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China said an expert team from the World Health Organization will visit Jan. 14 to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, following a rare reprimand last week from the global health group for a delay in travel permits.
A new cluster has erupted in Suihua City, northeastern Heilongjiang Province, while a measure to prevent the spread of infections in the capital from nearby Hebei is causing a rising food prices.
Three London traffic workers have died in recent days, a union said, demanding more security guarantees. Germany called on its citizens to drastically reduce social contact after the nation’s death toll exceeded 40,000.
Hospitals in Ireland are under increasing pressure as they face a daily infection rate that is now one of the highest in the world, with ambulances delaying outside a center during the weekend.
Main developments:
- Global Tracker: cases exceed 90 million; deaths exceed 1.93 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 25 million shots given worldwide
- The Globe-Trotters promise to fly less after Covid to help the weather
- Car manufacturers are losing production as the virus disrupts the supply of chips
- The UK is increasing the launch of vaccines with hospitals under stress
- Subscribe to daily virus update from The Bloomberg forecast team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on coronavirus cases and deaths.
London traffic deaths (17:31 HK)
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers is looking for stronger security measures to protect London Transport staff from the pandemic following the deaths of three traffic workers in recent days. The union demanded that the mayor of London and the London Underground provide guarantees on the safety of workers, including the possibility of vulnerable employees staying at home if necessary. N95-style masks should be available upon request, the union wrote.
New cluster of China (17:15 HK)
A new cluster erupted in the city of Suihua in China’s northeastern province of Heilongjiang. The city of more than 5 million people reported 20 asymptomatic infections after authorities tested more than 2,800 people. Health officials expect results for the remaining 8,700 people undergoing tests after a woman tested positive for a county hospital on Saturday, Chinese News Services reported.
Detection of the new cluster occurred when outbreaks in the city of Shijiazhuang, near the Chinese capital, increased by more than 450 cases in less than 10 days and sporadic outbreaks in the northeastern provinces of the country.
China reported 85 confirmed local coronavirus infections on January 10, including 82 in northern Hebei province, 2 in Liaoning and 1 in Beijing.
Mountains of pressure in the Irish hospital (17:05)
Ireland’s hospital system seemed almost overwhelmed as the number of coronavirus cases continues to explode. Doctors treated patients in ambulances outside a facility in the northwest of the country over the weekend while patients suspected they had the virus filled the hospital, while the availability of intensive care beds has dropped to 38.
Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 people is now the highest in the world.
Israel’s vaccination boost (16:40 HK)
Israel is expanding its vaccination push following the arrival of a new vaccine shipment on Sunday. From Tuesday, the minimum qualification age for vaccination will drop from 60 to 55 years.
The country has also started administering second doses to those who received the first dose three weeks earlier. Israel has administered about 1.87 million doses, or about 21 per 100 people, the highest percentage in the world, according to the Our World in Data website.
New strains spread in Europe (16:30 HK)
Finland on Monday reported a total of 49 cases of coronavirus variants in the UK and South Africa, with most of these infections detected in travelers and their close contacts in recent weeks. In Latvia, a case of the UK variant related to a recent trip to the country was discovered.
LA turns Dodgers Stadium into a vaccination center (3:45 pm HK)
Los Angeles, the epicenter of the latest wave, will turn Dodgers Stadium from the country’s largest test site at Covid-19 into a mass vaccination center to inoculate up to 12,000 people a day.
The stadium will no longer be a test site on Monday, and the transition will take place over the weekend.
The Greater LA area, where one in 11 people has been infected, has tested 5 million people, about half its population. With an increase in cases, Southern California and other parts of the state have been left without ICU capacity.
Bulgaria sees fewer cases since October (3:43 pm HK)
Bulgaria reported 105 new cases of the virus on Monday, the lowest number since October 11.
The Balkan country imposed a partial closure in late November to contain the virus after reaching the highest mortality rate in the European Union. Last week it reopened primary schools and authorities are studying options to further ease restrictions.
France does not plan a new blockade now (3:41 pm HK)
France continues to monitor the daily situation of the Covid-19 “very closely” and is taking the necessary measures to protect the health of its citizens, according to government spokesman Gabriel Attal in a radio interview in Europe 1.
The French “made a lot of effort” and took steps from the start and while there are no current plans for a new blockade, it’s not “time to lower your guard,” Attal said.
Attal said France would meet the target of vaccinating 1 million people by the end of January.
German minister urges less social contact (15:30 HK)
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said citizens should drastically reduce social contact, after the number of deaths from the nation’s virus had exceeded 40,000 over the weekend.
“It doesn’t make much sense to close shops, schools and public life if at the same time there are a lot of private contacts,” Spahn said in an interview with ZDF television. “I know it’s difficult, but especially in the private sphere it’s very, very important to reduce contact in the coming weeks,” he said.
The strictest traffic restrictions and private meetings become effective on Monday and non-essential schools and shops remain closed. The number of infections and fatalities has doubled since the end of November, reaching almost 2 million and almost 41,000, respectively. Spahn said Germany’s vaccination program, criticized for being too slow, will accelerate once a shot is fired from Moderna Inc. in the 16 federal states on Tuesday.
Tokyo suffers over 1,000 cases on 7th day (14:48 HK)
Tokyo on Monday found 1,219 new cases of coronavirus, the local government said, marking a seventh consecutive day of more than 1,000 infections daily.
The Japanese government asked citizens to stay home for a three-day weekend that includes Monday, but the nation’s second state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures does not appear to have reduced traffic on foot. as effectively as during the first of April, Yomiuri reported earlier.
Indonesia expands travel ban on foreigners (14:52 HK)
President Joko Widodo agreed to extend the ban on foreigners entering Indonesia for two weeks until January 28, the cabinet secretariat said in a statement.
The ban would end on January 14 in response to a new strain of coronavirus.
Malaysia ensures more vaccine doses (1:08 pm HK)
The country will buy an additional 12.2 million from the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Monday.
The latest order increases availability to 25 million doses, enough to inoculate 39% of the population. Malaysia will start receiving its first supply of Pfizer vaccines at the end of next month.
Philippines will vaccinate population in 2023 (12:17 pm HK)
The Philippines aims to vaccinate its entire population of more than 100 million people by 2023, officials said.
Deployment of vaccines may begin as early as February, although most inoculations will begin in the second half of 2021, according to the last tsar of the vaccine Carlito Galvez in a Senate session.
South Korea sees smallest case increase in 6 weeks (8:49 am)
South Korea reported 451 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, up from 665 the day before, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency website. It was the smallest increase since late November.
The number of daily cases remained below 1,000 for a seventh day. The number of tests usually decreases during the weekends.
Australia to lift blockade in Brisbane (7:34 am HK)
The Australian state of Queensland will lift the three-day closure in its capital Brisbane from 18:00 local time after recording zero new cases of coronavirus overnight, Prime Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
However, some restrictions will remain on the number of people allowed in shops and restaurants and masks will have to be worn in covered public places, such as libraries and supermarkets, he told reporters on Monday.
The fourth Australia vs.. The cricket test in India will likely continue in Brisbane, as planned on Friday, with the field capacity reduced by half and spectators required to wear masks unless they are seated, Palaszczuk said.
The trend in the case of the Brazilian virus increases even more (6pm in New York)
Covid-19 cases in Brazil exceeded 8.1 million, with the sum of nearly 30,000 cases on Sunday, according to data from the Ministry of Health. The death toll rose by 469 to 203,100.
Pope’s personal physician dies of Covid-19 (3:32 pm NY)
Fabrizio Soccorsi, 78, Pope Francis’ personal physician, has died, ANSA was quoted as saying by the Vatican media. He was hospitalized in Rome for cancer, although the cause of death was complications from Covid-19, according to the report.
The pope chose him as a personal physician in 2015. ANSA did not say whether the two had recent contact. On Saturday, Francis said getting a vaccine was an “ethical” obligation and he would take one as early as this week.
– With the assistance of Jonas O Bergman, Claire Che and Iain Rogers