World Coronavirus Dispatch: US job growth slowed more than expected in Sept

Indonesia aims to vaccinate 160 mn, China breweries thrive despite Covid, small caps are pandemic's big winners in Europe, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

US employment growth slowed more than expected in September and over 300,000 Americans lost their jobs permanently, dealing a potential blow to President Donald Trump ahead of the fiercely contested November 3 presidential election. Just over half of the 22.2 million jobs lost during the pandemic have been recouped. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party nominee, blames the economic turmoil on the White House’s handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 people and infected over 7 million in the nation. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:


Total Confirmed Cases: 34,638,515


Change Over Yesterday: 326,005


Total Deaths: 1,028,934


Total Recovered: 24,065,583

Nations hit with most cases: US (7,333,426), India (6,473,544), Brazil (4,880,523), Russia (1,198,663) and Colombia (841,532)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

New York’s cases spike again: Of the 119,493 tests conducted state-wide on Thursday, 1,598 or 1.3 per cent were positive, according to state data released on Friday. Governor Andrew Cuomo, on a conference call with members of the media Friday morning, said the state is continuing to focus its efforts on 20 hotspot ZIP codes mainly in Brooklyn, Queens, and Orange and Rockland counties. Read more here

UK to announce three-tier system for regional lockdowns: Health Secretary Matt Hancock will announce next week the creation of a “traffic light” system to help decide which regions of England should go into lockdown. The measure will work alongside the NHS Test and Trade app, which people will use when entering and leaving pubs, restaurants and bars. Read more here

Trump enters hospital with Covid, jolting white house, campaign: President Donald Trump remains in a US military hospital outside Washington after contracting the coronavirus, a development that unnerved the White House and shook his struggling re-election campaign. The White House said his symptoms were mild and that he would continue to work from a suite. Read more here

Indonesia’s vaccination target: Indonesia aims to vaccinate 160 million people against Covid-19 by the end of 2021, an ambitious plan targeting more than half the population in a nation made up of thousands of islands. The plan prioritizes people aged 19 to 59, who make up 70 per cent of Indonesia’s 268 million population, as well as those on the front lines of the pandemic, such as health workers, police and the military. Read more here

China's breweries thrive despite Covid-19: Brewery earnings are in clear recovery mode in China, the world's biggest beer market. The top player, China Resources Beer (Holdings) and second-ranked Tsingtao Brewery both booked record-high net incomes in the period from January to June. The stellar results were supported by ongoing cost-cutting that involved closure of plants as well as a brisk recovery in the beer market from April. Read more here

Specials 

World’s best airport warns of ‘daunting’ future amid pandemic: 
Changi Airport Group said the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t abating as officials behind the world’s best airport warned of a “daunting” period ahead. Passenger traffic for Changi for the fiscal year ended March declined for the first time in more than a decade, as a slump in the last two months of the period wiped out earlier gains, serving as a harbinger of a deeper slump. To brace for “a prolonged crisis,” Changi suspended operations in two terminals to save on operating costs as flights dropped to the lowest levels in its history. “The battle with Covid-19 has only just begun,” the company said in its annual report. “The future does appear daunting with the situation showing no signs of abatement.” According to the International Air Transport Association, 25 million jobs are at risk in airlines and associated businesses such as travel and tourism. Read more here

Forget Amazon: in Europe, small caps are pandemic’s big winners

While Amazon.com Inc. and its FANG cohort have grabbed the headlines, some of the biggest stock-market winners in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic may be companies you’ve never heard of. Investors seeking stellar returns have been snapping up shares of small companies that range from e-commerce merchants to mobile-game makers. Shares of German retailers Westwing Group AG and Home24 SE and Sweden’s Lyko Group AB and Boozt AB have more than doubled this year, outpacing Amazon’s gain of about 70 percet. Away from retail, LoopUp Group Plc, which makes software for video conference calls, and game maker G5 Entertainment AB also have soared. Read more here

Long Read


How Russia shortened the Covid vaccine race to declare victory:
Russia’s version of America’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine project is located far from the Kremlin on a sleepy side street on the outskirts of Moscow. Tucked in a sandy-brick building with an office advertising medical tests and a dingy wooden door, it doesn’t look like a cutting-edge medical laboratory. But it was here that, if you believe President Vladimir Putin, Russia won the global race to develop a vaccine against Covid-19. Putin declared in August that Russia had registered a shot for public use, making it the first vaccine worldwide to gain such clearance. Russia named it Sputnik V after the Soviet-era satellite that set off the space race in 1957 — a clear signal of the geopolitical importance Putin has attached to the project. Read more here