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Our briefing for Monday, March 14, 2022:
Mar 14, 2022 3:43:43 PM
- In the United States, a hybrid variant known as “Deltacron” has been detected according to a new study. The study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, was co-founded by Yale University and The British Medical Journal and observed nearly 30,000 positive Covid-19 samples from U.S. individuals between November and February. Two unique cases of the Delta-Omicron hybrid were detected, though the study’s authors noted that they were rare, and that there’s no evidence of these mutations spreading faster than Omicron does. World Health Organization Covid-19 Technical Lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove explained during a media briefing that such mutations are to be expected, given the high amounts of circulation of both Omicron and Delta “This is what viruses do. They change over time,” she said.
- In Canada, two years of the pandemic have passed, and many say they are still struggling with their mental health. According to a new survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in partnership with CBC, 54% of Canadian respondents said their mental health has gotten worse over the past two years, with women ranking worse overall than men. Many are still worried about the future, with 64% responding that they are concerned about the emergence of new variants, and 57% responding that they feel Covid-19 will be circulating the population for years to come. New research from the World Health Organization coincides with the findings, that the pandemic increased worldwide levels of stress, anxiety and depression by 25%.
- In the United Kingdom, calls to offer people fourth jabs for Covid-19 are growing amidst a rise in case numbers and hospitalizations. Last month Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that immunocompromised people, those in long-term care homes and those aged 75 and over, would be offered a fourth shot beginning in April. Now scientists say because of waning immunity, ministers should consider offering fourth shots to a broader proportion of older people to try and provide better protection. Javid said Britons should brace for a rise in case numbers as restrictions have eased and more people are socializing.
- France has lifted its vaccine passport rules and mask mandates, allowing unvaccinated people back into restaurants, bars and other venues. Masks are no longer required in schools or offices, but they are still needed on public transit and in hospitals. Unvaccinated people will still need to provide a negative test or proof of recent recovery to access long-term care homes. The government first announced the decision last month, citing a fall in hospitalizations and declining case numbers. On Saturday the prime minister announced that fourth doses of coronavirus vaccine will be offered to people aged 80 and older who have had their booster at least three months ago.
- China has tightened some Covid-19 curbs as it experiences its biggest outbreak in two years. Authorities reported thousands of new coronavirus cases across dozens of mainland cities, from Shenzhen to Qingdao, the highest numbers since the big central outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020. The country has placed the major cities of Shenzhen and Changchun under lockdown and suspended public transportation as well as indoor dining. Shenzhen will conduct three rounds of mass PCR testing for all residents during the lockdown. Schools have closed in Shanghai, with authorities advising citizens not to leave the city unless absolutely necessary.
- In Australia, officials are moving the country into a new phase of “living with Covid-19” as though it were a flu, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday. Morrison told reporters that the plan is to move into “Phase D” of the national pandemic response plan. "Our airports are open again, international arrivals can come, there are waivers now on quarantine for people returning, so we are pretty much in Phase D," he said. Morrison explained that the government especially wants to do away with isolation requirements for close contacts of Covid-19 cases and will seek advice from an expert panel on it. The isolation rule is “starving businesses of staff,” Morrison said.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
U.K.’s Over 50s Were Most Likely to Quit Workforce in Pandemic
Brief: Britain’s over 50s were most likely to leave the workforce in the pandemic, suggesting most of the more than half million employees who fell out of the jobs market won’t come back. A surge in economic inactivity where people are out of work and not looking for a job is part of what’s tightened the U.K. jobs market, pushing up wages and fanning inflation. The government and Bank of England are looking for ways to loosen that pressure and halt the rise in prices across the economy that’s coming from higher wages. Findings published by the Office for National Statistics on Monday showed about 493,000 of the people that joined the rolls of the inactive since the start of 2020 were over 50, making 94.4% of the total, the ONS in a series of reports based on the labor force survey.Early in the pandemic, it was young people who fell out of the jobs market, with 229,000 becoming inactive from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2021. Since then, their inactivity rate has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels while the rate for the over 50s has grown.
War, pandemic, and inflation deal Fed a complex trifecta
Brief: In what now seem the simpler days of December, when there was only a pandemic to worry about, Federal Reserve officials rallied around the view they could tame inflation with modest interest rate hikes while the economy and labor market thrived. A war in Europe has now been layered on top of the health crisis, and when U.S. central bank policymakers meet this week they will have to decide just how much damage has been done to that rosy outlook, and whether their hopes for an economic "soft landing" have been diminished or dashed altogether. The Fed is almost certain to raise its benchmark overnight interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point at the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. More important will be projections showing just how far policymakers think rates will need to rise this year and in 2023 and 2024 to tame inflation that has blasted past their expectations.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index drops about 5% as investors monitor China’s Covid wave
Brief: Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Monday as investors monitored a Covid wave in China. Meanwhile, oil prices continued to be volatile amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 4.97% on the day to 19,531.66, leading losses among the region’s major markets as Chinese tech stocks took a beating: Tencent fell 9.79%, Alibaba slipped 10.9% and Meituan plunged 16.84%. The Hang Seng Tech index tumbled 11.03% to 3,778.60. Mainland Chinese stocks closed lower, with the Shanghai composite down 2.6% to 3,223.53 while the Shenzhen component shed 3.083% to 12,063.63. China is currently undergoing a wave of Covid infections — its worst outbreak since the country clamped down on the pandemic in 2020, and major cities including Shenzhen are rushing to limit business activity. Across Shenzhen’s border, the special administrative region of Hong Kong has also been battling a resurgence in Covid cases in recent weeks.
COVID-19 pandemic 2 years later: 3 things that have changed for investing
Brief: Change has been among the only constant for investors during the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.Today marks the second anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown of businesses and economies around the world soon followed. Economic growth ground to a halt. The U.S. economy subsequently entered a recession in February 2020 that lasted until April of that year, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Stock markets globally took it on the chin, hard. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked nearly 35% from mid-February to March 16 as COVID-19 infections and deaths spread. Even an often teflon stock such as Apple wasn't spared — it plunged 30% from mid-February to mid-March of 2020.In total, there have been 452 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and more than 6 million deaths, according to WHO.
Economy adds 337,000 jobs in February, unemployment rate falls to pre-pandemic level
Brief: Canada's labour market showed signs last month of finally shaking off the shock COVID-19 delivered two years ago, with the share of workers with a job and the unemployment rate besting levels seen just prior to the pandemic. A gain of 337,000 jobs in February more than offset the loss of 200,000 jobs in January and dropped the unemployment rate to 5.5 per cent, falling below the 5.7 per cent level where it was at in February 2020. Statistics Canada said Friday the unemployment rate would have been 7.4 per cent last month had it included in calculations people who wanted a job but did not look for one. The majority of the decline in the ranks of Canada's unemployed came from people called back to work in February after a temporary layoff one month earlier as provinces tightened restrictions to slow the spread of the Omicron variant.
