate Infections Rise (5:30 a.m. HK)

An estimated 1-in-10 inmates in Wyoming prisons are infected with Covid-19, the Casper Star-Tribune reported Thursday. Testing this week revealed a record 222 new infections, including some prison staff, the newspaper said.

Moderna, J&J Boosters Backed by CDC Panel (5:30 a.m. HK)

U.S. public-health advisers voted unanimously to recommended Covid-19 booster shots from Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, clearing the way for a widespread campaign hoped to stave off a resurgence of the virus.

In two votes, the 15-member Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee Thursday supported the additional shots in certain populations, following the outlines of U.S. regulators who cleared the shots Wednesday.

Colorado to Review Rationing Plan (5:10 a.m. HK)

Colorado will review plans for rationing hospital care as Covid-19 admissions rise and intensive care unit capacity reaches dangerous levels Governor Jared Polis said Thursday. 

Health care facilities report just 120 ICU beds available statewide. Crisis standards of care are “ready to be implemented if needed, potentially tweaked or improved, if necessary,” Polis said at a news conference in Denver. 

Health department data show 1,130 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 across the state, the highest since last December, and 893 of these are unvaccinated, Polis said

De Santis to Recall Florida Legislature (2:30 p.m. NY)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he’ll be calling back the Republican-dominated state legislature to take action against employer Covid-19 vaccine mandates. The goal is to block employers from firing workers over vaccination status, he said Thursday.

“We want to make sure that individuals in Florida have their livelihoods and their jobs protected,” DeSantis said in Clearwater, Florida. 

DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott are the most prominent Republican state leaders seeking to buck President Joe Biden and blunt employer vaccine mandates in the U.S.  

U.K. Reports Most Cases Since July (12:30 p.m. NY)

The U.K., already under pressure to reimpose restrictions, reported 52,000 positive Covid cases on Thursday -- the most since July 17. 

Hospitalizations crossed 8,000, an increase of more than a thousand from a week earlier. A strong vaccine rollout means daily deaths still remain relatively low compared to more than 1,800 recorded at the beginning of this year.

WHO Urges G-20 to Hasten Vaccine Donations (11:23 a.m. NY)

High- and upper-middle-income countries have now distributed almost half as many booster shots as the total number of vaccines administered in low-income countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing on Thursday. G-20 countries have pledged to donate 1.2 billion vaccine doses to Covax, the global program set up to equitably distribute vaccines, and 150 million have been delivered. 

“For most donations, there’s no timeline -- we don’t know what’s coming and when,” Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “We can’t have equity without transparency.”

Roughly 500 million vaccine doses will be produced between now and the G-20 meeting at the end of the month, he said. That’s the amount of additional doses needed to achieve the WHO’s target of inoculating 40% of the population of every country by the end of the year.

Some 82 countries are at risk of missing that target: Three out of four don’t have enough supply, while the others have limitations in their ability to absorb vaccines.

Thailand, Israel Open to More Tourists (8:49 a.m. NY) 

Thailand plans to to allow fully-vaccinated tourists from 46 low-risk countries to enter without mandatory quarantine from Nov. 1 to attract more arrivals, according to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha.

That’s more than a previous plan to allow arrivals from an initial 10 nations as many countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia have announced the same strategy, Prayuth said.

Israel also announced that foreign nationals who have gotten full dosing regimens of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines will be allowed to enter from Nov. 1.

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