Total Covid-19 cases
View charts and mapsConfirmed
98,317,142Deaths
2,109,584Italy’s Conte threatens to sue vaccine makers
Miles Johnson in Rome
Italy’s prime minister has accused AstraZeneca of a “serious contractual violation” for what he said was an unexpected reduction in the number of doses of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine that will be delivered to European Union countries.
Giuseppe Conte said that he would consider “all legal steps” after senior AstraZeneca executives confirmed to Rome on Saturday that Italy would be given 3.4m doses in the first quarter instead of 8m.
Mr Conte’s anger at AstraZeneca adds to mounting tensions between EU governments and Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers over delays to expected deliveries that have already prompted Italy to threaten legal action against BioNTech/Pfizer.
Read more here
Curbs extended in populous Indonesian cities
George Russell in Hong Kong
Indonesia has extended social distancing restrictions to February 8 in high-risk coronavirus infection areas in seven provinces and cities, state media reported on Sunday.
The home affairs ministry told the Antara news agency that the curbs would apply in areas of Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Banten, Yogyakarta, East Java and Bali and include the populous cities of Tangerang, Bogor, Malang, Surabaya and Denpasar.
The affected areas will be required to implement work-from-home practices for 75 per cent of employees, enforce online education, limit dining-in to 25 per cent of restaurants’ capacity, and close down malls and shopping centres at 8pm.
Dubai sees surge in private jet movements
George Russell in Hong Kong and Simeon Kerr in Dubai
Dubai’s private jet terminal recorded a 21 per cent increase in movements during 2020, sparked by a surge of landings in the United Arab Emirates during the fourth quarter.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub said movements grew 78 per cent in the last quarter of 2020 compared with a year earlier, as the wealthy sought a winter haven while coronavirus gripped much of the world.
“This exceptional performance is due to, among many reasons, Dubai’s status as a preferred destination for tourists ... and the UAE ranking among the top countries in the world in efficiently handling the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Tahnoon Saif, chief executive of MBRAH.
However, last week Dubai banned entertainment events as the party capital of the Gulf faces a surge in coronavirus cases. Tourism inspections have noted more than 200 violations of Covid-19 safety precautions over the past few weeks.
Dubai, one of the most open cities in the world, welcomed a massive influx of visitors over the new year holiday period, boosting an economy that had been hammered by the pandemic.
New case numbers have since trebled, reaching a record 3,506 on January 21.
Nationally, the UAE has recorded more than 274,000 cases. Of those, more than 27,000 are active, compared with about 3,000 at the beginning of November.
On Sunday, the Dubai government fired its director-general of health, Humaid al-Qutami, without specifying a reason.
Covid-19 kills third Eswatini minister
George Russell in Hong Kong
A third minister in the southern African kingdom of Eswatini has died of coronavirus, the government said on Monday.
Labour minister Makhosi Vilakati died in South Africa on Saturday evening, the government said in a statement on Twitter just after midnight.
Public service minister Christian Ntshangase died last week and was buried on Saturday.
Ambrose Dlamini, the country’s prime minister, died of Covid-19 complications in December 2020, also while undergoing treatment in South Africa.
The country of 1.1m people, formerly known as Swaziland, has recorded 14,330 cases of Covid-19, including 458 deaths.
South Korea PM frets over religious school outbreak
Worshippers attend a service while maintaining social distancing at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul on Sunday
Song Jung-a in Seoul
Chung Sye-kyun, South Korea’s prime minister, on Monday expressed concern over a large-scale cluster infection at an unauthorised missionary school as the country’s daily coronavirus infections bounced back to more than 400.
The rebound came as 127 new cases were reported at a religious boarding school in the central city of Daejeon, 164km south of Seoul.
Mr Chung ordered health officials to deal swiftly with the outbreak to prevent it from resulting in mass infections that the country experienced with some fringe churches before.
“We’re concerned that the outbreak could escalate into the second Shinchonji or BTJ crisis,” Mr Chung told government officials, referring to the two previous mass infections at religious cults.
Religious sects have come under fire for becoming a hotbed of the virus outbreak in South Korea. Religious services are allowed on a limited scale but smaller churches have often been accused of violating distancing rules.
The country added 437 new cases on Monday, increasing the total caseload to 75,521.
There were 11 more deaths reported, raising the toll to 1,360, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Colombia’s Covid-19 caseload exceeds 2m
Gideon Long in Bogotá
Colombia has passed 2m cases of coronavirus, meaning that roughly one in every 25 people in the country has contracted the virus at some point since the pandemic began.
The health ministry said on Sunday the total number of cases had risen to 2,015,485, the 11th-highest in the world. Last week, Colombia recorded its 50,000th death from Covid-19, becoming the 12th country globally to pass the sombre milestone.
Having weathered the first wave of the pandemic relatively well compared to neighbouring Peru, Ecuador and Brazil, Colombia is suffering particularly badly during the second wave, with the average daily number of new cases per head outstripping those of its peers.
The government has ordered a return to strict lockdowns in parts of Bogotá and other cities, with many intensive care units reporting more than 90 per cent occupancy.
The health ministry has secured vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and the Covax initiative set up by the World Health Organisation, but they have yet to arrive in the country.
The government has vowed to start its vaccination programme in February.
New Zealand links local case to hotel quarantine
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
New Zealand has said its first local case of Covid-19 in two months was contracted from a fellow traveller while in hotel quarantine in Auckland.
“The source of infection is highly likely to be a fellow returnee during the person’s stay at the Pullman Hotel,” said Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s Covid-19 response minister.
New Zealand places arrivals in the country under 14-day hotel quarantine.
Mr Hipkins said this was good news as the source had been identified following genome sequencing.
The two people stayed in rooms on the same floor of the hotel and officials believe the infection was “direct” and that there are no missing links between the cases.
A person quarantined at the Pullman Hotel is the probable source of infection
An investigation is being carried out to examine if changes must be made to hotel quarantine, particularly in light of recently identified variants that are thought to be more transmissible.
Testing showed the woman was infected with the B.1.3.5.1 variant first detected in South Africa.
The person tested positive for the virus after leaving 14 days of managed isolation. Her husband and hairdresser have tested negative for the virus.
Mr Hipkins said 46 people at the hotel who had overlapped with the cases would be kept in hotel quarantine for a little longer and would receive another test.
Those who have already left the hotel have between January 9 and 24, have been told to self-isolate and get tested.
Victoria and Tasmania sign quarantine deal
George Russell in Hong Kong
The Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania have signed a quarantine agreement to allow seasonal workers from Pacific Island nations to work on farms this year.
Under the deal between the two governments an initial 1,500 workers will be quarantined in Tasmania before arriving in Victoria for harvest work.
The Victorian government and agricultural industry will cover the costs.
“Victorian growers are facing a bumper crop this season,” said Daniel Andrews, Victoria’s premier. “This is a critical step towards filling that workforce gap and ensuring fruit and vegetables don’t go to waste.”
Upon completion of the 14-day quarantine period and with a confirmed negative test for coronavirus, workers will be transferred on flights to Victoria, managed by the Victorian government.
In return, the Victorian government will help repatriate 330 Tasmanian travellers now abroad.
“This represents a good outcome for Tasmania with our hotel quarantine program now solely able to focus on arrivals who represent a lower risk with regard to potential transmission,” said Peter Gutwein, Tasmanian premier.
Mexico to seek Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine
Jude Webber in Mexico City
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, plans to call Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday morning to discuss the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, the government said.
The call, due at 8am local time, “will discuss the future of the bilateral relationship as well as supplies of Russian vaccines to Mexico”, foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter.
Mexico has been administering the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine but last Tuesday received its last shipment until February 15 as the drugmaker pauses supplies while it retools its production plant.
Mr López Obrador insists the slowdown in deliveries is to free up supplies for poorer countries.
People line up to refill oxygen cylinders in Mexico City
With the supply slowdown, and Oxford/AstraZeneca supplies not expected to be ready in Mexico until late March, Mexico is hoping Sputnik V will fill the gap.
At a news conference last week, Mr Ebrard showed a graph indicating that 400,000 doses of the Russian vaccine would be administered this week – even though the vaccine has yet to be approved by Mexican regulators.
Mexico’s rolling seven-day average of new deaths, at 0.962 per 100,000, is now above that of the US, which has 0.935 and Brazil, on 0.474.
Mexico on Sunday confirmed 149,614 deaths, an increase of 530 on Saturday’s tally, and a total of 1,763,219 cases, a rise of 10,872 from the previous day’s announcement.
High marks for Biden’s response to pandemic
George Russell in Hong Kong
More than two-thirds of Americans approve of how Joe Biden, the new US president, is handling the response to the coronavirus pandemic, an Ipsos poll showed on Sunday.
The 69 per cent who approve of his leadership on the pandemic includes 40 per cent of Republicans.
An overwhelming 97 per cent of Democrats and 70 per cent of self-professed independents also back Mr Biden’s management of the crisis in his early days, Ipsos said in a statement.
More than four in five — 81 per cent — of respondents support federal mask-wearing requirements, including 99 per cent of all Democrats, but also a majority — 59 per cent — of Republicans.
The survey was conducted in partnership with ABC News. Ipsos polled 504 US adults.
China reports 117 new local Covid-19 cases
A masked woman dances on a street in Wuhan on Saturday
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
Health authorities in China recorded 117 new cases of Covid-19 within the country on Monday, almost doubling from a day earlier as it battles outbreaks in several provinces.
China has locked down tens of millions of people and launched multiple rounds of mass testing to contain a series of outbreaks in provinces in the north of the country.
On Monday, it reported 67 new cases in the north-east province of Jilin and 35 in nearby Heilongjiang.
There were 11 cases identified in Hebei province near Beijing and three more in the capital itself. A case in Shanghai was also recorded.
China reported 65 locally transmitted cases on Sunday.
The new cases in Hebei take the total in the province over January to more than 900. However, the daily number of cases in the province has remained at or below 20 for the past six days, down from a peak of 90 in mid-January.
Authorities also reported 29 new asymptomatic cases discovered in the country. China does not include asymptomatic cases in its official tally.
Officials have warned against travel for the lunar new year holidays, a time when millions of migrant workers usually return home to celebrate with their families.
Mexican leader tests positive for Covid-19
Jude Webber in Mexico City
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, who has refused to wear a mask and has resumed tours of the country in recent weeks despite a mounting coronavirus crisis, has tested positive for Covid-19.
“I am sorry to inform you that I have caught Covid-19,” he wrote on Twitter. "The symptoms are light but I’m having medical treatment. As ever, I’m optimistic. We’ll all get through this.”
Mr López Obrador said he would go ahead with a scheduled call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday morning to discuss accessing Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and bilateral ties.
He said he intended to continue following public affairs from the National Palace, where he lives, but Olga Sánchez Cordero, interior minister, would replace him at his daily morning news conference.
US states report 8-week low in new infections
A woman stands outside a store in Santa Monica, California
George Russell in Hong Kong
US states reported the lowest number of new cases in eight weeks as emerging infections declined across all regions of the country, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
The new case level of 143,000 is the lowest figure since December 1, with the exception of Christmas Day when much data were delayed.
For the first time since November 3, no state has more than 600 people per million in hospital with Covid-19, the data aggregator and analysis provider said.
On Sunday, US states recorded a total of 110,628 people receiving hospital treatment for Covid-19, down from 114,000 people on Saturday and the lowest number since December 14.
That figure is significantly down from the 131,000 patients in hospital recorded two weeks ago.
The weekly view showed a 21 per cent decline in new cases, with more modest falls in hospitalisations and deaths.
There are almost twice as many people in hospital with Covid-19 as at the peak of the previous two surges, but hospital admissions are “dropping very quickly”, the CTP said in its weekend analysis.
Asia-Pacific equities edge higher
Alice Woodhouse in Hong Kong
Asia-Pacific stocks made a lacklustre start to the week as Republicans said President Joe Biden’s stimulus package was too costly.
In Japan, the Topix was flat, the Kospi in Seoul added 0.1 per cent and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney edged up 0.2 per cent.
On Friday, the S&P 500 dipped 0.3 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite nudged up 0.1 per cent.
Those moves came amid expectations that Mr Biden’s rescue package would be pared back to pass Congress and followed disappointing European economic data.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.2 per cent.
US to add South Africa to entry ban list
James Politi in Washington
The US is imposing an entry ban on foreign citizens who have recently been in South Africa and is set to reimpose travel restrictions on citizens from many parts of Europe and Brazil, an administration official said on Sunday.
The South Africa move was motivated by concerns about the new coronavirus strain in the country.
“We are adding South Africa to the restricted list because of the concerning variant present that has already spread beyond South Africa,” Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s principal deputy director, told Reuters on Sunday.
The Europe and Brazil restrictions were lifted under former president Donald Trump days before he left office.
Philippines to ease stay-at-home curbs
George Russell in Hong Kong
The Philippines will allow people aged 10-65 to leave their homes for nonessential reasons from February 1 under a lifting of some coronavirus restrictions.
Failure to relax age restrictions for people who can leave their residences risks an “economic deterioration”, said a spokesman for Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s president.
Harry Roque, Mr Duterte’s chief spokesman, said the decision by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases “forms part of the overarching goal of reopening the economy, thus promoting recovery”.
Mr Roque said allowing school-age children to leave their homes would be different from letting them attend face-to-face classes, a decision on which has not been reached.
Russian hospital admissions at 3-month low
George Russell in Hong Kong
Russian health authorities say hospital patients are at a near three-month low, although mortality rates continue to rise.
The official Tass news agency said on Monday that there had been 21,127 new cases identified in the previous 24 hours.
Russia has recorded a total of 3,719,400 Covid-19 cases.
Moscow confirmed 4,203 new cases in the city and surrounding region, while 2,929 coronavirus cases were recorded in St Petersburg.
There are 518,178 active cases in Russia, Tass reported, but only 125,697 patients are undergoing treatment in hospital, the lowest level since early November.
The mortality rate grew to 1.87 per cent, up from 1.79 per cent at the end of 2020.
Portugal’s president wins pandemic-hit election
Peter Wise in Lisbon
Portugal’s centre-right president was re-elected to a second five-year term on Sunday after a campaign fought amid one of the world’s worst outbreaks of coronavirus.
Exit polls by three national broadcasters gave Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a former leader of the opposition Social Democrats, 55-62 per cent of the vote, enough to win an outright victory without having to face a runoff ballot.
Ana Gomes, a member of the governing Socialist party running as an independent, was projected to win 13-17 per cent, the second-largest share of the vote.
Read more here
Canadian researchers say they find an oral remedy
A woman wears a mask as she crosses boulevard René-Lévesque in Montreal
George Russell in Hong Kong
A team of Canadian researchers believe they have found the first oral weapon against Covid-19 in a drug already used for other diseases.
Colchicine, a remedy for gout, is the first “effective oral drug to treat out-of-hospital patients”, said Jean-Claude Tardif, director of the Montreal Heart Institute and professor of medicine at the Université de Montréal.
A study showed that colchicine tablets reduced the risk of death or hospitalisation in patients with Covid-19 by 21 per cent, compared with a placebo.
“Our research shows the efficacy of colchicine treatment in preventing the ‘cytokine storm’ phenomenon,” said Prof Tardif, referring to the immune system overreacting to inflammation and releasing potentially deadly molecules.
Hedge fund warns of blow from new strains
Eric Platt in New York
Investors and policymakers are failing to grasp how deeply the new variant of coronavirus will damage the European economy, Element Capital, one of the world’s largest macro hedge funds, has warned.
Expectations for economic growth need to be cut as the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant spreads beyond UK borders, and lockdowns across the continent could extend months beyond current estimates, the fund’s head of markets Colin Teichholtz said in an interview.
“What you are seeing in the UK today you will see over much of continental Europe, and I don’t think markets [and] . . . policymakers are really grasping that,” Mr Teichholtz said.
Read more here
Australia approves first Covid-19 vaccine
George Russell in Hong Kong
Australia’s drug regulator said on Monday it has approved a Covid-19 vaccine, giving a two-year provisional nod to Pfizer Australia for its Comirnaty product.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the first to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
“Following a thorough and independent review of Pfizer’s submission, the TGA has decided that this vaccine meets the high safety, efficacy and quality standards required for use in Australia,” the regulator said in a statement.
TGA said approval is subject to “certain strict conditions”, such as the requirement that Pfizer continue providing information on longer-term efficacy and safety from “ongoing clinical trials and post-market assessment”.
Scott Morrison, prime minister, said the TGA approval was an important step in the fight against the coronavirus. “Australians should take confidence in the thorough and careful approach taken by our world-class safety regulator,” he said.
The regulator said Comirnaty has been shown to prevent Covid-19 but it is not known whether it prevents transmission or asymptomatic disease.
Germany tightens borders over surges
People place candles at a makeshift memorial for Covid-19 victims in Berlin’s Arnswalder Platz on Sunday
Erika Solomon in Berlin
Germany tightened entry restrictions on Sunday for visitors from almost 30 countries with particularly high infection rates or dangerous virus variants, making tests mandatory before entry.
High-risk areas include the US, the neighbouring Czech Republic and several holiday destinations such Portugal, Spain and Egypt.
The new regulations will make cross-border travel in Europe increasingly more difficult, as many countries across the continent grapple with high infection rates and fast-spreading coronavirus mutations.
The tightening comes as the EU faces criticism over its vaccine campaign, from slow rollouts to production bottlenecks.
To bolster Germany’s response, Jens Spahn, health minister, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that Germany would be the first EU country to purchase monoclonal antibodies, the same treatment used on former US president Donald Trump.
Berlin spent €400m to purchase 200,000 doses of the drug, which helps prevent the disease from taking a more severe course when administered early to infected patients.
Boohoo set to acquire Debenhams brand
Jonathan Eley in London
Online fashion retailer Boohoo is set to acquire the Debenhams brand in a cut-price deal that will result in the closure of the group’s remaining department stores, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction.
They said that a transaction could be announced in the next few days.
Debenhams went into administration in December last year after the enforced store closures that formed part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the group’s already-fragile finances.
Read more here
Locked-down Hong Kong area starts to reopen
Health workers walk along a street in the Hong Kong neighbourhood of Jordan
George Russell in Hong Kong
Transport links have been resumed in a busy area of Hong Kong caught in the Chinese city’s first lockdown of the pandemic, requiring thousands of residents to stay home and undergo compulsory testing in an effort to control an outbreak.
The government said on Monday that stops for buses and minibuses, as well as car parks, had been reopened, as it had concluded testing a day earlier. “With the cooperation of the residents under restriction … the exercise finished earlier, at midnight of January 25.”
Authorities have been concerned about a surge in cases in densely populated city blocks around Jordan, an area of the Kowloon peninsula including the well-known Nathan Road.
In a statement on Monday, the government said “outbreaks in the district remained severe”, prompting the decision to require residents in the affected area to undergo compulsory testing.
Chicago schools delay return of teachers
George Russell in Hong Kong
Chicago teachers and other staff will not return to school until Wednesday, although the city plans to still reopen its education system to students on February 1.
They were originally expected to return on Monday to prepare schools for resuming in-class learning for tens of thousands of kindergartners to eighth-graders.
The delay follows a vote by the Chicago Teachers Union on Sunday to continue working from home on Monday because of health and safety concerns.
The CTU and the nation’s third-largest school system have been at odds over how and when to reopen schools during the pandemic.
“It’s our goal to reach an agreement with CTU as soon as possible,” the Chicago Public Schools agency wrote on Twitter.
“While we agree ... on many aspects of a smooth expansion of in-person learning, our discussions are ongoing.”
US hospital admission rates ease as new cases decline
George Russell in Hong Kong
US states recorded a total of 114,000 people in hospital, significantly down from the 131,000 recorded two weeks ago.
The most recent Covid Tracking Project data reported 174,000 cases, and 3,577 deaths, down from 189,000 cases and 3,980 deaths the previous day.
The weekly view showed a 21 per cent fall in new cases, with more modest falls in hospital admissions and deaths.
There are 113,609 hospital patients with Covid-19, almost twice as many people as at the peak of the previous two surges, but admissions are “dropping very quickly”, the CTP said in its weekend analysis.
“The drop we’re seeing now is very encouraging, although we’re still seeing almost three times as many new cases each day as we did at the summer peak,” CTP added. “The number of people currently hospitalised ... declined by more than 10 per cent from a week ago in 24 states.”
Testing totals are at about 2m per day. “Tests are slightly down, possibly because most of the backlogs have now been resolved,” the analysis noted.
Among the hardest-hit states, California recorded 22,972 new cases and 593 deaths. Texas identified 13,717 new cases and 407 fatalities. New York reported 12,720 new cases and 160 deaths.
Pandemic price rises rampant on Amazon, says study
Dave Lee in San Francisco
Hundreds of the essential products that have come to define pandemic living have sustained significant price increases on Amazon this year, with some jumping to many multiples of their original price, research suggests.
Analysis published by the US Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organisation, looked at 750 “essential” items sold on Amazon’s marketplace, comparing their pre-pandemic prices to what customers paid for them by the end of 2020.
The items monitored ranged from essential products such as face masks and toilet paper to those that have become suddenly popular in lockdowns such as computer monitors.
Read more here
Bolsonaro approval falls to 26% as virus rages
Drivers gesture during a protest against Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, in São Paulo on Sunday
George Russell in Hong Kong
The approval rate for the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, has fallen 11 points — the biggest weekly drop since he was elected in 2018 — to 26 per cent, a poll has shown.
The joint poll by Exame Research, an investment analysis unit, and Ideia, a research institute, showed greater disapproval rates for the president among those with higher income and education.
A surge of coronavirus cases in Manaus, the gateway city to the heart of the Amazon, and a delayed vaccine rollout have undermined support for Mr Bolsonaro, according to the poll, published in the business magazine Exame.
The president maintains significant support in the country’s centre-west — the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul as well as the Brasília federal district — and among evangelical Christians.
“The dynamics of the serious problems in Manaus, together with the lack of perspectives on a vaccination schedule and the end of emergency aid, are the main factors that lead to the drop in popularity of the president,” Maurício Moura, founder of Ideia, told Exame.
News you might have missed …
Joe Biden’s administration has taken its first steps to revive the flagging US economy but warned the moves were “not a substitute” for a large stimulus package, as it increased pressure on Congress to pass a $1.9tn Covid-19 relief bill. Mr Biden on Friday signed two executive orders to broaden access to food stamps and unemployment benefits.
US equities slipped on Friday as euphoria over Mr Biden’s spending plans gave way to concerns that the final package may be pared down in order to pass through Congress. On Wall Street, the blue-chip S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent, the first time in a week that the index has closed lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, traded flat.
Switzerland’s drug regulator said it has received 42 reports of suspected adverse reactions in connection with Covid-19 vaccinations. “So far this analysis has not resulted in any change in the positive benefit/risk ratio of the vaccines,” the federal council said in a statement. Switzerland has approved both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
New Zealand has instituted a “one-way travel bubble” with the coronavirus-free Cook Islands, a self-governing Pacific Island territory. Cook Islanders will now be able to skip quarantine requirements on Auckland-bound flights after a 10-month pause, enabling family reunions with the 60,000 islanders who work in New Zealand.
The Carnival cruise ship Panorama is docked in Long Beach, California
Carnival, the world’s largest cruise operator, has extended its suspension of all US departures until the end of April and cancelled its Australian operations until mid-May in response to rising Covid-19 cases around the world. It has also cancelled European cruises on its Carnival Legend ship and pushed back the launch of its Mardi Gras ship.
Morgan Stanley’s chief executive, James Gorman, will receive $33m in total compensation for 2020, a 22 per cent increase over 2019’s $27m. In a regulatory filing, the US investment bank said 2020 “was a record year ... in terms of financial performance and in terms of advancement of the firm’s long-term strategic goals”, despite the global pandemic.
Shares in GameStop went on a wild ride on Friday, surging nearly 80 per cent after the struggling US video games retailer found itself at the centre of a battle between short-sellers and amateur online traders. The company, which has struggled for sales in the pandemic, has been a favourite of day traders, which has helped double the value of the stock since the start of the year.
UK bowling alley chain Hollywood Bowl has endured a bruising pandemic. Its chief people officer Melanie Dickinson has sold £181,420 worth of shares “for the purpose of settling personal tax liabilities”. This follows chief executive Stephen Burns, chief financial officer Laurence Keen, and their spouses offloading a little over £800,000 worth of shares.
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