Global coronavirus cases reach over 8M as outbreak expands in Latin America

Global cases of the novel coronavirus reached over 8 million on Monday, as infections surge in Latin America and the United States and China grapple with fresh outbreaks.
The United States still leads the world with the highest number of infections, about 2 million or 25% of all reported cases. However, the outbreak is growing fastest in Latin America, which now accounts for 21% of all cases, according to a Reuters tally.
Brazil’s COVID-19 cases and deaths have surged to make it the No.2 hot spot in the world.

The first case was reported in China in early January and it took until early May to reach 4 million cases. It has taken just five weeks to double to 8 million cases, according to a Reuters tally.
Global deaths stand at over 434,000 and have doubled in seven weeks.
Although Brazil’s official death toll from the pandemic has risen to nearly 44,000, the true impact is likely far greater than the data show, health experts said, citing a lack of widespread testing in Latin America’s largest country.

In the United States, which has over 116,000 deaths, testing is still ramping up months after the start of the outbreak.
After cases declined in much of the United States for weeks, many areas are now reporting record new cases and hospitalizations. Fears of a second wave in hard-hit states – or a failure to get a grip on the first wave in some others – have led health experts to plead with the public to wear masks, avoid large gatherings and maintain social distance.
China is also grappling with a resurgence of the virus just as its economy is trying to recover from shutdowns earlier this year. After nearly two months with no new infections, the capital Beijing has seen a spike in cases linked to the biggest wholesale food market in Asia.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cases/global-coronavirus-cases-reach-over-8-million-as-outbreak-expands-in-latin-america-idUSKBN23M34P

Royalty Pharma prices at top of range in second-biggest pharma IPO ever

Royalty Pharma RPRX.O on Monday sold $2.18 billion in stock after its U.S. initial public offering (IPO) was priced at the top end of the range, making it the second-largest pharmaceutical listing ever.
The deal is the latest in a string of successful U.S. IPOs in recent weeks and also signals that investor appetite for new stock is undiminished by recent market swings.
Royalty Pharma eclipses record label Warner Music Group’s WMG.O $1.93 billion IPO earlier this month as the largest U.S. listing so far this year, and is behind only Zoetis Inc (ZTS.N) as the largest pharma IPO of all time, according to data provider Dealogic.

It sold shares at $28 apiece, having last week set a target price range for the IPO of between $25 and $28 per share.
The company had aimed to sell 70 million shares but increased that amount by about 11% on the back of strong demand. The IPO values Royalty Pharma at $16.67 billion.

Royalty Pharma buys biopharmaceutical royalties and also helps fund new treatments. The company, which was founded in 1996, saw revenue rise 15% year on year for the first three months of 2020 to $500.9 million. Operating income fell 16% to $361.4 million in the same period.
Its investors include Adage Capital Management, General Atlantic and Nogra Group. The stock is due to start trading on Tuesday on the Nasdaq under the symbol RPRX. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup were among the lead underwriters on the IPO.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-royalty-pharma-ipo/royalty-pharma-prices-at-top-of-range-in-second-biggest-pharma-ipo-ever-idUSKBN23M37L

NYPD finds ‘no criminality’ by Shake Shack workers in case of sickened cops

The NYPD said it found no criminality by Shake Shack workers in connection with the hospitalization of three officers who drank milkshakes they believe may have been spiked with bleach, a police official said Tuesday.
“After a thorough investigation by the NYPD’s Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by shake shack’s employees,” Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said in a tweet early Tuesday.
The cops immediately noticed a funny taste when they sipped the drinks from the chain’s location on Broadway near Fulton Street shortly after 9 p.m. Monday, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
They were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were reported to be alert.
All three are assigned to the 42nd Precinct in The Bronx, but were on a detail in Manhattan at the time.
The NYPD’s Crime Scene Unit launched an immediate investigation at the restaurant.
Investigators recovered two of the cups that the officers threw out after trying to drink the shakes, the sources said.
Shake Shack responded to Harrison’s announcement in a tweet, saying: “Our team is working hard to get the full picture. In the meantime, we’re relieved to hear the officers are all okay.”
The Police Benevolent Association said in a warning letter to police officers earlier that the incident was “yet another serious safety issue.”
PBA President Patrick Lynch wrote that several officers who had been assigned to a protest detail stopped at the Shake Shack.
“At some point during their meal period, the (officers) discovered that a toxic substance, believed to be bleach, had been placed in their beverages,” he wrote.
“The contamination was not discovered until the (officers) had already ingested a portion of their beverages,” Lynch continued. “They are currently at the hospital receiving treatment and are expected to recover.”
He added: “When New York City police officers cannot even take meal without coming under attack, it is clear that environment in which we work has deteriorated to a critical level. We cannot afford to let our guard down for even a moment.”
https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/nypd-finds-no-criminality-by-shake-shack-workers-in-case-of-sickened-cops

Singapore scientists to start human trials of COVID-19 vaccine in August

Singapore scientists testing a COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. firm Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT.O) plan to start human trials in August after promising initial responses in mice.
More than 100 vaccines are being developed globally, including several already in human trials from the likes of AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Pfizer (PFE.N), to try and control a disease that has infected more than 8 million people and killed over 430,000 worldwide.
The vaccine being evaluated by Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School works on the relatively-untested Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which instructs human cells to make specific coronavirus proteins that produce an immune response.
“The fact that it replicates and triggers a very balanced immune response, both in terms of the antibody and killer cells – those are welcome properties,” Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the school’s emerging infectious diseases programme, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Antibodies stick to the virus and prevent it from infecting cells, while killer cells, another arm of the immune system, recognise infected cells and destroy them, he said.
The mRNA approach has not yet been approved for any medicine so its backers, which also include U.S. biotech firm Moderna (MRNA.O), are treading uncharted territory.
Because of that, Ooi said longer studies were needed to ensure its safety.
“The most optimistic case is that it’s about this time next year, that we will have a vaccine,” Ooi said.
Ooi is also working on a monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 and will begin safety trials on healthy people this week, before testing on COVID-19 patients in the coming months.

Ooi said potential deployment of the treatment could be faster than the vaccine, without giving an exact timeline.
Antibodies are generated in the body to fight off infection. Monoclonal antibodies mimic natural antibodies and can be isolated and manufactured in large quantities to treat diseases.
Tiny city-state Singapore has one of the highest infection tallies in Asia, with more than 40,000 cases, largely due to mass outbreaks in dormitories for its migrant workers.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-singapore-vaccine/singapore-scientists-to-start-human-trials-of-covid-19-vaccine-in-august-idUSKBN23N16V

Beijing and provinces impose travel curbs as coronavirus cases mount

Beijing banned high-risk people from leaving the Chinese capital and halted some transportation services on Tuesday to stop the spread of a fresh coronavirus outbreak to other cities and provinces.

China’s financial hub of Shanghai demanded some travellers from Beijing be quarantined for two weeks, as 27 new COVID-19 cases took the capital’s current outbreak to 106 since Thursday.
That makes it the most serious flare-up in China since February, stoking fears of a second wave of the respiratory disease which emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year and has now infected more than 8 million people worldwide.
“Beijing will take the most resolute, decisive, and strict measures to contain the outbreak,” Xu Hejian, spokesman at the Beijing city government, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The outbreak has been traced to the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food centre in the southwest of Beijing where thousands of tonnes of vegetables, fruits and meat change hands each day.
Beijing had designated 22 neighbourhoods as medium-risk areas as of Monday. Medium-risk areas are required to take stringent measures to block the potential entry of infection.
All high-risk groups in Beijing, such as people who are close contacts of confirmed cases, are not allowed to leave the city, state media reported on Tuesday, citing municipal officials.
All outbound taxi and car-hailing services have also been suspended. Some long-distance bus routes between Beijing and nearby Hebei and Shandong provinces were halted.
At least three shuttle bus services from Hebei and another from Inner Mongolia to Beijing’s Capital Airport, a major regional transit hub, were suspended.
Concerned about contagion risks, many provinces have imposed quarantine requirements on visitors from Beijing.
One person who flew from Beijing to southwestern Sichuan province and was suspected of having the disease has become a confirmed case, health authorities said on Tuesday. Local officials were rounding up 111 close contacts for observation.
Hebei reported four new cases, three of which had links to Xinfadi market.

On Tuesday, Shanghai started to require travellers from medium-to-high risk COVID-19 areas in China to be quarantined for 14 days.
“I’m so worried for Shanghai – just look at the new cases in Beijing,” said Wang Jiahe, 22, a local university student. “There is so much daily air and road traffic (between the cities).”
The stakes are high for Shanghai, which has been invited to host two Formula One races this season. U.S. airlines are also poised to resumes flights to the city.

‘WARTIME’ MODE

While not in a Wuhan-style lockdown, Beijing has gone into a “wartime” mode on a district level, with neighbourhoods instituting 24-hour security checkpoints, closing schools and banning wedding banquets.
Overnight, some parts of Beijing including the city’s old-style hutong neighbourhoods were fenced up, with some imposing single entry points.
“My neighbourhood has four or five entry ways, and when the controls came, only the southern entrance was open, and we now need to show our entry cards and have our temperatures taken,” said a man surnamed Zhao who lives in the northeast of Beijing.

“It’s a big neighbourhood with lots of office workers, so it is extremely inconvenient for a lot of people.”
However, in Huaxiang, the only neighbourhood currently designated as high-risk, some residents demanded officials impose more stringent contact tracing protocols.
Officials were relying on people to identify themselves as having visited Xinfadi 9 kilometres away, residents said.
“How can you hope for people to be honest enough to voluntarily report their links with Xinfadi?” said a male Huaxiang resident surnamed Yuan. “Since we’re in a ‘wartime’ mode, the local authorities should test everyone.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china/beijing-and-provinces-impose-travel-curbs-as-coronavirus-cases-mount-idUSKBN23N03Y

U.S. airlines threaten to ban passengers who refuse to wear masks

U.S. airline passengers who refuse to wear face coverings during the novel coronavirus pandemic could have their flying privileges revoked under tougher enforcement policies, the industry’s main lobby group said on Monday.

Major U.S. airlines may prevent anyone not wearing a mask from boarding and provide the coverings to passengers who have none. Once on board, however, flight attendants have had little power over passengers who remove the face covering.
Carriers with the stricter policy include Alaska Airlines (ALK.N), American Airlines (AAL.O), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways (JBLU.O), Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) and United Airlines (UAL.O), Airlines for America said in a statement.
The airlines will clearly inform passengers about their individual policies on face coverings before flying, followed by an announcement with specific details onboard, it said.
Each carrier will decide the appropriate consequences for passengers who fail to comply, up to and including being put on that airline’s no-fly list.
Airlines offer certain exemptions, including when people are eating or drinking.
American Airlines said its updated policy will go into effect on Tuesday, followed by United on Thursday.
United said those who do not comply will be placed on an internal travel restriction list that would prevent them from flying with the airline “for a duration of time to be determined pending a comprehensive incident review.”
Delta said it was doubling efforts to ensure customers are aware of, acknowledge and comply with its mask requirement, which it said is one of the most important ways to “stay safe while flying.”
The measures are expected to remain in place throughout the coronavirus crisis.
On Twitter, Senator Ed Markey, who has been vocal along with about a dozen other Democratic senators on airline issues during the pandemic, praised the tougher enforcement policies, adding “But we still need federal action immediately.”
The U.S. government has not mandated any airline safety requirements since the pandemic hit global aviation, despite calls from unions and industry.

“The federal government has completely abdicated its responsibility to keep the flying public and aviation workers safe during COVID-19,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said, adding “the industry alone cannot fix this.”
The administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Stephen Dickson, is expected to be questioned about masks at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-airlines/u-s-airlines-threaten-to-ban-passengers-who-refuse-to-wear-masks-idUSKBN23M2Y5

Allergan Gets FDA OK of Juvederm Volume XC for Chin Region

AbbVie Inc.’s Allergan Aesthetics unit on Monday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Juvederm Voluma XC filler for the augmentation of the chin region in adults over the age of 21.
Allergan said Juvederm Voluma XC is the first and only filler to receive FDA approval to improve the chin profile.
The clearance marks the second indication for the product, which the agency previously approved in 2013 for cheek augmentation to correct age-related mid-face volume deficit, and the fifth U.S. approved indication for Allergan’s Juvederm collection of fillers.
AbbVie completed its roughly $63 billion acquisition of Allergan in early May.

https://www.marketscreener.com/ABBVIE-INC-12136589/news/AbbVie-Allergan-Gets-FDA-OK-of-Juvederm-Volume-XC-for-Chin-Region-30773497/