Coronavirus: Canada eases quarantine rules for fully vaccinated travellers - as it happened

A senior Federal Reserve official said the US economy was not yet ready for the central bank to start pulling back its hefty monetary support, even though the outlook had become rosier.

The comments from John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, were delivered on Monday amid high sensitivity in financial markets to Fed policy. Economic projections by central bank officials last week signalled they expect to increase interest rates in 2023, a year earlier than previously indicated.

Williams said the economy was “getting better all the time”, in some of his most bullish remarks since the pandemic started. But he insisted the Fed would stick to the terms of its monetary policy framework, introduced last August, which sets a high bar for tightening policy.

“It’s clear that the economy is improving at a rapid rate, and the medium-term outlook is very good.

“But the data and conditions have not progressed enough for the Federal Open Market Committee to shift its monetary policy stance of strong support for the economic recovery.”

The comments appeared more cautious on the prospect of a quick policy change compared to those of other regional Fed presidents since the last FOMC meeting.

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Turkey will end on July 1 a one-day-a-week lockdown and nightly curfews imposed to curb a surge in coronavirus infections as the government ramps up vaccinations to 1.5m a day and infection rates slow dramatically.

Turkey has now administered nearly 43m doses of vaccines and is the world’s top vaccinator by population, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in televised remarks after a cabinet meeting. About 14.5m people, or 17 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated, according to the health ministry.

Erdogan also said everyone 18 years old and up would become eligible for a shot in the coming weeks. Turkey is now vaccinating people who are 30 years old and older after vaccine maker BioNTech last month agreed to ship a total of 120m doses through the summer.

Previously, the government had agreed with China’s Sinovac for 100m doses. But delayed shipments stalled the rollout, and Turkey reintroduced lockdowns in April and May to slow infections from a record 63,000 new cases per day.

On Monday, reported new cases were 5,294 and deaths stood at 51. Erdogan said Turkey was ready to end a Sunday lockdown and a 10pm curfew on July 1. But venues will only be allowed to play music until midnight, he added. “I’m sorry, but no one has the right to bother anyone else at night,” he said.

Erdogan’s critics have accused the president, a devout Muslim, of introducing restrictions during the public health crisis to affect lifestyle choices, such as a ban on alcohol sales during lockdowns and the closure of bars since March 2020.

England’s football team said two of its players had gone into self-isolation the day before their next match at the Euro 2020 tournament, after coming into close contact with Scotland’s Billy Gilmour who tested positive for Covid-19.

Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount came into close contact with Gilmour, who is one of their club teammates at Chelsea, during England’s 0-0 draw against Scotland last Friday.

Chilwell and Mount have been separated from the rest of the England squad “as a precaution” on the advice of health officials, the team said in a statement on Monday night. But it added all England players tested negative to PCR tests on Sunday and lateral flow tests on Monday.

The three players are now likely to miss their respective teams next fixture in the tournament on Tuesday night, when England face Czech Republic at Wembley stadium in London and Scotland face Croatia at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, has predicted there will be only “moderate” and “limited” spillover from rising US inflation to the European economy, painting a picture of increased transatlantic economic divergence.

“I don’t think we can actually compare the US situation and the euro area situation... they are in very different positions,” Lagarde told the European parliament on Monday. “The spillover from the US will be limited and it is already taken into account in our projections.”

US consumer prices rose at the highest rate for 13 years in May. The Federal Reserve, which has kept monetary policy settings loose in an effort to support the economy through the pandemic, last week signalled that more of its policymakers expected to start raising interest rates in 2023, earlier than many had previously expected. 

Inflation has also risen in the eurozone, but it increased less sharply than in the US and the ECB has predicted price growth will fade next year, reinforcing expectations that it will not raise interest rates before 2024 at the earliest. 

Lagarde said higher US inflation would add only 0.15 percentage points to eurozone inflation between 2020 and 2023. ECB officials believe higher US interest rates could have a deflationary effect on the eurozone by pushing up borrowing costs, but this could be offset by a stronger US dollar against the euro, which boosts inflation by lifting import prices.

The outlook for the eurozone economy was “brightening” and “underlying price pressures are expected to increase somewhat this year,” Lagarde said. But she added that supply chain bottlenecks and rising demand were unlikely to be enough to sustain high inflation.

In this context, Lagarde said it was important “not to withdraw support too early” and said the EU should reform its fiscal rules to allow for more “procyclical and sustainable” fiscal policy when the temporary suspension of the regime is lifted next year.

Canada will from next month allow fully vaccinated travellers who are permitted to enter the country to skip mandatory quarantine requirements as part of a first phase of easing border restrictions.

From just before midnight on July 5, citizens, permanent residents or foreign nationals eligible to enter Canada who had their final shot of a vaccine regimen at least two weeks ago will not be subject to a federal requirement to quarantine upon arrival or take a Covid-19 test on the eighth day of that period, the Canadian government announced on Monday. Additionally, fully vaccinated travellers arriving by air will no longer be required to quarantine at a government-authorised hotel.

Fully vaccinated travellers must still meet other mandatory requirements, namely proof of a negative Covid-19 test before travel and upon arrival, and follow public health measures such as wearing a mask in public. They must also “present a suitable quarantine plan, and be prepared to quarantine, in case it is determined at the border that they do not meet all of the conditions required to be exempt from quarantine.”

For those who have not been fully vaccinated, there are no changes to Canada’s border measures. The US Department of Homeland Security announced on Sunday that border closures with Canada and Mexico would remain in place for a further 30 days.

“This is the first phase of our precautionary approach to easing Canada’s border measures. At this time we are not opening up our borders any further,” Dominic Le Blanc, minister of intergovernmental affairs, said in a statement.

Omar Alghabra, transport minister, said that pre-departure temperature screening for eligible international travellers coming to Canada would be dropped, and that given the “very high” number of new Covid-19 cases in India, flight restrictions for the country were being extended.

About 66 per cent of Canada’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the government’s vaccination tracker as of Monday morning. Almost 19 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

The White House has announced where it will send 55m vaccine doses from its own stockpile, which form part of a broader push by the Biden administration to improve supplies across the developing world.

Officials said on Monday they would distribute three-quarters of the doses via the Covax scheme, which is being backed by the World Health Organization. That programme was intended to help ensure poorer countries received access to vaccines, but has been hit by the decision by the Serum Institute of India to suspend exports.

The remaining quarter will be donated to countries that the US deems to be “regional priorities”, including large parts of South America, South Asia and Africa, as well as Gaza and the West Bank.

The donations form the second tranche of an overall allocation of 80m US-made doses that Joe Biden, the US president, promised to donate earlier this year. Biden has also said the US will buy 500m doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to give to other countries over the next 18 months.

Some critics, however, have accused the US of not going far enough and have called on the White House to force US companies to share their technology with other companies abroad to help increase global production more quickly.

The White House said in a statement: “Just like we have in our domestic response, we will move as expeditiously as possible, while abiding by US and host country regulatory and legal requirements, to facilitate the safe and secure transport of vaccines across international borders. This will take time, but the president has directed the administration to use all the levers of the US government to protect individuals from this virus as quickly as possible.”

Nightclubs are set to reopen in France from July 9 and concerts and festivals, where the audience is standing, will start again from June 30, the French government said on Monday.

When clubs reopen on July 9, they will only be allowed to use 75 per cent of their indoor capacity but all of their outdoor capacity. Attendance will only be allowed for people who have a “health pass”, which proves that they are either fully vaccinated, have received a negative test result in the previous 48 hours, or have had Covid-19 in the past six months. Masks will not be required.

For standing concerts and festivals, the same capacity rules will apply but a “health pass” will only be required for events with more than 1,000 spectators. For events with fewer than 1,000 guests, where a health pass is not required, attendees will have to wear a mask.

Nightclubs, festivals and standing concerts are the last frontier in France’s unlocking from Covid-19 restrictions, after gyms, indoor restaurants and small music venues opened earlier this month.

The new rules are set to apply throughout the summer and will be reassessed in mid-September, the government said.

Boris Johnson has said England is on track for a further relaxation of coronavirus restrictions next month, but warned that the country faced a “rough winter” ahead.

The British prime minister said “it’s looking good” for the fourth and final stage of the country’s roadmap out of lockdown to proceed on July 19.

Ministers had planned to remove restrictions on social contact and allow businesses such as nightclubs to reopen on June 21, but rising case numbers prompted them to delay the move earlier this month by four weeks.

Johnson on Monday said the data were moving in the right direction, noting vaccines were effective against all known coronavirus variants.

But the prime minister cautioned that the NHS was likely to come under pressure in coming months. “Things like flu will come back this winter,” Johnson said. “We may have a rough winter for all sorts of reasons.”

He added: “All the more reason to reduce the number of Covid cases now — give the NHS the breathing space it needs.”

Dr Susan Hopkins, strategic response director for Covid-19 at Public Health England, warned over the weekend that additional restrictions may be needed later in the year.

“We may have to do further lockdowns this winter,” she told the BBC. “It really depends on whether the hospitals start to become overwhelmed at some point.”

The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Indonesia has passed 2m following a significant jump in new infections in the past week.

Figures from the country’s ministry of health show there were 14,536 new cases reported on Monday, up 77 per cent on June 14. More than 54,000 people have died since the pandemic began.

The pandemic seemed to have stabilised in Indonesia following a wave of infections over the winter, when new cases last peaked. That all changed at the start of June, however, when news cases started to rise.

The world’s fourth most populous country has fully vaccinated 4.5 per cent of its more than 270m residents, according to the Financial Times’s vaccine tracker.

Although Covid-19 infection rates are declining in many parts of the world, data from the FT’s tracker shows that they are spreading fast in some places, as countries confront the fragility of success when combating the spread of the pandemic.

The Seychelles is one example. Infection rates had looked under control in the country, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, until the start of May. However, case numbers have risen sharply since then and there were 168.3 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 individuals on June 19.

Uruguay, once touted as a South American success story, is another. Infections began to spike with the spread of the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil and there were 69.8 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people on June 19. However, the rise in infections has begun to decline.

Infections have also surged in Colombia, following the regional outbreak. Caseloads are continuing to rise and stand at 54.67 new cases per 100,000 people.

In Mongolia, which has one of the highest infection rates in the world, the trend may be starting to improve. There were 76.43 new cases per 100,000 individuals in Mongolia on June 19, slightly less than the day before.

India vaccinated a record of nearly 7m people against Covid-19 by 5pm on Monday, the first day of an overhauled vaccine policy that makes all adults eligible for free jabs.

Until now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had only provided free Covid-19 jabs for those over the age of 45, while permitting younger Indians to buy jabs through private hospitals.

But the government announced last month that it would make jabs available to all starting today, and set a new one-day record for the pace of jabs of 6.9m, with many centres still operating.

Public health experts hope the availability of free vaccines — coupled with enhanced supply — will help accelerate the country’s vaccine rollout, as a devastating second wave recedes. 

India has so far administered about 280m doses of vaccine, or about 20 doses for every 100 residents. So far, about 3.6 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, while about 16 per cent have received a first dose.

India administered an average of 3.35m vaccine doses a day last week, up 7.4 per cent from the previous week.

However, public health experts say India needs to double the pace of vaccination if it is to achieve its new goal of vaccinating all eligible adults by the end of the year.

Experts are hopeful that Monday’s rapid pace would be sustained in the coming weeks, after weeks when the doses have appeared to be in short supply.

If you enjoy the skirl of the bagpipes, Steelcase’s global headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is calling you back.

The employee pipe band, a staff blues group and barbecues are part of the entertainment laid on by the US furniture maker in recent weeks to encourage its 1,400 staff to return to the office after more than a year of working mainly remotely.

As an employer and a supplier of office equipment, Steelcase has an obvious dual interest in persuading employees that some of their best work can be done in person, rather than remotely. Like most employers, it does not expect staff to attend the office five days a week.

The data show, however, that a gap has opened between what employers hope for as lockdowns ease and what employees want. Incentives, soft and hard, could play a part in bridging it. Faced with a possible overhang of expensive, city-centre property, landlords and employers are asking themselves, ‘How do we magnetise the office?’ But the line between enticement and coercion is a fine one.

The latest survey by the UK’s Office for National Statistics shows 36 per cent of those currently homeworking think they will spend most or all of their time working remotely in future, whereas nearly 40 per cent of businesses expect 75 per cent of their workforce to return to the workplace.

Read more here.

More than a million coronavirus vaccine appointments were booked in England on Friday and Saturday after every adult became eligible for a jab.

NHS England said that 1,008,472 appointments were made over the two day period. That total excludes some local GP and walk-in services.

The rollout was extended to people as young as 18 on Friday. Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: “It is fantastic to see so many young people coming forward.”

About 62m jabs have been administered since the campaign began. Four in five adults have received a first dose, while three in five have received two.

Reports of a rise in the proportion of young professionals in the UK living with their parents during the pandemic were greatly exaggerated, a study has found.

In fact, the opposite has happened. About 23 per cent of 18 to 34s live with their parents, down from 25 per cent before the crisis began, according to Resolution Foundation research.

That was in part because a large number of young people “whose employment was most affected by the pandemic were already living with their parents before it hit,” the think-tank said on Monday.

The roughly 4 per cent of young people who did move back in with their parents were “far more likely to have entered the crisis on lower levels of pay and to have experienced a negative labour market shock once the crisis hit,” it added.

The Resolution Foundation said that “where deteriorating economic conditions leave increasing cohorts of young people with few options but to [live with parents], policy makers should begin to pay attention.”

Hong Kong is to reduce the Covid-19 quarantine period to seven days for vaccinated international travellers after recording no local cases in the past 14 days.

Chief executive Carrie Lam said the relaxation would come into two stages. She hoped it would start on June 30 for local residents, followed by visitors later on.

The new measure does not apply to those who have been in particularly high risk places including Brazil and India, however.

Business has decried the Asia financial centre’s restrictions on international travel, complaining the city will be left behind when other parts of the world reopen.

Under the new travel policy, fully vaccinated travellers with a negative coronavirus test and a positive antibody test will qualify for the reduced quarantine period, instead of the current two weeks.

Lam also announced a further loosening of social distancing requirements for restaurants and public events, starting from June 24.

Scotland international footballer Billy Gilmour has tested positive for coronavirus and will miss the side’s Euro 2020 fixture with Croatia.

The Chelsea midfielder will be required to isolate for 10 days, the Scottish FA said in a statement.

His absence will be a setback for Scotland in the game in Glasgow on Tuesday, which they must win to have a chance of progressing to the knock out stages.

Gilmour, 20, was named man of the match in Scotland’s draw against England on Friday, when he made his first start for his country.

Global stocks and government bond markets consolidated on Monday following tumultuous moves in response to the US central bank taking a hawkish shift on interest rates and inflation.

The FTSE World index of global shares, which lost 1.9 per cent on Friday, declined 0.3 per cent while a rally in US Treasury bonds also eased. The Stoxx Europe 600 index traded flat.

Monday’s moves followed the worst week for Wall Street’s S&P 500 stock benchmark in almost four months. The sell-off was prompted by comments from Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell on Wednesday that signalled the central bank could raise rates to tame inflation sooner than investors had expected.

The change in stance by the Fed prompted investors to back out of “reflation” trades, which had involved selling government bonds and buying up shares in companies whose fortunes were pegged to economic growth, such as materials producers and banks.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond, which moves inversely to its price, declined 0.02 percentage points to 1.433 per cent in early European trading. This yield had dropped sharply from close to 1.6 per cent before the Fed’s meeting last Wednesday.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury briefly fell below 2 per cent on Monday for the first time since February 2020, before bouncing back to 2.034 per cent.

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America’s biggest banks will learn the results of their latest stress tests from the US Federal Reserve this week, with a passing grade expected to be a catalyst for billions of dollars in stock buybacks and dividends.

The expectation that banks will return more money to shareholders is a sign of how much cash the US banking sector has amassed during the pandemic. The likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have been bolstered by government stimulus and buoyant revenues from trading and dealmaking.

The Fed capped dividends and banned stock buybacks at the outset of the pandemic last year. The central bank loosened some of these restrictions at the start of 2021 but still limited the amount of money banks could return to shareholders to no more than the cumulative profits of the prior four quarters.

These limits will be pulled back further pending the results of the annual Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, known as CCAR and a requirement of the Dodd-Frank post-crisis financial regulations. The results are due Thursday, June 24.

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Japan will allow spectators up to 50 per cent of venue capacity at the Olympics, subject to a maximum of 10,000 people, as the government chose to disregard its medical advisers.

The decision to push ahead marks a gamble by prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Olympic organisers that inviting crowds into stadiums will not lead to a big wave of Covid-19 infections.

Organisers warned that the rules could yet be changed if the number of coronavirus cases in Tokyo rises before the games begin. “In the event a state of emergency is implemented at any time after July 12, limitations on spectator numbers will be based on the content of the state of emergency,” said Seiko Hashimoto, president of Tokyo 2020.

Last Friday, the doctor leading Japan’s Covid-19 response, Shigeru Omi, published a report urging the organisers to hold the Olympics without spectators. He argued that the sight of fans in stadiums would prompt the Japanese public to drop their precautions against the disease.

Influenza could pose “a bigger problem” than coronavirus this winter, a UK government adviser has warned.

Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said that social distancing measures, mask-wearing and extra hand washing since the pandemic began had resulted in “virtually nil [flu] during lockdown”.

That was not expected to last as restrictions were eased, however. “Flu could be potentially a bigger problem this winter than Covid”, Harnden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday. “When flu has been circulating in very low numbers, immunity drops in the population and it comes back to bite us”.

Results from a study looking into whether coronavirus vaccines could be given alongside flu vaccines should be available shortly, he added.

Before the pandemic, about 17,000 people died from flu each year in England, government figures show.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the UK’s business secretary, has said it is unlikely that the final stage of lockdown in England will end before July 19.

The government was due to lift the remaining social restrictions in England this month. But the move was delayed following the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus.

“I remember [with] the previous dates there was a...push to [reopen] earlier...that didn’t happen,” said Kwarteng in an interview with Sky News on Monday.

“I would look to the 19th of July. It could be before, but I think that’s unlikely,” he added.

Kwarteng also addressed worries about the congregation of large numbers of football fans in London over the weekend.

“I think it’s really concerning that lots of people were congregating in this way,” said Kwarteng. “But it’s a very difficult thing to police.”

“We’ve got to strike that balance between essentially compelling people...and giving guidelines so that people can act sensibly,” he added.

Germany’s population shrank last year for the first time since 2011 because of a sharp drop in immigration during the pandemic.

For several years, a natural demographic decline caused by Germany’s low birth rate had been more than offset by large numbers of immigrants — especially after the country agreed to accept more than 1m mainly Muslim migrants during the 2015-16 refugee crisis.

However, last year there was a 29 per cent fall in Germany’s net immigration to 209,000, while the number of deaths outnumbered births by 212,000.

The number of people living in Germany has continued to fall this year. The population fell 12,000 in the first six months of 2021 to 83.2m, which the Federal Statistical Office said was the first decline in the population of Europe’s largest economy for a decade.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed yoga as a “source of strength and poise for people,” amid the challenges of the Covid pandemic, which has claimed the lives of at least 225,000 Indians in the past three months.

As the United Nations marked the 7th International Day of Yoga, Modi, clad in the saffron robes of a Hindu ascetic, said the practice had helped people around the world to muster confidence and strength to fight the pandemic, and was also known for strengthening the respiratory system.

Modi announced that the World Health Organisation was launching a new app, developed in consultation with the Indian government, which is loaded with instructive videos and other information to promote the proper practice of yoga.

“Yoga gives us a happier way of life,” said Modi, adding that he was confident that the practice would play a “positive role in the health care of the masses.”

A devastating Covid wave is now receding in India. The country detected more than 53,000 new infections on Sunday, down from a peak of 414,000 in a single day in early May.

More than 388,000 Indians are confirmed to have died of Covid since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Of those, around 225,000 have succumbed in the second wave of the past three months, while experts say the true toll is much higher but unrecognised due to limited testing.

Part-time season tickets for passengers who commute two or three days a week will go on sale from Monday in England as the rail sector responds to the rise of flexible working.

Ministers said the long-mooted scheme, which will allow travel on any eight days in a 28-day period, had “the potential to save commuters hundreds of pounds”.

For the rest of the year, passengers whose plans change will also be able to rebook journeys on regular tickets without an administration fee.

The more flexible ticketing system is being launched after a sharp decline in rail travel during the pandemic, caused in large part by the surge in working from home.

While more employers are preparing to call for a return to the workplace as coronavirus restrictions are relaxed, staff are demanding that flexible schedules be made permanent.

Grant Shapps, transport secretary, said commuters could use an updated online calculator to determine the best tickets for them. “The future of fares is flexible,” he said.

Qatar will only allow vaccinated fans to attend matches at next year’s Fifa World Cup and is in talks to acquire 1m doses to give to attendees who have not been inoculated.

Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, the prime minister, said vaccinating visitors would help protect citizens and residents. Around 72 per cent of those eligible in the Gulf country have received their first vaccine dose.

He said most countries would have vaccinated their populations, but those that have not managed to do so could benefit from Qatar’s decision to provide jabs to visitors. No further details of the logistics of the operation were given.

The prime minister said that coronavirus had affected preparations for the 2022 tournament at the beginning of the pandemic, but early preparations had secured the requisite materials for World Cup projects.

Construction and infrastructure work is on track, he said, with the main stadium, Lusail, 90 per cent complete, and work continuing on two other stadiums.

Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney has defended a decision to limit travel to some parts of England where coronavirus cases have surged, dismissing a suggestion that the government might pay compensation to those affected.

Non-essential trips between Scotland and Manchester and Salford were barred from midnight on Sunday in a move condemned “totally disproportionate” by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

Swinney told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that case numbers in the areas in question “justified the decision”.

Anyone who stood to lose out could draw on business support provided by both the English and Scottish governments, he said, so further compensation was “not a relevant point”.

Scotland had imposed similar travel restrictions on Bolton in May, Swinney added. “We followed exactly the approach in relation to this decision.”

“We’ve got to take decisions based on the data that presents itself,” Swinney said. “Sometimes that’s very uncomfortable data for us”.

All Indians over the age of 18 are eligible for free coronavirus jabs from Monday, the latest development in a convoluted and oft-changing vaccination campaign.

Public health experts hope the availability of free vaccines, coupled with improved supply, will help accelerate the country’s vaccine rollout as a devastating second wave recedes.

Until now, prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has made free vaccines available only to Indians over the age of 45. It said individual states that wanted to inoculate younger residents would have to procure vaccines directly from manufacturers.

Younger Indians could also buy jabs from private hospitals, but prices ranged from a hefty Rs800 ($11) to nearly Rs2,000 per shot.

From Monday, however, Modi’s government is centrally procuring all vaccines for the country and will make 75 per cent of them available free through government hospitals. The remaining 25 per cent will be administered by private sector hospitals for a nominal price.

India administered an average of 3.35m vaccine doses a day last week, up 7.4 per cent from the previous week.

However, public health experts say India needs to double the pace of vaccination if it is to achieve its new goal of vaccinating all eligible adults by the end of the year.

India has so far administered about 280m doses, equivalent to one in five residents. So far, about 3.6 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, while about 16 per cent have received a first dose.

India has officially recorded nearly 30m confirmed Covid infections and more than 388,000 deaths during the pandemic, yet epidemiologists say the true toll is multiples higher.

Covid-19 patients suffer from cognitive and behavioural problems two months after being discharged from hospital, a study has found.

Issues with memory, spatial awareness and information processing problems were identified in post-Covid-19 patients who were followed up within eight weeks, the congress of the European Academy of Neurology heard.

The research also found that one in five patients reported post-traumatic stress disorder, with 16 per cent presenting depressive symptoms.

The Italian study involved testing neurocognitive abilities and taking brain scans of patients two months after experiencing Covid-19 symptoms. 

More than half of patients experienced cognitive disturbances, while 16 per cent had problems with executive function, which governs working memory, flexible thinking and information processing.

Examination of the same cohort of patients 10 months after experiencing Covid-19 symptoms showed a reduction of cognitive disturbances but a persistent presence of PTSD and depressive symptoms.

“Our study has confirmed significant cognitive and behavioural problems are associated with Covid-19 and persist several months after remission of the disease,” said Massimo Filippi, professor at the Scientific Institute and University Vita-Salute San Raffaele and the study’s lead author.

The United Arab Emirates’ justice ministry expects 80 per cent of litigation cases will be heard virtually by the end of 2021, state media reported on Sunday.

Courts in the Gulf state largely moved online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice-president and ruler of the Dubai emirate, wants them to stay virtual permanently, the Wam news agency reported.

“Our goal is to be the fastest, the best and the fairest in judicial services,” Maktoum wrote on Twitter.

He said Covid-19’s challenges had turned into “unprecedented opportunities for growth and development”.

Australian states and territories will soon receive more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the country’s prime minister said on Monday, as supplies of the preferred Pfizer/BioNTech jab experience production bottlenecks.

Australian states have been asking for increased supplies of vaccines after Canberra last week announced a policy shift that recommended AstraZeneca shots only for people older than 60.

“They’re all getting additional doses,” Scott Morrison told Sydney radio 2GB. “I mean, it scales up again in July when the additional Pfizer doses go out.”

Authorities said the Pfizer vaccine rollout is currently “operating in a resource-constrained environment” but distribution is expected to accelerate from August.

“As we get into that third quarter, fourth quarter, we will have far freer flows of Pfizer and start to be able to allocate that more freely,” John Frewen, the army lieutenant-general who heads the country’s vaccine distribution taskforce, told reporters in Canberra.

Morrison said 60 per cent of Australian residents aged over 70 have now had their first dose, as have more than 45 per cent of those over 50, and one in four aged over 16.

“So we’ve really been lifting the rate of vaccination, 6.5m doses already having been delivered,” he said.

The cost of Britain’s HS2 high-speed railway line has increased by a further £1.7bn over the past year, as Covid-19 delays put further strain on the country’s biggest infrastructure project.

Work was temporarily suspended at most HS2 sites at the start of the pandemic, while social distancing measures have caused access delays and reduced productivity, increasing costs.

Similar pressures have been reported by industry experts in projects ranging from Crossrail and the A303 Stonehenge tunnel to the Tideway tunnel and the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

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Australian retail sales rose 0.1 per cent month-on-month in May, according to preliminary official data released on Monday.

Food retailing led the rises, offset by falls in household goods retailing, and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing. 

“There were mixed results across the industries and states and territories,” said Ben James, director of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ quarterly economy-wide surveys.

Victoria, which entered a fourth Covid-19 lockdown on May 28, experienced declines across all industries except for food.

“That impact was a little smaller than we had anticipated, in part due to a solid rise in food retailing as households stocked up on groceries before the lockdown,” said Marcel Thelliant, Australia economist at Capital Economics.

The ABS said sales in Queensland and Western Australia both rose by 1.5 per cent.

“The lockdown in Melbourne at the back end of the month was likely to have had some impact at a state level,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Derrick Kam, “but we expected growth from other states would be enough to offset this.”

Turkey’s president on Sunday said the country will soon overcome the coronavirus pandemic due to its mass vaccination campaign.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has forged ahead of many other countries in health services and public safety since the beginning of the outbreak.

“At a time when supplying vaccines was very difficult, we are running a fast vaccination schedule thanks to the connections we have made in a timely manner,” he said in an online Fathers’ Day address.

“We have some setbacks, but we also overcome these delays. We are in good shape right now. I hope we will overcome this calamity soon,” he added.

Turkey last week accelerated its jab rate, administering about 1m a day. The total stands at about 40m jabs, with more than 14m people fully vaccinated. Both the Sinovac and Pfizer/BioNTech jabs are in use.

Erdogan said domestic vaccination production could start as soon as September.

While Turkey’s infection rate has fallen, the number of new cases emerging in the country of 82m people is still about 5,000 per day. 

“We think this is too much. The number of daily deaths is around 50. We don’t want this either,” Erdogan said.

Western Australia will abolish the last of its capacity limits and mass gathering measures from Wednesday, although contact registers will remain in case of future Covid-19 outbreaks, the state government said on Monday.

All venues will return to 100 per cent capacity from the current 75 per cent and attendees will no longer be restricted to a 2 square metre space.

“Western Australians must continue to keep up physical distancing where possible and good personal hygiene to better protect themselves and the general health of our community,” said Mark McGowan, the state’s premier.

The chief executive of Vaccitech, which owns the technology behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, believes the platform is more likely to treat cancers successfully than new medicines based on mRNA.

Bill Enright, who recently took Vaccitech public on the Nasdaq, said the adenovirus vector elicits a more complete immune response that could be used to tackle tumours.  

Vaccitech is entering trials to treat lung and prostate cancer this year, while rivals BioNTech and Moderna have been developing cancer medicines using mRNA. They all hope to use the new vaccination technologies to harness the immune system to tackle tumours. 

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The Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine protects against all known major strains of the pathogen, the head of the laboratory that developed the jab said on Sunday.

Antibodies developed after using the Sputnik V vaccine against the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta mutations, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, told the Rossiya-1 television station.

“The antibodies as a result of using Sputnik V protect against all strains known today,” Gintsburg said. 

He said the Delta strain first found in India causes a more rapid transition from mild symptoms to more serious types of the disease. “It is more aggressive, thus cutting the time of a possible emergence of one’s own antibodies,” Gintsburg said.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia has reported more than 5.3m cases, with more than 129,000 fatalities.

New Zealand plans to reform its 57-year-old legislation covering deaths, funerals, burials and cremations after the Covid-19 pandemic underscored its shortcomings, the government said on Monday.

The government released a 125-page report summarising public submissions on its proposal to update the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 and related legislation.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation noted that Covid-19 and consequent lockdowns had implications for Maori death rituals.

Work should be done to uphold Maori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi signed between the indigenous inhabitants and European settlers in 1840, the group argued.

Others commented that Covid-19 had pushed funeral homes to use digital methods for processes such as death certification, noting that digital methods were valuable tools to run the sector more efficiently. 

Some criticised the requirement for death certification documentation to be completed on paper and delivered in a sealed envelope, a rule suspended during the pandemic. 

Funeral directors called for better regulation in dealing with bodies that have infectious diseases.

Global shares sank as a sell-off ignited by a hawkish shift in the US central bank’s stance on inflation deepened in Asia on Monday.

Japan’s Topix index dropped 2.6 per cent in early trading in the region while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.9 per cent. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell 1.1 per cent, as did South Korea’s Kospi.

Those falls followed on the heels of the worst for Wall Street in almost four months, after comments from Fed Chair Jay Powell that signalled to investors the central bank could raise rates to tame inflation sooner than expected, rather than maintain supportive policy indefinitely.

The sudden shift sent investors fleeing from shares favoured by the so-called “reflation trade” that has dominated markets since the launch of vaccination drives last year.

Falls worsened last week after James Bullard, president of the St Louis Fed, suggested rates could lift off as early as late 2022 in the event of higher-than-expected inflation. The Fed also flagged last week that it would begin discussing when to taper its $120bn monthly bond purchases soon.

Futures tipped the S&P 500, which slid 1.3 per cent on Friday, to drop another 0.3 per cent when Wall Street opens later in the day. The FTSE 100 was set to fall 0.5 per cent.

“This looks like a market that got too invested in the prior Fed story, which it may have taken far too literally,” said Robert Carnell, head of Asia-Pacific research at ING. 

“Central banks don’t seem to be able to control the reality shock that hits markets when a more reasonable version of future events is revealed to them,” he added.

In bond markets yields, which move inversely to prices, edged up. Yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose 0.03 percentage points to 1.408 per cent.

Commodities prices were stabilizing after tumbling last week. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose 0.9 per cent to $74.20 a barrel. US marker West Texas Intermediate rose 1 per cent to $72.33.

Nearly 1,000 companies have been penalised in the Australian state of Victoria in the past three months for breaching Covid-19 pandemic regulations, including seven businesses ordered to shut down.

Officials said 22,000 businesses were inspected in the second quarter across the state, resulting in 17 fines totalling A$52,867 (about US$40,000) as well as 275 written warnings, 598 improvement notices and 40 notices for non-compliance.

A retail store in the western Melbourne suburb of St Albans was shut down for unauthorised trading during lockdown. A health and beauty business in South Melbourne was closed for exceeding density limits.

Maximum fines of A$1,652 were imposed on a hospitality venue and a retail shop, also in Melbourne.

“This is a warning to all businesses – if you flagrantly breach the rules, we will not hesitate to issue fines or even shut you down to protect public safety,” said Danny Pearson, Victoria’s acting minister for police and emergency services.

The Atlantic Ocean island of Bermuda on Sunday introduced strict quarantine measures after a surge in coronavirus infections.

All non-immunised travellers will be put in a 14-day mandatory quarantine at an authorised hotel at their own expense.

The quarantine was originally scheduled to begin on June 6, but was subject to legal challenges. Opposition politicians said Bermuda returnees should be able to quarantine at home on the island of 70,000 people. 

“The mandatory quarantine for unvaccinated travellers at a government approved facility where the traveller has to pay for their stay is the latest pandemic policy that is drawing great angst in the community,” said Michael Dunkley of the One Bermuda Alliance.

Bermuda’s death rate hit its highest levels for at least two decades in 2020, Walter Roban, home affairs minister, told the island’s parliament. Deaths rose by 31, or 5.8 per cent, to 566 last year, with Covid-19 accounting for at least 10 fatalities. 

Since the pandemic began, the British territory has recorded more than 2,500 positive cases and 33 deaths.

The government has been criticised for giving quarantine exemptions to celebrities and companies such as ecommerce company Revolve, which hosted a boat party this month featuring reggae singer Shaggy.

“I am trying to understand Revolve hosting a press trip on a 21-mile island with one hospital during a pandemic when the locals are subjected to a range of restrictions that do not seem to be honoured or required here,” resident Shiona Turini wrote on Instagram.

The former head of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is joining a Singapore-based venture capital group, in his first role since quitting the fund after his decision to fly to the Middle East to receive a Covid-19 vaccine prompted a national backlash. 

Mark Machin, who resigned as chief executive of the $356bn fund in February, will join the board of Serendipity Capital on August 1. 

Serendipity, a venture capital group founded in 2020, invests in financial services, technology and climate-focused companies and has filed in the US to raise up to $250m from an Asia-focused Spac.

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The US has sent 2.5m doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to Taiwan, triple the figure made in an earlier pledge.

The shipment arrived on Sunday aboard a China Airlines cargo flight from Memphis. It was greeted by Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan’s health minister, and Brent Christensen, de facto US ambassador to Taipei.

“I’m moved by the arrival of the vaccine doses,” said Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s foreign minister. “When Taiwan faces tough times, the US always helps out. The donation will save many lives.”

The Central Epidemic Command Center said the doses would be distributed after testing.

Spanish golfer Jon Rahm on Sunday shot a 4-under-par 67 in the final round to win the US Open, just two weeks after a positive Covid-19 test result forced him out of a major tournament.

He finished one shot ahead of Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa to win his sixth PGA event. Rahm achieved birdies for the final two holes on the Torrey Pines course in San Diego, both with putts of more than 6 metres.

On June 5, Rahm tested positive for coronavirus, forcing him to withdraw from the PGA Memorial at the Muirfield Village Golf Club near Columbus, Ohio, in which he held a six-shot lead after three rounds. 

Rahm, the world’s No. 3 ranked player, announced on Twitter on June 12 that he had received the results of two negative Covid-19 tests 24 hours apart, which allowed him to end his quarantine and prepare for the US Open.

The US borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least July 21, Washington officials said on Sunday.

The US Department of Homeland Security announced the 30-day extension after Ottawa said it had extended the border ban. The requirements — in place since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic — were set to expire on Monday.

“To reduce the spread of Covid-19, the US is extending restrictions on non-essential travel at our land and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico through July 21, while ensuring access for essential trade and travel,” the department said on Sunday.

The department added that there had been “positive developments in recent weeks” during talks with other US agencies and the White House to “identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably”.

Canadian officials are expected to announce changes in border regulations on Monday, according to the office of Patty Hajdu, the country’s health minister.

“The government of Canada will announce updates to the border measures implemented to protect the health of Canadians,” said Thierry Bélair, Hajdu’s spokesman.

Each day, dozens of residents in Tokyo’s Setagaya district visit an office to sign up for a My Number identification card. Officials take each visitor’s photo, make copies of their existing ID documents and ask them to write down four passwords. The information is sent back to the local government and it can take months before the card is issued. 

The process has been slow because of pandemic-related restrictions. Residents are asked to book appointments in advance and slots are limited to prevent overcrowding. One resident received a notice in May but her nearest office did not have a slot open until July.

The 12-digit My Number card, which can be used for making online applications for administrative procedures as well as for opening bank accounts and other services that require ID verification, could have flourished during Covid-19. Instead, it has become a symbol of a digitally ill-prepared Japan. 

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Macquarie Asset Management has tapped institutional investors for $850m to seek Asia-Pacific property deals as the Covid-19 pandemic speeds up development trends.

The asset manager is looking at developed markets in the region and, with partners, has already invested more than $12bn in the Asia-Pacific real estate market since 2012.

“Global mega-trends, including shifting demographics, digitalisation and urbanisation, are driving the need for development and investment,” said head of real estate Brett Robson.

“The market dislocation we’ve seen over the past 18 months has acted as an accelerator in many areas, creating opportunities across Asia-Pacific,” he added.

The Sydney-based group held about $420bn in assets under management as of March 31.

The United Arab Emirates has dispatched 60,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to the remote Yemeni island of Socotra, off the Arabian Peninsula, officials said at the weekend.

The island, with a population of 60,000, should be able to double-dose all its people over the age of 18, according to UAE health and foreign affairs officials. 

Raafat Al Thaqli, head of the Socotra governorate, said the Emirates Red Crescent would distribute the jabs from this week. The elderly and those with chronic diseases would receive priority, he said.

Coronavirus vaccine supplies to the Philippines expected this week have been delayed, officials said at the weekend, as the country signed a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to provide 40m jabs.

A shipment of 150,000 doses of private sector-procured Moderna vaccines expected on Monday will not arrive until later in the week, Carlito Galvez, head of the National Task Force Against Covid-19, said.

The procurement of the 40m doses — due to be delivered in August — would be financed through the Asian Development Bank, he said.

“Through this scheme, the Filipino people can be assured that our transactions on vaccine procurement will be transparent, as the funds will not pass through the hands of any government official or agency,” Galvez said.

The south-east Asian country is also expected to receive 2.5m doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac, 150,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V, and 2m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca  jabs from the Covax Facility.

Donated vaccines are also expected this month, Galvez added, noting that Australia, China, Japan, and the US have pledged jabs.

The delay comes as the Philippines hopes to contain the spread of the Delta variant of the virus, which was first detected in the country on May 11. So far, the country has recorded 13 cases of the Delta variant -- all from returning citizens.

“We have prevented the community spread for now, Edsel Salvana, a health department infectious disease expert, said. “We monitor it closely because the Delta variant’s behaviour in other countries is alarming,” he added.

Taiwan-listed exchange-traded funds investing in domestic equities saw their highest-ever monthly net inflows in May, despite a surge in coronavirus cases and a domestic stock market slump in the middle of the month.

But the interest in ETFs in Taiwan contrasted with Taiwan’s equities mutual funds, which saw their total asset size shrink for the first time since October last year.

Even as Taiwan succumbed to its first major Covid-19 outbreak last month, local institutional and retail investors piled into domestic stock ETFs at a record pace, pushing the country’s total ETF assets to NT$1.82tn (US$65.5bn)

Local equities’ ETFs recorded net inflows of NT$61.3bn last month, surpassing the previous record of NT$50.3bn in March last year, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association. 

Total assets under management for local equities ETFs reached NT$378.4bn, which is also the highest on record.

“At volatile times like this, buying ETFs allows investors to immediately react to market changes since ETFs, compared with mutual funds, often have more liquidity,” said Donna Chen, Taipei-based founder and president of Keystone Intelligence.

An accelerator aimed at making supply chains tougher in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has been launched in Singapore.

The Supply Chain Resilience Accelerator will benefit an initial 20 startups based in Singapore, a strategic global logistics gateway and the world’s busiest transshipment hub.

“Covid-19 exposed the fragility of global trade and the Supply Chain Resilience Accelerator is our opportunity to spot weak links and build back better,” said Angela Noronha, director for open innovation at Rainmaking, which co-founded the accelerator.

The accelerator, developed with Enterprise Singapore, a government business development agency, helps guide startups and find them partners and investment to launch pilot programmes. 

“Piloting outside tech can be an incredibly efficient way to test viable solutions to big problems, provided you de-risk and design for scale,” Noronha added.

New cases of coronavirus reported in Canada are 85 per cent down from their peak, the country’s top medic said at the weekend.

The current national average is 1,137 cases reported daily in the week to June 17, Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, said in a briefing. That is a 27 per cent reduction on the previous week.

Hospital admissions are down by two-thirds, she added, with about 1,430 people being treated daily. “Of these, on average, 650 people were being treated in intensive care units and an average of 20 deaths were reported daily,” Tam said.

She said a milestone was reached last week when the intensive care unit at the Toronto General Hospital — one of the country’s biggest — announced zero Covid-19 patients for the first time since March 2020.

“We’ve made incredible progress in lowering Covid-19 infection rates by maintaining precautions, while we work to increase population immunity by expanding first dose vaccine programmes and accelerating second dose programmes,” Tam said.

Canada has reported more than 1.4m Covid-19 infections since the pandemic began, with more than 26,000 deaths.

Australia’s most populous city is on alert on Monday after recording two new locally acquired coronavirus infections, as a cluster in Sydney’s eastern suburbs grows to nine cases.

Alison McMillan, Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, said on Sunday that both new cases are already known as close contacts and are in quarantine. 

“I think it’s really important that we remind everybody that what we’re seeing here with some cases across the country means that Covid-19 has not gone away,” she said. 

A man in his 50s is believed to have caught the virus while shopping at the Myer department store in the suburb of Bondi Junction at the same time as a limousine driver who is believed to be at the centre of the latest outbreak.

The chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, Jane Halton, said NSW was likely to experience tougher restrictions if not enough people came forward for testing.

Masks are now required indoors across large parts of Sydney. “All I can do is encourage anybody [with a] sniffle, scratchy throat, anything, [to] get tested,” Halton told the Today show on the Nine network.

Western Australia imposed stricter conditions on all residents of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, while the state of Victoria halted entry from three of its neighbour’s local government areas — the City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra.

All arrivals to Western Australia must be tested for Covid-19 and self-quarantine until receiving a negative result. “The situation in NSW is fast evolving and concerning given the outbreak involves the Delta strain of the Covid-19 virus,” said Mark McGowan, state premier. 

New Zealand has not halted travel from New South Wales over the latest cases. “Health officials met and determined that, at this time, the Covid-19 public health risk to New Zealand remains low,” said Caroline McElnay, director of public health.

The state of Queensland said on Sunday that a flight crew member who has already been in hotel quarantine tested positive. 

Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket chain Wm Morrison has said that it rejected an unsolicited £8.7bn takeover bid from US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

The weekend statement came in response to press reports from Sky News and the Financial Times that prompted CD&R to confirm that it “is considering a possible cash offer” to take the grocery chain private.

The approach highlights private equity’s growing appetite for British assets and, in particular, supermarket chains. Buyout groups have announced bids for at least 12 UK-listed companies since the start of this year, as Brexit and the pandemic weigh on share prices. 

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One of Cuba’s domestically developed Covid-19 vaccines has shown 62 per cent efficacy with two of its three doses, the state-run biopharmaceutical corporation said at the weekend.

The Soberana 02 jab made by BioCubaFarma is one of five vaccines in development in the Caribbean nation. The biotech company said the phase 3 trials were run by an independent committee at the Finlay Institute, a Cuban research laboratory.

The jab has yet to be approved by the national regulator, Cecmed. “[Soberana 02] already complies with the conditions of a vaccine, but its emergency use will only be authorised by @cubacecmed,” Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Cuba’s president, wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of BioCubaFarma, told the state-run newspaper Granma that he expected emergency use authorisation for Soberana 02 to be granted by the end of June or the beginning of July.

The US state of West Virginia is celebrating its 158th birthday on Sunday with a vaccination sweepstakes.

The event at the state capitol in Charleston not only commemorates the secession of several counties from Virginia at the start of the American Civil War, but also the ending of the coronavirus pandemic mask mandate and the selection of the first $1m jab winner.

“We have a lot to celebrate,” said Jim Justice, West Virginia’s governor, as he named Karen Foley of Mineral Wells as the state’s newest millionaire. The state plans a weekly drawing of a $1m prize until August 4. 

Other weekly prizes for vaccinated West Virginians aged 18 and older include two new custom-outfitted trucks, 25 weekend getaways to West Virginia state parks, five lifetime hunting licences, five lifetime fishing licences, five custom hunting rifles and five custom hunting shotguns.

Two full four-year scholarships to any public institution in the state will also be given away each week to vaccinated West Virginians aged 12-25. The final drawing will also include a $1.588m grand prize and a $588,000 second prize.

West Virginia has surpassed its goal of administering at least one dose of the vaccine to three-quarters of residents aged 50 and older.*

“You’ve done good, West Virginia. But we still have more work to do to get across the finish line,” Justice said. “This terrible killer is not gone. But we have the power to stop it. You need to step up and get vaccinated.”

* This item has been amended to remove a reference to West Virginia having a high rate of vaccination.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong say they have developed a sewage surveillance method that identifies rapidly spreading Covid-19 varieties.

Most methods seek to detect the two gene segments of the Sars-CoV-2 virus for determining its presence in sewage.

“As it targets only the conserved region of the viral genome, it cannot distinguish different types of SARS-CoV-2 variants,” said Tong Zhang, professor of civil engineering, who led the team.

HKU developed a new testing method that identified successfully positive signals of N501Y and other mutations of the Beta variant known as B.1.351, first identified in South Africa. 

A positive case involving the mutated strain was later confirmed.

“This new testing method invented by us targets different mutations of the spike protein of Sars-CoV-2 and can within a few hours detect and quantify variants with high specificity in the sewage sample,” Zhang said.

Taiwan will allow Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Foxconn to buy 10m doses of Covid-19 vaccines on behalf of the government, as companies race to protect its flagship tech industry from the pandemic.

It is the first time private companies in Taiwan will be given permission to purchase vaccines, a move that comes as the government struggles to quickly inoculate people amid a sudden surge in local infections since the middle of last month.

“Both TSMC and Foxconn’s Yonglin Foundation proposed to donate 5m [Pfizer/BioNTech] vaccine doses to Taiwan,” government spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng told a news conference on Friday.

Foxconn’s charitable foundation filed an application to import COVID vaccines on June 1, while TSMC applied on June 10, Lo said.

TSMC told Nikkei Asia that it aims to buy 5m Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines and donate them to the government, but said negotiations are continuing.

China has administered more than 1bn doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the national health authority said on Sunday.

That means the total number of doses given has doubled from 500m in less than a month.

The National Health Commission in Beijing, which tallies the totals, did not reveal how many of China’s 1.4bn people had been vaccinated once or fully. The seven vaccines approved in the country, all locally made, have two-dose regimens.

They have been developed by Sinopharm Group and Sinovac Biotech in Beijing, Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products and Anhui Zhifei Longcom in Shenzhen, CanSinoBIO in Tianjin and the Institute of Medical Biology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Kunming.

China has not yet approved any foreign vaccines, although the Pfizer/BioNTech jab has been distributed in Hong Kong and Macau, the country’s special administrative regions.

The New South Wales government in Australia has earmarked A$50m (US$37m) to support dining and entertainment businesses in central Sydney.

The state is giving away four A$25 vouchers to 500,000 NSW residents only for use on Fridays.

“We have listened to businesses and know that it’s time to make Fridays fun again and ensure the Sydney central business district doesn’t just survive but thrives,” NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet said.

He said central Sydney has been hit hardest by Covid-19, with a reduction in commuters owing to working-from-home practices and the absence of overseas and many interstate visitors for more than a year.

Short term arrivals to NSW in April were fewer than 11,000, a 96 per cent decrease on pre-pandemic averages of about 234,000 per month.

Perrottet said the vouchers would “boost the city economy, support jobs and bring fizz back to Friday in the city”.

However, the vouchers cannot be used for alcohol, tobacco or gambling.

A slowdown in the growth in new Covid-19 cases across the UK has raised hopes that the third wave might be shorter and shallower than previously feared, as vaccines continue to blunt the force of the Delta variant first identified in India. A further 10,476 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK on Friday, a rise of 29 per cent on a week ago, as 11 deaths were reported, down from 17 the week before.

The “reflation trade” that has dominated financial markets since the emergence of coronavirus vaccines last year has been pummelled after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly signalled a shift in its stance on inflation. Commodity prices have tumbled while long-dated US government bond prices raced higher. 

UK business is forecasting that output will regain its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2021, a year earlier than expected. In its latest forecasts, the business lobby group CBI said gross domestic product would bounce back by 8.2 per cent this year and grow 6.1 per cent in 2022, after plunging by 9.9 per cent last year.  

South Korea is on track to inoculate three-quarters of its 52m people against Covid-19 over the next three months as the vaccine rollout gathers momentum after early delays. Health officials have unveiled plans to expand jabs to the general public after inoculating 13m people two weeks ahead of schedule.  

Starbucks’ European business paid $183m in dividends to its US parent company despite incurring large losses as the coffee market suffered its first dip in growth in two decades during the pandemic. Pre-tax profit fell almost 40 per cent to $104m in the year to September 2020, according to company calculations.

The EU has lost a legal bid to force AstraZeneca to speed up delivery of Covid-19 vaccines. A court in Brussels criticised AstraZeneca for a “serious breach” of its contract but refused to impose a EU-mandated schedule that would have required the company to deliver 120m doses by June 30 or pay fines of €10 per dose per day.

CureVac’s chief financial officer said the company had not given up on its coronavirus vaccine despite disappointing results from trials, with hope remaining that the jab might be targeted at some parts of the population. Interim findings from the German company’s late-stage trial suggested the vaccine had only 47 per cent efficacy. 

Uefa has said it may need to move the final matches of Euro 2020 football tournament away from London. European football’s governing body said on Friday that it remains “confident” the semi-finals and final of the competition will be played at Wembley Stadium in July, but that “there was always a contingency plan.”

The Australian state of Victoria has said it would offer more than A$1m (US$750,000) to heritage railways forced to stop operations during the pandemic.

Beneficiaries would include the Bellarine Railway, Daylesford Spa Country Railway, Kerrisdale Mountain Railway, Mornington Railway, Puffing Billy, Red Cliffs Historical Steam Railway, Victorian Goldfields Railway, Walhalla Goldfields Railway and the Yarra Valley Tourist Railway.

“Victoria has the largest tourist and heritage tram and railway sector in the country,” said Ben Carroll, state public transport minister.

“Operators rely on the revenue they receive from running services and unfortunately like many tourism operators their operations were severely impacted last year.”

Actress Jessica Alba brought Hollywood glamour to Wall Street last month when Honest, the baby products start-up she co-founded, went public. But the Los Angeles-based company, which makes nappies and wipes marketed as eco-friendly, will need more than star power to sustain its earlier revenue growth. 

More babies would help. Since their debut, shares in Honest have given up most of their gains, trading near their $16 IPO price. Investors are right to be sceptical. Birth rates in the US have declined as would-be parents delay having kids. The pandemic has failed to reverse this trend. The baby boom that some predicted never materialised. Total births dropped to a 42-year low of 3.6m last year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

This presents a challenge for Honest, for which nappies and wipes accounted for 63 per cent of last year’s $300m of revenue. Hoarding and panic buying helped the company deliver 28 per cent growth in sales in 2020. But that starburst has faded as its first-quarter results revealed. 

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Malaysian insurer Axa Affin Life said it would double its Covid-19 fund to RM200,000 ($48,000), allowing policyholders to claim costs arising from Covid-19 infections, including vaccination-related complications or side effects.

The company said the extra coverage, at no cost, was intended to spur vaccination in the south-east Asian country, which has seen an increase in outbreaks of coronavirus infections.

“The recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the country has further prompted [Axa Affin] to continue reaching out to meet the immediate needs of its customers,” the insurer said.

The funds will be available either until August 2021 or when the fund is exhausted.

Policyholders can claim RM1,000 if quarantined in a government designated quarantine centre due to Covid-19, RM2,000 if quarantined in a government or private hospital or RM10,000 in the event of a Covid-19-related death, or admission to intensive care.

The insurer said it would pay RM2,000 to policyholders suffering a stroke owing to Covid-19 vaccination side effects.