- In the DM world, the US once again set new daily records with 68,518 and 66,193 new cases recorded on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Yesterday’s deaths were also high at 861 but still short of last week’s maximum of 1,173.
- Preliminary results suggested the vaccine developed by US company Moderna and US National Institutes of Health is safe and able to induce an immune response against the virus. Phase III clinical trials are expected to start on 27 July.
- Some Southern States are running out of ICU beds. In Florida, more regular hospital rooms are being turned into ICU-like facilities and in Texas a hotel will be turned into a surge hospital.
- Brian Kemp, Georgia’s governor, issued an order on Wednesday that nullified all local mask mandates.
- In the UK, on Tuesday, there were 1,240 new cases, a significant jump compared to Monday’s 537. However, Wednesday dropped back to 538. End of week data is now particularly important to assess whether the 4 July lifting of lockdown restrictions has accelerated the spread of the virus.
- In Spain, there were 875 cases on Wednesday. Outbreaks among agricultural workers in Catalonia were a major driver.
- In Australia, Victoria recorded 317 new cases in the past day. This represents the highest single day increase for an Australian state since the pandemic began. There was also an outbreak among Royal Melbourne Hospital’s staff while across Victoria more than 150 healthcare workers are in isolation.
- In EM, India experienced its largest single day increase in cases with 29,429 reported on Wednesday, bringing the total to almost 940,000 infections.
- Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun a Phase III clinical trial in Abu Dhabi, with the help of 15,000 volunteers.
- Singapore and Malaysia will gradually resume cross-border travel for essential business starting on 10 August. The two countries share a significant number of cross-border workers.
- In Hong Kong, the resurgence in cases led to the closure of Disney theme park less than a month after it reopened. People who travel from high-risk places will be asked to prove they don’t have the virus before they board on the flight to Hong Kong.
- Israel reported 1,828 new cases on Wednesday, breaking its previous single day record.
- Argentina also broke its previous record with 4236 new cases.
- In Brazil, there were 39,924 new cases yesterday. While not a record, the number is still large and marks one month of daily cases above 20,000. President Bolsonaro remained in self-isolation after he tested positive for the second time.
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Bilal Hafeez is the CEO and Editor of Macro Hive. He spent over twenty years doing research at big banks – JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and Nomura, where he had various “Global Head” roles and did FX, rates and cross-markets research.
Stefan Posea is a Research Analyst at Macro Hive. His research interests lie in macro-financial interactions and monetary policy analysis. Stefan graduated with an MSc in Economics at Birkbeck, University of London and previously held roles in M&A and the Public Sector.
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