China finds first COVID-19 cases among foreign athletes at test events

 China reported on Friday the first COVID-19 cases among foreign athletes at preparatory events for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Games, as stringent measures being put in place to control any outbreaks are put to the test.

Two lugers of the same nationality tested positive, said Huang Chun, an official of the Games organising committee.

Both have been transferred to quarantine hotels, he told a news briefing in the Chinese capital.

Beijing's vice mayor previously said the coronavirus would be one of the biggest challenges to the city's hosting of the Games.

A widespread outbreak related to the Games would hurt China's track record of containing clusters quickly, having elected to maintain a zero-tolerance approach towards COVID-19.

The Games will run from Feb. 4 until Feb. 20, with all participants subject to daily COVID-19 tests, and no international spectators. Athletes and other Games-related personnel will also be enveloped in a "closed loop" bubble.

"We will still let the person take part in training and activities related to the games, but (the individual) needs to go though strict health monitoring and COVID-19 testing every day," Huang said, referring to the first athlete who tested positive.

The individual will also stay in their room, eat and ride in vehicles alone, Huang told reporters.

The second case was a close contact of the first athlete, he said, without giving details on their nationality.

The announcement of the infections came on the heels of reports earlier this week of a crash by a Polish slider during a luge training session.

Polish slider Mateusz Sochowicz on Monday hit a closed barrier that should have been open on the Olympic track, leaving him with a fractured left kneecap and a cut to the bone on his right leg.

Additional safety measures were introduced at the Beijing Olympics Sliding Centre after the crash.

Sochowicz said his accident could have been far more serious had he not taken evasive action.

The 25-year-old also said the track team had been slow to react, and he had spent half an hour on the ice before being transported to hospital for surgery.

Yao Hui, director of venue management, told reporters at the same press conference that medical workers came to his aid within three minutes.

Sochowicz is to be discharged from hospital on Friday, Yao said.

https://news.trust.org/item/20211112100907-ogtdn/

Austria approves lockdown for unvaccinated

 Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced on Sunday that a lockdown for unvaccinated people will begin on Monday.

"We must raise the vaccination rate. It is shamefully low," Schallenberg told a news conference announcing the new measure.

People who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID will only be allowed to leave their homes for specific purposes, like going to a doctor, getting groceries, going to work — or getting vaccinated.

There will be random checks to ensure compliance, according to the decision from a meeting of Schallenberg and the heads of the country's state governments.

Schallenberg had announced on Friday that he was imposing the lockdown in two regions, Upper Austria and Salzburg, both among the places most impacted by the fallout of people choosing not to take the jab.  

At a separate press conference on Friday, Austrian Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein said the government would also introduce a vaccine requirement for people working in the health care industry, but didn't specify when the rules would go into effect.

Austria has lately seen a rise in the number of reported COVID cases. On Saturday, Austria recorded 13,152 new coronavirus cases, up from 11,798 a day before.

The seven-day infection rate stands at 775.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 528.8 a week ago and 316.4 two weeks ago. In comparison, the incidence rate is 277.4 in neighboring Germany, which has also sounded the alarm over rising numbers.

Around 437 people were being treated for the coronavirus in intensive care units in Austrian hospitals as of Friday. 

Although the government had planned to implement measures when the number of people being admitted to ICUs reached 600, Schallenberg said Friday that it was "not sensible to wait" any longer.

Unvaccinated people have already been barred from entering restaurants, hotels and events of more than 25 people.

With just 65% of the total population vaccinated, Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe.

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-austria-approves-lockdown-for-unvaccinated/a-59813093

Half of Beijing flights canceled as China capital tightens Covid restrictions

 About half the flights to and from Beijing’s two airports were canceled Tuesday as the capital tightened travel restrictions after a trickle of new cases in the city and other parts of the country in the last few days.

That’s according to aviation industry data site VariFlight, which tracks about 800 to 1,000 flights each for Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport.

China has a strict “zero tolerance” policy for controlling the coronavirus.

Local authorities, especially in the capital city, are on high alert after a handful of locally transmitted coronavirus cases over the weekend indicated the latest spike in cases might be spreading beyond just a few regions. To be clear, the numbers pale in comparison to most major cities in the world.

Beijing’s health commission announced Monday that residents who left the city for business trips or leisure trips to areas with confirmed cases should “postpone” returning and stay where they are, according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese text. Residents should avoid leaving the city unless necessary, the commission said.

The official announcement followed anecdotes on Chinese social media over the weekend of people who weren’t able to book travel back into the capital city. It was not clear how many people were affected.

Shanghai Disneyland abruptly closed entry to new visitors on Sunday, Halloween, and more than 33,000 people who had been to the park since Saturday were tested for the virus. None tested positive, according to the city.

Critically for Beijing, the city is set to hold a high-level political gathering next week, and is gearing up to host the Winter Olympics in February.

Airport personnel contacted by CNBC said people coming from a city or county where a confirmed coronavirus case has been found cannot enter Beijing. Those coming from areas with no Covid cases need to present Covid test results from the last 48 hours and monitor their health for 14 days after entering the city.

China’s “zero tolerance” policy for Covid-19 means all travelers from overseas are required to undergo quarantines in designated hotels upon arrival in the country. For those wanting to enter Beijing, they must first complete a 21-day quarantine in other cities, the airport personnel said.

Mainland China reported 54 new locally transmitted cases for Monday, bringing the total number of current cases to just over 900, according to the National Health Commission. Beijing city reported 4 additional Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday morning.

Those figures are far smaller than those reported in other countries such as the U.S., with a daily coronavirus case count of over 80,000.

The highly contagious virus first emerged in China in late 2019. The country managed to contain the nationwide spread of the virus by the start of the second quarter last year, and has seen almost no deaths from the virus since the initial outbreak.

In the meantime, the virus has spread overseas in a global pandemic that has killed at least 5 million people as of Monday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/02/beijing-flights-cancelled-as-city-tightens-covid-travel-restrictions.html

Britain expected to extend coronavirus booster programme to under 50s

 The British government is expected to extend the COVID-19 booster programme to people under the age of 50 to drive down transmission rates as winter approaches, The Times reported.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is expected to give its approval on Monday to extending the rollout, the newspaper reported, adding the precise details of the age groups have not been confirmed.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Britain-expected-to-extend-coronavirus-booster-programme-to-under-50s-Times--37019456/

Retailers lose love for Asia: Snarled supply chains force manufacturing exodus to Balkans, LatAm

 Major clothing and shoe companies are moving production to countries closer to their U.S. and European stores, smarting from a resurgence in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in Vietnam and China that slowed or shut down production for several weeks earlier this year.

The disclosures come amid a massive shipping logjam that is driving up costs and forcing companies to rethink their globe-spanning supply chains and low-cost manufacturing hubs in Asia..

The latest example is Spanish fashion retailer Mango, which told Reuters on Friday it has "accelerated" its process of increasing local production in countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Portugal. In 2019, the company largely sourced its products from China and Vietnam. Mango told Reuters that it would "considerably" expand the number of units manufactured locally in Europe in 2022.

Similarly, U.S. shoe retailer Steve Madden on Wednesday said it had pulled back production in Vietnam and had shifted 50% of its footwear production to Brazil and Mexico from China, while Rubber clogs maker Crocs said last month it was moving production to countries including Indonesia and Bosnia.

Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, Morocco and Turkey were some of the countries drawing new interest from clothing and shoe producers, though China continues to produce a large share of the apparel for U.S. and European clothing chains.

"We are seeing a lot of growth in freight and trucking activity in the former Soviet Republics ... a big rise in Hungary and Romania," said Barry Conlon, chief executive of Overhaul, a supply chain risk management firm.

In Turkey, apparel exports are expected to reach $20 billion this year, an all-time high, driven by a spike in orders from the European Union, Turkey's Union of Chambers Clothing and Garment Council data showed. In 2020, exports totaled $17 billion.

In Bosnia & Herzegovina, exports of textiles, leather and footwear amounted to 739.56 million marka ($436.65 million) in the first half of 2021, higher than the same period in 2020.

"Many companies from the European Union, which is our most important trading partner, are looking for new suppliers and new supply chains in the Balkan market," said Professor Muris Pozderac, secretary of the association of textile, clothing, leather and footwear in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

In Guatemala, where Nordstrom significantly shifted its private-label volume production in 2020, clothing exports were a touch over $1 billion as of the end of August this year, up 34.2% from 2020 and even 8.8% higher than in 2019.

To be sure, many companies are also still heavily reliant on Vietnam, where recent production stoppages have caused significant disruptions. Vietnam's government said in October that it will fall short of its garment exports target this year, by $5 billion in a worst-case scenario, due to the impacts of coronavirus restrictions and a shortage of workers.

Factory inspections in Vietnam - a proxy for retailer manufacturing orders - fell 40% in the third quarter versus the second quarter, with production during those months quickly moving to Bangladesh, India and Cambodia. Inspection rates in Vietnam were still hovering at lower levels in the fourth quarter, with a small uptick seen in late October, said Mathieu Labasse, vice president of QIMA, a supply-chain quality control and auditing firm that represents more than 15,000 brands.

Apparel maker VF Corp and outdoor gear maker Columbia Sportswear were among companies that warned that there would be delays in fall and spring collections and in some cases insufficient size assortments.

Michael Kors handbags maker Capri Holdings said on Wednesday that it would not have the inventories it wanted for the holiday season, while athletic gear maker Under Armour said on last Tuesday it was canceling purchase orders from Vietnam just to help get "the factories get back up and caught up."

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/COLUMBIA-SPORTSWEAR-COMPA-8859/news/Retailers-lose-love-for-Asia-Snarled-supply-chains-force-manufacturing-exodus-to-Balkans-LatAm-No-36951097/

DeSantis to convene special session to block vaccine mandates

 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will convene a special session of the state legislature starting Monday to pass bills aimed at blocking COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

DeSantis called the special session on Oct. 21 to ban the mandates being pursued by the Biden administration, which he framed as an effort to protect unvaccinated employees.  

According to The Washington Post, four bills are under consideration that would increase the fines for businesses, local governments and other companies that require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as well as schools that require mask wearing. 

“At the end of the day, you shouldn’t be discriminated against based on your health decisions,” DeSantis said at a press conference last month announcing the special session. 

“We want to provide protection for people. We want to make it clear that in Florida your right to earn a living is not contingent upon whatever choices you’re making in terms of these injections,” he added. 

Republicans across the country have fought back against vaccine mandates for employees and health care workers but few as aggressively as DeSantis.

Earlier this month, DeSantis announced that he was suing the Biden administration over its mandates.

In September, DeSantis announced that cities and counties in Florida that require COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of employment will be fined $5,000 per violation.

The governor's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, also opposes vaccine and mask mandates.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/581497-desantis-set-to-convene-special-session-to-block-vaccine-mandates

CDC Has Stopped Talking About Herd Immunity

 In case you haven't noticed, the CDC no longer looks as concerned with herd immunity as it once did. 

In what should come as no surprise to anyone watching the Covid related narrative closely (or those who have been watching the herd immunity narrative from the get-go), the CDC has "set aside herd immunity as a national goal," according to a new report from the LA Times.

What used to be a relatively simple concept has now turned into something "very complicated", according to Dr. Jefferson Jones, a medical officer on the CDC’s COVID-19 Epidemiology Task Force.

“Thinking that we’ll be able to achieve some kind of threshold where there’ll be no more transmission of infections may not be possible,” he said to a panel that advises the CDC last week.

While Jones says vaccines are effective against Covid, "even if vaccination were universal, the coronavirus would probably continue to spread," the report says. 

Ergo, herd immunity seems to now be off the table. “We would discourage” thinking in terms of “a strict goal,” Jones said. 

Dr. Oliver Brooks, a member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices told the L.A. Times that “we do need to increase” the uptake of Covid shots. 

Brooks admitted that the focus moving away from herd immunity “almost makes you less motivated to get more people vaccinated.”

He also told the L.A. Times he was worried that if the CDC backs off its herd immunity target, it'll prevent them from reaching their vaccine targets. 

It marks the latest of many 180 degree changes of heart on issues related to Covid by the CDC. 

“It’s a science-communications problem,” Brooks said, making sure to reiterate that the agency was still following "the science". 

“We said, based on our experience with other diseases, that when you get up to 70% to 80%, you often get herd immunity,” he said about Covid. “It has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and it’s repeatedly challenged us. It’s impossible to predict what herd immunity will be in a new pathogen until you reach herd immunity.”

He concluded: “We want clean, easy answers, and sometimes they exist. But on this one, we’re still learning.”

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, added that herd immunity was "never as simple as many Americans made it out to be".

Sure, Kathleen. Even Americans like Dr. Fauci?

“Humans are not a herd,” Jamieson told the LA Times. 

Raj Bhopal, a retired public health professor at the University of Edinburgh, added: "It’s very hard to convey uncertainty and remain authoritative. It’s a pity we can’t take the public along with us on that road of uncertainty.”

Tell that to everyone that's been listening to "the science" and the "official" narrative for the last 18 months.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/all-sudden-cdc-has-stopped-talking-about-herd-immunity