Bloomberg
Dubai Business Improves; BioNTech’s Singapore Site: Virus Update
(Bloomberg) — BioNTech SE selected Singapore as its Southeast Asia headquarters and could have an operational production facility in the city as early as 2023.Earlier, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. said it will set up a joint venture with BioNTech to produce the latter’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccine in China, a sign that the highly effective inoculation is moving closer to getting approved for general use in the country.Business activity in Dubai improved while India’s capital New Delhi extended its lockdown for another week.Key DevelopmentsGlobal Tracker: Cases total 157.9 million; deaths exceed 3.28 millionVaccine Tracker: More than 1.29 billion doses have been givenUnused shots pile up as mistrust blights Hong Kong vaccine drivePentagon presses on with Covid plan to speed cash to contractorsTokyo gives a taste of what Covid era Olympic games will be likeSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.Japan, Chugai Make Deal on Supply of Regeneron (2:38 p.m. HK)Chugai says Japan has agreed to secure the cocktail of casirivimab and imdevimab, being evaluated as a potential treatment for Covid-19, for domestic use in 2021 if it’s approved by the Japanese regulatory authority. A Phase I clinical trial in Japan began in March of this year.Thailand Death Toll Tops 400 (2:07 p.m. HK)Deaths in Thailand from Covid-19 surpassed 400 on Monday. A 25-week pregnant Thai woman became the first person in the country to be diagnosed with the Indian variant of the virus.The nation’s Covid-19 panel will hold a meeting to discuss measures to tackle the Indian variant, according to Apisamai Srirangsan, a Covid-19 center spokeswoman. There were 1,630 new infections and 22 deaths, which took the total infections and fatalities to 85,005 and 421, respectively. More than half of the total infections and deaths are from a new outbreak which began in April.BioNTech to Build Vaccine Facility in Singapore (1:41 p.m. HK)The German vaccine developer selected the city-state as its Southeast Asia headquarters and first Asia-Pacific hub. BioNTech’s manufacturing site will support global supply of mRNA-based vaccines, the company said in a statement. The plan is a boon for Singapore’s long-term strategy to build out next-generation sectors of its economy, including biopharmaceuticals.Read more here.Dubai Business Activity Improves (1:23 p.m. HK)Business activity in Dubai rose to the highest level since late 2019 after a rebound in tourism and a fast distribution of coronavirus vaccines.The private sector, excluding oil, grew for a fifth-straight month in April, according to IHS Markit. Its Purchasing Managers’ Index for the Middle East’s main business hub rose to 53.5 from 51 in March, staying above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction and signaling significant economic expansion.India Daily Death Toll Dips Slightly (12:18 p.m. HK)India added 366,161 more cases Monday, lower than the 400,000-odd numbers it reported Sunday. Numbers on Monday typically tend to be lower than usual because of a dip in testing across the country during the weekend. The data tends to rebound starting Wednesday. India also reported 3,754 deaths Monday, taking the total death toll in the country to 246,116.More than two thirds of states are shut if assessed by their contribution to national output, analysts at Jefferies calculated last week. Tamil Nadu, which houses foreign manufacturers including BMW and Dell, will also close from Monday, while Delhi extended its lockdown for another week. The restrictions had been set to end Monday after being extended several times already.India is testing and vaccinating its citizens at a lower rate compared with recent months. Cases have risen 3.6 times in the last one month and deaths 6.3 times, while testing has increased only 1.5 times and daily vaccine doses fallen 38%, Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, wrote on Twitter.Singapore to Widen Testing (11:20 a.m. HK)Singapore will test thousands of people for Covid-19 as the number of infections unlinked to current virus clusters continued to rise over the weekend. An additional 10 Covid-19 cases were reported by the country’s health ministry late on Sunday. Separately, four individuals are connected to an earlier cluster at Changi Airport and three are related to the cluster at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.Read more here.IOC President to Visit Japan (10:47 a.m. HK)The International Olympic Committee is making arrangements for President Thomas Bach to travel to Japan in June, FNN reported, without saying where it got the information. Bach’s visit scheduled for May 17 has been canceled as a result of the extension of a state emergency covering Tokyo and other areas where the coronavirus outbreak is spreading.BioNTech’s China Venture (9:01 a.m. HK)Shanghai Fosun said on Sunday it will set up a 50:50 joint venture with BioNTech to produce mRNA Covid-19 vaccine in China. Both companies have committed up to $100 million investment through cash, production facilities and technologies. Fosun will set up a production facility capable of making 1 billion doses of the vaccine, according to the company’s filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.The Shanghai-based drug company struck a deal in March 2020 to license and develop the Covid shot in the Greater China region that includes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, while Pfizer Inc. later agreed to co-develop and commercialize it in the rest of the world. The vaccine is now being reviewed by Chinese drug regulator. Fosun Pharmaceutical shares rose as much as 23% in Hong Kong.Virus Causing Spread of Fungal Infection (8:05 a.m. HK)Coronavirus is causing the spread of a deadly fungal infection called mucormycosis across the western state of Maharashtra, the Times of India reported. Hospitals in Mumbai, which are treating dozens of such patients, are facing a shortage of anti-fungal medicines. The infection can also lead to blindness. The fungal infection usually sets in two to three weeks after treatment for covid and was mostly found in patients who already suffer from diabetes and then got affected by Covid-19.Bolsonaro Leads Mother’s Day Parade Maskless (7:02 a.m. HK)A maskless President Jair Bolsonaro led a Mother’s Day motorcycle parade on Sunday as Brazil added almost 39,000 Covid-19 cases. Deaths increased by 1,024 to 422,340 in the latest daily count, according to Health Ministry data.The ministry will begin distributing 1.12 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine Monday. The latest batch brings Brazil’s distribution to about 75.4 million doses and more than 46.8 million shots administered.England Set to Allow Indoor Mixing (5:56 p.m. NY)Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the next stage of lockdown easing in England will go ahead on May 17 as planned, as the Covid-19 infection rate reaches its lowest level since September.People will be allowed to stay overnight with friends or relations, and indoor hospitality will be reopened. The government said last week limited international travel will also resume then.U.S. Hospitalizations Reach Seven-Month Low (3:15 p.m. NY)The share of U.S. hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients fell to 5.37%, the lowest since Oct. 5, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.Michigan had the biggest percentage of beds occupied by Covid patients at 13.3% followed by Maryland at 10.8%, according to the latest HHS data, which reflect the situation on Thursday. Florida had 3,504 hospitalized Covid patients, the most of any state, followed by Texas with 3,080.Iran Sets Vaccination Goal (12:57 p.m. NY)President Hassan Rouhani said some 13 million people in Iran, about 15% of the population, will be vaccinated against the coronavirus by July 22, as the country tries to combat the Middle East’s worst outbreak.Rouhani said he expects all people in high-risk groups to receive at least their first dose by that date, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported, adding that two domestically developed shots will be ready for mass use by June.Third of U.K. Adults Fully Vaccinated (12:34 p.m.)More than a third of the United Kingdom’s adult population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and two-thirds of adults have received a first shot. The U.K. has now administered more than 53 million doses of coronavirus vaccines. The success of the vaccine rollout, coupled with strict lockdown measures that are now being eased, has led to a plunge in new cases and deaths. Health authorities on Sunday reported just two daily deaths from the virus in all of the U.K.Spain Celebrates (11:03 a.m. NY)Spaniards broke out in spontaneous celebration at midnight, after a national state of emergency that included curfews from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. in most of Spain ended at midnight. In the capital of Madrid alone, the police intervened in more than 450 incidents, the Associated Press reported, as hundreds of people, mostly youth, took to the main plazas and streets in several large cities.”Freedom doesn’t involve holding booze parties in the street because street drinking is not allowed in the city of Madrid,” Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said Sunday.Restrictions were eased on restaurants, travel between regions, and on social gatherings.Fauci Says U.S. Deaths Undercounted (10 a.m. NY)There’s “no doubt” the U.S. has undercounted its number of deaths from Covid-19, which now stand at over 581,000, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser said.But Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a University of Washington analysis published May 6 that the true toll is probably over 900,000 is “a bit more than I would have thought.”U.S. Adds Fewer Than 35,000 Cases (8 a.m. NY)The U.S. added fewer than 35,000 cases on Saturday, sending the seven-day rolling average of new infections to the lowest since the end of September. While reporting often lags on weekends, the data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg is the latest sign that the pandemic in America is easing.Another 625 people nationwide died of Covid-19, bringing the toll to more than 581,000 since the outbreak began. Detroit and New York City had the most deaths per capita among major metro areas in the week through Wednesday, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report dated May 6.EU Hasn’t Renewed Astra Contract (7:15 a.m. NY)The European Union hasn’t renewed its contract for vaccines from AstraZeneca Plc, Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton said Sunday on France Inter radio.The bloc started legal proceedings against the company over shortfalls last month. Breton also said the region is pushing for the establishment of vaccine factories in Africa, which is just as important as the question of intellectual property protections covering the technology.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.(C)2021 Bloomberg L.P.
