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Covid ‘risk stays current’ WHO says at the same time as Europe’s circumstances decline

Covid 'threat remains present' WHO says even as Europe's cases decline

A boy reacts next to the body of his father, who died of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in a crematorium in New Delhi, India, on April 24, 2021.

Adnan Abidi | Reuters

LONDON – The threat to Europe from the coronavirus “remains,” the World Health Organization said Thursday, despite the recent drop in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the region.

“It has been 462 days since the first Covid-19 cases were reported. Based on the number of confirmed cases, 5.5% of the total European population had Covid-19, while 7% completed a full series of vaccinations,” he said WHO Regional Director for Europe, said Dr. Hans Kluge in a press conference on Thursday.

“But even if new cases, hospital stays and deaths decrease, the threat remains,” warned Kluge.

The virus still has the potential to wreak havoc, he added, noting that almost half of all reported infections in Europe since the pandemic began actually occurred in the first four months of this year.

However, as a sign of hope for the region, he added that “for the first time in two months, new cases fell significantly last week. Nevertheless, infection rates in the region remain extremely high.”

The comments are found amid a mixed picture of recovery around the world. As India grapples with a devastating surge in cases and a lack of medical care, other parts of the world are starting to reopen their economies.

In Europe, the UK is steadily lifting its lockdown and the introduction of vaccinations is progressing rapidly. To date, nearly 34 million adults in the country have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and over 13 million people have had two doses, government data shows.

In mainland Europe, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 133 million doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in 30 countries in the European Economic Area (EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

The speed of vaccination programs varies widely across the EU, with some countries advancing faster than others.

WHO’s Kluge called on governments not to allow vaccination programs, public engagement for vaccines, or surveillance of the virus.

“Where vaccination rates are highest in high-risk groups, hospital admissions and death rates fall. Vaccines save lives, and they will change the course of this pandemic and ultimately help end it,” he said.

“We also need to be aware of the fact that vaccines alone will not end the pandemic.” Without informing and involving the communities, they remain exposed to the virus. Without monitoring, we cannot identify any new variants. And without tracing, governments may have to reintroduce restrictive measures. “

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Business

I will current ‘very compelling supply’

I'll present 'very compelling offer'

Daniel Ek, CEO and co-founder of Spotify AB, stands for a photo after a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, September 29, 2016.

Akio Kon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Spotify owner Daniel Ek says he is prepared for a “long journey” with his offer to buy Arsenal and will make “a very compelling offer” to get the Kroenke family to sell.

Swedish billionaire Ek, 38, who has enlisted the support of club legends Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira, is expected to make his first £ 1.8 billion offer in the next few days.

The Kroenkes, whose possession was again rejected after the club’s participation in the failed European Super League last week, insist on “not maintaining an offer”.

Ek expects the Kroenkes to decline his original offer but is ready to be patient in what is expected to be a long process.

Speaking to Sky’s sister station CNBC, Ek said, “I have secured the funds and I want to make what I think is a very compelling offer to the owners and I hope they will hear me out.”

Ek, who expressed interest in a deal on Twitter last Friday night, said he was “very serious” about his takeover bid and wanted to “get the fans back on track”.

“I just see a tremendous opportunity to develop a real vision for the club to bring it back to its glory,” he added.

He has already indicated that if he manages to buy the club, he would be open to fan representation on the Arsenal board, including the ability to give fans a “golden share” that gives them a veto right over important decisions.

“I just focus on the club, I focus on the fans and I focus on bringing the club back to stardom,” added Ek, speaking after Spotify announced its first quarter results on Wednesday.

“I’m a fan first and foremost, that’s the most important thing for me. I want the club to do better. That’s my main interest.”

Ek, who co-founded Spotify in 2006 and is valued at £ 3.2 billion, does not consider his approach to buying the club personal and was careful not to criticize the current owners during his television appearance.

Stan Kroenke, who owns Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), has owned Arsenal since April 2011.

KSE also owns the NFL franchise Los Angeles Rams, the NBA team Denver Nuggets, the NHL team Colorado Avalanche and the MLS team Colorado Rapids.

Arsenal director Josh Kroenke told a fan forum that his family will work harder to be more effective with fans in the future.

Mikel Arteta’s team, currently in 10th place and 12 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, must effectively win the Europa League if they are to play European football next season.

Fans who are dissatisfied with Kroenkes have someone to rally behind.

Analysis by Sky Sports News reporter Kaveh Solhekol:

“The skeptics said this was a publicity stunt. The cynics said there was no way this would happen. Well, we’ve now heard from the captain himself. Daniel Ek has made it clear that he is very serious about buying Arsenal , he has secured the funds. We know Arsenal is worth at least £ 2bn which would suggest that he has managed to raise this type of funding to advance this proposed deal.

“He describes it as a very compelling, thoughtful offer and says to the Kroenkes, ‘Please listen to me, I’ll make this offer in the next few days, it will be presented to you and then it’s up to you to decide. He knows already that the Kroenkes have said that Arsenal is not for sale. This is no surprise, of course no one will come out and tell their Premier League club what it’s worth. Billions of pounds are for sale. But in business, like our colleagues at CNBC stressed everything has a price.

“If he can get the Kroenkes to sell, he’ll be ready to move in and buy Arsenal. In the long term, I find it interesting that he himself said he was prepared for a long journey. be rejected, he expects the Kroenke’s to tell him that the club is not for sale. But now he will always be in the background. We know he’s a real fan, he’s been a fan for 30 years. We know now he’s close to Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira. He has the legends on board, and those fans who are dissatisfied with the Kroenkes now have someone to rally behind. “

Read more stories from Sky Sports

How could Ek fund Arsenal’s takeover bid?

Sky News business host Ian King tells Sky Sports News:

“I think he was pretty measured, to be honest. He answered all the questions they asked him about Arsenal. What I took away from is that he said, ‘I don’t expect this to be anything is what it is. ” done overnight. “He’s not going to try to rush his fences on that note.

Arsenal Bosnian defender Sead Kolasinac (R) was born in Germany and plays the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester United on March 10, 2019 at the Emirates Stadium in London.

Ben Stansall | AFP | Getty Images

“Many questions arise from the interview he gave to CNBC. One of them is that he received the funding, where he got it from and, if successful, what assets the funding would have, for example in his stake in Spotify secure?

“His fortune has actually been misreported in the last few days. I mean the exact detail is that he owns 8 percent of Spotify, and currently Spotify shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are actually down 10 percent this afternoon. That Corporate Now it’s worth around $ 50 billion, so he owns 8 percent of the $ 50 billion – roughly $ 4 billion, to be precise. Now we don’t know if he has any excess cash.

“Don’t forget that a lot of Arsenal fans keep their fingers crossed and hope to see the Kroenke. Keep in mind, however, that you’ve seen other football club takeovers – especially when the Glazer family bought Manchester United – a lot of it was debt financed, they didn’t raise a lot of equity to buy this business and accordingly much of it was backed up against the club’s assets and debt servicing was a tremendous burden, a tremendous outflow over the years in Manchester United’s coffers. “

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Business

For the Financial system, the Current Doesn’t Matter. It’s All In regards to the Close to Future.

For the Economy, the Present Doesn’t Matter. It’s All About the Near Future.

It is generally considered bad journalistic practice to start an article this way, but it has to be said: the new job numbers that the Department of Labor released on Friday morning don’t matter.

These numbers can sometimes be unimportant as any economic report is only part of the story and is subject to error rates and future revisions.

But in this case, it’s more than that. This job report doesn’t matter because the economy is at an important turning point. What matters is not what has happened in the last few weeks, but where things will end in a few weeks.

The report that 379,000 jobs were created in February and the unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent is good news. It’s a better result than January and better than forecasters expected.

But the economy is still in a deep hole, with nine million fewer jobs than a year ago, or around 12 million fewer than where we would be if employment growth had continued before the pandemic last year.

Think of a simple model of today’s economy as follows: A huge, complicated assembly line was shut down for a year and is now coming back online. Different stations on the assembly line come back at different speeds. The number of end products currently rolling off the line is less important than the details of the progress (or not) all of these various stations are making towards full capacity.

In normal times, the total employment growth reported on Friday would be a blockbuster number. However, continuing to create jobs at this rate would still mean a two-year return to pre-pandemic employment levels. The question is whether job creation will accelerate in the coming months as more Americans get vaccinated and return to normal behavior, especially when it comes to travel and entertainment.

A worrying sign of the new employment figures: State and local governments appear to be cutting jobs en masse. They cut a total of 83,000 jobs, around 69,000 of them in the education sector.

Will many of these jobs return when schools are at full capacity by fall? The Senate Biden Pandemic bailout plan provides for $ 130 billion to reopen schools safely and another $ 350 billion to support broader state and local budgets. If that money proves appropriate for the job, the February downsizing could turn out to be a temporary slip up.

Updated

March 5, 2021, 7:20 p.m. ET

In February, some of the sectors most directly affected by the pandemic saw huge job gains, particularly a 355,000 increase in leisure and hospitality jobs, largely related to restaurant jobs.

That’s good news, but restaurant employment is still 16 percent below last February’s level, a two million job hole. Widespread vaccination that allows people to return to restaurants safely is the only way those jobs can return.

This week’s news that Merck will help manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is bigger business for unemployed waiters and line chefs than the 286,000 bars and restaurant jobs added in February.

The longer-term effects of the crisis remain bleak. The rise in employment in February was entirely due to the layoffs – the number of these temporarily unemployed workers fell by 517,000. The number of permanent job losers remained constant at an astronomical level – 2.2 million more than a year ago.

That raises questions about which jobs destroyed during the pandemic will return. Are there certain behavior patterns and business models that have disappeared forever? And what will the people who once worked in these companies do now?

That is the hardest question for the future. It’s easy to describe the way back for jobs in schools and restaurants. However, real economic health means these 2.2 million people are returning to the ranks of the workforce too, and that could take more than just a shot in the arm.

Categories
Health

Republican senators current smaller Covid proposal

Republican senators present smaller Covid proposal

Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iran-US relations on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, the United States, on Wednesday, October 16, 2019.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – A group of 10 Republican Senators urged President Joe Biden to consider a smaller, alternative proposal for Covid-19 aid as his administration works to pass a $ 1.9 trillion package, to deal with the economic consequences caused by the pandemic.

In a letter to Biden on Sunday, Sens. Susan Collins from Maine, Mitt Romney from Utah, Rob Portman from Ohio, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and five other lawmakers said they would announce their legislative proposals on Monday.

“We recognize your demands for unity and would like to work in good faith with your administration to meet the health, economic and social challenges of the Covid crisis,” wrote the senators.

“We believe that with your support, Congress can once again work out a relief package that will provide meaningful and effective relief to the American people and get us on the road to recovery,” the group wrote, asking to meet with Biden on the subject to discuss the proposed law in detail.

The senators said their version of the Covid relief package is “providing more targeted assistance” to Americans in greatest need. The proposed legislation provides a total of $ 160 billion for vaccine development and distribution, testing and tracking, treatment, and other vital supplies.

The senators set the following details of their plan:

  • An additional round of economic impact payments for families in need of help most, including their dependent children and adults.
  • Extends the federal government’s improved unemployment benefits to the current level.
  • Funds food aid entirely to help families in trouble.
  • Additional resources to support small businesses and their employees through the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program.
  • Funds funds for the safe opening of schools and for childcare.
  • Dedicated $ 4 billion to strengthen behavioral health and substance abuse services.

On Sunday, Portman told CNN’s State of the Union that the proposal would be a leaner version of what was put forward by the Biden administration.

“It would be less than $ 1.9 [trillion] Because a lot of what the government has planned has nothing to do with Covid-19, “Portman said.” As an example of the direct payments, we think they should be much more targeted, “he added.

Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, told MSNBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that the White House had received the letter and was open to discussing the proposed legislation.

“The president has said repeatedly that he is open to ideas wherever they may come to improve the approach to actually dealing with this crisis. What he is uncompromising is the need to quickly take a comprehensive approach here,” Deese said .

“We have been working with members of Congress from both parties and in both Houses for the past week or two. We will continue to do so,” he added.

Deese also told CNN’s State of the Union that the government was ready to negotiate the stimulus checks.

CNBC’s Tucker Higgins and Emma Newburger contributed to this report from New York.