(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Lack of vaccination passport, testing threaten Japan’s reopening
Japan’s lack of a vaccination passport and limited testing capacity is threatening ambitions to reopen the economy at a crucial year-end period when restaurants earn up to a half of their annual revenue and travel agencies are at their busiest.
This means businesses, wary of another pandemic wave through winter, are not rehiring laid-off staff or ordering more supplies until they know more about what the reopening scheme will look like and how long they can stay open. In the absence of a unified database of vaccinations, local authorities have been largely left to fend for themselves, creating a patchwork of rules and compliance schemes.
Northern Chinese city in soft lockdown amid latest outbreak
China reported nine new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases for Oct. 18, the highest daily tally since the end of September, with a northern border city enforcing a soft lockdown to contain infections.
Erenhot city in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, adjacent to Mongolia, advised its 76,000 residents on Monday not to step out of their residential compounds unless for necessary matters. It has reported a total of two local cases as of Tuesday morning since Oct. 13.
Latvia announces four weeks of lockdown as cases spike
Latvia announced a COVID-19 lockdown from Oct. 21 until Nov. 15 to try to slow a spike in infections in one of the least vaccinated European Union countries. Only 54% of Latvian adults have been fully vaccinated, well below EU average of 74%, EU figures show.
Only essential manufacturing, construction and critical jobs will be allowed to continue in person with a curfew in place from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Latvian government cancelled most planned hospital operations last week amid an increased need for beds and staff as COVID-19 cases climb.
WHO says it ‘cannot cut corners’ in approving India’s Covaxin shot
The World Health Organization on Monday asked for further data from India’s Bharat Biotech to consider the company’s request for an emergency-use listing for its COVID-19 shot, saying the WHO could not “cut corners” in making a decision. Without a WHO nod, the two-dose Covaxin is unlikely to be accepted as a valid vaccine around the world and would complicate travel plans for tens of millions of Indians who have taken it.
Bharat Biotech, which developed Covaxin with an Indian state research body, started sharing data with the WHO from early July. The vaccine was given emergency-use authorisation in India in January even before the completion of a late-stage trial, which later found the shot to be 78% efficacious.
One in three UK music jobs wiped out by COVID, report says
The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out one in three jobs in the UK music industry, a trade body said on Tuesday, as it called for government support to help the sector recover. UK Music called on the government to introduce tax incentives and employment-boosting measures, and to help musicians and crew deal with the paperwork and extra costs involved in touring mainland Europe after Brexit.
It said it also wants a permanent reduction in the value-added tax (VAT) rate on tickets and live music events, more funding and support for music exports as well as funding for music education and for the self-employed.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh)
