World Coronavirus Dispatch: Brazil may emerge as new vaccine laboratory

South Africa lifts lockdown curbs after infections fall, fresh spike in Ireland, major study finds 3.4 mn in England had Covid-19, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Brazil may emerge as the new Covid-19 vaccine laboratory: With sustained widespread contagion, a deep bench of immunization experts, a robust medical manufacturing infrastructure and thousands of vaccine trial volunteers, Brazil has emerged as a potentially vital player in the global scramble to end the pandemic. Three of the most promising and advanced vaccine studies in the world are relying on scientists and volunteers in Brazil. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics: 



Total Confirmed Cases: 21,462,593


Change Over Yesterday: 299,246


Total Deaths: 771,114


Total Recovered: 13,449,639

Nations hit with most cases: US (5,361,302), Brazil (3,317,096), India (2,589,682), Russia (915,808) and South Africa (583,653)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

South Africa lifts lockdown restrictions after Covid-19 infections fall: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday that all indications were that South Africa had reached the peak of Covid-19 infections, as he announced a sweeping removal of lockdown restrictions on the economy. Ban of restaurants and inter-state travel will be lifted. Read more here

Fresh Covid-19 spike in Ireland: Ireland reported 200 new cases arising from multiple clusters across the country on Saturday, the highest daily amount since the beginning of May that the country’s chief medical officer described as “deeply concerning”. Ireland has reopened its economy at a slower pace than most EU countries but that did not stop a rise in cases. Read more here

Major antibody study finds 3.4 million in England had Covid-19: Around 3.4 million people in England – 6 per cent of the population -- have contracted coronavirus, with infection rates twice as high in London. A mass survey of more than 100,000 people suggested the extent of the outbreak varied widely between different areas and population groups. Read more here

US retail sales slow in July; obstacles mount for nascent economic recovery: Despite the moderation in retail sales reported by Commerce Department on Friday, sales have recouped losses suffered when businesses were shuttered. The third straight monthly gain lifted retail sales to their highest level since the government started tracking the series in 1992. Read more here
 

Nordic children return to school despite rising virus rates: Denmark and Norway were in April the first countries in Europe to reopen schools after the start of the pandemic, but they did so gradually, bringing back different classes and increasing class sizes over a number of weeks. Now, they are set to open schools at the same time just as Covid-19 cases begin to rise in all the Nordic countries, especially among younger people. Read more here

Specials

Disney CEO is using Covid-19 crisis to transform the company much faster than expected
 

When Walt Disney announced that it had closed more than 20 foreign TV channels last week, CEO Bob Chapek looked like he was taking the knife to a big chunk of the company’s international audience. The move would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But Chapek -- less than six months after succeeding longtime CEO Bob Iger -- is using the Covid-19 crisis to transform Disney much faster than expected, all with an eye toward making the company an online juggernaut that reaches far more people worldwide. Besides scrapping the networks, he shut down a musical version of the animated film “Frozen” that opened with much fanfare on Broadway two years ago, closed a chain of English-language schools in China, and scaled back a $1 billion resort-technology project that has largely been replaced by a simple mobile-phone app. Read more here

It’s time for a more nuanced discussion about the timing of a coronavirus vaccine and what happens when it arrives:
 Bloomberg Businessweek assesses the biggest challenges in the global hunt, from the patent race to anti-vaxxers. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte expects to be inoculated with Russia’s controversial, unproven vaccine, while the best hope for mass production may come from a manufacturer in India. For now, infection flare-ups from Australia to Japan show that isolation is probably the only sure way to stop a resurgence. Read here 
 

Leisure: Shhh! We’re Heading Off on Vacation
 

Sharing vacation adventures used to be fun. But during the pandemic, some travellers are content to let the tree fall in the forest, so to speak, without a single soul to hear it. Read the story here