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The UK’s new prime minister could possibly be about to shake up the Metropolis of London

Talks about deregulating Britain's financial sector are

People in the UK financial sector are wondering if the new PM will change the regulatory landscape.

Jeff J. Mitchell/Staff/Getty Images

As Liz Truss becomes Britain’s new prime minister on Tuesday, questions will be raised about her plans for Britain’s historic financial district – the City of London – as the country grapples with a deepening cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

According to the Financial Times last month, the city’s regulators could be in for a big shake under Truss. It cited campaign insiders who said Truss will seek to review and possibly merge the three major London regulators – the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Payment Services Regulator (PSR).

She has also suggested reviewing the Bank of England’s mandate during her time as Prime Minister.

“Change for Change’s Sake”

The FCA regulates 50,000 firms in the UK to “ensure our financial markets are honest, competitive and fair”, according to its website. The PRA, meanwhile, oversees the work of around 1,500 financial institutions to “ensure the financial services and products we all rely on can be delivered in a safe and sound manner.”

Their responsibilities sound similar, but the various organizations were formed when it was decided that the Financial Services Authority, which regulated the city between 2001 and 2013, had several functions that could be better served by separate organisations.

According to Matthew Nunan, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn and a former department head at the FCA, the original agency’s main objectives were good governance and financial soundness across the sector. He said the split in two is seen as a way to give these goals equal priority.

“The simple question that needs to be answered now is: What would the reunification of the PRA and FCA do?” Nunan wrote in an email to CNBC.

“If the answer is to reform the old Financial Services Authority, what was the question? Or is it simply change for the sake of change?”

Governments should always “challenge the status quo,” Nunan said, but argued that it was a question of whether doing so would actually better serve the “changing needs of a nation.”

“The problem here is that instead of articulating a problem and seeking evidence, the statements made seem to be proposing answers to questions that no one is asking,” he said.

Nunan also highlighted the difference between regulators and politicians, saying regulators are “never allowed” to make proposals in the way Truss has done.

“Regulators are legally required to make evidence-based decisions about rule changes [and] require a cost-benefit analysis before they can be implemented… If that applies to regulators, why doesn’t it apply to politicians?” he asked.

“Light Touch Regulatory Regime”

The “fight” to deregulate the banking sector is like “turning back the clock to the pre-2008 global financial crash,” Fran Boait, director of campaign group Positive Money, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe last month.

Boait said there was a risk that the country would find itself in the same situation “or much worse”.

“Liz Truss’ proposal to merge the three key city watchdogs would risk restoring this light regulatory regime — the regime we had before the crash,” she said.

She also stressed that less than a decade has passed since the organizations were founded.

“It wasn’t long ago that we put in place a much larger regulatory regime because there was a consensus that the regime contained so many risks [that] Complexity in the financial sector needs to be properly regulated,” she said.

‘ambiguity’

Discussions of a review or merger of any of London’s regulators remain speculative as Truss has yet to issue any official statements on the matter.

This is leading to a “lack of clarity” about the future status of the three regulators, according to Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.

She said improving financial services for customers should be at the forefront of any regulatory discussion.

“Whether they stay as single entities or as a merged entity, it’s really important that the UK has dynamic regulators that make the most of the Brexit freedoms,” Streeter said in an email to CNBC.

Tackling fraud, creating more opportunities for investors to invest in IPOs and how information is shared with prospective investors should be on the agenda of any proposed changes to the current regulatory regime, she added.

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Markets Slip as Britain Will get a New Prime Minister and Vitality Worries Develop

Markets Slip as Britain Gets a New Prime Minister and Energy Worries Grow

If the financial markets are sending a message to Britain’s new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, it is a worrying one.

Ms Truss, who was elected the next prime minister by Conservative Party members on Monday, faces enormous economic challenges as energy prices soar and the cost of living becomes increasingly unaffordable. As the outlook dims and a recession becomes more likely, the pound is at its lowest since March 2020 and nearing its lowest since 1985 against the dollar.

Elsewhere in Europe, markets started the week on shaky ground after Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Friday it would not resume natural gas flows between Russia and Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as expected on Saturday. Natural gas prices soared and stocks plummeted.

Last month, the British pound fell 4.5 percent against the US dollar, its worst month in nearly six years, as the economic outlook worsened. Households have been told to expect their energy bills to rise by 80 percent in October and industry groups have warned there could be large-scale shutdowns by companies unable to afford the energy bills. The Bank of England has hiked rates by the most in 27 years, and traders are betting rates would need to rise much more to combat inflation, which has hit 10.1 percent despite forecasts of a recession become more frequent.

The pound was little changed at around $1.15 on Monday when Ms. Truss was announced as the new prime minister with a widely anticipated result. It has been steadily declining for over a year (since hitting $1.42 in June 2021) and is less than 1 percent from its lowest level since 1985. Yields on UK government debt, a measure of the cost of borrowing, have also skyrocketed. The 10-year bond yield approached 3 percent, its highest since early 2014.

Decision not to restart Russian gas flows through Nord Stream 1 Concerns have increased about Europe’s winter energy supply and how much consumption may need to be curtailed to avoid blackouts.

Dutch benchmark natural gas futures rose as much as 35 percent Monday morning and 24 percent late in the morning.

The euro was 0.3 percent weaker against the dollar on Monday, falling to 99 US cents on Monday. It fell below parity for the first time in two decades in mid-July and stayed around that level. The common currency has fallen nearly 13 percent against the dollar this year as an energy crisis loomed and the dollar appreciated as the Federal Reserve sharply hiked interest rates in the United States.

On Monday, the leading German index DAX fell by 2.7 percent and the Euro Stoxx 600 by 1.2 percent. In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent.

In the United States, stock markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday.

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World News

Russia might invade Ukraine ‘within the blink of a watch’: Ukrainian international minister

EU warns Russia: if you invade Ukraine, a high price will be paid

If Russia decides to invade Ukraine, as feared by Western officials and experts, it could happen very quickly, said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

“Putin has not yet decided whether to conduct a military operation,” Dmytro Kuleba told CNBC on Thursday. “But if he does, things will happen in no time.”

In recent months, concerns have increased that Russia is planning military action against Ukraine. It follows Russian troop movements on the border and increasingly aggressive rhetoric against Kiev from Moscow.

However, Putin pointed his finger the other way and said in late November that Russia was concerned about military exercises in Ukraine near the border that threatened Moscow.

He has insisted that Russia be free to move troops into its own territory and has denied claims that the country may be preparing to invade Ukraine, calling such notions “alarmist”.

Ukraine and its allies in the US and Europe, as well as the NATO military alliance, disagree. All have warned Russia against aggressive action against Ukraine, but there are few signs of tensions easing.

“We [still] have Russian troops on our border. We have them in our occupied areas of Crimea and Donbass, and according to our assessments and assessments by our partners, and they agree, Russia already has the capacity to conduct offensive operations in the region … and we see that they continue to build up their forces “Kuleba told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.

Ukrainian soldiers participate in a rehearsal of an official ceremony for the handover of tanks, armored personnel carriers and military vehicles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the country celebrates Army Day in Kiev, Ukraine, Dec. 6, 2021.

Gleb Garanich | Reuters

He added that Ukraine “was attacked by Russia at the lowest point of our strength in 2014,” referring to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, a move of international condemnation and far-reaching sanctions against Russian business and state officials triggered. Russia is also accused of supporting pro-Russian uprisings in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. However, it denies playing any role there.

Last week, US President Joe Biden spoke to his counterpart Vladimir Putin and warned the Russian head of state of an attack on Ukraine.

Experts say the US is running out of time to prevent further hostilities between neighboring countries, but how far the West will go to defend Ukraine is uncertain: Ukraine is not a member of NATO and not a member of the EU, despite it this strives to join both.

Russia vehemently rejects Ukraine’s possible future NATO membership and sees this as an expansion of the military alliance to its doorstep.

At his meeting with Biden, Putin was expected to ask the U.S. president for assurances that NATO – which has expanded greatly in the past 25 years to include many countries in Europe, including the former Soviet states in the Baltic States – would never expand would become Ukraine. No such assurances were given.

Kuleba said that if Ukraine had been a member of NATO in 2014 then “Putin would take care of his affairs” and there would have been “no war, no destruction” in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and thousands of people living in the Eastern Ukraine died the conflict could have been spared.

When asked if Ukraine’s allies did enough to help, Kuleba said, “As long as Russian troops stay in Crimea and Donbass, neither of us is really doing enough. We can only judge by the bottom line. And that bottom line should be the trigger. ” Russia from Ukraine. However, it would have been much worse if we hadn’t had these relationships with our partners and our partners hadn’t changed their attitude towards Russia, “he said.

The EU is also concerned about Russia’s “aggressive” stance towards Ukraine and has warned Moscow that if invaded, it will pay a “heavy price”.

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On Wednesday, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told CNBC that “the military build-up around Ukraine is underway. So the big question is, what are they really up to?”

“Is it something you are trying or planning to attack Ukraine? Or is it just a bluff to negotiate a deal out of this situation? And we have to look very carefully at that.” She said.

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World News

Waste From Mine in Angola Kills 12 Downstream in Congo, Minister Says

Waste From Mine in Angola Kills 12 Downstream in Congo, Minister Says

LUANDA, Angola – First the river turned red. Then tons of dead fish swam to the surface. Then thousands of people got sick.

Now 12 people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in what researchers have called “an unprecedented environmental and human disaster” along the Kasai River, a southern tributary of the mighty Congo River.

Researchers and officials from the Congolese government say the cause was a toxic leak upstream of Angola’s largest diamond mine, operated by Catoca, a joint venture between Endiama, the Angolan state-owned mining company and Russian mining giant Alrosa.

The company admitted in a statement last month that there was a leak from its facility, but said it was just water and sand – nothing toxic.

In addition to the 12 fatalities, around 4,500 people became ill with diarrhea as a result of pollution, affecting nearly a million in total, Eve Bazaiba, the Congolese minister for the environment and sustainable development, said in a press conference Thursday.

“It is a total destruction of ecosystems, especially aquatic biodiversity,” said Ms. Bazaiba, who had traveled to the region.

She said that around July 26th, the people who lived near the water noticed that something strange was happening on the Tshikapa River, which flows north from Angola, where it spells Chicapa, then flows into the Congo and flows into the Kasai.

At first they thought small diamond miners were causing the problem, she said. But then, on July 31, the situation worsened.

“They noticed that there were dead fish. Lots of dead fish – tons and tons of them are floating on the river, ”said Ms. Bazaiba.

A team dispatched to the area reported that two hippos had also died. “Everyone panicked,” she said.

The government warned people not to eat the fish and took water samples to be tested in laboratories in Kinshasa, capital of the Congo. The results came back a week later. The water sample contained heavy metals – nickel and iron – and the pH was incorrect, according to the minister.

“It’s practically sour,” she said. “It sucks the oxygen out of the water. There is no more life. “

Researchers at Kinshasa University’s Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center described the pollution of the Kasai River basin as “an unprecedented environmental and human disaster.” In a report released in mid-August, they said they had tracked the spill from its source since July 15 in Angola’s Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul provinces, and it took 15 days to see the city of Tshikapa at the confluence of the Tshikapa and Kasai rivers . Two million people are at risk, it said.

The immediate aftermath of the disaster, the report says, has included water pollution, poisoning and loss of aquatic fauna and flora, water-borne diseases for local communities, disruption of fishing and shipping activities and lack of access to domestic water services.

It warned that pollution could spread downstream to the stretch of river that runs through the vast metropolis of Kinshasa, one of the most populous in Africa.

Ms. Bazaiba said she hoped the voluminous waters of the Congo – second largest after that of the Amazon – would dilute pollution when it reached the capital, adding that the water is gradually becoming clearer.

The government is now trying to determine the source of the pollution, she said, but must act because it came from a foreign country.

“We don’t know exactly whether it was an accident,” she said, “or whether it was known.”

Ms. Bazaiba said the Angolan government and the company recognized that the pollution was from the Catoca mine. She added that the Congo will seek compensation on the “polluter pays” principle.

But the Angolan government has not commented publicly on this issue. An official from the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Culture, who was not allowed to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ministry had not received any official information from the government of the Congo. The official said that the only information the ministry had through the media and the investigation was still ongoing.

An employee of the company, who was not authorized to comment on the matter and who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied that Catoca had confirmed the Congolese government’s allegation that a poison leak had occurred.

The Catoca mine produces three quarters of Angola’s diamonds. One of its owners, the Russian company Alrosa, has tried in recent years to increase sales in the USA.

In a statement last month, the company admitted that there had been a “break in the pipeline that functions as an overflow”. But it was said that only a mixture of sand and water had entered the river. A survey was carried out and “the recorded situation does not pose a threat to the life of the population”.

Catoca did not use the heavy metals described by the Congolese minister, said the company employee.

“No toxic materials may come from the Catoca mine because the mine does not use such materials,” said the employee. “It was a build-up of sand and water, or to be clear, it was mud.”

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Australia’s commerce minister on vaccination charges and journey bubbles

Australia's trade minister on vaccination rates and travel bubbles

Police officers patrol the Sydney Opera House on July 11, 2021.

James D. Morgan | Getty Images

More Australians need to be vaccinated before the country builds travel bubbles and lets international students in.

Australia has closed its doors to the outside world since March 2020 and even banned its own citizens from returning from India last May.

Australia’s Trade Minister Dan Tehan told CNBC that the easing of border restrictions and the return of foreign students to the country are still “a big part of the roadmap if we get out of this virus”.

“Of course we have to increase the vaccination rates. And as soon as we increase the vaccination rates further, we will check quarantine precautions, “he said on Tuesday in the” Squawk Box Asia “.

Tehan added that South Australia will begin implementing a domestic quarantine process. That trial is slated to take place for two weeks in September and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it could pave the way for Australians to leave and return, local media reported.

Australia has been criticized for its slow adoption of vaccines. According to Our World in Data, only 15.3% of the population was fully vaccinated as of August 1. Last week, local media reported that Morrison said the country must vaccinate 80% of its population before borders are reopened.

As soon as vaccination rates rise, Australia will try to let in more groups of people in, according to Tehan.

“So we’re going to try to lift the caps so more Australians can return home and then look for ways we can bring in international student business people who want to do business here in Australia,” he said.

Travel bubble plans

Largest city Sydney is battling a virus resurgence as cases hit record highs last week and the military was called in to enforce restrictions. Sydney last week extended its lockdown – which began in late June – for another four weeks as the Delta variant continued to spread.

Still, Tehan said Australia was “very interested” in building travel bubbles with countries that have handled the virus well, such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

“That’s still the plan. Obviously we are in a pandemic. So the plan can be adjusted and changed further, but … that’s what we see. We want to be able to open up and open up” with these countries Contact the basis of the medical advice when we know it is safe, “he said.

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On England’s ‘Freedom Day,’ Rising Virus Instances and a Prime Minister in Isolation

On England’s ‘Freedom Day,’ Rising Virus Cases and a Prime Minister in Isolation

Freedom Day arrived in England on Monday, with its chief architect, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in quarantine, millions of Britons who might join it there and countless people more concerned about the risks of liberation.

Those were the inconsistencies on the long-awaited day the government lifted all but a few remaining coronavirus restrictions – a day the virus infected 39,950 people and carried away tens of thousands more, from the National Health Service’s cell phone app were notified after they were in contact with an infected person.

Mr Johnson defended the decision to reopen Checkers from his country estate, where he has been in self-isolation since Sunday after the NHS notified or “pinged” him for contact with his Health Secretary, Sajid Javid. who on Saturday said he had mild symptoms of Covid-19.

“If we don’t open up now, conditions are even tougher in the coming months, if the virus has a natural advantage,” Johnson told a video feed at a press conference in a slightly hushed voice and a slightly blurry image. “We have to ask ourselves: ‘If not now, then when?'”

“It is right to be as careful as we are,” he added. “It is also right to acknowledge that this pandemic is far from over.”

Mr Johnson’s safe tone captured the sharp shift in sentiment since the Prime Minister first announced and then withdrew the date for most restrictions to be lifted. British newspapers quickly dubbed Monday “Freedom Day” and celebrated it as a symbolic end to the country’s 16-month ordeal with the pandemic.

But as new cases have skyrocketed and hospital admissions started, the plan to open the economy instead looks like a likely prescription for a massive third wave – a wave of infections that Mr Johnson believes is inevitable and worthwhile with while of summer when the warmer weather and school holidays reduce the key chains of transmission.

The government’s decision represents a staggering gamble that a country with relatively widespread vaccines can learn to live with the coronavirus in its adult population. Much will depend on the resilience of vaccines and the ability of the country’s health system to deal with those who actually get sick.

“The government is basically saying, ‘We have done all we can. Now it’s up to you, ‘”said Devi Sridhar, director of the global public health program at the University of Edinburgh. “You are the first country to surrender.”

Keeping some restrictions in place for a while, Professor Sridhar argued, would allow vaccines to roll out further and hospitals to develop better treatments. “You’re devaluing time,” she said.

According to the new rules, pubs and restaurants can operate at full capacity and night clubs are allowed to reopen. The restrictions on the number of people who can meet indoors, generally limited to six, have also been lifted. The legal requirement to wear face masks has been dropped, despite the government urging people to continue wearing them on public transport. (They are compulsory to stay on London Undergrounds and buses.)

Mr Johnson initially hoped to avoid self-isolation by participating in a program that would have allowed him to continue working in the office had he been tested daily. But after being accused of breaking the rules, he reversed course and said he was self-isolating like everyone else.

Updated

July 19, 2021, 2:50 p.m. ET

The Prime Minister warned young people that they would likely need to show a full vaccination card to enter nightclubs and other crowded places. He said the flood of people ordered to isolate was an inevitable side effect of reopening. And he refused to rule out the reintroduction of restrictions, as the Netherlands recently did when hospital admissions rise catastrophically.

Almost 70 percent of adults in the UK have received both doses of a vaccine. That leaves a large pool of unvaccinated people, especially younger people, through which the highly transmissible delta variant is spreading rapidly. While these people are less likely to get seriously ill, they can transmit the virus to unvaccinated older people who remain vulnerable.

To add to uncertainty, the government said it would only offer vaccines to children ages 12-18 if they have pre-existing health conditions that make them particularly susceptible to the virus. Some scientists questioned the decision, saying the long-term effects of Covid-19 on children were unclear and that if they were not vaccinated they could speed up the infections when schools start next month.

In London, where the lifting of restrictions coincided with the mildest weather of the summer, sunbathers near Liverpool train station expressed a mixture of relief and concern as the country broke new ground.

“I don’t think it’s the right time, but we can’t hold up our lives for long,” said Silvia Andonova, dentist, 43. “There will never be a right time.”

She said she intends to continue wearing masks on public transport and in crowded places, but the instructions are not clear enough. “The government put it confusing,” she said. “What should I do?”

After long months of restrictions, there were signs of a serene mood and many restaurants wrote “Happy Freedom Day” on their signs. Still, many people said they felt conflicted over the government’s decision to relax the restrictions.

“No matter what the politicians say, I will wear my face covering in the transport,” says Saj Sangha, assistant to a law firm. Still, Mr Sangha, 52, said he looked forward to ordering a beer in a pub without the inconvenience of having to reserve a table in advance.

Not all young people believe that returning to nightclubs is safe. “The deaths are a little lower with the vaccination, but people still have Corona – we still have high numbers,” said Simone Papi, 24, cook.

In the northern city of Bradford, 26-year-old Kasim Khan stood in line to receive his first vaccination. “I am hopeful,” said Mr. Khan. “I hope to go to where my family is from, Pakistan,” he said, adding that it could be some time before this could happen as the government is currently requiring travelers from Pakistan to arrive in the UK upon arrival Quarantine hotels.

Another Bradford resident, Kirsty Mcguire, 33, said she plans to continue taking some precautions, like wearing a face mask, despite the new freedom.

“It’s out of respect for the elders and I have children,” said Ms. Mcguire, “I’m afraid something will happen to them, so I hope that people still hold on to what they were.” “

Isabella Kwai provided coverage from London and Aina Jabeen Khan from Bradford, England.

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Singapore minister on Covid-19 vaccination program, opening of borders

Singapore minister on Covid-19 vaccination program, opening of borders

SINGAPORE – Singapore aims to immunize 75% of its population by early October to gradually relax border restrictions as the coronavirus becomes endemic over time, trade minister Gan Kim Yong told CNBC on Tuesday.

“Covid-19 is likely to be endemic in the future. That is why vaccination is so important. Because the transmission will continue and you will be confronted with a new variant from time to time when the virus mutates, “Gan told the” Squawk Box “from CNBC Asia.”

He said the goal is to vaccinate at least two-thirds of the country by August 9, when Singapore celebrates its national day, which marks the country’s independence after separating from Malaysia in 1965.

Data from the scientific publication Our World In Data showed that by July 3, nearly 37% of Singapore’s 5.6 million residents were fully vaccinated. This is a significantly higher percentage compared to more populous neighbors like Malaysia and Indonesia, who each vaccinated nearly 8% fully. and 5% of their population.

Vaccines can help limit transmission to some extent and reduce the severity of the disease, the minister said. This ensures that Singapore’s hospitals and medical facilities are not overwhelmed and would allow the country to “continue to live with Covid-19”.

Singapore’s national vaccination program runs vaccinations from Pfizer and Moderna, but some private clinics have been allowed to administer Sinovac for those who prefer the Chinese-made vaccine.

Travel corridors and reopening of borders

Vaccination rate will be an important marker in easing border restrictions to allow non-resident travelers to enter Singapore, Gan said.

“We hope that by the end of September or beginning of October we can cover 75% or more (of the population). Then we can open up our borders more to allow more.” Visitors to Singapore come both for business and pleasure, “added Gan.

Discussions about the establishment of travel corridors with Hong Kong and Australia have not yet produced any concrete results this year.

A bubble agreement would have enabled people from Hong Kong or Australia to travel to Singapore and vice versa without quarantine.

“We decided not to call it a travel bubble because it tends to burst,” said Gan. “We will continue to do our best to discuss with our partners and the discussion is moving forward.”

Singapore and its partners need to be prepared for potential travel corridors by making sure infection rates stay low and vaccination rates high, Gan said.

The city-state plans to conduct studies that will allow vaccinated travel between Singapore and several other destinations, he added. First, it will be done in small groups to test the process, and if those efforts are successful, it will be expanded to let more travelers into the country, Gan said.

“This will be very important for us to do it safely, build trust and allow us to refine our actions and process to ensure we can continue to protect Singapore and our visitors,” he added .

Loosen restrictions further

Singapore tightened restrictions in May as locally transmitted cases spiked and the highly contagious Delta variant was discovered in the city-state. These strict measures included a ban on eating in restaurants and grocery stores and restricting public social gatherings to two people.

Some of those measures have since been relaxed as cases are now under control and only a handful of unrelated infections are reported in the community each week.

We always believe that we have to find a very careful balance between protecting life on the one hand and preserving livelihoods on the other.

Gan Kim Yong

Minister for Trade and Industry

“We have to be careful and take a cautious approach as we open up our economy and our community,” said Gan, the former health minister and still co-chair of Singapore’s Covid-19 task force.

“This is to ensure that we can continue to keep public health under control and ensure the safety of Singaporeans,” he said, adding, “We always believe that we can strike a very careful balance between protecting life and protecting ourselves Life “must find a livelihood on the other side.”

If things keep moving steadily forward, Gan said Singapore will allow in-person dining for up to five people from July 12th. Currently, only groups of two people are allowed to dine together outside of homes.

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Indonesia’s well being minister on delta Covid surge, hospital capability

Indonesia's health minister on delta Covid surge, hospital capacity

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the Indonesian government increased hospital bed capacity in preparation for a surge in Covid infections after the holidays, but parts of the country are still running out of beds as daily cases hit new highs.

He told CNBC Street Signs Asia that Indonesia has up to 130,000 beds for Covid patients and 72,000 people have been in isolation beds as of yesterday.

But he admitted that the Southeast Asian nation faces two problems.

“The first problem is that the acceleration is much faster than it was in January and February,” he said. “So for a very dense area … we’re starting the mobility restrictions next week to ensure that the speed of incoming patients to the hospital is reduced.”

He attributed the increase in new cases to the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India.

Indonesia tightened restrictions on sources of infection last week and announced on Thursday that stricter emergency measures would apply from July 3 to July 20.

In the Jakarta region it already reaches 90% of the bed capacity.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin

Indonesia’s Minister of Health

The second problem is that the infections are concentrated in certain parts of the country, particularly the most populous island of Java.

“In the Jakarta region it already reaches 90% of the bed capacity,” he said on Wednesday.

Jan Gelfand of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “action at lightning speed” is needed to give countries like Indonesia access to vaccines.

“Every day we see how this Delta variant brings Indonesia closer to the brink of a Covid-19 catastrophe,” said Gelfand, the head of the Indonesian delegation of the IFRC, in a press release.

No nationwide lockdown

The Indonesian health minister is reportedly pushing for stricter Covid measures in Indonesia, but told CNBC that authorities will not consider a nationwide lockdown.

“Definitely not, because … the cluster is only in a certain area,” he said. “Kalimantan doesn’t have that. Sulawesi doesn’t. Most of Sumatra doesn’t and (and) Bali is still under control.”

Indonesia’s tourism minister told Reuters this week that the country, Bali, a popular holiday destination, plans to reopen in late July or early August, but needs to “watch out for the recent surge” in cases.

Health Minister Budi said in Sumatra and Kalimantan only 30 to 40 percent of hospital beds were occupied. “It’s not evenly distributed.”

A Covid-19 patient in the complex of the Wisma Atlet Covid-19 Emergency Hospital.

Risa Krisadhi | SOPA pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

He also said Indonesia could increase oxygen production if necessary, adding that the country has diverted some of its industrial supplies to hospitals.

Distribution is a problem, however, as the factories are mostly located in West and East Java, while Central Java needs oxygen, he said.

Vaccination progress

Regarding vaccinations, Budi said the country has given 43 million vaccinations to around 28 million people. This corresponds to a little more than 10% of the approximately 276 million inhabitants of Indonesia.

He said the vaccination rate has remained constant at around 1 million doses per day this week.

“Our president asked me to go from 1 million doses a day to 2 million doses a day, which … can be done because we are now asking the entire private sector, all the police and the entire army to help,” said he.

Indonesia has received donations from China, Japan, Australia, the United States and Covax, a global alliance that aims to provide vaccines to poorer countries, Budi said. It also had agreements to buy vaccines from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, he said.

According to the World Health Organization, the new Covid cases reported in Indonesia between June 21 and 27 are up 60% from the previous week. 2,476 deaths were also recorded during this period.

As of June 29, Indonesia has confirmed 2.16 million coronavirus infections and 58,024 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

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Nepal’s second Covid wave is now below management: Prime minister

Nepal's second Covid wave is now under control: Prime minister

Nepal’s second wave of Covid infections is subsiding – but the country needs more vaccines to deal with the pandemic, Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli told CNBC.

“The wave is under control and is going back,” he told Street Signs Asia on Monday. He said there had been a 75% decrease in cases.

Nepal reported 2,049 infections on Monday, up from a record of more than 9,000 new cases per day in mid-May.

“It was like a crisis, a very serious crisis … when the wave started,” Oli said, noting that infections and deaths increased and Nepal faced a shortage of hospital beds, medical equipment and facilities. He described the rise as “highly contagious and deadly”.

I think we can tentatively complete the vaccination process within this year.

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli

Prime Minister, Nepal

Nepalese billionaire Binod Chaudhary told CNBC in May that the country had underestimated the intensity of the second wave of coronavirus.

“Little by little, we have taken very serious measures and taken serious steps to contain and control the pandemic,” said the Prime Minister.

Nepal has also received generous support from vaccine manufacturers, philanthropic organizations and other governments, he added.

Vaccination campaign

Oli said Nepal hopes to vaccinate its entire population by the end of 2021 if there are enough vaccines.

“Our population is only 30 million and of them we (some people) have already vaccinated,” he said.

Just over 8% of people in the country have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to Our World in Data. Nepal has received vaccines donated by India, China and Covax, a global alliance dedicated to delivering vaccines to poorer countries.

The prime minister said Nepal is also trying to secure millions of cans from countries like the US, UK and China.

“We speak very seriously with China and hope that we can get more vaccines,” said Oli. “Within this year, I think we can tentatively complete the vaccination process.”

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Malaysia lockdown pressures authorities funds, says minister

Malaysia lockdown pressures government finances, says minister

Malaysia’s government finances are becoming “very constrained” as a surge in Covid-19 infections has once again forced the country into a lockdown, International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali told CNBC on Friday.

The Malaysian government has announced a new stimulus package worth 40 billion Malaysian ringgit (roughly $9.68 billion) to help businesses and households cope with another round of “total lockdown” that started on Tuesday.

That latest stimulus came on top of six prior packages worth a total 340 billion Malaysian ringgit (around $82.31 billion) rolled out over the past year. The government said the additional spending could push 2021’s fiscal deficit above its target of 6% of gross domestic product.

People wearing face masks walk in front of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan. 29, 2021.

Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

“Certainly this is (putting) a lot of pressure on our fiscal space, but again … we have no other options except to look at various options to support the industries, the SMEs and also the informal sectors so that they can continue with their economic activities,” Azmin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

During the June 1-14 “total lockdown,” businesses offering essential services will remain open while certain segments of the manufacturing sector can operate with reduced capacity.

Azmin and his ministry have been criticized by opposition politicians and the Malaysian public for allowing some nonessential businesses — such as a furniture firm and a brewery — to operate during the lockdown, according to media reports.  

In a Thursday statement, Azmin said his ministry is not the only one granting permissions to companies that applied to remain open during the lockdown. He added that only 128,150 businesses — involving 1.57 million workers — had obtained approvals to do so, out of 586,308 that applied for permission, according to the Malay language statement translated by CNBC.     

Malaysia’s Covid-19 outbreak has substantially worsened despite the government imposing lockdowns of varying degrees over the past year.

Last week, the Southeast Asian country reported five consecutive days of record infections and on Wednesday registered its largest daily death toll since the start of 2020. Overall, Malaysia has confirmed more than 595,000 Covid cases and 3,096 deaths, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday.

Malaysian director-general of health, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, has urged people to stay at home to break the chain of transmission. A leading figure in the country’s fight against Covid, Noor Hisham warned that the health system could be paralyzed if cases continue to surge.

Azmin said the government is accelerating its national vaccination drive. He explained that the strategy is to administer more than 200,000 doses a day by the end of this month, and double that amount next month.

“We expect to reach the 80% vaccination target as early as August 2021,” said the minister.

But Malaysia’s vaccination progress has been slow. Only 6.2% of the country’s roughly 32 million population have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, according to data compiled by statistics site Our World in Data.