| |
The Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron said that considering the current purchases the program is expected to expire at the end of this year. A British government spokesman told Reuters the UK is in advanced talks with Moderna to acquire the vaccine. The UK has decided not to participate in the EU’s COVID-19 vaccine program as it does not have an existing purchase contract with the company.
He called on state and local governments to prioritize teacher immunizations and urged schools to reopen all-day classrooms for classes. He announced that Merck & Co will help Johnson & Johnson with rivals produce a single-dose coronavirus vaccine to speed up the pace of vaccinations to ensure enough vaccines will be available by the end of May to all adult Americans. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases requested Johnson & Johnson for a vaccine that has been shown to be effective in preventing severe COVID-19 disease after the low efficacy rates of Pfizer Inc and Biontech SE Moderna Inc vaccines raised concerns that people might wait until they are vaccinated against it.
Bank of Israel is buying $22 billion worth of foreign currency in the first five months of the year, up from a planned $30 billion contained in a strong shekel. The central bank is also buying 20 billion shekels, just above the planned cap of 85 billion shekels, and $26 billion in government bond purchases to stabilize bond yields. Amir Yaron, Governor of the Bank of Israel, said that a start is expected by the end of this year at the current buying rate of quantitative easing (QE).
The Bank of Israel declared its main interest rate on Monday at 0.1% for the tenth month in a row, citing the risks to the economic recovery of the emerging delta variants of the COVID-19 pandemic. The central bank bought $22 billion worth of foreign currency in the first five months of the year, ahead of a planned $30 billion to keep a strong shekel in check.
Coronavirus cases are mounting as the country awaits the results of the US election, with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden being the favorite to become the next president after he is able to elect President Donald Trump. Against the backdrop of rising vaccination rates in Brazil and India – the epicenters of the new pandemics – the US, UK and other countries display declining charts of the daily new COVID-19 cases.
A new wave of infections has spread to Brazil and India, with Brazil reporting a new peak in daily cases and India reaching a five-month high. Many countries have reported an increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases every day in the past week. Experts attribute this to a new strain of the virus, as well as a slowdown in authorities and people taking precautions.
Pfizer has said it will continue with its vaccine until at least 164 cases of coronavirus are confirmed for its work. The statement was based on a small number of coronavirus infections compared to Pfizer’s vaccine trials. Preliminary results from Israeli health officials suggest that 90% of new infections are caused by the delta variant, said Ran Balicer, who heads a COVID-19 Panel in Israel.
In India, most cases of this variant have been detected in the UK. It’s not just the people of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa who don’t realize that their states lead the nation in new cases per capita. Wayne County, home to about 6,400 people in southern Iowa, has the highest case rate in the states, but public health administrator Shelley Bickel said that wearing masks is rare.
Health department head Shelley Bickel says it is appalling that older people, who are at higher risk, are shopping in grocery stores like this. Jenna Lovaas, Health Director for Jones County, Iowa, says that her district has the second-highest fall rate of the states because people there have decided not to make changes, such as have protection for themselves and others by wearing masks. As a result, Midwestern medical professionals are wondering how they can reverse the tide of people being treated for the coronavirus if their states “residents don’t take it seriously.
In the COVID economy, Counterpoint this week expects the global laptop market to peak in 2020, rising 9% to 17.3 million units. However, uncertainty persists as to whether COVID-19 will work from home and study from home until 2021 and partially until 2022.
