World Coronavirus Dispatch: Japan's Abe visits hospital for fatigue

China's first vaccine patent to CanSino, South Korea warns of tighter curbs, most New Yorkers ignore 14-day quarantine and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe entered a hospital on Monday for a medical check-up, a government source told Reuters, after a top official voiced concern the premier was suffering from fatigue because of his workload during the coronavirus pandemic. The reason for the check-up was not immediately clear. Abe’s office didn’t offer an official comment. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 21,672,186

Change Over Yesterday: 209,593

Total Deaths: 775,246

Total Recovered: 13,676,869

Nations hit with most cases: US (5,403,269), Brazil (3,340,197), India (2,647,663), Russia (920,719) and South Africa (587,345)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

China grants country's first Covid-19 vaccine patent to CanSino: China’s vaccine specialist CanSino Biologics Inc has won a patent approval from Beijing for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate Ad5-nCOV, state media reported, citing documents from the country’s intellectual property regulator. It is the first COVID-19 vaccine patent granted by China. Read more here

South Korea warns of tighter Covid restrictions: South Korea warned on Monday of tighter novel coronavirus restrictions as new outbreaks appeared, including one linked to a church where more than 300 members of the congregation have been infected. The latest cases brought its total infections to 15,515 including 305 deaths. Read more here

China’s recovery faster than everyone else: To get there, it has squashed a number of smaller virus outbreaks, weathered the collapse in global demand, and kept markets buoyant despite persistent fears of a broad technology Cold War with the US. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast growth of 2 per cent growth this year. Read more here

Japan’s economy shrinks 28 per cent: The world’s third-largest economy contracted an annualised 27.8 per cent in the three months through June from the previous quarter as a state of emergency and lockdowns in the country’s major export markets hammered consumer spending, production and exports. Read more here

Chinese shares rise as central bank injects cash: China’s CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks gained 1.4 per cent in early trading on Monday after the central bank injected Rmb700bn ($101bn) of liquidity into the financial system through its medium-term lending facility. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1 per cent following the injection. Read more here

Specials

New York has a 14-day quarantine. Most New Yorkers are ignoring it

Governor Andrew Cuomo has mandated that travellers entering New York from other states where positive test results of the coronavirus exceed 10 per cent must be quarantined for 14 days. Over 30 states are currently on the quarantine list, along with Puerto Rico. Where the government may struggle to track travellers, however, social media is capturing their exploits. Many of those thwarting mandatory quarantines are posting about their trips and outings around the city on Facebook and Instagram, which is frustrating and alarming New Yorkers. Read more here

Many companies won't survive the pandemic — but Amazon will emerge stronger than ever 
 

Consumer spending on Amazon between May and July was up 60 per cent from the same time frame last year, according to the financial data firm Facteus. The company’s extraordinary power — it has 38 per cent of the e-commerce market, trailed by Walmart with 6 per cent — was under scrutiny well before Covid-19. But the lockdown that boosted the company’s dominance also threw into higher relief its consequences for other businesses. Read more here

Opinion:
 

Trusting people to work well from home is one skill managers now have to learn: 
 

An AlphaWise survey for Morgan Stanley last month showed only just over a third of UK office staff had returned to their usual workplace, compared with 83 per cent in France and 76 per cent in Italy. In a more recent YouGov poll of British adults, only 13 per cent firmly believed workers who could do their job from home should return to the office. In the uncertain phase before reliable Covid-19 vaccines and therapies are found, companies will have to use workers more flexibly. They may need to outsource work to cope with any recovery in demand, or offset a prolonged downturn. Read more here