Tag: South

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Business

South Carolina detects first-known U.S. case

South Carolina detects first-known U.S. case

Health care workers at the Medical University of South Carolina will conduct free Covid-19 tests at a location in a parking lot between Edmund’s Oast and Butcher & Bee restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina, USA on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

Micah Green | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The first US Covid-19 cases of a new, highly contagious strain of the virus, first found in South Africa, were discovered in South Carolina, the state’s Department of Health said Thursday.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said the strain known as B.1.351 was found in two adults who had not previously traveled or connected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told South Carolina health officials late Wednesday that a sample tested at LabCorp was variant B.1.351, the health department said Thursday.

The state health laboratory later identified “a separate case of the same variant” in a sample tested Monday, the South Carolina Department of Health said in a statement. While the burden appears to be highly transferable, it doesn’t appear to make people sick, the health department said.

“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder for all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, the division’s interim director, in a statement.

Mutant strains of the coronavirus have migrated to the United States in the past few weeks. Minnesota health officials on Monday identified the first US case of a similar variant, first discovered in Brazil. The US has also identified more than 300 cases with another strain, first found in the UK and known as B.1.1.7, according to recent data from the CDC.

The appearance of these new strains did not surprise the scientists. The US is quickly trying to step up its surveillance efforts to track through genomic sequencing the new strains that may come from abroad or “may come from our own country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the CDC, last week.

“CDC is early in its efforts to understand this variant and will continue to provide updates as we learn more,” the health department said in a statement. “The CDC’s recommendations to slow the spread – wearing masks, staying at least 3 meters away from others, avoiding crowds, ventilating indoor spaces, and washing hands frequently – also prevent this variant from spreading.”

Both strains of the virus found in the UK and South Africa have similar mutations, but experts say they evolved separately. While it’s no surprise that the virus is mutating, researchers are quick to figure out what the changes could mean for recently developed life-saving vaccines and treatments for the disease.

The B.1.351 strain appears to be more problematic than the variant found in the UK, said White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Wednesday. Fauci said during a press conference that the antibodies induced by the vaccine may be less effective in combating this strain, although “it still sits well in its protective cushion”.

Early results, which were published on the preprint server bioRxiv and have not yet been peer-reviewed, indicate that variant B.1.351 can evade the antibodies of some coronavirus treatments and reduce the effectiveness of the current range of available vaccines. On Monday, Moderna said his vaccine may be less effective against strain B.1.351 and that he was developing a so-called booster shot to protect this variant “out of caution”.

Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that the new mRNA technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines – the only two to have received emergency approval to date – this can be easy to tweak to target the variants.

These booster vaccinations would not have to go through the rigorous phase three clinical trials, which involved thousands of participants, he added.

“You don’t have to do a 30,000 person process or a 40,000 person process,” said Fauci. “You work with the FDA and can bridge information from one study to the next. The bottom line is that we’re already at it.”

“Fueling Africa’s Second Wave”

The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that more contagious variants of Covid-19 are “fueling the second wave of Africa” ​​and that the variant first identified in South Africa “prevails and delivers record numbers in South Africa and the sub-region”.

According to the WHO, the B.1.351 strain has now been identified in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, the French region of Mayotte, Zambia and 24 other non-African countries. As of Monday, coronavirus infections in the region have risen 50% since December 29, compared to the last four weeks, according to the WHO. The number of deaths from Covid-19 has also increased, roughly doubling over the same period.

WHO said it is working with the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to set up laboratories for surveillance efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

The United Nations Health Department said each country should send at least 20 samples to the labs to “reflect the rapidly evolving situation and best target responses at all levels”.

“The variant that was first discovered in South Africa has quickly spread beyond Africa. So what keeps me awake at night is that it is very likely to be around a number of African countries,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement.

– CNBC’s Will Feuer contributed to this report.

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Business

Moderna engaged on booster pictures for South African pressure

Moderna working on booster shots for South African strain

Moderna said Monday it was speeding up work on a Covid-19 booster shot to protect against the recently discovered variant in South Africa.

The researchers said that the current coronavirus vaccine appears to work against the two highly communicable strains found in the UK and South Africa, although it may be less effective against the latter.

The two-dose vaccine produced an antibody response against several variants, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, which were first identified in the UK and South Africa, respectively. This was the result of a Moderna study carried out in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The vaccine produced a weaker immune response against the South African tribe, but the antibodies remained above levels expected to protect against the virus, the company said, adding that the results may indicate a “potential risk of previous weight loss of immunity to the new “indicate B.1.351 strains.

“Out of caution and taking advantage of the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are bringing an ambitious variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa to the clinic in order to determine whether it is more effective to increase the titre against it.” these and possibly future variants, “said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in a statement.

Moderna shares rose nearly 4% in premarket trading after the announcement.

Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, said he was glad Moderna is preparing for the possibility that the virus could mutate enough to evade the protection of current vaccines.

“This is not yet a problem,” said Offit, also a member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products. “Prepare for it. Sequencing these viruses. Be ready in case a variant appears that is resistance to the vaccine.”

On Thursday, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, new data showed that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. Some early results posted on the bioRxiv preprint server indicate that the South African variant can evade the antibodies of some coronavirus treatments.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna’s vaccine for people aged 18 and over in December.

Moderna’s vaccine, like Pfizer’s, uses messenger RNA or mRNA technology. It’s a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to trigger an immune response. Late-stage clinical trial data released in November shows that Moderna Covid’s vaccine is more than 94% effective at preventing, safe and appearing to ward off serious illness. For maximum effectiveness, the vaccine requires two doses four weeks apart.

Bancel told CNBC that Moderna’s vaccine will protect against the South African tribe in the short term, but the company doesn’t know how long that protection could last.

“What is currently unknown is what will happen in six months, twelve months, especially in the elderly because, as you know, they have weaker immune systems,” he said during an interview with Squawk Box. “Because of this unknown … we decided, out of caution, to bring a new vaccine to the clinic.”

“We cannot lag behind. We cannot fall behind this virus,” he said, adding that the virus “will continue to mutate”.

–CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.

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Health

Biden to limit journey with South Africa, U.Okay., Brazil to sluggish new Covid strains

Biden to restrict travel with South Africa, U.K., Brazil to slow new Covid strains

On January 22, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signs Executive Orders for economic relief for families and businesses affected by Covid in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC.

Nicholas Comb | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will sign a travel ban on Monday for most non-U.S. Citizens entering the country that was recently in South Africa, where a new strain of Covid-19 was identified, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC .

Biden will also reintroduce travel restrictions on entry for non-US residents from the UK and Brazil, where new strains of Covid have emerged. The restrictions also apply to Ireland and much of Europe. Former President Donald Trump lifted the restrictions shortly before Biden took office.

Reuters reported on the travel restrictions for the first time on Sunday.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant chief director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the point of sale that the agency “is introducing this series of measures to protect Americans and also reduce the risk of these variants spreading and worsening the current pandemic.” . “

Before Biden took office, the new White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Trump’s efforts to lift international travel restrictions despite more contagious variants emerging around the world.

“We plan to step up public health measures related to international travel to further contain the spread of Covid-19,” Psaki wrote in a tweet.

Trump issued a proclamation last Monday to lift the travel restrictions his administration had put in place at the start of the pandemic for most non-US citizens living in much of Europe, the UK and Brazil as of January 26.

At that time, the US government will begin providing US air travelers, including US citizens, with the latest negative Covid-19 test results before boarding flights.

White House Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that available vaccines against new, more contagious strains of Covid-19 appear to be less effective but likely still offer enough protection to be worth buying.

The CDC also announced on Sunday that it would remove the option for airlines flying from countries that do not have Covid-19 tests to request temporary exemptions for some travelers. The agency will implement the order on Tuesday.

The virus has infected more than 25 million people and killed at least 417,000 people in the United States since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US has not yet discovered any cases of the South African variant, but several states have discovered the British variant.

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Business

Jay Y. Lee, Chief of South Korea’s Samsung Empire, Is Despatched to Jail

Jay Y. Lee, Chief of South Korea's Samsung Empire, Is Sent to Prison

SEOUL, South Korea – The Seoul Supreme Court sentenced Samsung’s top leader Lee Jae-yong to two and a half years in prison on Monday for bribing former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Mr. Lee’s case can still go to the Supreme Court if either Mr. Lee or the prosecution wants to take it there. In South Korea, the Supreme Court can either approve a lower court ruling on a case or send it back for retrial. It cannot override the judgment of a lower court.

When Mr. Lee’s case first reached the Supreme Court in 2019, the court returned it to the Seoul Supreme Court for retrial, stating that it had the amount of bribes Mr. Lee gave to Ms. Park and her secret confidante Choi Soon- paid, underestimated. sil while Mrs. Park was in power. The amount was supposed to be 8.6 billion won ($ 7.8 million), not 3.6 billion as the lower court found.

In its ruling on Monday, the Seoul Supreme Court accepted 8.6 billion won as the correct amount as instructed by the Supreme Court. The decision to do so meant that it was far from settled, that the Supreme Court would approve the verdict should the case end there again.

Mr. Lee has already spent a year in prison after being arrested in 2017 in connection with the prosecutor’s bribery case. He is now expected to spend only a year and a half in prison, which takes away the day-to-day running of one of the world’s most valuable technology giants.

After the court issued its verdict on Monday, Mr. Lee was immediately arrested in the courtroom so that he could serve his time.

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Business

Covid variant present in South Africa ‘might evade’ Eli Lilly’s antibody drug: CEO

Covid variant found in South Africa ‘could evade’ Eli Lilly's antibody drug: CEO

Dave Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly, told CNBC on Tuesday that he expected the company’s Covid-19 antibody drug to be effective against the variant of coronavirus found in the UK

However, he said the exposure observed in South Africa is likely to be more of a challenge.

“The South African variant … is cause for concern. It has more dramatic mutations to the spike protein that these antibody drugs target,” Ricks told Squawk Box. “In theory, it could evade our drugs.”

Eli Lilly’s antibody drug was approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration in November. The drug is aimed at people recently diagnosed with Covid-19 in hopes of preventing the need for hospitalization. Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody treatment, which President Donald Trump received after contracting the disease, has also received limited approval from the FDA.

According to Ricks, Eli Lilly wants to work with the FDA to quickly test different versions of antibodies to see if they are against virus variants like the one in South Africa.

“We actually have a large library of these antibodies now that are pre-clinical,” said Ricks. “We could think of a very expedited way to study them in a month or two and then approve their use. That seems like a smart thing because this virus is mutating.”

Discovery of variants

Coronavirus variants originally found in the UK and South Africa have received significant attention in recent weeks. They are believed to be more transmissible – but not more deadly – than previous tribes. Even so, a more contagious virus that leads to more infections could continue to weigh on healthcare systems and lead to more deaths.

The discovery of these mutations also coincides with the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines from drug companies such as Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna. It has led to some questions about whether the vaccines – along with treatments for the disease – would keep their effectiveness.

In a CNBC interview on Monday, Dr. Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, confident that his vaccine, manufactured in partnership with Pfizer, will work against the strains of the virus found in the UK and South Africa.

Daniel O’Day, CEO of Gilead Sciences, told CNBC it was testing its remdesivir treatment against these new strains, but said Monday the antiviral drug would likely be effective. Antiviral drugs like remdesivir try to prevent the virus from replicating. In contrast, antibodies like Eli Lillys bind to the virus present in the body and try to neutralize it.

There have been no confirmed cases of the variant, which was first discovered in South Africa in America, but according to the Wall Street Journal, it was discovered in countries like Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been around 70 confirmed cases of the coronavirus variant in the US that were originally found in the UK.

“It seems clear that Lilly’s single antibody, and likely Regeneron’s cocktail, will stop this as well as the normal variant,” said Ricks of the UK-affiliated tribe. “We haven’t done a clinical study of this effect, but we do have pre-clinical data that strongly suggests that it won’t be a problem.”

Use of antibody therapies

After the FDA approved emergency use for their antibody therapies to Eli Lilly and later Regeneron, problems arose with actually delivering the drug, which requires an intravenous infusion, to Covid patients. In mid-December, CNBC reported that between 5% and 20% of the doses delivered had been administered.

That number is “climbing” now, Ricks said on Monday. He pointed to Alabama as a state where the antibodies are widespread. Alabama “basically runs out and refills every week,” he said.

“There are quite a few” from state to state, Ricks admitted. “We want all states to learn from these practices and really be able to use this medicine, as the benefit is that patients, especially seniors, are kept out of the hospital. We know if you are a senior and have Covid-19 and end up in a hospital hospital bed, the prospects are not good. “

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Politics

Pete Buttigieg donors scored contracts from South Bend when he was mayor

Pete Buttigieg donors scored contracts from South Bend when he was mayor

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s candidate for Secretary of Transportation, reacts to his nomination as Biden looks on during a press conference on December 16, 2020 at Biden’s interim headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA .

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden’s election as Secretary of Transportation and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, received presidential campaign donations from executives of companies that had public works contracts with the city while he was running it.

A CNBC review of dozens of the city’s infrastructure contracts during his second term as mayor from 2016-2020 shows that under Buttigieg, some of the city’s spending went to contractors who would later become donors to his presidential campaign, which he launched in 2019.

If approved by the US Senate, Buttigieg, as head of the Department of Transportation, would be responsible for driving the incoming administration’s infrastructure proposals forward.

Buttigieg is 38 years old and is considered a rising star in the National Democratic Party. His role as transport secretary could strengthen him if he aspires to a higher office again.

Several of the contractors produced new roads, bridges and buildings for the city. South Bend’s latest budget is over $ 350 million. The Department of Transportation will start the new year with a budget of over $ 80 billion. Buttigieg proposed a $ 1 trillion infrastructure plan when he ran for president.

Data from the bipartisan Center for Responsive Politics shows Buttigieg raised nearly $ 100 million during his presidential campaign. About $ 2 million came from real estate donors.

A report from the Center for Public Integrity and progressive media company The Young Turks shows that Buttigieg received similar contributions from city entrepreneurs when he first ran for mayor in 2011. In this case, potential contractors gave something to his political organization, and they then received funding agreements from the city after submitting competitive bids. These offers were then approved by the Public Works Authority.

The Buttigieg team answers

After CNBC finalized most of the contracts and resulting contributions to the Biden transition team, a Buttigieg spokesperson sent CNBC a detailed response. The representative declined to be included in this story.

The spokesman said Buttigieg was not involved in the projects while noting that the companies did business with the city before Buttigieg became mayor. The spokesman also said leaders have run other Democratic presidential campaigns in the past, including Bidens, Hillary Clintons and Barack Obamas. Some also gave up to Republicans.

“Pete avoided delving into who got those contracts for that very reason. And I’d also like to point out that on Pete’s first day as mayor, he put in place a code of ethics and signed a responsible bidder regulation in 2018 to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are preserved efficiently spent by responsible contractors, “said the Buttigieg spokesman.

The spokesman noted that Buttigieg signed an executive order in 2012 that stipulated that any government employee, including himself, would not knowingly solicit or receive gifts or favors from any person who has a business relationship or seeks business from a city authority.

“You link to contracts that have been approved by the Board of Public Works, which meets in public, does its business in public and approves those contracts through an open and transparent procurement process that goes through a bidding process, and as I said earlier – has little involvement from the mayor, “said the representative.

CNBC provided the City of South Bend with details of most of the contracts approved by the Board of Public Works and the executives who later contributed to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. A spokesman defended the company.

“Each of these firms is highly regarded and has a local reputation for providing quality services to the city and residents of South Bend,” Mayor’s press secretary Caleb Bauer told CNBC. “Each of these contracts also went through a professional procurement process, which is public and transparent, before being approved by the public works agency, which is governed by state law.”

Still, some Democrats expect Republicans to make a big deal out of the contributions Buttigieg has received from contractors.

“He’s been charged with conflicts of interest, and if the Republicans hold the Senate, he’s going to go through a very, very tough ratification process,” said veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf.

Companies and contracts

In 2017, construction company Walsh & Kelly signed a $ 600,000 contract with South Bend for a future Courtyard Marriott hotel. Two years later, the company received contracts valued at just over $ 2.4 million from South Bend. The hotel opened in 2018.

Walsh & Kelly President Kevin Kelly contributed $ 2,700 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, according to CRP data. This is almost the maximum contribution a person can legally make to a campaign.

Walsh & Kelly did not return comments-seeking calls.

Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott, gave Buttigieg’s campaign the maximum amount of $ 2,800, records show.

A Marriott spokeswoman defended Sorenson’s donation to Buttigieg’s political organization.

“Arne Sorenson personally supported Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign because his wife and children were inspired by his campaign,” Elynsey Price, a spokesman for the hotel chain, told CNBC. “Whatever was going on near or in relation to the South Bend hotels would have been the responsibility of our franchisees or owners, not Marriott.”

South Bend real estate development firm JSK Hospitality closed one of its largest deals in 2018 when a subsidiary of the company bought the former College Football Hall of Fame building in town for over $ 525,000, according to the South Bend Tribune. The CEO, AJ Patel, gave $ 1,000 to the Buttigieg campaign. The Courtyard Marriott is part of the company’s hotel portfolio.

CNBC was unable to leave a message on JSK Hospitality’s general voicemail box on Tuesday because the voicemail was full. The same was true of Patel’s line. Instead, CNBC left a message for the company’s CFO, who didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, the city reached an agreement with Epoch Architecture to build a new fire station in South Bend. The company agreed to make payments from the city of over $ 280,000 for the project. The director of the engineering and architecture firm, Kyle Copelin, later gave $ 500 to the Buttigieg campaign, records show.

Copelin did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, the city signed at least three contracts with Jones Petrie Rafinski, an architecture and engineering firm with offices in South Bend. The company had over $ 200,000 worth of business with the city that year. Two years later, the company’s vice president David Rafinski donated $ 500 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. His company also had other contracts with South Bend in 2019.

Rafinski told CNBC that he has no interaction with Buttigieg’s executive team while his company works for South Bend.

“We have been a customer of South Bend since Pete was in high school,” said Rafinski. “The work we do is done through the Board of Public Works. We had no interaction with Pete at all with our work. It was all through the Board of Public Works.” Rafinski said he supported Buttigieg’s presidential campaign because he believed the former mayor’s “compassion” was needed in national politics.

South Bend also signed a consultancy agreement with the Canadian company Stantec in 2017. The order was valued at over $ 105,000. The agreement with the design and engineering firm appeared to go through the nearby Chicago offices. Later, Michael Toolis, who is a Stantec vice president according to LinkedIn, gave $ 2,000 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. Toolis was once employed by VOA Associates, a Midwestern design firm that previously worked at the University of Notre Dame. VOA was taken over by Stantec in 2016.

“The company does not allow political contributions to candidates on its behalf,” Stantec spokeswoman Laura Leopold replied in a one-line email to questions from CNBC.

American Structurepoint, an engineering firm headquartered in Indianapolis, won at least seven $ 300,000 contracts in 2018 for consulting and other services for South Bend. Greg Henneke, the senior executive vice president, gave Buttigieg’s presidential campaign $ 2,700 a year later.

Both Stantec and American Structurepoint had contracts with the city in 2019.

An American Structurepoint spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

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World News

Covid resurgence in Japan, South Korea may hit Asia’s financial restoration

Covid resurgence in Japan, South Korea could hit Asia's economic recovery

Snow falls as people wearing face masks walk through the Asakusa district on March 29, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.

Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Towards the end of 2020, many investors are viewing Asia as the region with one of the best economic prospects for the next year as the coronavirus outbreak can be relatively better controlled.

However, a recent surge in Covid cases in some countries threatens to dampen the region’s economic outlook, some analysts have warned.

“For some of the Asian giants, this year’s problems with Covid-19 are unlikely to get better when the clock strikes 12 noon on New Year’s Eve,” said research firm Pantheon Macroeconomics.

However, many parts of Asia – where the virus first appeared – remain lower than in Europe and the US, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

For some of the Asian giants, this year’s Covid-19 problems are unlikely to get better when the clock strikes 12 noon on New Year’s Eve.

But some countries are now struggling with a far worse resurgence than they did earlier in the pandemic. Even areas that have made great strides in containing the virus may not be spared. Taiwan this week reports its first locally transmitted case since April 12 – underscoring the difficulty in eradicating Covid.

Here’s a look at the Asian economies grappling with a renewed spike in coronavirus infections and how that would affect their economic prospects.

Japan

  • Covid-19 balance sheet: 207,007 cumulative confirmed cases and 2,941 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The number of daily reported coronavirus infections in Japan rose again in November and topped 3,000 for the first time last week, Hopkins data showed.

According to Reuters, medical groups in the country warned the pandemic will put a significant strain on the health system. However, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has failed to declare a state of national emergency – although he said he was suspending a travel subsidy program to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the news agency reported.

Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a Wednesday report that the Japanese government’s “relatively soft” rules on social distancing don’t appear to be working and that this could lead to tougher measures in the coming months.

“Therefore, a second and more effective nationwide state of emergency in Japan early next year cannot be ruled out,” the economists said. That would weigh on Japan’s economy in the first quarter of 2021, they added.

South Korea

  • Covid-19 Record: According to Hopkins, there were 53,533 cumulative confirmed cases and 756 deaths on Wednesday.

As in Japan, the daily incidence in South Korea reached unprecedented levels this month – above 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak.

But unlike in Japan, the government in South Korea has taken a tougher stance in response to the new wave of Covid cases.

The government on Tuesday announced a nationwide ban on gathering five or more people and ordered the closure of tourist attractions such as ski slopes and other winter sports facilities, Yonhap news agency reported.

This move, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics, would allow most of South Korea’s economic damage to be contained, for the most part, in the fourth quarter of this year.

Malaysia

  • Covid-19 balance sheet: 98,737 cumulative confirmed cases and 444 deaths on Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The Southeast Asian country kept Covid cases to a minimum before the recent surge from October, Hopkins data showed. This prompted the government to impose a new round of partial closure measures in some parts of the country.

Economists with consulting firm Capital Economics said the outlook for the Malaysian economy had become “less optimistic” this quarter, particularly in the area of ​​consumer spending.

“A second wave of the virus and the reintroduction of many restrictions on movement have reversed the sharp recovery in home consumption in the third quarter. Google’s high-frequency mobility data suggests social distancing continues to weigh on activity,” a report said Tuesday.

But the other parts of the economy – like exports – should continue to perform strongly, so the macroeconomic success of the recent resurgence is likely to be “much less” than the previous wave, the economists said.

Categories
Health

‘Every Day Is Vital’: South Korea’s 11th-Hour Battle with Covid

‘Each Day Is Critical’: South Korea’s 11th-Hour Battle with Covid

SEOUL, South Korea – Intensive care beds are unavailable in several provinces in South Korea to treat the rapidly increasing number of Covid-19 patients. As of Monday, the government confirmed that only 42 beds were available nationwide. There were just six in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to half the country’s population and the majority of recent infections. If you

The recent explosion of coronavirus cases in South Korea has put the country at risk in ways it has not seen since the pandemic began. When cases cannot be brought under control and the burden on hospitals continues to worsen, the government can, for the first time, impose Level 3 restrictions, which are the highest level of socially distant rules before a lockdown in South Korea.

In a country that was a role model for the rest of the world for most of the year, a silent fear has spread. The streets of Seoul are getting emptier every day. Supermarkets have reported brisk sales of instant noodles and meal sets. Restaurant owners are concerned that they will be forced to close their doors to customers who only order takeout.

And now the virus is even harder to contain.

“Unlike in the past, this time around, the virus seems to be popping up everywhere and no place is safe,” said Myeong Hae-kyung, a head nurse at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu who served on the front lines when the city was the epicenter of the city first coronavirus outbreak in the country earlier this year.

“In the last few days my life has only switched between hospital and home. I’m scared of going anywhere, ”she said.

This wave focuses on hospitals in South Korea. The country’s goal is to have hospital beds available to patients within one day of being diagnosed with the disease.

However, as of Sunday, 368 patients were waiting at home in the Seoul metropolitan area to be assigned to beds. Last week, a patient died at home in Seoul while waiting for a hospital bed. Another died at home in Seoul on Sunday.

The number of intensive care patients tripled this month to 274 on Monday. At the weekend, South Korea reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 patients for five consecutive days, a record.

“We must secure hospital beds for seriously ill patients as if we were waging a war,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday. “Every day is critical.”

The rise in infections has created a bottleneck as health officials struggle to allocate a limited number of beds to patients. The government has ordered state and private general hospitals to convert at least one percent of their licensed beds to treat critically ill Covid patients.

Updated

Dec. Dec. 22, 2020 at 5:18 am ET

Health officials expect the bottleneck to decrease significantly in the coming week as more beds become available. The success of the effort will help determine whether the government increases social distancing restrictions to level 3, below which more than 2 million additional businesses would close or dramatically curtail their operations.

“As you can see, people don’t come in,” said Lee Jeong-ae, a restaurant owner in north Seoul, as she pointed to empty tables in her restaurant. “People who suffer most from social distancing are small business owners like us.”

Ms. Lee sells fish soups, fried pork, and other Korean dishes. She recently began preparing for new restrictions by addressing bulk orders for plastic containers, as restaurants like hers are only allowed to sell take-away under Level 3 guidelines.

The Seoul metropolitan area is still below level 2.5, schools, gyms, karaoke rooms, bars and other high risk facilities are closed. Restaurants, cinemas, hairdressing salons and many other shops remain open but must close before 9 p.m.

As of Monday, South Korea has reported 698 deaths in 50,591 cases. The aggressive campaign to “test, track and treat” patients has kept death rates comparatively low. But epidemiologists have urged the government to put level 3 restrictions in place before it’s too late.

Unlike previous waves of the virus with large clusters that officials could target and track, the most recent wave has spread across numerous small clusters in nursing homes, churches, prisons, saunas, and small private gatherings, making it difficult to contain.

Dr. Eom Joong-sik, who treats Covid-19 patients at Gachon University’s Gil Hospital in Incheon, a populous port city west of Seoul, said the current problems were due to the government, despite its reputation as a leader in being the EU could not plan ahead pandemic.

“Experts had already warned that if there was a wave in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to half the country’s population, hospital beds could become scarce and the government would have to develop a plan for this scenario,” said Dr. Eom. “Right now, not only are we struggling to secure hospital beds in the metropolitan area, but we’re also struggling to move patients to hospitals as we see hundreds of new patients every day.”

President Moon Jae-in, proud of his administration’s strategy of keeping as much of the economy going while fighting the pandemic, was reluctant to approve Level 3. Instead, the government has stepped up its testing and isolation campaigns and gradually introduced new social distancing rules.

67,000 people were tested for the virus every day over the past week, ten times more than in October. In Seoul and the surrounding cities, the government has added 134 temporary test stations to encourage people to get free tests even when they have no symptoms, in hopes of “preventively” isolating asymptomatic cases.

As part of the government’s efforts to stop people from spreading the disease over Christmas and New Years, birthday parties and other private gatherings of five or more people will be banned in the Seoul metropolitan area from Wednesday.

An annual Christmas Eve gathering around a Christmas tree in Seoul City Hall Square has been canceled. Large churches have put up their usual Christmas decorations but appear abandoned as prayer services with more than 20 people have been banned. The United Christian Churches of Korea have urged believers to celebrate the holidays at home by sharing Christmas carols with friends on social media.

“We will prepare carefully to introduce Level 3 if necessary,” said Son Young-rae, a health ministry spokesman. “But we hope the government and the people can work together to control the wave without going there.”