COVID-19 Monitor

Last Updated:October 15, 2020

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Blue Jays strike out in bid to have home games played in Toronto (Toronto Sun) Published on: July 18, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business

Citing public safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government made it one strike and you’re out on Saturday, denying the Blue Jays bid to play its 30 home games at the Rogers Centre.
“Based on the best-available public health advice, we have concluded the cross-border travel required for MLB regular-season play would not adequately protect Canadians’ health and safety,” federal Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said in announcing the government’s decision.
It seems the biggest concern of the federal government was not the Blue Jays plan — an exhaustive 167-page document outlining its detailed plans for a cohort quarantine with visiting teams — but of the virus hotspots they would have to visit elsewhere.

‘Superspreading’ events, triggered by people who may not even know they are infected, propel coronavirus pandemic (Washington Post) Published on: July 18, 2020 | Category: Global Response

Most spread the virus to only a few people — or none at all. But studies show a small percentage transmit it with alarming efficiency.
More than 1,000 suspected clusters — ranging from the single digits to thousands — have been logged in a database compiled by a coder in the Netherlands.
Nearly all took place indoors, or in indoor-outdoor spaces.
Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland, and other experts have wondered if superspreading events could be the “Achilles’ heel” of the virus.

Exclusive: ‘Game-changing’ coronavirus antibody test passes first major trials (The Telegraph) Published on: July 18, 2020 | Category: Global Response

The hunt for a “game-changing” antibody test may be over after a version backed by the UK Government passed its first major trials with flying colours.
Ministers are drawing up plans to distribute millions of free pregnancy-style tests after they were shown to be 98.6 per cent accurate in secret human trials held last month, The Telegraph can disclose.
Until now, the only antibody tests approved in the UK have involved blood samples sent to laboratories for analysis, which can take days.

Exclusive: EU in talks with Moderna, BioNtech, CureVac to secure possible COVID vaccines (Reuters) Published on: July 18, 2020 | Category: Global Response

The talks follow a deal reached in June by four EU member states with AstraZeneca for the upfront purchase of 400 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, in principle available to all 27 EU nations.
The multiple talks confirm the bloc’s more assertive stance on procuring potential COVID-19 shots and drugs after early U.S. moves in securing promising treatments and vaccines.
More than 150 possible vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the pandemic. Of 23 in human clinical trials, at least three are in final Phase III testing – including candidates from China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech and AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Mnuchin Calls for Forgiving PPP Loans to Smallest Businesses (WSJ) Published on: July 17, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact

Congress should consider automatically forgiving Paycheck Protection Program loans taken out by the smallest U.S. businesses—and offer a second helping of aid to firms hard hit by the pandemic, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday.
Mr. Mnuchin, testifying before the committee, suggested the Trump administration would back a proposal from U.S. banks and others who have said the massive lending program should see loans under $150,000 automatically turned into grants.
That would account for 86% of the roughly 4.9 million PPP loans issued to date, and about 27% of the roughly $520 billion lent.

Mask-wearing, embraced by economists as key to the recovery, proves politically tricky for the Fed (Washington Post) Published on: July 17, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact, Global Response

A top Federal Reserve official is calling on Americans to wear masks, saying the practice can have crucial benefits for the future of the economic recovery, even as masks fan political flames normally avoided by the central bank at all costs.
“We’re confident that masks work, and if you want to reopen the economy faster, you want to get people back on planes and in stores,” Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said in an interview with The Washington Post.
The White House’s message on mask-wearing has been inconsistent, and there is no firm federal policy on it.

N95 Face Mask Makers Ramp Up Production to Meet U.S. Covid-19 Demand (WSJ) Published on: July 17, 2020 | Category: Global Response

The Covid-19 pandemic has unraveled the global supply chain for medical masks as manufacturers like 3M Co. and Honeywell International Inc. work in record time to stoke production at home.
The added capacity won’t exceed domestic N95 demand until this winter, the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates, when the U.S. will be producing 180 million N95 masks a month, up from around 45 million in January.
“The world over is now looking at technologies that are critical to their security or national health and well-being in a very different way than we did not that many months ago,” said Sara Greenstein, chief executive of Lydall Inc., which recently received $13.5 million in federal funding to expand its location that produces filters for masks.

What Wall Street’s results tell you about America’s economy (The Economist) Published on: July 17, 2020 | Category: Economic Impact

The first act of the impact of the coronavirus on America’s financial markets and banking system was characterised by panic. As firms scrambled to amass the cash they needed to survive shutdowns, they rushed to sell their holdings of securities and draw down their revolving credit lines.
The second act was less turbulent, as government support quelled the panic. Legislation passed in March bolstered unemployment benefits, set up a lending scheme for small businesses and provided a backstop for the Federal Reserve to buy up corporate debt.
More company bosses are now telling investors that they hold enough cash to cover two or three years’ worth of outgoings.
Newly recapitalised companies are paying back revolving loans. Of the $55bn drawn down from JPMorgan in March $39bn has since been repaid.

Coronavirus in Canada: These charts show how our fight to ‘flatten the curve’ is going (Maclean's) Published on: July 17, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business, Global Response

Alberta’s premier cites the province’s downward trend in COVID-19 cases despite lighter reopening restrictions than in other provinces. Alberta’s per capita rate of new cases has been rising since June, however, and is now the highest per capita rate of daily cases of any province in the country.
Steady or declining cases in Ontario and Quebec, combined with increasing trends in the West mean that the percentage of new cases has shifted.
Nunavut, which had recorded its first COVID-19 case at a mine near Pond River, is once again virus-free, after further testing revealed the person didn’t have the virus.

Russian group targeted COVID-19 vaccine research in Canada, U.S. and U.K., say intelligence agencies (CBC) Published on: July 16, 2020 | Category: Canadian Business, Global Response

A hacker group “almost certainly” backed by Russia is trying to steal COVID-19-related vaccine research in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., according to intelligence agencies in all three countries.
In response to CBC’s inquiries, CSE spokesperson Evan Koronewski did point to a recent threat bulletin that reported a Canadian biopharmaceutical company was compromised by a foreign cyber threat actor back in mid-April.
The three targeted countries said the Russian actors have been using custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail to attack a number of organizations globally during the pandemic.

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