Today AstraZeneca is making big waves through the markets. The company, which has developed a coronavirus vaccine together with Oxford University, is likely going to receive a formal approval for its drug to be used in the United Kingdom today.
Having access to more than one vaccine will greatly increase any country’s chance to vaccinate its population quickly, something that is vital for the United Kingdom at the moment.
The UK is struggling with a new variant of the coronavirus that appears to be up to 70% more infectious than the version elsewhere in Europe and the United States (which was already separate from the strain found in China). Yesterday the United Kingdom had its highest ever number of new coronavirus cases - over 41,000. With a total of 2.3 million people that have been infected with Covid-19, the UK is third in Europe by the total number of cases, after Russia and France. Due to the rapid spread of the new form of Covid-19, it is expected that the UK will enter an even stricter lockdown soon.
Other countries in Europe are faring better, gradually bringing the infection rate down. Things are also calming down in Asia, Australia, South America, and most of Africa, where South Africa is the exception, experiencing recent upticks in the infection rate.
The daily numbers in the United States are still above 180,000, which is higher than in any other country, but even this number is an improvement compared to the peaks of 240,000-260,000 just days ago.
Speaking of the United States, today the Senate will have to decide whether to approve a proposal that already passed through the House of Representatives to increase the direct one-time payments to individuals from $600 to $2,000, as per President Trump’s suggestion. Republicans opposed this early on the negotiations for the stimulus package but may be swayed now for PR reasons: they have two runoffs in Georgia coming up that will determine if they win or lose the majority of the Senate.
The stock markets are rallying all around the world due to optimism about the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the news of stimulus in the US. The latter is the main reason for American stocks to move up. Asian stock indices (Nikkei, Kosdaq) are also up as investors flee from Chinese stocks due to the recent crackdowns on Alibaba and other highly-profitable Chinese businesses.
