German ICU Patients; Hong Kong Suspends Shots: Virus Update
(Bloomberg) — Germany has significantly more Covid-19 patients in intensive care units as a third wave of the disease takes hold than when the second wave hit, said the head of the country’s intensive- and emergency-care association. European Union vaccine shipments to the rest of the world could face severe disruptions under more rigid rules set to be unveiled Wednesday. Guarantees that supplies to some 90 countries won’t be interrupted, and protection to companies like Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. could be removed, a senior EU official said.
Hong Kong and Macau temporarily suspended Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by BioNTech SE because of a packaging defect, dealing a blow to the cities’ efforts to revive their virus-battered economies. In Brazil, daily fatalities passed 3,000 for the first time as the virus overruns its health system. Key Developments: Global Tracker: Cases pass 124 million; deaths exceed 2.73 million vaccines Tracker: More than 468 million shots given worldwide-Biden use Trump’s ‘America First’ vaccine plan to corner market building a covid Travel Passport is a serious tech challengeVaccinating some of the world’s remotest communities tests Australia’Too many questions’:
Decades of mistrust spur vaccine hesitancySubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths. German ICU Numbers a ‘Concern’ (2:59 p.m. HK)Germany has significantly more Covid-19 patients in intensive care units as a third wave of the disease takes hold than when the second wave hit, said the head of the country’s intensive- and emergency-care association. “We are starting from a very high level,” Gernot Marx, president of Germany’s DIVI group, said in an interview with DLF radio.
“This is a matter of great concern to us,” he said, adding that he hoped Germany’s decision to enter a hard lockdown over Easter would prevent the health system from becoming overwhelmedAccording to DIVI’s latest estimate published Tuesday, there are 3,159 Covid patients in intensive care in Germany, the highest in more than a month and pushing the occupancy rate to over 8ay.Tighter Lockdown for Eastern Austria (2:49 p.m.)The populous eastern Austrian region around Vienna is headed for a closer lockdown over the Easter holiday, the Austria Press Agency reported after a meeting of the regional governments with Health Minister Rudolf Anschober. The measures are due to be announced later, APA said.
Japan to Build Virus Patient Data Bank (2:27 p.m. HK)The Japanese government plans to build a Covid-19 data bank with information and samples from about 10,000 patients and make it available to companies and universities for research, Yomiuri reported, without attribution. The more infectious and aggressive B.1.1.7 mutation of the virus has caused as many as 95% of the new infections in the region and is close to overwhelming intensive care units. For the whole nation, a planned lockdown easing was scrapped on Monday.
The data are expected to be available by this summer, it said. Pakistan Buys Chinese Vaccines (2:23 p.m.)Pakistan has bought 1 million Covid-19 vaccines from Sinopharm and 60,000 from CanSino. Reuters reported in its first purchase of the doses, citing Asad Umar, the planning minister leading the nation’s coronavirus response. Bulgarian Daily Cases at Record High (1:13 p.m. HK)Bulgaria reported a record high of 4,851 daily coronavirus cases, with the numbers of patients hospitalized and in intensive care units also at their highest.
