Coronavirus living briefing
In this living briefing, we’re looking at how Covid-19 is affecting major aspects of the global economy. You can expect something new every business day and recent updates since your last visit are highlighted for easy skimming.
India’s crisis
- India’s oxygen crisis is deepening with each passing day.
- Hospital beds are in desperately short supply.
- Vaccines are scarce.
- There is no official lockdown, but India is suffering the consequences of restrictions anyway.
- Bad loans, largely caused by growing unemployment, are hitting the banking system hard.
- Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute, India’s primary vaccine maker, fled to London.
The international community is trying to help India. Here’s a list of countries that have pledged support.
In April 2020, India’s manufacturing and services sectors recorded the sharpest contraction among the world’s top 10 economies. In August, its manufacturing sector grew for the first time in five months.
Vaccination
In April, the US, EU, and South Africa suspended the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. US data suggest a one-in-a-million chance of blood clots, which is twice as unlikely as a lightning strike.
In March, China’s CanSino Biologics began trials for an inhaled version of a Covid vaccine, while Pfizer tested an oral antiviral drug similar to those used against HIV and hepatitis C.
- High-risk healthcare workers and White House staffers were among the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs in the US. Vaccinated people can gather indoors, the CDC said in March.
- Older adults, frontline health workers, and nursing home staff are the top priorities in the UK, which has beaten vaccine schedules and promised to offer all adults a shot by July 31.
- The coordinated effort to immunize 450 million people across the EU began on Dec. 26. But bureaucracy and a substantial amount of vaccine skepticism delayed and damaged Europe’s vaccine rollout.
- Brazil began vaccinations on Jan. 18
- India began its rollout on Jan. 16 and got off to a slow start. It will rely on some of the lowest-paid workers in its healthcare system.
- South Africa halted its AstraZeneca rollout on Feb. 8, despite the WHO’s assertion that it is effective. But it since approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
- ��Chile has a highly efficient vaccine program, the best in Latin America.
EU: Pfizer-BioNTech; Moderna; Astra-Zeneca/Oxford; Johnson & Johnson
The virus
In March 2021, the WHO published its Covid-19 origins report. The “most likely” explanation was animal-to-human transmission in China; a lab leak was considered “extremely unlikely.” Meanwhile, major economic powers demanded a new investigation.
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