Covid-19 Pandemia: live updates and news from January 31, 2021

Photographer: Sarah Silbiger / Bloomberg

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The city of Perth, in western Australia, will be closed after a worker at a quarantine hotel in the city has tested positive, while reports in Hong Kong say the government may impose more minor blockages. South Korea extended the social distance measures for another two weeks.

Starting on Tuesday, travelers in the US will be Masks are mandatory, including on planes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and hitchhikers, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. Coronavirus infections in the U.S. continued to decline, with 162,390 new cases added on Friday.

Main developments:

• Global Tracker: Cases exceed 102.5 million; deaths exceed 2.2 million
• Vaccine Tracker: Over 94.4 million injections given worldwide
• In the face of a vaccine emergency, the EU made a enemy of all
• Covid mutations undermine optimism, even as more vaccines approach
• Computer shy elderly are put aside in the vaccination race
• As vaccine nationalism spreads in the face of scarce supplies: QuickTake

Sign up for a daily update on the virus from the Bloomberg prognostic team On here. Click on CVID in the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.

South Korea extends social distance (15:28 HK)

South Korea will extend the restrictions of social distance imposed during its worst spread of the coronavirus for another two weeks, after new infections resurfaced last week and reversed a downward trend. There were another 355 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country on Saturday, with six new deaths.

Perth, Australia, goes into blocking for a week (12h54 HK)

The city of Perth, in western Australia, will go into “total blockade” starting tonight for five days after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for what the authorities believe to be the highly transmissible British variant of Covid-19 .

The blockade imposes an order to stay at home, closes schools, pubs and churches, prohibits visitors to homes and makes masks mandatory when leaving home for essential reasons. There has been no case of community transmission in the state around Perth in almost 10 months.

State premier Mark McGowan announced the blockade and details of the positive case at a news conference on Sunday, explaining that the hotel security guard worked last week at a hotel with four positive cases from Covid-19. McGowan said he spoke to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other Australian leaders and asked them to stop traveling to the remote state.

More possible blocks for Hong Kong (12.13 pm HK)

There may be more blockades in Hong Kong soon, said Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung, according to a report published on Sunday by local media RTHK. Cheung He said the government’s goal is to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases to zero and could launch several operations to impose mandatory tests in the future.

Hong Kong has imposed stricter measures to stem the spread of the virus. Recently imposed short-term blockages in small areas of the city and mandatory tests carried out for all inhabitants.

Australia resumes flights from New Zealand’s Green Zone (10:15 HK)

Australia’s health minister said New Zealand’s green zone flights would resume this afternoon. New Zealand’s quarantine-free arrival program was suspended last week following a case of the South African variant of Covid-19 in Auckland.

Both nations’ governments are working to launch a two-way travel bubble later this year, even with New Zealand’s plans keep its border closed to much of the world for most of 2021.

Protesters interrupt vaccination site in Los Angeles (09:40 HK)

Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, which was transformed into one of the nation’s largest vaccination sites this month, was closed for almost an hour at 1:50 pm local time on Saturday because of an anti-vaccination protest, a city official said.

The protest was peaceful, according to the police department.

The demonstration occurred when the Greater Los Angeles area reported the highest number of daily deaths in about three weeks. LA County reported 316 new fatalities, bringing the total to 16,647. Cases increased from 6,918 to 1.1 million. LA and the rest of California are lowering the limits and will allow outdoor dining and some business to be resumed.

California surpassed the 40,000 Covid-19 death mark, with the addition of 638 deaths and 18,427 new cases on Saturday, according to the health department. on the Internet network. The state recorded more than 14,000 deaths in January alone.

Increasing number of companies in the UK facing bankruptcy (8h08, HK)

The number of UK listed companies at risk of insolvency it has doubled as restrictions designed to stem the spread of coronavirus continue to devastate the economy.

The UK will have to remain in confinement until the end of May in a scenario of better vaccines being 85% effective in stopping the transmission of the virus, the Daily Telegraph reported citing an article from the University of Warwick.

The newspaper was commissioned by the government’s Sage committee and viewed by the prime minister’s office. It also suggests that if Boris Johnson relaxed the blockade measures in mid-February – when the government is set to review the vaccine’s rollout – a third increase in infections and deaths would occur in April.

The UK reported 23,275 new cases on Saturday, more than 3,500 less than the previous seven days’ average and 30% less than the previous week. Another 1,200 people died in 28 days after a positive test, in line with the weekly average. More than 8.37 million people received their first vaccination.

Outbreak in Brazil shows signs of deceleration (17:19 NY)

The second wave outbreak in Brazil has slowed as new cases and deaths have decreased over the past week, according to the Ministry of Health Dice.

The country registered 58,462 cases on Saturday, closing the second week with a decline in new infections. Still, the number of cases is almost as high as the peak of last summer’s first wave. Total infections are approaching 8 million. Deaths declined compared to the previous week, with 1,279 new deaths recorded on Saturday. Brazil has the highest number of fatalities after the United States, with a total of 223,945.

Brazil will receive 10 to 14 million doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines from the international consortium Covax as of mid-February, the country’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

France’s cases increase slightly (14h38, NY)

France reported 24,392 new cases, a slight increase from the previous day and an additional 242 deaths from virus-related illnesses. The total number of fatalities is 75,862. This happened a day after the French government said it was giving itself a “chance” to avoid a third block, closing its borders to travelers outside the European Union and closing large shopping centers.

On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron insisted on shared responsibility for avoiding tougher measures. “I have faith in us,” said the French president in a tweet. “We will do everything we can to stop the epidemic together.”

Portugal Continues to Add Patients to the ICU (09h35 NY)