23rd Nov 2021 https://nfind.uk/lockdown_exit/index.php/newsletter=545 lockdown_exit

Lockdown Exit

The Associated Press More than 90 of federal workers received at least one dose of a COVID19 vaccine by Mondays deadline set by President Joe Biden. Biden announced in September that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to undergo vaccination with no option to get regularly tested instead unless they secured an approved medical or religious exemption. A U.S. official said the vast majority of federal workers are fully vaccinated and that a smaller number have pending or approved exceptions to the mandate. In all more than 95 of federal workers are in compliance with the Biden mandate the official said either by being vaccinated or having requested an exemption. Workers who are not in compliance are set to begin a counseling process that could ultimately result in their termination if they dont get a shot or secure an approved exception to vaccination. https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-2e0a1fd3f4669e87540f09b3cd6b137d 23rd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters Canada is ending its pandemicera policy of turning back asylumseekers trying to cross into the country between ports of entry according to a revised policy document released on Sunday. Canada turned at least 544 wouldbe refugees back to the Unites States between March 2020 and midOctober. The government did not immediately respond to questions regarding why it was ending the policy now and what if any quarantine rules would apply to asylumseekers who are not vaccinated. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-ends-covid-19-policy-turning-back-asylum-seekers-between-border-crossings-2021-11-22/ 23rd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters Israel began rolling out PfizerBioNtech COVID19 vaccinations for 5 to 11yearolds on Monday hoping to beat down a recent rise in coronavirus infections. A fourth wave of infections that hit Israel in June began subsiding in September. But over the past two weeks the R or reproduction rate of the virus that had remained below one for two months began climbing and has now crossed that threshold indicating the virus could again be spreading exponentially. Daily cases have also crept up over the past few days with half the confirmed infections presently among children age 11 and younger. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-starts-vaccinating-young-children-coronavirus-rises-2021-11-22/ 23rd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC and the State Department on Monday advised against travel to Germany and Denmark because of a rising number of COVID19 cases in those countries. The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to Level Four Very High for the two European countries telling Americans they should avoid travel there while the State Department issued parallel Do Not Travel advisories for both countries. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-raises-covid-19-travel-warning-germany-denmark-2021-11-22/ 23rd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters An experimental chewing gum containing a protein that traps coronavirus particles could limit the amount of virus in saliva and help curb transmission when infected people are talking breathing or coughing researchers believe. The gum contains copies of the ACE2 protein found on cell surfaces which the virus uses as a gateway to break into cells and infect them. In testtube experiments using saliva and swab samples from infected individuals virus particles attached themselves to the ACE2 receptors in the chewing gum. As a result the viral load in the samples fell by more than 95 the research team from the University of Pennsylvania reported in Molecular Therapy. The gum feels and tastes like conventional chewing gum can be stored for years at normal temperatures and chewing it does not damage the ACE2 protein molecules the researchers said. Using gum to reduce viral loads in saliva they suggest would add to the benefit of vaccines and would be particularly useful in countries where vaccines are not yet available or affordable. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/experimental-chewing-gum-may-reduce-virus-spread-booster-shot-protection-may-be-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters The White House confirmed Monday that more than 90 of 3.5 million federal employees covered by a presidential COVID19 vaccine mandate have received at least one vaccine dose ahead of a Monday deadline. In total the administration has deemed 95 of federal workers comply with its requirements in that either they have been vaccinated are completing vaccinations or have a pending religious or medical exemption request the White House said. Officials declined to disclose to Reuters the total number of fully vaccinated federal employees but said the vast majority of the 90 have received both doses. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/90-us-federal-employees-have-received-least-one-covid-19-dose-officials-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters Tanya Primiani will host 12 people around a long Thanksgiving table in her Silver Spring Maryland home on Thursday a boisterous scene she looks forward to welcoming after the COVID19 pandemic limited the size of last years gathering. Her parents are coming from Montreal driving across the recently reopened U.S.Canada border. Her sons ages 7 and 10 have gotten their first round of COVID19 vaccinations and all the other guests are fully vaccinated against the virus https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-families-plan-big-holiday-celebrations-with-covid-19-shots-arms-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters New Zealand will adopt a new system of living with the coronavirus virus from Dec. 3 which will end tough restrictions and allow businesses to operate in its biggest city Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. New Zealand remained largely COVID19 free until August but has been unable to beat an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant forcing Ardern to abandon an elimination strategy and switch to treating the virus as endemic. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/new-zealand-end-tough-covid-curbs-adopt-new-virus-fighting-system-next-week-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Lockdown Exit

Reuters The European Commission aims to harmonize the duration of the validity of the COVID19 vaccination certificate including the effects of booster shots Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Monday amid record infection numbers in some EU states. I fully agree with the urgency and this is why the European Commission is working with the utmost urgency to strengthen the coordination of free movement including the length of validity and the role of boosters in the vaccination campaign she told European lawmakers in Strasbourg https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-wants-harmonize-validity-period-vaccination-certificate-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

The Age Victoria has recorded 1029 new coronavirus cases and three deaths as the state closes in on its 90 per cent doubledosed vaccination target and the Andrews government looks set to scrape together enough support to pass its controversial proposed pandemic legislation. The figures bring Victorias total number of active COVID19 cases to 9533. The 10 local government areas with the most new cases were Wyndham Melton Casey Hume Greater Dandenong Whittlesea Brimbank Glen Eira Moreland and the Mornington Peninsula. There are 316 people in the states hospitals with the virus 98 in intensive care and 23 on a ventilator. Fiftyfour people in ICU have been cleared of the virus. The people who died were aged in their 70s 80s and 90s. Their deaths bring the total number of lives lost in Victoria since the pandemic began to 1280. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-closes-in-on-90-per-cent-vaccination-target-as-state-records-1029-new-covid-19-cases-three-deaths-20211122-p59ats.html 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

Evening Standard A health chief has called for the jabs race to be supercharged to get more people protected against Covid19 as bookings for boosters were opened to those in their forties. Dr Vin Diwakar medical director for the NHS in London issued the appeal as official figures showed there have been 18049 confirmed coronavirus cases in the capital in just four days. There were 4536 announced yesterday and it is the first time since late July when daily totals have risen above 4000 for four consecutive days. More than 1489000 Londoners have already had a booster or third jab for some vulnerable groups with uptake understood to be particularly high among people in their seventies and even higher among care home staff. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/covid-booster-vaccine-jab-nhs-london-vin-diwakar-case-rate-b967551.html 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

BBC News Kenyans will be barred from bars restaurants and public transport from 21 December if they are not fully vaccinated against Covid19 Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe says. The measures are aimed at increasing the rate of vaccinations ahead of the festive season. Less than 10 of the population is currently vaccinated about 6.4 million people. This gives more 20 million adults in Kenya just a month to get vaccinated. The AstraZenaca vaccines is the most commonly used vaccine in Kenya and the two doses required to be fully vaccinated are supposed to be given at least six weeks apart. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59367726 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

Reuters Fifteen medical and human rights groups are urging U.S. President Joe Biden to get personally engaged in a longrunning fight to enact an intellectual property waiver for COVID19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization calling his leadership a moral necessity. Amnesty International Doctors without Borders Human Rights Watch Public Citizen and 11 other groups told Biden in a letter that an emergency waiver was urgently needed to combat the pandemic noting that fewer than 7 of people in lowincome countries had received a first COVID19 shot and vaccines remained scarce. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/activists-urge-biden-push-intellectual-property-waiver-covid-19-vaccines-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin has been revaccinated against COVID19 Russian news agencies quoted him as saying on Sunday. Putin said in June 2021 that he had been vaccinated with Sputnik V vaccine. Today on your recommendation and that of your colleagues I got another vaccination Sputnik Light. This is called revaccination Putin said at a meeting with the deputy director of the Gamaleya Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology which developed both vaccines. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-has-been-revaccinated-against-covid-19-russian-agencies-say-2021-11-21/ 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

Reuters A Kenyan government directive that residents must show proof of COVID19 vaccination by Dec. 21 to access services was welcomed by some businesses on Monday but criticized by others who said low vaccination rates made it unrealistic. Only 8.8 of people are fully vaccinated against COVID19 in Kenya so far. Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe made the announcement on Sunday. Public services affected include schools transport services immigration and other state offices and hotels bars restaurants national parks and wildlife reserves. The government will start a 10day mass vaccination campaign on Friday Kagwe said. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenya-state-directive-will-boost-low-covid-vaccine-takeup-business-group-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Exit Strategies

Reuters People were lining up for COVID19 shots outside Budapests main hospitals on Monday as Hungary for the first time offered vaccinations without prior registration amid a surge in new infections. Europe has again become the epicentre of the pandemic accounting for half of global cases and deaths and protests turned violent in the Netherlands and Belgium over the weekend over new curbs on movement. Austria entered its fourth national lockdown on Monday after tens of thousands marched against new restrictions. Germany is debating making COVID19 vaccinations compulsory. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarians-line-up-shots-covid-surges-across-europe-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

The Associated Press Conservative Kansas legislators are trying to tamp down fears about the cost and other potential problems with their proposal to provide unemployment benefits to workers who lose their jobs for refusing COVID19 vaccines. https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-business-health-religion-eadf501664c90e87c9949d6a3adecc0f 23rd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

9News Flanked by police Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan had to be led to safety after he was subjected to a barrage of personal insults while leaving a town hall meeting yesterday. COVID19 protesters demonstrating against the vaccine surrounded the premier at an engagement in Eaton south of Perth hurling abuse and chants of dog at Mr McGowan. The premier said the protesters who claimed they were not antivaxxers but prochoice will only strengthen his resolve. Dozens of protesters waving the Australian red ensign a red version of the Australian flag adopted by antigovernment groups could be seen on video rushing towards a convoy of government cars. Yesterdays demonstrations are the latest in a spate of protests and threats targeting the premier whose office has confirmed no one was harmed in yesterdays encounter. Protesters have reportedly issued death and rape threats to Mr McGowans staff members. https://www.9news.com.au/national/covid-19-vaccine-protesters-hurl-abuse-at-wa-premier-mark-mcgowan/27120c29-f043-4ff5-83a9-4852901c6ce7 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

ABC News A fiery Northern Territory Chief Minister has accused opponents of vaccine mandates of being antivaxxers even if they have willingly received the COVID19 jab themselves. Michael Gunners comments at a press conference today are in sharp contrast to the Prime Minister who has called on state and territory governments to allow Australians to move forward with the freedoms that should be theirs. The NT which is dealing with a growing coronavirus outbreak has one of the countrys strictest vaccination mandates which has helped lift the jurisdictions doubledose rate to 81 per cent. Under the mandate most workers were required to have had at least one jab by November 12 and a second dose before Christmas. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-22/nt-covid-vaccine-mandate-opponents-anti-vaxxers-michael-gunner/100640656 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

CNN Its relentless relentless sighed nurse Claudiu Ionita standing in front of a line of gurneys in Bucharest University Hospitals morgue. On each gurney lay a body inside a black plastic bag. The morgue has a capacity for 15 bodies but on the day CNN visited it had received 41. The excess bodies filled the corridor outside while wails echoed from within the morgue. A woman had been allowed inside for a final glimpse of her father. Bucharest University Hospital is the Romanian capitals largest medical facility treating Covid19 patients and is struggling through the countrys fourth wave its worst yet. I never thought when I started this job that I would live through something like this said Ionita. I never thought such a catastrophe could happen that wed end up sending whole families to their graves. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/22/europe/romania-covid-19-vaccine-skepticism-intl-cmd/index.html 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

Reuters Police and protesters clashed in the streets of Brussels on Sunday in demonstrations over governmentimposed COVID19 restrictions with police firing water cannon and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and smoke bombs witnesses said. About 35000 people took part in demonstrations police said which began peacefully before violence broke out. Protesters wearing black hoods threw stones at police as they advanced with water cannon at the main junction in front of the European Union Commission headquarters Reuters journalists said. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/around-35000-protest-against-covid-restrictions-brussels-police-say-2021-11-21/ 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

Reuters French President Emmanuel Macron said violence in Guadeloupe over COVID19 restrictions had created a very explosive situation as a general strike entered a second week on Monday and many stores remained shuttered after nighttime looting. Hours before Macrons prime minister and lawmakers from the Caribbean archipelago were to hold crisis talks in Paris there were signs of protests spreading to Martinique another French overseas territory 190 km 120 miles south of Guadeloupe. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/paris-must-restore-calm-guadeloupe-after-protests-mayor-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

Reuters Eric Zemmour the hardright French political commentator and likely presidential candidate said on Monday that fears about the new coronavirus had been overblown. Zemmours stance contrasts with the position of governments across Europe which are reintroducing restrictions on movement to curb a fifth wave of the pandemic with Austria on Monday going into a full lockdown. We need to put this epidemic back in the right proportion. We have played a lot on peoples fears. We have gone too far and weve been going too far since the beginning Zemmour told France Info radio. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-possible-presidential-candidate-zemmour-covid-fears-are-overblown-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

Reuters Riots broke out in cities across the Netherlands on Sunday the third night in a row that police clashed with mobs of angry youths who set fires and threw rocks to protest COVID19 restrictions. Unrest was reported in locations including Leeuwarden and Groningen in the north the eastern town of Enschede and Tilburg in the south. In Enschede where an emergency ordinance was issued police used batons to try to disperse a crowd according to video on social media. In Leeuwarden police vans were pelted with rocks and blackclad groups chanted and set off flares. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-police-detain-dozens-second-night-covid-19-rioting-2021-11-21/ 22nd Nov 2021

Partisan Exits

AlJazeera Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has criticised three nights of riots over antiCOVID measures calling the unrest pure violence by idiots and vowed to prosecute those responsible. The riots in several cities around the country since Friday were violence under the guise of protest the prime minister said. He added he would always defend the right to protest but I will never accept is that idiots use pure violence against people who keep this country safe he told Dutch media. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/22/dutch-covid-riots-pure-violence-idiots-rutte 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

OPB News With COVID cases declining and the vaccine rate reaching 73 many Oregonians are wondering when they can drop their face masks. Health experts say not until early next year if not longer. The COVID19 booster is now available to all adults in Oregon. The Oregon Health Authority made the announcement Saturday a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced similar federal guidelines. The news comes after a weekslong decline in COVID cases across the state. Case numbers are about half what they were at the peak of the Delta surge in September and COVIDrelated hospitalizations are down to about 400 patients. By contrast there were 1178 COVID patients in Oregon on Sept. 1. Nonetheless state health officials say theres still a long road ahead. https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/22/oregon-covid-booster-shots-herd-immunity-winter-outlook/ 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

STAT Pfizer and BioNTech announced Monday that their Covid19 vaccine was 100 efficacious in preventing infections in 12 to 15yearolds measured from seven days to four months after administration of the second dose of the vaccine. The companies said the new data a longerterm analysis of a Phase 3 trial conducted in 2228 participants will form the basis of an application to the Food and Drug Administration for an extension of their Covid19 vaccine license to cover youths in the age group. https://www.statnews.com/2021/11/22/pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-was-100-effective-in-in-kids-in-longer-term-study/ 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

The Independent The European Medicines Agency says it is evaluating whether to authorize booster doses of Johnson Johnsons singleshot COVID19 vaccine. In a statement Monday the EU drug regulator said it was considering an application from JJ to recommend booster doses of the JJ vaccine for adults 18 and over at least two months after they were first immunized. Amid an explosive surge of new coronavirus infections across Europe the EMA said it expected to make a decision on this within weeks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to JJ booster doses in October both for people who initially received the JJ and vaccine and for people who got immunized with other vaccines. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/european-medicines-agency-amsterdam-europe-moderna-b1962154.html 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

iNews Coronavirus vaccinations may have prevented about 300000 deaths in the UK a leading scientist has claimed. Professor Sir Andrew Pollard who helped create the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine has hailed the success of the UKs vaccination programme. He told the BBCs Andrew Marr If we just look at the UK the predictions last year were that there would be between 300000 and 500000 deaths. And actually when you look at the data on lives saved so far this year were actually not far off to actually think that that is the right number that we might have been at around about 300000 deaths by now without a vaccine. He also said immunity is building in younger age groups due to high infection levels seen since the end of summer. https://i.inews.co.uk/content/uploads/2021/11/PRI_209794340-640x360.jpg 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

The Independent More than 600 babies have been born prematurely and needing critical care to mothers hospitalised by Covid19 The Independent can reveal as women are warned they are up to three times more likely to have an early birth with the virus. The figures which cover 17 months of the pandemic prompted calls for the government to make pregnant women of all ages eligible for Covid19 booster jabs. Concern about pregnant women avoiding the vaccine has pushed chief medical officer Chris Whitty to urge motherstobe to get fully jabbed with takeup rates in this group as low as 15 per cent last month. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/babies-premature-mothers-covid-hospital-b1959359.html 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc said on Monday it has licensed its algorithm for messenger RNA mRNA sequence to Sanofi SA for use in designing vaccine and therapeutic products entering its first such commercial deal with a major global drugmaker. Sanofi had been one of the worlds biggest vaccine makers before the pandemic but the French firm was beaten by rivals BioNTech Pfizer and Moderna in developing mRNA shots against COVID19. read more Sanofi stopped trials of its own mRNA COVID19 shot in September and is instead focusing on efforts with GlaxoSmithKline to bring another COVID19 vaccine candidate to market based on the more conventional proteinbased approach. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/baidu-partnership-with-sanofi-use-its-algorithm-mrna-vaccine-therapy-development-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters Germany will promote Moderna for Germans seeking booster shots as high demand for the BioNTechPfizer vaccine risks depleting stocks and derailing efforts to tame a fourth wave of the pandemic Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday. Spahn warned during a news conference that some 16 million Moderna doses could expire in the first quarter of next year if unused adding that some experts see Moderna as the RollsRoyce of vaccines with BioNTech the Mercedes. Unfortunately the impression is we will insist on Moderna only to avoid the expiry of those vaccines in the first quarter of 2022 said Spahn. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-has-enough-mrna-shots-meet-vaccine-demand-spahn-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters Pfizer Inc said on Monday its COVID19 vaccine provided strong longterm protection against the virus in a latestage study conducted among adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. A twodose series of the vaccine was 100 effective against COVID19 measured seven days through over four months after the second dose the company said. The longterm data will support planned submissions for fullregulatory approval of the vaccine in the age group in the United States and worldwide. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-shows-long-term-efficacy-trial-adolescents-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters The European Unions drug regulator said on Monday it was evaluating data on booster doses of the COVID19 vaccine by Johnson Johnson JNJ.N following an application and a decision could come within weeks under a speedy review. The approval sought is for use of a booster dose of the singleshot vaccine COVID19 Vaccine Janssen to be given at least two months after the first dose to people aged 18 years and older the European Medicines Agency EMA said. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/eu-says-decision-jj-covid-19-vaccine-booster-dose-within-weeks-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Scientific Viewpoint

The Associated Press Cadell Walker rushed to get her 9yearold daughter Solome vaccinated against COVID19 not just to protect her but to help stop the coronavirus from spreading and spawning even more dangerous variants. Love thy neighbor is something that we really do believe and we want to be good community members and want to model that thinking for our daughter said the 40yearold Louisville mom who recently took Solome to a local middle school for her shot. The only way to really beat COVID is for all of us collectively to work together for the greater good. Scientists agree. Each infection whether in an adult in Yemen or a kid in Kentucky gives the virus another opportunity to mutate. Protecting a new large chunk of the population anywhere in the world limits those opportunities. https://apnews.com/article/how0covid-shots-for-kids-prevent-variants-0dd394ddd053e0efb3f3137dba2ad470 22nd Nov 2021

Coronavirus Resurgence

POLITICO.eu Germans will be vaccinated cured or dead by the end of this winter Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday as he rushed out extra doses of the coronavirus jab from BioNTech and Pfizer to inject into the arms of the onethird of people in the country who are still not vaccinated. Germany is experiencing record COVID19 caseloads in the current fourth wave of the pandemic putting hospital intensive care units under increasing strain with unvaccinated patients far more likely to become critically ill. Probably by the end of this winter pretty much everyone in Germany as has sometimes been cynically put will be vaccinated cured or dead Spahn told a hastily arranged press conference in his starkest warning to date of the risks of holding out against vaccination. But this really is the case With the very contagious Delta variant it is very very likely ... that anyone who is not vaccinated will over the next few months become infected and lack protection. https://www.politico.eu/article/jens-spahn-germany-biontech-pfizer-covid-19-vaccination/ 22nd Nov 2021

Coronavirus Resurgence

CNN Its relentless relentless sighed nurse Claudiu Ionita standing in front of a line of gurneys in Bucharest University Hospitals morgue. On each gurney lay a body inside a black plastic bag. The morgue has a capacity for 15 bodies but on the day CNN visited it had received 41. The excess bodies filled the corridor outside while wails echoed from within the morgue. A woman had been allowed inside for a final glimpse of her father. Bucharest University Hospital is the Romanian capitals largest medical facility treating Covid19 patients and is struggling through the countrys fourth wave its worst yet. I never thought when I started this job that I would live through something like this said Ionita. I never thought such a catastrophe could happen that wed end up sending whole families to their graves. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/22/europe/romania-covid-19-vaccine-skepticism-intl-cmd/index.html 22nd Nov 2021

Coronavirus Resurgence

The Independent Cases of Covid19 are rising across the United States as the holiday season approaches with many people planning a return to traditional Thanksgiving gatherings. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC the sevenday rolling average number of daily new cases has risen to 88482. That is a 16.1 per cent increase from the average of 76223 reported last week. The total number of US Covid cases since the start of the pandemic is now more than 47.3 million. Some 196 million in the US are now vaccinated. The latest figures are a marked improvement on November 2020 when more than 160000 cases were reported every day. A further 34.5 million Americans have received a booster shot. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/covid-cases-thanksgiving-vaccines-advice-b1961813.html 22nd Nov 2021

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters A return to stricter COVID19 curbs in Singapore will be a last resort Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday as the citystate partially eased limits on social gatherings and dining out under its calibrated reopening approach. Ong also said the international travel and tourism hub would continue to open travel lanes with more countries for vaccinated visitors. Singapore is gradually granting small groups of vaccinated people increased liberties resuming inperson business events and permitting quarantinefree travel from select countries as it ramps up its vaccine booster programme. I feel its important to do it this way because it minimizes the chance of us having to backpedal too frequently Ong told Reuters in an interview on Monday for the upcoming Reuters Next conference. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-health-minister-says-return-strict-covid-19-curbs-last-resort-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters The United Kingdom reported 40004 confirmed new cases of COVID19 on Sunday taking the sevenday total to 287205 a 9.4 rise over the previous sevenday period official daily data showed. The data also showed 61 new deaths from the virus as measured in deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported on Sunday raising the sevenday toll to 1029 a 5.9 drop compared with the previous seven days. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/uk-reports-40004-new-covid-19-cases-61-deaths-daily-data-2021-11-21/ 22nd Nov 2021

New Lockdown

Aljazeera.com The German health minister has warned citizens that they would be either vaccinated cured or dead from COVID19 by the end of winter as several European countries impose restrictions amid surging infections. Probably by the end of this winter as is sometimes cynically said pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated cured or dead Jens Spahn said as he urged more Germans to get the jab. As intensive care beds fill up fast Germanys worsthit regions have ordered new shutdowns including the closure of Christmas markets. In regions with high hospitalisation rates the unvaccinated will be barred from public spaces like cinemas gyms and indoor dining. Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Germanys current COVID restrictions including barring the unvaccinated from certain public spaces are not enough. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/22/austria-re-enters-covid-19-lockdown-as-cases-soar-anew-in-europe 22nd Nov 2021

New Lockdown

Reuters Austria became on Monday the first country in western Europe to reimpose lockdown since vaccines were rolled out shutting nonessential shops bars and cafes as surging caseloads raised the spectre of a second straight winter in deep freeze for the continent. Germany will also need tighter restrictions to control a recordsetting wave of infections outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying remarks that erased gains on European stock markets and sent bond yields down. With Europe once again the epicentre of the global pandemic that first prompted lockdowns in March 2020 new restrictions and vaccine mandates are expected to spread nearly two years after the first COVID19 case was identified in China. https://www.reuters.com/markets/stocks/austria-enters-fourth-lockdown-covid-cases-soar-anew-europe-2021-11-22/ 22nd Nov 2021