World Coronavirus Dispatch: What do we know about booster shots so far?

Japan looks to debut vaccine passport this summer, China's cautious consumers offer vital clues on post-Covid world and other pandemic-related news across the globe

China’s cautious consumers offer clues on post-pandemic world

Consumers in China remained cautious even though the Covid-19 outbreak has been under control for much of the past year. That’s offering clues for the kind of spending patterns that emerge globally once pent up demand fades. While China didn’t pump up consumers with stimulus checks, its aggressive control over the virus allowed the economy to quickly re-open and drive real household income growth to 13.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Yet the consumer recovery has been weaker than expected with economists identifying two major reasons: an unequal distribution of savings from the pandemic and lingering virus worries that’s prompted more conservative habits and has lowered spending on services. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 173,315,599

Global deaths: 3,729,410

Vaccine doses administered: 2,109,878,745

Nations with most cases: US (33,362,629), India (28,909,975), Brazil (16,947,062), France (5,774,361), Turkey (5,287,980).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Booster shots for Covid. But when? and which ones?

Scientists are asking a lot of questions about coronavirus booster shots, but they don’t yet have many answers. The US recently has begun a new clinical trial of people fully vaccinated — with any authorized vaccine — to see whether a booster of the Moderna shot will increase their antibodies and prolong protection against getting infected with the virus. No one is sure how exactly the vaccine immunity lasts, and that makes it even more important to further push for studies on booster shots. Here's what scientists know so far... Read here

Japan looks to debut vaccine passport this summer

Japan intends to issue coronavirus vaccination certificates this summer to vaccinated residents traveling abroad, hoping to give business travel and other economic activities a boost, according to a report in the Nikkei. Such so-called vaccine passports are gaining use around the world. The European Union will adopt them in July ahead of lifting restrictions on travel within the bloc. Japan has lagged other developed nations in vaccinations, but now is procuring and distributing more doses made by Pfizer and Moderna. The country has been inoculating residents 65 and older since April, and vaccinations in corporate workplaces will start on June 21. Read here

Climate crisis to shrink G7 economies twice as much as Covid: research

G7 countries, that are world's biggest industrial economies, will shrink by twice as much as they did during the coronavirus if they fail to tackle rising threat of climate change, according to a new research. The G7 countries will lose 8.5 per cent of GDP a year, or nearly $5 trillion wiped off their economies, within 30 years if temperatures rise by 2.6 C, as they are likely to on the basis of government pledges and policies around the world, according to research from Oxfam and the Swiss Re Institute. Read here