World Dispatch: China's vulnerability to 'second wave' of Covid infections

Trump's change in tone to Tokyo cases, and other pandemic-related news from across the globe

New infections in China liked to Covid-19 strain from some other place: A strain of Covid-19 that has infected more than 300 people in Beijing since early June could have originated in South or Southeast Asia, according to a study by Harvard University. The outbreak in Beijing has raised concerns about China’s vulnerability to a “second wave” of infections. The virus found in Beijing cases is an imported strain of Covid-19. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics

Total Confirmed Cases: 1,06,94,288


Change Over Yesterday: 3,91,421


Total Deaths: 5,16,210


Total Recovered: 54,80,642

Nations hit with most cases: US (26,86,480), Brazil (14,48,753), Russia (6,53,479), India (6,04,641) and UK (3,14,992)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center 

UK will ditch travel quarantine for 75 countries: UK would shortly lift a ban on non-essential travel to nearly all EU destinations, the British territories including Bermuda and Gibraltar, and Turkey, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. People arriving from these places would not be subject to 14-day quarantine. Read more here 
 

Goldman Sachs sees oil demand returning to pre-coronavirus levels by 2022: Goldman Sachs said a pick-up in commuting, a shift to private transportation and government efforts to improve economies should help global oil demand. Demand is expected to fall by 8 percent this year, before rebounding 6 percent in 2021 and fully recovering to pre-pandemic levels by 2022. Read more here

Tokyo reports 107 cases, highest in two months: Tokyo was reported to have 107 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the most since early May. The figure is the highest since May 2, when the city was still in the midst of its state of emergency. The Japanese capital has reported more than 50 cases every day for the past week. Read more here

Temasek delays annual report, citing pandemic: Singapore’s state-owned investor Temasek has made the rare decision to delay its annual report until September, blaming Covid-19 for hampering the global flow of financial information. The company, which managed $224.6 billion as of March 2019, was set to release the report this month. Read more here 

Global tourism industry loss pegged $1.2 trillion: The losses, equal to 1.5 percent of the world economy, could balloon to $3.3 trillion if the hit to international leisure travel persists until March 2021, with the harshest effects afflicting developing and island nations, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Read more here

American Airlines to offer voluntary retirement: American Airlines told flight attendants it has as many as 8,000 more of them than it needs, and said it would offer more leave programs and a voluntary separation package to try to minimize the need for furloughs. Read more here 

Specials

'I'm all for masks,' says Trump in change of tone 

US President Donald Trump, long opposed to wearing a face covering in public, says he is "all for masks" and they make him look like the Lone Ranger. Trump also maintained that face coverings do not need to become mandatory to curb Covid-19's spread. He again predicted the infection would "disappear," as the US hit a new record high of 52,000 virus cases in a day. Read more here

Watch

3 Researchers Break Down Covid-19 Vaccines They're Developing

Wired magazine talks to three Covid-19 vaccine researchers who are developing three different types of vaccines. Traditionally, vaccines are created by using a weakened or dead version of the virus and injecting that into the body. Many of these developing coronavirus vaccines are using new technologies. See it here
 

Analysis


The next wave: Japan and Asian neighbours walk Covid 'tightrope'

Across Asia and beyond, many share fears of new waves of infections as economies restart and governments gingerly reopen borders. Seoul, Beijing and, indeed, Tokyo have seen infection numbers jump soon after relaxing restrictions. Some countries, like Indonesia, are eager to open up even before halting their first wave. In the hard-hit U.S., some states are freezing or reversing their reopenings. In many ways, the real stress tests are still to come. Check it here.