Coronavirus Diligence Briefing

• In the United States, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said the drug regulator has until early summer to decide whether vaccine makers need to change existing COVID shots to target different virus variants to avoid another possible surge in cases this fall. Dr. Peter Marks told the drug regulator’s advisory committee Wednesday a decision would need to be made by June in order to have shots available for the fall. Pfizer and Moderna are reported along with other vaccine makers to be conducting trials on omicron-based jabs, however according to the FDA, the companies aren’t currently coordinating their efforts on vaccine formulas and should be, similar to their work updating the flu vaccine to target new strains every year.
  
  
• Canada’s most populous province could likely see upwards of 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day, with roughly five per cent of its residents currently infected, the head of the province’s science table said. Dr. Peter Juni, the outgoing director of Ontario’s Science Advisory Table (he is moving to England to work as a professor at Oxford University), made the comments to media on Wednesday after noting a resurgence of COVID activity has seen people hospitalized with the virus increase by 40% week-over-week. Dr. Juni has noted that behavioural changes brought on by the lifting of mask mandates recently has pushed caseloads past their latest modeling, which was released three weeks ago. At that time, it was expected that hospitalizations would likely rise to around 800 in May. As of April 6^th, there were 1,074 people in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19.
  
  
• In the United Kingdom, the British Medical Journal has published findings that people are at an increased risk of developing serious blood clots for up to six months after having COVID-19. Researchers have noted for six months, there is a greater risk of developing a blocked blood vessel in the lungs, called a pulmonary embolism, and for two months people are at a greater risk of bleeding. The results noted a five-fold increase in the risk of deep-vein thrombosis, a 33-fold increase in the risk of a pulmonary embolism and an almost two-fold increase in the risk of bleeding. The study looked at data for more than a million people who tested positive for COVID-19 between February 2020 and May 2021 and compared that with data of more than four million people without COVID.
  
  
• In Germany, the government was thrown a curveball on Thursday when lawmakers rejected a bill requiring all people aged 60 and over in the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The government had pitched it as a compromise solution that they hoped would get a parliamentary majority. In the end, 378 lawmakers voted against the bill, 296 were in favour, while nine abstained. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his health minister originally had called for the vaccine mandate to apply to all adults in Germany. While Germany is currently facing a decline in cases, Social Democratic lawmaker Dagmar Schmidt noted it was necessary to prepare for a new rise in cases. “We will face the same challenge next fall that we did last fall,” Schmidt said. “The virus won’t simply disappear.”
  
  
• Japan will lift its entry ban on non-resident foreign nationals from 106 countries, starting on Friday. The move from Japan’s government, however, will not drastically change its strict pandemic-border controls as it will continue to suspend the visas issued before December 2^nd, except for diplomats’ spouses of Japanese nationals and permanent residents, among others. According to the government, visas will not be issued, in principle, unless those seeking to enter Japan fall under “exceptional circumstances”, such as visits to those who are seriously ill or for funerals. Foreign tourists remain banned from entering Japan.
  
  
• The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on new analysis Thursday that states up to 65% of the African population have been infected with COVID-19 and estimates that the number of actual cases may have been nearly 100 times more than reported. The WHO noted as of September 2021, 65% of people tested had some exposure to COVID-19, translating into about 800 million infections. In contrast, only about 8 million cases had been reported to the WHO during that time period. In its new analysis, the WHO also noted the milder COVID-19 cases seen in Africa were attributable in part to the continent’s much smaller proportion of people with underlying risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

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Equity fund outflows climb to highest levels since Brexit vote

Brief: Investors withdrew £1.53 billion from equity funds in March, the largest outflow since July 2016 at the time of the Brexit referendum, according to Calastone’s latest fund flows report, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued to rock markets. Investors actively sold out of funds, Calastone said, as opposed to going on a buy strike, and outflows increased week-on-week over the month before tailing off at the end of March. Global equities suffered the greatest impact, as investors sold down a net £992 million of their holdings in this category, while UK funds overweight commodity stocks benefitted from some protection. Fixed income funds also suffered outflows, totalling £274 million, making it the worst month for the asset class since the start of pandemic, though outflows were higher in February. “The world’s major stock markets were very volatile in March, but they have mostly regained the losses they sustained when Russia attacked Ukraine on 24 February,” said head of global markets at Calastone, Edward Glyn. “This has not been enough to reassure UK fund investors. Global risks are rising – growth prospects have deteriorated, and a recession is now a possibility in many developed countries. Inflation is taking hold, living standards are being squeezed and government budgets are also under pressure.”

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ASIC to allow COVID-19 temporary relief for financial advice to automatically repeal 15 April 2022

Brief: ASIC will allow the temporary relief inASIC Corporations (COVID-19—Advice-related Relief) Instrument 2021/268(COVID-19 Instrument) to be automatically repealed on 15 April 2022.The COVID-19 Instrument commenced on 15 April 2021. It extended the following forms of relief, initially introduced in April 2020: ‘Situations in which Statement of Advice is not required’ relief. This relief allows financial advisers to provide a record of advice, rather than a statement of advice, to existing clients requiring financial advice due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Urgent Advice’ relief. This relief allows financial advisers additional time to give their clients a time-critical statement of advice. ASIC undertook targeted industry consultation to better understand the effects of our approach. Based on feedback, we do not consider that the current status of COVID-19 responses in Australia provides a sufficient basis for a decision by ASIC to further extend the relief provided by the COVID-19 Instrument.

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