Tag: Lockdowns

Categories
Health

England’s lifting of Covid lockdowns a hazard to entire world: specialists

England's lifting of Covid lockdowns a danger to whole world: experts

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street to attend Prime Minister Questions at the House of Parliament on July 7, 2021 in London, England.

Chris J. Ratcliffe | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – Global scientists have criticized the UK government’s plans to relax almost all Covid-19 restrictions, calling them unethical and dangerous for the entire planet.

At a virtual summit on Friday, leading academics and government advisers from around the world warned the UK was headed for disaster by lifting most of its remaining restrictions on Monday.

The event came when more than 1,200 scientists backed a letter to the medical journal Lancet describing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans as “dangerous and premature”.

In England, most of the last remaining restrictions, including mandatory mask wear and social distancing, will be lifted on Monday in what will be an “irreversible” move, according to Johnson.

Johnson has fiercely defended his new strategy, arguing that now is “the time to move on” before the weather got colder and “the natural firebreak of school holidays” approached.

“It is absolutely important that we proceed with caution now … we cannot just return to life immediately from Monday as before Covid,” he said at a press conference on Monday.

Christina Pagel, Director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at London’s UCL, warned at the panel on Friday that there was potential for a new variant of Covid this summer.

“Any mutation that can infect vaccinated people better has a great selective advantage and can spread,” she said. “And because of our position as a global travel hub, any variant that becomes dominant in the UK is likely to spread to the rest of the world – we’ve seen it at Alpha, and I’m absolutely certain we have contributed to the rise of Delta through Europe and North America. “

“British politics are not just about us, they are about everyone – everyone has an interest in what we do,” she added.

Clinical epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani, who also attended the summit, agreed and said ahead of the event on Twitter that “the world is watching the current UK avoidable crisis unfold”.

Michael Baker, professor of public health and a member of the New Zealand Department of Health advisory group, said he was “amazed” at the UK government’s plans to lift almost all restrictions on Monday.

Baker suggested that the UK government appeared to be reverting to a “herd immunity approach” which he described as “totally unacceptable”, arguing that the strategy “failed miserably around the globe”.

New Zealand is widely viewed as successful in suppressing the coronavirus within its borders, and life on the island nation has returned to a state of relative normalcy. The country currently has 48 “active” cases, all of which have been found in immigrants, nine of which have been reported in the past 24 hours. According to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, there are zero cases in the community.

‘Disasters’ Directive

William Haseltine, a US virologist and chairman and president of ACCESS Health International, told the panel at the summit on Friday that the world “has always looked for great, sensible policies in the UK”.

“Unfortunately, that was not the case with the Covid pandemic,” he said. “What I fear is that some of the worst stimuli in many of our states will follow Britain’s lead.”

Haseltine criticized so-called herd immunity strategies – which allow populations to build natural immunity to a disease by being exposed to it – as “murderous”.

“I think that’s a word we should use because it is. It is the knowledge that you are doing something that results in thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands, of people, ”he said.

“It is a disaster as a policy, it is clear that this has been the case for some time, and to continue with this policy is unscrupulous.”

Jose M Martin-Moreno, Professor of Public Health at the University of Valencia in Spain, echoed Haseltine’s concerns about other parts of the world, along the lines of the UK.

“We cannot understand why this is happening, despite the knowledge (the UK) has,” he said, warning that other countries may begin to “mimick” British policies.

“If we remove the tools that contain the transmission – that’s it,” he added.

“Everyone is affected”

Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and founder of the World Health Network, said that now is the time for governments to act – but in the opposite direction of UK lawmakers.

“Opening up while the pandemic is still spreading doesn’t make sense to protect the public,” he said. “Everyone will be affected once the pandemic gets out of hand.”

Meanwhile, Shu-Ti Chiou, founding president of the Taiwan Health and Sustainable Development Foundation, said it was unethical to “take away umbrellas without a raincoat while it is raining heavily.” She also raised concerns that children who cannot be vaccinated would be “left behind” due to the high prevalence of “long covid” among young people.

However, there were also warnings that even those who were fully vaccinated would feel the effects of the high transmission rates.

Meir Rubin, an attorney who advises the Israeli government on risk management, warned that “even the best vaccines are only a tactic, not a strategy”.

In one region of Israel, more than 80% of the population had been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, but there was still a “severe outbreak” of Covid. Rubin told the panel that without eliminating the virus, even a vaccinated population “could collapse under the next variant.”

“An infectious carrier of the Delta variant will infect their family even if they are fully vaccinated. If you live with a child who is a Delta carrier, they will infect the parents, ”he said, adding that Israel has seen severe cases and hospitalizations even with fully vaccinated patients.

Haseltine also noted that vaccines alone would not bring an end to the pandemic.

“Even if you are fully vaccinated, you must make serious efforts and controls to try to correct the problem, not just to alleviate it. A policy that opens up the country in the midst of a growing wave of infections is counterproductive in extreme cases, ”he warned.

Categories
World News

China’s Guangzhou fights Delta Covid variant with lockdowns, mass testing

China's Guangzhou fights Delta Covid variant with lockdowns, mass testing

People wait in lines for nucleic acid tests in Guangzhou, China on May 26, 2021.

Visual China Group | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China – Authorities in southern China’s Guangdong Province are conducting mass tests and have closed areas to control a flare-up of coronavirus cases in Guangzhou.

The city has cited the delta variant of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in India, as the driver behind the surge in cases reported since late May. The Delta Tribe is known to be highly transmissible.

Guangzhou, a city of over 15 million people and the provincial capital, reported 96 of the over 100 cases in Guangdong Province in this latest outbreak.

China, where the coronavirus first emerged last year, has quickly got the epidemic under control and has had very few cases in the past 12 months. However, clusters have emerged in parts of the country, including major cities such as the capital Beijing and the financial center of Shanghai.

The cases in Guangzhou may be even more worrying as it is the delta strain of the coronavirus, which can spread very quickly.

Lock

A 75-year-old woman in Liwan, a district of Guangzhou to the west of the city, was the first confirmed case of the Delta variant on May 21. She went to a restaurant and eventually infected her husband. The most recent infections started from there and have since spread to other areas of the city.

Liwan, still the hardest hit district, has strictly closed certain streets. Some areas do not allow people into a certain zone and residents are not allowed to leave their building. Checkpoints have been set up 24 hours a day to monitor movement in and out of these areas.

Restaurants and entertainment venues have also been closed.

But the virus has also spread to other parts of the city and province. Foshan, a city southwest of Guangzhou, has reported cases. On June 6th, six members of the same family in Guangzhou’s Nansha District tested positive for the coronavirus. On Sunday, a positive case was found at the Chinese technology center in Shenzhen, home to companies like Huawei and Tencent.

In other areas of Guangzhou that are less affected by the recent accumulation of cases, some restaurants and bars have started offering take-away meals.

Mass tests, travel restrictions

After the first case was found, Guangzhou first conducted mass tests in Liwan, which have since been expanded to other areas.

In the central business district known as Zhujiang New Town, residents were asked between Friday and Sunday to take a test at a location near their homes.

One such test site, which was set up on a street full of bars and restaurants, had huge lines on Friday.

Guangzhou performed over 16 million tests at midnight between May 26 and June 5.

In Guangzhou, the authorities have imposed stricter travel restrictions. Some metro stations in the city are closed. The authorities have asked people not to leave the city. However, if residents must leave the province, they should have a negative nucleic acid test within 48 hours of their departure. Previously, travelers had a 72-hour window.

Hundreds of domestic flights from Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport have also been canceled.

Driverless cars that carry supplies

Guangzhou has become a hub for driverless automakers to test their vehicles on public roads. And since Liwan is blocked, these companies transport goods to Liwan with their autonomous vehicles.

Guangzhou-based WeRide has used its autonomous bus to transport groceries to Liwan. Pony.ai, another autonomous driving company, has sent its vehicles to Liwan with supplies.

Chinese internet giant Baidu also used its autonomous vehicles to bring food and medical personnel to the affected areas.

Categories
Business

economist says states ought to resolve on lockdowns

Why Covid vaccine producer India faces major shortage of doses

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under increasing pressure to demand another nationwide lockdown in India as the overwhelmed health system struggles to fight a devastating second wave of Covid-19.

However, a member of Modi’s economic advisory board says that state governments should instead have the final say on social restrictions.

“All in all, the current policy of leaving it to different states to take local conditions into account and adopt a lockdown strategy – I think it’s a better one overall,” said V. Anantha Nageswaran, part-time member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Board, said Tuesday to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”.

Calls for a national lockdown – as imposed between late March and May last year – have grown louder as the Indian health system deteriorates and patients suffer from the lack of hospital beds, medical oxygen and drugs needed to treat the disease Disease will be rejected.

Leading coronavirus adviser to the White House, Anthony Fauci, said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that India must be shut down in order to break transmission chains.

So far, the central government has resisted lockdown calls and allowed states to tighten their own local restrictions, including lockdowns and curfews.

Instead, the government is focusing on delivering global aid – including oxygen concentrators, bottles and generation equipment, and the antiviral drug Remdesivir – to affected areas. The country is also stepping up its vaccination campaign.

People aged 18 and over waiting to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at a vaccination center on the Radha Soami Satsang site operated by BLK Max Hospital on May 4, 2021 in New Delhi, India.

Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

Nageswaran stated that at this point, the benefits of a statewide lockdown will not significantly outweigh the costs. He added that in cases the increase is still relatively localized in different pockets rather than nationally.

India has reported more than 300,000 cases per day for 20 consecutive days. However, on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said its data showed a net decrease in total active cases over a 24-hour period for the first time in 61 days.

India’s death toll from coronavirus is close to 250,000.

Economic growth path

Last year’s national lockdown held India back from growth and pushed the economy into a technical recession. Before the second wave of infections, the economy was slowly on the mend – but economists are now predicting that the recovery will be delayed given the current situation.

There is a growing likelihood that localized lockdowns are likely to last through June or beyond. Given the current rate of vaccination, any attempt to fully reopen the economy could lead to a potential third wave of infections, Kunal Kundu, Indian economist with Societe Generale investment bank, said in a recent note.

Kundu said the bank had forecast real GDP growth of 9.5% year-over-year for India’s fiscal year ending March 2022, which is below the market consensus. But even this goal is no longer tenable, as it was assumed that the economy will open sooner due to the rapid pace of vaccination.

“With localized lockdowns through June and beyond, this increases the downside risk to our existing growth forecast. We now expect real GDP to grow by 8.5% for the current year,” said Kundu.

He added that India’s ability to chase the new variants will be key to preventing subsequent waves. To do this, the country must “provide more fiscal resources for genome monitoring and vaccine research” and ensure that all temporary Covid-19 care centers are still in operation, he said.

Nageswaran added that if India’s Covid-19 cases don’t peak in the next two weeks and drag on into the next quarter, it will be more difficult to match the country’s pre-pandemic growth trajectory through fiscal 2022-2023.

Categories
World News

gross sales up 27% regardless of lockdowns

sales up 27% despite lockdowns

LONDON – Adidas is more confident on sales this year as it sees stronger than expected demand for its products around the world for its products despite a consumer boycott in mainland China.

The German sporting goods retailer assumes that currency-adjusted sales will increase at a “high-teens” rate this year, with a “significant” acceleration already being recorded in the second quarter, the company announced on Friday.

“This acceleration is being driven by a number of innovative product releases,” Adidas said in a statement. Major sporting events like UEFA Euro and Copa America are expected to support the deal as well.

The company posted net income of 502 million euros (605 million US dollars) for the first quarter of this year, compared to 26 million euros in 2020. Currency-neutral sales for the company increased 27% during the reporting period.

China boycott

The company said sales in China rose 156% in the first three months of the year.

This despite a boycott of some international brand consumers in mainland China who have spoken out against the treatment of one of China’s ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, which is home to many cotton plantations.

The ethnic Uyghurs, who live primarily in western China, have been identified as an oppressed group by the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and others.

In March, Canada, the UK and the US issued a joint statement expressing “deep and continuing concern” about forced labor, mass detention in detention centers and other abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. In March, the European Union imposed sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for abuses against Uyghurs.

China’s Foreign Ministry in March characterized such claims as “malicious lies” intended to “smear China” and “thwart China’s development.”

Adidas previously said that there is a “zero tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking”.

In an October 2019 statement, when we learned of allegations against several companies in Xinjiang, China, where ethnic minorities were reportedly subjected to forced labor in spinning mills, we specifically urged our fabric suppliers not to source yarn from the Xinjiang region. “

It added, “Adidas has never manufactured goods in Xinjiang and has no contractual relationship with any Xinjiang supplier.”

That year, the German retailer also joined the Better Cotton Initiative, a nonprofit that decided last year to cease operations in Xinjiang due to human rights concerns.

Adidas and other Western brands, including Nike and H&M, faced backlash on Chinese social media following their comments on the situation in Xinjiang. Some Chinese consumers have boycotted the brands, choosing instead to buy products from domestic companies.

Adidas did not explicitly refer to the issue in its earnings release on Friday, but cited “adverse effects” from issues such as “the geopolitical situation”.

Kasper Rorsted, CEO of Adidas, told CNBC that he continues to expect “very strong growth” from China for the full year.

“We are therefore still very confident that we will further expand our position in China, our largest single market,” he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Friday.

“This is of course a sensitive issue and we are doing everything we can to ensure that human rights are protected.”

Despite the controversy, Rorsted said he doesn’t think there will be any major shift in the company’s supply chains.

Categories
Health

Third Covid wave hits Europe, France, Germany eye extra lockdowns

Third Covid wave hits Europe, France, Germany eye more lockdowns

Members of the medical staff are reviewing a patient’s information in the pulmonology department of the AP-HP Cochin hospital in Paris on March 18, 2021 as the number of people hospitalized with the Covid-19 increases in the French capital.

CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT | AFP | Getty Images

More than a year after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, Europe continues to grapple with the virus amid a third wave of infections and an increase in lockdown measures.

At the same time, the introduction of vaccinations in the block remains sluggish, which is affected by manufacturing and delivery problems, so that the heads of state and government of the European Union meet this week to again discuss the introduction of possible export bans for vaccines.

A handful of countries are reintroducing lockdowns to contain a third wave of infections. France, Poland and Ukraine are implementing stricter measures over the weekend that should last at least several weeks.

A month-long partial lockdown was reintroduced on Saturday in Paris as well as 15 other regions of France to deal with rising case numbers, largely due to new, more contagious variants of Covid.

However, the last partial lockdown is less strict than the previous ones, leading some to question the point of such a move, while others have said the new measures are confusing. There is still a curfew and interregional travel is still effectively prohibited. Around 21 million people in France are affected by the new regulations.

The country reported over 30,000 new cases a day on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to over 4.2 million. So far, over 92,000 people have died as a result of the virus in France.

In the meantime, Europe’s largest economy, Germany, could extend a national lockdown until April as the country also battles a third wave of Covid-19 cases. Several states have reportedly called for the current restrictions to be extended as the Covid incidence rate has exceeded 100 cases per 100,000 people. A level previously announced by the government would prompt them to implement an “emergency brake” – a stalling of the lifting of lockdown measures – to prevent further spread.

The move would be a blow to Germany, which had started to simplify lockdown measures, allowing schools to reopen in February and some non-essential businesses to resume customers earlier this month.

Vaccination fights

As more and more cases of coronaviruses occur in large parts of the EU, the introduction of the vaccine remains sluggish and controversial.

EU leaders will meet virtually on Thursday to discuss whether to block vaccine exports while supplies in the region remain tight and the vaccination program lags behind that in other developed nations.

Criticized for ordering coronavirus vaccines in large quantities later than the UK and US, the EU has subsequently faced supply issues despite two of the vaccines it has approved – the recordings from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-University of Oxford – were used. made in the EU.

There are reports that the EU could block exports of AstraZeneca vaccine at a Dutch plant – a move that could also jeopardize the previously successful launch of vaccines in the UK. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to reach out to his European counterparts to try to break the impasse on vaccines.

The launch of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine has been fraught with several hurdles in the past few weeks. A handful of European countries have discontinued the use of the shot due to concerns about its possible association with reports of blood clots.

The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency carried out safety reviews of the vaccine last Thursday, the latter determining it is safe, effective, and the benefits outweigh the risks.

The conclusion resulted in a reversal of the vaccine suspension in most (but not all) European countries that had discontinued its use, but the move could damage public confidence in the vaccine, which was already shaky due to misguided questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness shot in the over 65s.

Real-world data has since proven the vaccine to be highly effective in reducing severe Covid cases, hospital stays and adult deaths. The vaccine received another boost on Monday when the results of a large U.S. study were published that found the AstraZeneca vaccine was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness and 100% effective against serious illness and hospitalization.

However, a YouGov poll published on Monday found that the decision of some European nations to suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine “severely damaged the public perception of the safety of the vaccine in Europe”.

The survey, which was conducted between March 15 and 18 in seven European countries (UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark and Sweden) found that the vaccine was more likely than not in France, Germany, Spain and the US Italy is classified as unsafe as safe. It should be noted that the survey was conducted the week that the vaccine’s safety data was questioned, and especially before the EMA published its safety decision on the shot.

Categories
Business

Harm by Lockdowns, California’s Small Companies Push to Recall Newsom

Hurt by Lockdowns, California’s Small Businesses Push to Recall Newsom

Small businesses across the country have suffered from shutdowns that sometimes flare up as suddenly as the coronavirus itself. Restaurants, gyms, mom and pop shops and spas have closed, some after months of trying to stay there.

The pain in California was acute. By September, nearly 40,000 small businesses had closed in the state – more than any other state since the pandemic began, according to a report compiled by Yelp. Half had closed permanently, according to the report, far more than the 6,400 that had permanently closed in New York.

Few of the pandemic decisions Mr. Newsom faced have been easy. California has suffered tremendously from Covid-19 with more than 3.5 million cases and 47,000 deaths. Los Angeles County, one of the hardest hit locations in the recent virus spill, has more than 1.2 million cases and 19,000 deaths.

Dan Newman, a political strategist for Mr. Newsom, said the governor is focused on coronavirus vaccinations and reopening the state. Mr. Newman accused “state and national GOP partisans” of “assisting this Republican recall program in the hope of creating an expensive, distracting and destructive circus”.

Dee Dee Myers, director of the governor’s office for business and economic development, admitted the pandemic “has hit our small businesses hard,” citing several government programs offering help. These include the California Covid-19 Small Business Aid Program, the California Rebuilding Fund, and the Main Street hiring tax credit.

Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement that Mr. Newsom “has proven he is absolutely unqualified to run the state of California.”

Small business anger is particularly strong in places like Los Angeles County, where Mr. Newsom received 72 percent of the vote in 2018, and neighboring Orange County, a more conservative area. A local business owner leading the movement to open up California’s economy is Andrew Gruel, 40, a chef who owns Slapfish, a seafood restaurant chain.