World Coronavirus Dispatch: Germans shun 'second-class' AstraZeneca vaccine

Thai Airways posts worst-ever $4.7 bn loss, Goldman Sachs' boss wants bankers back to their desks asap and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Germans shun AstraZeneca vaccine

Early January, many in Germany complained about the severe shortage of vaccines. A month-and-half later, Germans are complaining that they aren't getting the shot they want. Across the country, health workers and many others are refusing to sign up for the AstraZeneca jab, saying its the secondary option. Instead, Germans are preferring the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNtech. As a result, two weeks after the first delivery of 1.45 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Germany, only 270,986 have been administered, according to data collected by the health officals. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 113,025,730

Global deaths: 2,507,803

Nations with most cases: US (28,413,374), India (11,063,491), Brazil (10,390,461), United Kingdom (4,166,727), Russia (4,164,802).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Covid impact: Thai Airways posts worst-ever $4.7 bn loss

With the pandemic having devastated the aviation sector, Thai Airways posted its worst ever results in 2020. The carrier's loss grew 12-fold to $4.7 billion, from the previous year (2019). The company's total operating revenue plunged as much as 74 per cent during the period under review. It carried 76 per cent fewer passengers and 72 per cent less cargo by volume last year. The record loss led to the fall of shareholder's equity to negative levels. As a result, trading in the company was suspended on on the Stock Exchange of Thailand from Thursday morning. Read here

Vanuatu vaccine rollout to take until end of 2023

Vanuatu, an island nation in the pacific, will take two years from now to inoculate its population, despite bagging heavy losses due to tourism shutdown, a direct consequence of the pandemic. A country of 307,000 people, the government budget figures for the vaccine rollout forecast about 60,000 people being inoculated in 2021, just under 97,000 in 2022, and 161,000 in 2023. According to the health authorities, the first shots will be administered in April this year, but only the most vulnerable 20 per cent of the population will get a jab in the first phase. Read here

Goldman Sachs' boss wants bankers back to their desks asap

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, wants bankers at their office desks as soon as possible, saying the work from home syndrome is just an 'aberration' that must be corrected. While the bank operated successfully throughout the Covid crisis with less than 10 per cent of its 34,000 global staff working in the bank’s offices, the CEO dashed the hopes of any Goldman staff hoping to split their time between their homes and offices in the future. He said the work from home or hybrid working culture did not represent “a new normal” for the firm. Read here