World Coronavirus Dispatch: Japan's Shinzo Abe resigns due to poor health

New reckoning for WHO vaccine plan as govts go it alone. South Korea doctors' strike escalates, how will cities transform post pandemic, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving premier, announced his resignation because of poor health on Friday, ending a stint at the helm of the world’s third-biggest economy.He said he had decided to step down now to avoid a political vacuum as the country copes with its novel coronavirus outbreak. Read more here...
 
Let’s look at the global statistics:                                            

Total Confirmed Cases: 24,481,164

Change Over Yesterday: 303,031

Total Deaths: 832,158

Total Recovered: 16,02,12,641
 
Nations hit with most cases: US (5,869,032), Brazil (3,761,391), India (3,387,500), Russia (977,730) and Peru (621,997)
 
Source:Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center
 
 
Economic confidence in the euro area continues to improve: A European Commission sentiment index rose for a fourth month, exceeding all but three estimates in a Bloomberg survey, and registered sustained gains in industry, retail trade and particularly services. Companies’ employment expectations rose, but job cuts in recent months across the continent meant consumers remain worried about the labor market. Read more here...

 
New reckoning for WHO vaccine plan as governments go it alone: The WHO will next year hear pledges of support for its plan for Covid-19 vaccines for all. The US, Japan, Britain and the EU have struck their own deals to secure millions of vaccine doses for their citizens, ignoring the UN body’s warnings that “vaccine nationalism” will squeeze supplies. Read more here...
 
South Korea doctors' strike escalates, Seoul imposes unprecedented coronavirus rules: The nation extended a back-to-work order for doctors and filed a complaint with police against at least 10 doctors it said have not abided by an order that has been in place in Seoul. The escalation in the dispute between doctors and the government comes as South Korean officials grapple with a fresh wave of cases. Read more here...

 
All UK child Covidfatalities had underlying conditions: Study: All the children who have died from Covid-19 in the UK had “profound” underlying medical conditions, according to a study suggesting that healthy school-age patients are at very limited risk of severe disease outcomes. Of the 651 cases reviewed, 42 percent involved underlying health conditions, but only 18 percent overall required intensive care. Read more here...
 
Also read: UK government launches campaign to get workers back to the office
 
Specials
 
Explainer: What do we know about the health of Japan's Shinzo Abe?

Abe has battled the disease ulcerative colitis for years and two recent hospital visits within a week had fanned questions on whether he could stay in the job until the end of his term as ruling party leader, and hence, premier, in September 2021.He has spoken of struggling with the disease since junior high school. A flare-up in 2007 forced him to quit as prime minister. Here are the details

 
Vaccine front-runner China already inoculating workers

Earlier this month, the head of a well-known, privately-owned Chinese conglomerate told his staff that a vaccine for Covid-19 was expected to come to market by November. The boss said that he saw it as a portent of economic recovery; a chance for his firms to sell more, according to a person privy to the comments. Within a few weeks the Chinese government was forced to go public with its apparent progress. Last week one of the developmental vaccines was pictured in state-run media; a small branded box was shown, held up by a smiling woman in a lab. Sinopharm said it hopes to have it ready to go on sale by December. It even named a price, equivalent to about $140 (£106). Read more here...

 
How will cities transform post pandemic

Cities profit from agglomeration. Cramming millions of people together allows them to spark off one another, not only helping productivity, innovation and economic growth but also fun, creativity and romance. In the time of coronavirus, however, that connectivity has become a curse: a disease that spreads through human contact makes living cheek by jowl with each other a far less appealing prospect. Cities will not die but they will have to, once again, transform. Read here to know how...