Total Covid-19 cases
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99,672,717Deaths
2,140,260Turkey's central bank boss vows to keep rates high to control inflation
Laura Pitel in Ankara
Turkey’s central bank chief vowed to “decisively” keep interest rates high as he stuck to his guns on a pledge to bring down inflation after a series of broadsides from president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish leader has repeatedly expressed his dislike for high rates in recent weeks after the bank’s governor, Naci Agbal, lifted the bank’s policy rate to 17 per cent in an effort to tackle double-digit inflation and stabilise the Turkish lira.
Mr Erdogan’s claim this month that Turkey would “get nowhere” with high rates has prompted concern among domestic and international investors that the president could seek to interfere - as he has several times in the past - in monetary policy.
Mr Agbal insisted at a news conference on Thursday that the bank would maintain a hawkish stance "for a long time" as he stuck by the bank’s previous forecast that inflation would fall to single digits by the end of this year, reaching 9.4 per cent.
He vowed that the bank’s stance would be “decisively maintained” until the bank met its official 5 per cent target - a goal he said that the bank planned to reach in 2023 - and suggested that rates could be raised further if necessary.
The governor, who was appointed in November after Mr Erdogan fired his predecessor, thanked a group of business groups who this week made a rare public statement backing the central bank’s efforts to tackle inflation.
Mr Agbal said that the bank planned to launch a campaign to “create awareness” of the importance of price stability and urged everyone to "have faith" in its plan.
Inflation stood at 14.6 per cent in December, according to official data.
England lockdown starts to suppress Covid-19, study suggests
Anna Gross
There are tentative signs that the lockdown in England is beginning to curb coronavirus transmission, according to a closely watched study, although stubbornly high infection rates will continue to strain the healthcare system.
The React-1 study, led by Imperial College London, concluded that prevalence of the virus had started to flatten last week, with initial indications of a small decline.
Researchers estimated that the reproduction number R, which measures the average number of people one individual infects, was between 0.92 and 1.04, with a central estimate of 0.98 — suggesting that the rate of infection is close to stable or falling slightly.
The findings were based on an analysis of 167,600 nose and throat swabs from a representative sample of the English population between January 6 and 22.
Professor Paul Elliott, one of the co-leaders of the study, said the data was “going in the right direction, probably, but not fast enough”.
“We really need to get the prevalence down more quickly because the pressure on the NHS is really extreme at the moment,” he said, adding that the R number was significantly lower at the tail-end of the first lockdown last year.
Read more here.
Diageo defies expectations of sales fall as at-home drinkers buy tequila
Judith Evans
Surging demand for tequila and bourbon from US consumers helped Diageo to push up underlying net sales in the six months to December, as the drinks maker defied expectations of declining revenues.
The maker of Johnnie Walker whisky, Smirnoff vodka and Guinness said net sales growth, measured on an organic basis, was 1 per cent in the half-year period, defying expectations of a 4.6 per cent drop.
That was aided by strong sales of Don Julio and Casamigos tequilas and Bulleit bourbon through US retail stores, the company said, along with a recovery in China.
In North America, its largest market, sales jumped 12.3 per cent on an organic basis despite the coronavirus pandemic, driven by an 80 per cent rise in tequila sales - a performance that analysts at RBC Capital Markets called “extraordinary”.
Operating profit was down 8.3 per cent to £2.2bn from a year earlier, however. Margins were squeezed with fewer sales through higher-margin channels such as bars and travel retail, as the pandemic forced consumers to stay at home.
EasyJet to fly one-tenth of usual schedule as restrictions tighten
Philip Georgiadis in London
EasyJet expects to fly a tenth of its normal schedule in the first three months of the year as tightening restrictions on travel deepen the crisis in aviation.
The low-cost airline said customers were holding off booking flights because of uncertainty over when tighter rules on international travel will be eased. Meanwhile Wizz Air, the low-cost Hungarian carrier, also demonstrated it is not immune to the travel restrictions in its third-quarter earnings statement on Thursday.
The outlook for European airlines has darkened in recent days, and concerns over whether tourism will return for the summer season have added to the strain facing the industry.
EasyJet forecasts it will fly "no more" than 10 per cent of 2019's schedule between January and March, down from the 18 per cent it flew between October and December.
Revenue fell 88 per cent in the final quarter of 2020 to £165m, but the carrier said it has made "material progress" cutting costs and forecasts that it would burn £40m a week if planes were fully grounded.
Like every other major European airline, easyJet's finances have been stretched to near breaking point over the past year.
The carrier slumped to a loss of £1.3bn in the 12 months to the end of September, the first in its 25-year history.
The airline has built up a wall of capital to help see it through the collapse in passenger numbers, and said it had unrestricted access to about £2.5bn of liquidity at the start of this week.
Wizz Air, which has its eye on using the pandemic to fuel expansion across western Europe, reported revenues fell more than 75 per cent to €150m in the last three months of 2020, and said it is focused on "protecting liquidity".
Italy crisis sparks EU recovery concerns
Miles Johnson in Rome and Sam Fleming in Brussels
Italy, a country that has seen 66 governments since the second world war, is wearily accustomed to political uncertainty.
Yet the instability caused by the resignation of prime minister Giuseppe Conte this week comes at an unusually delicate moment.
Not only is Italy battling the Covid-19 pandemic and a severe recession, but it is also in the middle of drawing up ambitious plans to relaunch the country’s economy by spending €200bn in grants and loans from the EU’s recovery fund.
Read more here
US agriculture department halts debt collections
Cows pasture on a family farm near Wheaton, Kansas
George Russell in Hong Kong
The US Department of Agriculture on Wednesday announced the temporary suspension of past-due debt collections and foreclosures for distressed borrowers due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The department said the decision would apply to more than 12,000 Farm Service Agency borrowers, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the total of 129,000 farmers, ranchers and producers to whom it lends.
“USDA will temporarily suspend non-judicial foreclosures, debt offsets or wage garnishments,” the department said in a statement.
It would also stop referring foreclosures to the Department of Justice.
The decision would affect three main types of loans. Those under the Farm Ownership scheme help producers buy or expand their properties.
The Farm Operating scheme lends for livestock and equipment, while Farm Storage Facility loans help with construction of cold or dry storage facilities.
Lebanon hospitals overwhelmed in pandemic
Chloe Cornish in Beirut
At dawn on Sunday, the moment that intensive care director Georges Juvelekian was dreading finally arrived. His Beirut hospital ran out of breathing support devices called BiPaps. It fell to his colleague to choose which of two patients to treat with one available machine.
As Saint George Hospital’s ethics committee chair, Dr Juvelekian had drawn up a protocol eight months ago on “how to allocate scarce resources”. Back then, Lebanon’s coronavirus outbreak was contained — he expected the policy to gather dust.
But now, for the first time, one of Lebanon’s three largest university hospitals did not have the equipment it needed to help keep someone alive. The country’s medics say they are making life-or-death decisions about patients as coronavirus cases surge.
Read more here
Asia stocks drop after Wall Street sell-off
Traders follow market moves at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday
Thomas Hale and Tabby Kinder in Hong Kong
Equities across the Asia-Pacific region dropped after Wall Street stocks suffered their worst day since October, as fears over the impact of new coronavirus strains and high valuations hit investor sentiment.
Japan’s benchmark Topix dropped 1.1 per cent in early trading on Thursday, while in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 lost 2.2 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which hit multi-year highs earlier this week, weakened 0.9 per cent and the CSI 300 of Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed shares fell 1.3 per cent.
The wave of investor pessimism in the region came after US stocks were hit by a combination of new fears over the spread of Covid-19 and elevated equity prices.
The S&P 500, which has rallied powerfully since March, when the pandemic first pummelled global markets, fell 2.6 per cent on Wednesday after having notched a record high earlier in the week. S&P 500 futures edged down 0.1 per cent during Asian trading.
“Investors should monitor, but not fear, the risk of a correction,” said Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
He added that JPMorgan was “still constructive on the global economic fundamentals” over the next 12-18 months. That should support equities, emerging market debt and corporate credit but Mr Hui suggested investors “should take a more diversified approach”.
Philippines approves AstraZeneca’s vaccine
George Russell in Hong Kong
The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration on Thursday granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, as Johnson & Johnson prepared a clinical trial in the country for its candidate.
The vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, is the second vaccine to be authorised for use in the south-east Asian country after Comirnaty, produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.
“After a thorough review of the currently available data by our medical and regulatory experts, the FDA is granting an emergency use authorisation to the Covid-19 vaccine of AstraZeneca,” Eric Domingo, the agency’s director-general, said in a virtual briefing.
Separately, J&J will conduct Phase 3 clinical trials of its vaccine candidate in the Philippines, a municipal official said on Thursday.
Bacolod city administrator Em Ang said the city’s emergency services staff members were briefed on the trial by J&J’s trial chief.
“They are currently recruiting volunteers for the pivotal Phase 3 trials of the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine,” Mr Ang wrote in a Facebook post.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a subsidiary of J&J based in Belgium.
Switzerland to pay for asymptomatic testing
George Russell in Hong Kong
The Swiss government said on Wednesday it would pay for Covid-19 tests for asymptomatic people, in a bid to control outbreaks in the country.
The nation’s Federal Council also shortened quarantine to seven days from 10 if a person returns a negative test.
“The federal government will now pay for persons without symptoms to be tested so that those who are particularly vulnerable can be better protected and local outbreaks of infection can be contained early on,” the council said in a statement.
“Furthermore, the federal government will now cover the cost of pharmacies carrying out vaccinations,” the council added.
Vietnam reports 80 cases in new outbreak
A woman walks past a billboard for the Communist party congress in Hanoi
John Reed in Bangkok
Vietnam has reported its first local Covid-19 transmissions in nearly two months, bringing a swift response from its government to contain the outbreak, which coincides with a high-profile national congress at which the ruling Communist party is choosing new leaders.
Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre newspaper on Thursday reported there were more than 80 new cases of the strain of the virus first found in the UK.
Earlier on Thursday prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held an “urgent meeting” on Covid-19, state media reported, after an initial two infections were found in Hai Duong and Quang Ninh province, both in northern Vietnam.
A Vietnamese woman from Hai Duong tested positive earlier this month for the new strain upon arriving in Japan, alerting authorities to undertake contact tracing in places where she lived and worked.
Vietnam’s success in containing the pandemic starting in April 2020 allowed its economy to bounce back from the first wave of the pandemic, and it was one of the world’s few economies to show positive growth of more than 2 per cent last year.
Vaccines offset Asia sovereign risk, says S&P
George Russell in Hong Kong
Most Asia-Pacific sovereign credit ratings are solid enough to be unaffected by the continuing coronavirus pandemic, an agency said on Thursday.
A report by S&P Global Ratings said that while the pandemic remains the most important risk facing the region, the successful development of several vaccines brings optimism.
“We expect budget deficits to narrow markedly for many sovereigns in the region either in 2021 or 2022,” said credit analyst Kim Eng Tan.
However, achieving a level of vaccination high enough to stop the disease may not happen anytime soon. In the meantime, rebounds in infection rates could weaken credit metrics further.
“Some of these forecasts may prove optimistic if governments are unable to keep infection rates at reasonable levels,” Mr Tan added.
He said new variants of Covid-19 that make existing vaccines ineffective poses a further risk. “In this scenario, a sustained improvement of sovereign credit metrics will be pushed further out by more than a year.”
S&P said there were other risks to sovereign credit quality, including a slowdown in Chinese economic growth if the export and investment-driven recovery in the country is not followed by stronger consumer demand.
UK carmakers braced for more job losses
Peter Campbell in London
Britain’s car industry has warned that 10,000 motor manufacturing job losses last year were the tip of an “iceberg” facing the sector, after UK plants suffered their worst year since 1984.
Output from car plants fell by 29 per cent to 920,928, the first time the industry has dropped below the 1m mark since 2009, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show.
The UK’s car industry has been stung by the pandemic, with factories and showrooms forced to close for months on end across Europe because of the virus.
Read more here
Two NZ cases ‘have South Africa variant’
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
New Zealand has said two people who tested positive for the virus after leaving quarantine have the variant first discovered in South Africa as authorities examine links to an isolation hotel.
The two people stayed at the same quarantine hotel in Auckland as a woman, known as the Northland case, who contracted the B.1.3.5.1 variant from a fellow arrival staying on the same floor.
“It appears these cases have a link to the managed isolation facility at the Pullman Hotel,” the health department said, adding that further investigation would determine the lineage.
New Zealand requires arrivals to quarantine for 14 days in designated hotels.
The Northland case was the first locally transmitted infection in New Zealand for months when it was reported earlier this week, underscoring the challenges of stopping the virus at the border.
The strain first discovered in South Africa is thought to be 50 per cent more transmissible than other variants.
As a result of the discoveries, Australia has extended the suspension of quarantine-free travel for arrivals from New Zealand by a further 72 hours.
Australia has recorded 11 days of no local transmission within the country.
Philippines posts 8.3% GDP contraction in Q4
April San Juan and her son sit behind a plastic Covid-19 barrier during a medical check-up at a Manila health centre
John Reed in Bangkok
The Philippines posted an 8.3 per cent economic contraction in the fourth quarter, resulting in a full year decline of 9.5 per cent, the country’s statistics authority said on Thursday, as lockdowns took their toll on what was one of south-east Asia’s fastest growing economies.
The full-year result was at the lower end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic team’s earlier projections, and marks the first time the country reported shrinking annual gross domestic product growth since 1998, during the Asian Financial Crisis.
Strict restrictions on movement and businesses imposed by Mr Duterte and other Philippine officials have failed to contain infections, while immobilising many key industries. The country also saw strong tropical cyclones in the fourth quarter that hit agricultural output.
The Philippines has been the second-hardest-hit country by the pandemic in south-east Asia after Indonesia, reporting more than half a million coronavirus cases and more than 10,000 deaths to date.
“The Philippines saw another lacklustre rebound ... and big improvements will be hard to come by in the quarters ahead,” said Alex Holmes, emerging Asia economist at Capital Economics.
US agency to track Covid-19’s neurological effects
George Russell in Hong Kong
The US National Institutes of Health has launched a database to track neurological symptoms associated with Covid-19.
NIH said the database would collect information about neurological symptoms, complications and outcomes as well as the effects of Covid-19 on pre-existing neurological conditions.
The data would be maintained by NYU Langone Health in New York City.
“We know that Covid-19 can disrupt multiple body systems but the effects of the virus and the body’s response to Covid-19 infection on the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscle can be particularly devastating,” said Barbara Karp, programme director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Such effects can contribute to persistent disability even after the virus is cleared, she said.
“There is an urgent need to understand Covid-19-related neurological problems, which not uncommonly include headaches, fatigue, cognitive difficulties, stroke, pain, and sleep disorders as well as some very rare complications of serious infections,” Dr Karp added.
Thailand set to reopen schools and entertainment
John Reed in Bangkok
Thai authorities are poised to reopen schools and ease Covid-19 restrictions on nightlife and restaurants in Bangkok and three provinces, in a sign of growing confidence that a wave of cases traced to migrant workers and Thais arriving from Myanmar is coming under control.
Thailand’s Centre for Covid-19 Administration on Wednesday recommended allowing schools to reopen, restaurants to resume serving alcohol and boxing matches to be allowed without spectators in Bangkok and three provinces of the country’s central coast that have seen the biggest spike in new cases since November.
Samut Sakhon, the centre of the new outbreak west of Bangkok, will remain under stricter controls, with schools still closed, but flea markets, restaurants, department stores and factories allowed to resume trading.
The measures are expected to be approved at a meeting presided over by Prayuth Chan-ocha, prime minister, on Friday.
Australia’s Lowy Institute this week ranked Thailand as having the world’s fourth-best response to the pandemic – after New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan – and the country has reported just over 15,000 cases and 76 deaths from the disease to date.
However, the introduction of health restrictions and closing of the country to international travel since March 2020 have hurt hospitality industries badly, including in Bangkok, which before the pandemic was one of the most visited cities in the world.
China locally transmitted cases fall to 3-week low
Passengers board a flight from Shanghai to Wuhan on Wednesday
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
Health authorities in China reported 41 locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, the lowest level since early January.
The number of Covid-19 cases fell for a third day, dropping to the lowest since January 8, suggesting control measures have slowed a series of outbreaks that were the largest since the pandemic began.
China has rolled out mass testing and travel restrictions in multiple cities in the north of the country to stem the spread of the virus ahead of the lunar new year holiday.
Heilongjiang, a province bordering Russia, reported 28 new cases, while neighbouring Jilin reported nine new cases.
Hebei, which locked down tens of millions of people earlier this month and launched multiple rounds of mass testing to control outbreaks, recorded three new Covid-19 cases, the lowest one-day tally since early January.
Beijing reported no new cases for the first time in two weeks.
Authorities said on Wednesday that arrivals to the capital from low-risk areas must produce a negative test result before entering the city and self-report their health status for 14 days. Those from medium and high-risk areas must obtain permission before visiting Beijing.
A further 19 people tested positive for the virus in China but did not show any symptoms. China does not include asymptomatic cases in its official tally.
NZ, Vietnam and Taiwan win pandemic plaudits
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan have topped a performance ranking for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an analysis by an Australian think-tank.
The Lowy Institute found countries in Asia-Pacific had on average been most successful in containing the pandemic, while Europe, which was initially overwhelmed by the disease, showed the most improvement.
The Sydney-based think-tank tracked six measures of the pandemic across 98 countries: confirmed cases, deaths, cases per million people, deaths per million people, confirmed cases as a proportion of tests and tests per thousand people.
China was not included in the analysis because figures were not publicly available.
New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan have each managed to control local outbreaks of the virus through contact tracing and isolating those exposed to the infected people.
The three Asia-Pacific countries have also instituted strict quarantine measures to prevent the pathogen from returning.
The UK, which this week recorded 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, came in in 66th position, while the US ranked 94th, ahead of Iran, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.
The analysis found that countries with authoritarian models “had no prolonged advantage in suppressing the virus”.
Democracies, excluding the US and UK, “found marginally more success” than other forms of government.
US daily fatalities climb back above 4,000
Peter Wells in New York
The US on Wednesday reported more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for the first time a week, although hospitalisations continued to drop.
Authorities attributed a further 4,077 fatalities to coronavirus, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
It was the first time the US has reported more than 4,000 deaths in a day since a record 4,409 revealed on January 20.
That pushed the daily average over the past week to 3,256 a day, the highest level since January 18.
A woman wearing a face mask waits for a Covid-19 test in Los Angeles
The latest figure was underpinned by California (697), which reported its second-biggest daily increase in deaths on record, and Texas (467), which had its deadliest day of the pandemic.
Alabama (276) and Oklahoma (65) were the other states that reported record jumps in fatalities.
The number of people in US hospitals with coronavirus fell to 107,444. That marked the 16th day in a row of declining hospitalisations and also the lowest level since December 10.
An additional 151,675 new infections were reported by states. That was below the seven-day average of 159,986, which was the first reading under the 160,000-level since November 30.
Samsung Electronics warns of weaker earnings
Song Jung-a in Seoul
Samsung Electronics on Thursday warned of weaker first-quarter earnings, hit by the stronger local currency and the cost of new production lines, but was optimistic about its outlook for the remainder of the year, citing a recovery in overall global demand.
The mixed forecast came after the technology giant reported a 26.4 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit to Won6.45tn ($5.84bn).
That missed the Won7.3tn estimates compiled by Bloomberg, due to the won’s appreciation against the dollar.
“Looking ahead, Samsung Electronics expects overall profit to weaken in the first quarter of 2021,” the South Korean company said, citing strength in the won and costs associated with new production lines.
However, demand for mobile products and data centres remained solid.
“For 2021, the company expects a recovery in overall global demand but uncertainties persist over the possibility of recurring Covid-19 waves,” it added.
The company pledged to maintain its policy of returning 50 per cent of its free cash flow to shareholders over the next three years and slightly raise its dividend payments to Won9.8tn a year.
Shares of Samsung fell 1.87 per cent to Won84,000 on Thursday morning, while the benchmark Kospi composite index fell 2.1 per cent.
The share price has gained more than 40 per cent over the past year on expectations of an up-cycle in the semiconductor business.
Chicago to provide more diversity on health board
George Russell in Hong Kong
The city of Chicago on Wednesday moved to create more diversity on its health board, as part of efforts to reduce inequities underscored by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lori Lightfoot, the mayor, introduced an ordinance requiring that the board have “demographic diversity [and] members with a variety of skill sets ranging from community engagement to health equity”.
She added: “These changes will [help] the board guide policymaking effectively in an age of Covid-19 and deep health inequity.”
At least five of the board’s nine members would also need to have experience or education in public health.
“They will help ensure the board has a clear role, looks like Chicago and continues to evolve to face the challenges of the day, from the pandemic to racial injustice,” said Board of Health president Carolyn Lopez.
Russian capital to lift some entertainment curbs
A shop assistant wears a face shield as she arranges Dolce & Gabbana handbags in the Tsum department store in Moscow
George Russell in Hong Kong
Moscow will lift curbs on restaurants and bars operating at night, as Russia's president warned the pandemic would drag on for months.
Nightclubs, bars, discos, karaoke, bowling and other leisure and entertainment facilities will be able to operate later than 11pm from Thursday, provided they comply with capacity and social distancing restrictions, Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on Wednesday.
“These facilities still have to comply with the requirements for customers’ seating areas and standards established by Russia’s sanitary watchdog,” he said.
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he foresaw stricter measures in future to control the spread of Covid-19.
“The epidemic will drag out, its uncontrollable clusters will remain, it does not have borders,” Mr Putin said via videoconference at the World Economic Forum Davos Agenda Week.
“We should ... propose measures aimed at boosting efficiency of systems that monitor emergence of such diseases in the world,” he said.
Russia has recorded 3,774,672 coronavirus cases, including 71,076 fatalities.
Asia-Pacific stocks track Wall Street falls
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
Equities in Asia-Pacific pulled back on Thursday, following the biggest one-day drop of the year for US stocks as a risk-off tone prevailed.
In Japan, the Topix dropped 1.6 per cent, the Kospi in South Korea shed 2.3 per cent and the S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.3 per cent.
On Wall Street on Wednesday, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.5 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6 per cent.
Those moves came amid fears over new coronavirus variants and obstacles to President Joe Biden’s stimulus package.
Jay Powell, Federal Reserve chairman, warned on Wednesday that the battle against the economic impact from the pandemic was not over.
“We have not won this yet,” he said as the Fed held its main interest rate close to zero and its asset purchases steady.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.8 per cent.
Covid-19 ecommerce push boosts Facebook
Hannah Murphy in San Francisco
Facebook posted record quarterly revenues on Wednesday, surpassing analysts’ expectations as the company’s push into ecommerce during coronavirus lockdowns bore fruit.
Fourth-quarter revenues at the social media group rose 33 per cent to $28.1bn, beating analyst expectations of an increase to $26.4bn. Net income jumped 53 per cent to $11.2bn, or $3.88 a share.
In a statement, the company’s chief financial officer David Wehner said the business had been boosted by “the ongoing shift towards online commerce” and “the shift in consumer demand towards products and away from services”.
Read more here
California sees sharp rise in cases as jabs top 20m
Peter Wells and Matthew Rocco in New York
California reported its second-biggest daily increase in coronavirus deaths, offsetting the continued downward trend in hospitalisations and new infections.
Authorities on Wednesday attributed a further 697 fatalities to coronavirus, a daily tally second only to the 764 deaths reported last Friday. That pushed the state's death toll, which is the highest in the US, to 38,224.
More than 20m Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, as health officials push to accelerate the shot’s rollout to older people.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said health providers have administered doses to 20.7m people as of Wednesday.
Out of that group, 3.8m have been given two doses – a requirement for vaccines made by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer.
China lifts Apple to record quarterly profit
People try out the iPhone 12 at an Apple store in Shanghai
Patrick McGee in San Francisco
Apple reported its highest-ever net profit in the holiday quarter as revenues swelled way beyond forecasts to $111.4bn on the back of a 57 per cent rise in sales in China.
Net profits rose 29 per cent to $28.8bn, against forecasts it would rise 6.3 per cent, while earnings per share jumped 35 per cent to $1.68. Forecasters expected revenues of about $102bn.
All five of the $2.4tn company’s product categories grew at double-digit percentages, led by a 41 per gain in iPad sales and a 30 per cent climb in wearables, which include AirPods and the Apple Watch.
The iPhone, by far its biggest category, generated sales of $65.6bn, a 17 per cent gain that far outpaced analyst expectations of a 6 per cent rise.
Apple declined to offer any guidance for the March quarter, citing uncertainties around the pandemic.
UK experts defend 12-week delay for second dose
Clive Cookson in London
A month after the UK government decided to extend the gap between first and second jabs of the Covid-19 vaccines from three to 12 weeks to ensure maximum inoculation as soon as possible, Britain’s “first doses first” policy remains an outlier in global terms.
The UK’s decision prompted widespread concern that it might weaken the immune response to the two marketed vaccines that use groundbreaking mRNA technology made by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.
But almost every independent expert on vaccinology and virology in the UK contacted by the Financial Times has supported the 12-week interval policy formulated by the government’s medical advisers and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Read more here
Mexican billionaire Slim ‘recovering’
Jude Webber in Mexico City
Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim has been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 but is recovering well, his son-in-law Arturo Elías said.
On Monday, Carlos Slim Domit, the América Móvil boss’s son, had written on Twitter that his father was undergoing tests at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición, one of Mexico’s most prestigious state hospitals.
Mr Elías told the Financial Times that he had been in hospital since then, “but he’s doing very, very well, it’s just for monitoring and so on, he’s nearly over this”.
Mr Slim, who turns 80 on Thursday, suffered a massive haemorrhage following open-heart surgery in 1997 and contracted pneumonia but has since been in good health.
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After a two-day meeting on Wednesday, its first since Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump in the White House, the Federal Reserve held its main interest rate close to zero and its asset purchases steady as it sought to maintain a massive dose of support for the US economy as it suffers through a new slowdown.
A growing number of passengers are trying to board airlines using fake test results to get around immigration controls, the aviation industry has warned. “We are aware of numerous counterfeit test results which have cropped up in ... several countries,” the International Air Transport Association said on Wednesday.
US public health officials have changed their vaccination advice to make it easier for people to get a second shot, saying injections can be spaced up to six weeks apart, and can even be from a different manufacturer from the first shot if necessary, said Rochelle Walensky, head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Vaccination rates for the Covid-19 jab in England are much lower among non-white people aged 80 and above than their white counterparts, data show. By January 13, 42.5 per cent of elderly white people in England had received their first dose, compared with 20.5 per cent of black people and 29.5 per cent of South Asians.
AT&T posted a $13.8bn quarterly loss as the US telecoms group and owner of Warner Bros and HBO warned the Covid-19 crisis has hit most of its businesses, resulting in $650m in charges. The group recorded a $15.5bn charge on its pay-TV business, as customers abandon cable and satellite in favour of streaming.
French pharmaceuticals group Sanofi is to help accelerate production of the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine and add millions to the EU supply, as concern grows about the availability of doses around the world. Sanofi plans to start working on late-stage manufacturing of the vaccine in the middle of this year.
Tullow Oil has secured an additional month from its banks before it faces a test on a key lending facility as the embattled explorer and producer continues refinancing talks with its creditors. The company is still trying to recover from a torrid 2019 that resulted in hefty cuts to its production forecasts.
London’s Chelsea Flower Show will showcase dahlias rather than spring flowers and roses as the coronavirus pandemic has forced the garden show to be held in the autumn for the first time in its 108-year history. The 2021 show has been moved to September 21-26 from May 18-23, the Royal Horticultural Society said.
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