Covid-19 Pandemic: Live Updates and News for January 31, 2021

Photographer: Sarah Silbiger / Bloomberg

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The Western Australian city of Perth will lock up after a worker at a quarantine hotel in the city tested positive, while reports in Hong Kong say the government could impose further small locks. South Korea has extended social distance measures by another two weeks.

From Tuesday, travelers will be in the US mandatory to wear masks, including on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride stocks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced. Coronavirus infections in the US continued a downward trend, with 162,390 new cases added on Friday.

Important developments:

• Global Tracker: business exceeds 102.5 million; deaths pass 2.2 million
• Vaccine detection: More than 94.4 million shots are given worldwide
• Faced with a vaccination emergency, the EU has a enemy of all
• Covid mutations undermines optimism, even as more vaccines close
• Computers elderly people are pushed aside in the vaccination race
• How vaccine nationalism flares up due to scarce stocks: Quick recording

Sign in to a daily update of the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis Team here. Click on CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.

South Korea expands social distance (15:28 HK)

South Korea will limits the social distance constraints imposed during the worst coronavirus spread, by another two weeks, after new infections re-emerged last week and reversed a downward trend. There were still 355 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country on Saturday with six new deaths.

Australia’s Perth go into a week-long lockout (12:54 HK)

The Australian city of Perth, Western Australia, will go into “complete exclusion” for five days tonight after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for what the authorities believe could be the highly transferable British variant of Covid-19.

The lock puts up a home order, locks schools, pubs and churches, bans visitors to households and makes masks mandatory if they leave the house for essential reasons. There has been no case of community transfer in the state around Perth in almost ten months.

State Prime Minister Mark McGowan announced at a press conference on Sunday the exclusion and details of the positive case, explaining that the hotel security guard worked at a hotel with four positive Covid-19 cases last week. McGowan said he had spoken to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other Australian leaders and urged them to stop traveling to the remote state.

More exclusions possible for Hong Kong (12.13 pm HK)

There could be more closures in Hong Kong soon, General Secretary Matthew Cheung was quoted as saying by local media RTHK on Sunday. Cheung said the government’s goal is to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases to zero and that it may launch different operations to conduct mandatory tests in the future.

Hong Kong has introduced stricter measures to curb the spread of the virus. Recently it was imposed short-term closures in small parts of the city and compulsory testing of all residents done.

Australia resumes green zone flights from New Zealand (10:15 am HK)

The Australian Minister of Health has said the green zone flights from New Zealand will resume this afternoon. The program of quarantine-free arrivals from New Zealand was suspended last week following a case of the South African variant of Covid-19 in Auckland.

The governments of both countries are working to get a two-way travel bubble off the ground this year, even as New Zealand plans to keep the border closed for most of the world during most of 2021.

Protesters disrupt LA vaccination yard (09:40 HK)

Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, turned into one of the nation’s largest vaccination rooms this month a city official closed for almost an hour at 1:50 p.m. local time due to a protest against vaccination.

The protest was peaceful, according to the police department.

The rally took place when the Greater Los Angeles area reported its highest daily death rates in about three weeks. LA County reported 316 new deaths, bringing the total to 16,647. Business rose 6,918 to 1.1 million. LA and the rest of California will ease the curb and will allow for outdoor dining and may resume some businesses.

According to the Department of Health, California has exceeded the 40,000 death toll for Covid-19 deaths, adding 638 deaths and 18,427 new cases. website. The state alone recorded more than 14,000 deaths in January alone.

Growing number of UK businesses go bankrupt (08:08 HK)

The number of UK listed companies at risk of insolvency doubles because restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus will continue to devastate the economy.

The UK will have to stay in the lock until the end of May, in the best case that vaccines are 85% effective in stopping the transmission of the virus, reports the Daily Telegraph citing an article from the University of Warwick.

The paper was commissioned by the government’s Sage Committee and was seen by the prime minister’s office. It also suggests that if Boris Johnson relaxed the closure measures in mid-February – when the government will review the deployment of the vaccine – a third increase in infections and deaths would occur in April.

The UK reported 23,275 new cases on Saturday, more than 3,500 less than the average of the previous seven days and 30% lower than a week ago. Another 1,200 people died within 28 days after a positive test, in line with the weekly average. More than 8.37 million people received their first vaccination.

Brazil outbreak shows signs of slowdown (17:19 NY)

According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil’s second wave slowed as new cases and deaths slowed over the past week. data.

The country reported 58,462 cases on Saturday, ending the second week with a decline in new infections. Yet the case load is almost as high as the peak of the first wave last summer. The total infections are about 8 million. Deaths have declined compared to the previous week, with 1,279 new deaths reported on Saturday. Brazil has the most deaths after the US, with a total of 223,945.

Brazil will receive from 10 million to as many as 14 million doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines from the international consortium Covax from mid-February, the Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

France affairs rise slightly (14:38 NY)

France reported 24,392 new cases, a slight increase from the previous day, and another 242 deaths due to virus-related diseases. Total deaths are 75,862. It comes a day after the French government said it was giving itself a ‘chance’ to avoid a third exclusion by rather closing its borders to travelers outside the European Union and closing large shopping malls. close.

Emmanuel Macron on Saturday insisted on a shared responsibility to stay away from stricter measures. “I believe in us,” the French president said in a tweet. “Let’s do everything we can to stop the epidemic.”

Portugal still keeps ICU patients on track (9:35 AM NY)