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Our briefing for Friday, January 7, 2022:
Jan 7, 2022 2:51:29 PM
- In the United States, experts are recommending that adolescents aged 12 and older should get a vaccine booster as soon as they become available. If approved, boosters will be offered to teens aged 12 to 15 that have received both doses of an approved vaccine starting five months after their second shot. Studies have shown that a third dose will – at least temporarily – increase the antibodies to levels high enough to fight off infection from Covid-19, including the Omicron variant. However, the Omicron variant is still more capable than previous variants at bypassing the immunities built up from the vaccines. Currently, only the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is being considered for use on children, and in the coming weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will make a final decision on whether children aged 12 and older will be eligible to receive a booster. If approved by the CDC, nearly 5 million adolescents in the United States will immediately be eligible for a third dose.
- In the Canadian province of Ontario, people who have tested positive for Covid-19 can now leave isolation earlier than the 5 days previously recommended by health authorities provided that they have had two negative tests within 24 and 48 hours. People who have received two negative tests in the aforementioned time period will be able to resume normal activities as long as they are not showing any remaining symptoms. The province is expecting that the demand for rapid tests will reach 18 million per week as the Omicron variant continues to spread. According to officials, the federal government is expected to send 54 million tests to Ontario for the month of January, with province itself purchasing another 84 million tests. On Thursday, the province recorded roughly 13,000 new cases of Covid-19 and has 2,279 people in hospital, 319 of those are in intensive care units.
- In the U.K. over 200 military personnel, including 40 medics were deployed to London hospitals as the Omicron variant continues to surge throughout the country. The military reinforcements were called in to deal with hospitals struggling to deliver vital care amid widespread staffing shortages caused by workers isolating due to symptoms from Covid-19. Health Secretary Sajid Javid noted Friday that hospitalizations are rising dramatically, and that the NHS is facing a “rocky few weeks ahead,” with nearly 40,000 NHS workers absent from hospitals across the country. Wales’ first minister, Mark Drakeford, has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of exacerbating the situation by easing travel restrictions and failing to implement stricter lockdown measures. "The one country that stands up as not taking action to protect its population is England," said the first minister. "In England, we have a government that is politically paralyzed with a prime minister is unable to secure an agreement through his cabinet to take the actions that his advisors have been telling him ought to be taken."
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the new IHU variant, first found in France by researchers are the University Hospital Institute (IHU) in Marseille, will be categorized as a “variant under monitoring.” The new variant, also known as B.1.640, is of lowest concern compared to the other categories used by the WHO for classifying severity, which are “variant of interest,” and “variant of concern.” Currently, the Delta and Omicron variants are both classified under “variant of concern.” According to researchers in France, the IHU was found in 12 people at approximately the same time as the Omicron variant was discovered in South Africa. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead with the World Health Organization said that “Within France, less than one per cent of the samples that were sequenced … are of this particular variant.” As the Omicron variant swept rapidly across the globe, the IHU remained largely dormant. “It’s important that we track this, particularly because of the number of the mutations it has,” says Van Kerkhove, “but it isn’t circulating widely at the moment.”
- Chinese government officials in the eastern metropolis of Zhengzhou, known to locals as IPhone City due to the presence of Apple manufacturer Foxxcon Technologies, are requiring that every resident be tested for Covid-19 due to outbreaks in similar tech hubs across the country. Along with the hundreds of thousands of workers at Foxxconn, Huawei Techonologies is also implementing mandatory testing for all their employees in nearby Dongguan. The city of Shenzhen has discouraged anyone from leaving the city after several cases were reported early Friday morning. Those who are required to leave the city must provide a negative Covid-19 test to authorities. China’s National Health Commission reported 116 domestically transmitted cases of the virus on Friday and despite the flare-ups, government officials remain committed to China’s Covid Zero policy. “Though we might expect more cases to keep coming, the risk of a substantial rebound in the outbreak has been largely contained,” said Li Qun, an official with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Bitcoin price tumbles and 'no signs of a decisive reversal in sight,' hedge fund risk manager says
Brief: Crypto investors have cashed out over $135 billion from the asset class so far in 2022, according to Coinmarketcap market cap data, and bitcoin (BTC-USD) is down around 7% year-to-date and hovering around $43,000 as of Thursday at 10 AM ET. "There are no signs of a decisive reversal in sight," Mikkel Morch, executive director at digital assets hedge fund Ark36, told Yahoo Finance when asked about the largest cryptocurrency's recent price action relative to its drawdown over the past two months. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies began tumbling after the publication of notes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting. Following the broader stock market down, especially technology growth stocks captured on the Nasdaq-100 (NDX). Morch added that similarities between the current price movement and those witnessed in mid-May and August suggest reasons for "cautious optimism in the medium term."
RBC asks employees to keep working remotely amid Omicron surge
Brief: Royal Bank of Canada has advised all employees in regions including Ontario and Quebec to work remotely if their jobs allow, following advice from these provincial governments, a spokesperson said in a statement late on Wednesday. Royal Bank, unlike some rivals, did not provide a firm return-to-office date, and leaders had encouraged employees to work from home in December, according to the emailed statement. In the past week, both Ontario and Quebec announced renewed restrictions amid a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. Royal Bank, Canada’s biggest bank by market value, joins all its major rivals in keeping employees at home. In December, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada, as well as insurer Manulife Financial Corp, all halted plans to bring employees back to their work locations in early 2022.
Cloud stocks are off to a brutal start to 2022 as investors sour on pandemic’s top performers
Brief: Cloud software has been one of the best bets for investors over the past half decade. But that trade has rapidly unwound of late. The slump, which started in November and deepened this week, is part market rotation, part economy reopening from the pandemic, and part concern that the Federal Reserve’s expected interest rate hikes will have an outsized impact on this particular sector. For years, cloud computing services were some of the top gainers in technology, which itself outperformed the broader market. Since Bessemer Venture Partners created the BVP Cloud Index of publicly traded companies in August 2013, the basket is up 909%, almost triple the gains in the Nasdaq and five times better than the performance of the S&P 500. Covid-19 proved to be a massive boon, as companies, schools and government agencies sped their transition to the cloud so they could access remote communications, collaboration and storage tools.
BofA to Keep Remote Work Through at Least Second Week of January
Brief: Bank Of America Corp. is pushing back its return to office another week as it monitors the surge in Covid-19 cases. The company encouraged U.S. employees to work remotely through the week starting Jan. 10 as the bank evaluates its next move, according to an internal memo sent Thursday. The firm had earlier advised workers to stay home through at least this week. In its memo, the bank also continued to encourage staff to get fully vaccinated and receive booster shots, stopping short of implementing a full mandate. Contents of the memo were confirmed by a representative of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America.
Shell reclaims Footsie top spot knocking Covid vaccine maker Astrazeneca off its perch
Brief: Shell has overtaken Covid vaccine maker Astrazeneca to become the biggest company on the FTSE 100. The oil giant was worth £132billion last night while the pharmaceuticals titan was valued at £131billion. It marks a return to the top spot for Shell which was for years the biggest company on the Footsie before the pandemic struck. Astrazeneca, which developed a Covid jab with Oxford University, knocked Shell off its perch in May 2020 after strict lockdowns sent oil prices plummeting and plunged the energy company into crisis. Consumer goods giant Unilever – whose brands include Domestos, Hellmann’s and Ben and Jerry’s – also spent some time as the biggest listed company in Britain. But as the oil price bounced back following the rollout of vaccines and reopening of economies, so too have Shell’s fortunes. Shell’s return to the top comes after the company ditched its dual-listed status, abandoning the Netherlands in favour of London.
