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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106445687-1584363442885gettyimages-1205265918.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412712" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106445687-1584363442885gettyimages-1205265918.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106445687-1584363442885gettyimages-1205265918-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106445687-1584363442885gettyimages-1205265918-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at a press conference in Washington D.C., on March 4, 2020. Liu Jie | Xinhua | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The International Monetary Fund decided to keep Kristalina Georgieva as its managing director despite accusations she influenced a report to favor China while at the World Bank.



The IMF Executive Board held a meeting Monday to review allegations that Georgieva had pressured staff to help improve China’s rankings in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings.



“Having looked at all the evidence presented, the Executive Board reaffirms its full confidence in the Managing Director’s leadership and ability to continue to effectively carry out her duties,” the IMF said in a statement following its review.



The fund said information presented during the review “did not conclusively demonstrate that the Managing Director played an improper role.”



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Separately, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that without “further direct evidence with regard to the role of the Managing Director there is not a basis for a change in IMF leadership.”



Georgieva has been the IMF’s boss since Oct. 2019.



Prior to that, she worked as chief of the World Bank since 2017. It was in this capacity that a report, conducted by law firm WilmerHale and requested by the bank’s ethics committee, said she influenced the outcome of some major research to make China look better.



WilmerHale said in September, that during her time at the World Bank, “Georgieva became directly involved in efforts to improve China’s ranking [in the Doing Business Report].”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-georgieva-denies-allegations"><a></a>Georgieva denies allegations</h2>



The “Doing Business” report is a flagship piece of annual research at the World Bank that assesses how friendly a nation is for business activity.



In the 2018 report, China was initially ranked 85, but after influence from within the leadership team and interventions from Beijing; the country ended up in 78th place, according to the WilmerHale assessment.



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In a statement on Sept. 16, Georgieva said: “I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations [of the WilmerHale report].”



Countries such as France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. reportedly backed Georgieva to remain as leader of the IMF. However, some officials in the United States were a bit more skeptical.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-yellen-says-concerns-are-legitimate"><a></a>Yellen says concerns are legitimate</h2>



In her Monday statement, Yellen said the WilmerHale report raised “legitimate issues and concerns.”



“The U.S. believes proactive steps must be taken to reinforce data integrity and credibility at the IMF,” read the statement.



The World Bank said last month that it has decided to discontinue the “Doing Business” report.



The bank said the decision came after the WilmerHale report and its internal audit reports “raised ethical matters, including the conduct of former Board officials as well as current and/or former Bank staff.”

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IMF expresses ‘full confidence’ in the leadership of Kristalina Georgieva

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106928219-1629130755312-gettyimages-1234311531-sindeyev-notitle210729_np12K.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-411485" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106928219-1629130755312-gettyimages-1234311531-sindeyev-notitle210729_np12K.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106928219-1629130755312-gettyimages-1234311531-sindeyev-notitle210729_np12K-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/106928219-1629130755312-gettyimages-1234311531-sindeyev-notitle210729_np12K-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A visual representation of bitcoin.
STR | NurPhoto via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO, isn’t a fan of <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/quotes/btc=x/">bitcoin</a>, the largest cryptocurrency by market value.



“I personally think that bitcoin is worthless,” Dimon said during an Institute of International Finance event on Monday, CNBC Pro reported.



But, “I don’t want to be a spokesperson — I don’t care. It makes no difference to me,” he said. “Our clients are adults. They disagree. That’s what makes markets. So, if they want to have access to buy yourself bitcoin, we can’t custody it but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible, access.”



He’s held true to that statement: In February 2019, JPMorgan said it would roll out a digital currency called JPM Coin, and in October 2020, the firm created a new unit for blockchain projects. In August, it started giving its wealth management clients access to crypto funds, CNBC reported.



For his part, however, Dimon has held firm in his anti-crypto outlook.



Recently, he told Axios CEO Jim VandeHei that bitcoin has “no intrinsic value.” And although he thinks bitcoin will be around long term, “I’ve always believed it’ll be made illegal someplace, like China made it illegal, so I think it’s a little bit of fool’s gold.”



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Dimon also told VandeHei that he thinks “regulators are going to regulate the hell out of it.”



He may be right: Recently, the U.S. government has had a heightened focus on regulating cryptocurrency markets. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration is weighing an executive order that would direct federal agencies to study and offer recommendations on the crypto market.



However, though increased regulation may happen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell clarified at the end of September that he has no intention to ban bitcoin in the U.S.



Some financial experts contend that well-thought-out regulation would be beneficial in the U.S. “If people want crypto to become more of a mainstream asset, then I think [regulation is] a necessary first step,” Anjali Jariwala, certified financial planner, certified public accountant and founder of Fit Advisors, previously told CNBC Make It.



However, cryptocurrency supporters are wary of further regulation — they worry that certain regulatory framework may stifle crypto innovation in the U.S. and push business overseas.



Bitcoin is currently trading at around $57,501, according to CoinMarketCap, with a market value of more than $1 trillion.

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106881485-16207651482021-05-06t180801z_207210362_rc2ian9odblc_rtrmadp_0_health-coronavirus-latam-usa.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412672" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106881485-16207651482021-05-06t180801z_207210362_rc2ian9odblc_rtrmadp_0_health-coronavirus-latam-usa.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106881485-16207651482021-05-06t180801z_207210362_rc2ian9odblc_rtrmadp_0_health-coronavirus-latam-usa-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106881485-16207651482021-05-06t180801z_207210362_rc2ian9odblc_rtrmadp_0_health-coronavirus-latam-usa-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>A healthcare worker holds syringes with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination centre, in El Paso, Texas, May 6, 2021. Jose Luis Gonzalez | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Finland, Denmark and Sweden are limiting the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in young people over concerns around rare cardiovascular side effects.



Finland’s national health authority, THL, announced Thursday that it would pause the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine in young men. All males aged 30 or younger would be offered the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine instead, THL said.



The decision by THL followed announcements from its Swedish and Danish counterparts on Wednesday that both would be restricting the use of the Moderna vaccine in similar demographics.



In Sweden, the use of the vaccine will be stopped in people born in 1991 or later, while Denmark is pausing the Moderna shot in everyone under the age of 18.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-s-the-issue"><a></a>What’s the issue?</h2>



The decision the three countries have made to limit the use of the Moderna vaccine centers around concerns it could be linked to cases of myocarditis, a condition where the heart muscle becomes inflamed. All three health authorities cited an unpublished Nordic study which had been sent to the European Medicines Agency for assessment, according to Reuters.



In most cases, people with myocarditis recover without any complications, but in some rare and more severe cases, there can be damage to the heart.



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Myocarditis was most likely to develop in younger men and boys after receiving their second dose of the Moderna vaccine, according to Finland’s THL.



Speaking at a coronavirus news briefing Thursday, Mika Salminen, director of health security at THL, said the possible risks posed by the Moderna vaccine seemed to be higher for younger male individuals.



“THL’s instructions are that the Moderna vaccine should not be given to men and boys under the age of 30 for the time being, but that the Pfizer vaccine should be used instead,” he said, according to local media reports.



Finland offers Covid-19 vaccinations to everyone over the age of 12. Of the population eligible for vaccination in Finland, 84% have received their first dose and 72% have received two doses.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Sweden’s health body, meanwhile, said data suggested that instances of myocarditis and pericarditis — an inflammation of the outer lining of the heart — were higher among young people who had been immunized, Reuters reported Wednesday.



A spokesperson for Moderna was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. The company told Reuters that these are “typically mild cases and individuals tend to recover within a short time following standard treatment and rest.”



“The risk of myocarditis is substantially increased for those who contract COVID-19, and vaccination is the best way to protect against this,” the spokesperson added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Benefits vs. risks</h2>



Despite the risks associated with the immunization for young men, THL’s Salminen said Thursday that it was still important for everyone who was eligible to receive two doses of a vaccine.



According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the known risks of Covid-19 and its potentially severe complications far outweigh the possibility of having a rare adverse reaction to a vaccination. That includes the potential risk of developing myocarditis.



In August, a U.S. study found that males between the ages of 12 and 17 — the demographic most likely to develop myocarditis — were six times more likely to suffer heart inflammation from being infected with Covid-19 than from being vaccinated against the virus.



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After a second dose of a vaccine, there were 67 cases of myocarditis per million males in that age group. After contracting the coronavirus, the rate of myocarditis in that age group shot up to 450 cases per million, the study found.



Meanwhile, research from Imperial College London in March found that half of patients hospitalized with severe cases of Covid were left with damage to their hearts.



According to the U.S. CDC, most cases of post-vaccination myocarditis occur after a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine in male adolescents and young adults. Symptoms — which include pain or tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and heart palpitations&nbsp;— usually occur within days of vaccination.

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106942568-16317460192021-09-15t222539z_1195629770_rc2kqp9cilc3_rtrmadp_0_un-guterres.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412638" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106942568-16317460192021-09-15t222539z_1195629770_rc2kqp9cilc3_rtrmadp_0_un-guterres.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106942568-16317460192021-09-15t222539z_1195629770_rc2kqp9cilc3_rtrmadp_0_un-guterres-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106942568-16317460192021-09-15t222539z_1195629770_rc2kqp9cilc3_rtrmadp_0_un-guterres-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gestures during an interview with Reuters at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, September 15, 2021. Andrew Kelly | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the inequitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines across the globe Friday, saying it was immoral and stupid.



Guterres spoke during a press briefing hosted by the World Health Organization where officials reiterated their goal of vaccinating 40% of every country’s population by the end of the year and 70% by the middle of 2022.



Vaccination rates have lagged behind the organization’s targets in much of the developing world: &nbsp;WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that less than 5% of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated, while high- and upper-middle-income countries have used 75% of the shots produced so far.



“Not to have equitable distribution of vaccines is not only a question of being immoral, it is also a question of being stupid,” Guterres said.



Just 37% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, almost half the rate of Canada as emerging economies struggle to access the life-saving shots, Pan American Health Organization Director&nbsp;Dr. Carissa Etienne said at a separate briefing&nbsp;Wednesday.



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At least 10 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean reported vaccination rates of less than 25% as of Wednesday, and under 10% of people in Jamaica, Nicaragua and Haiti have received a full series of Covid doses.



“If we leave it going on and we allow for the virus to go on spreading like wildfire in the global south, there is a risk that one day, and that day can be very soon, there will be&#8230; another variant that will be able to resist vaccines,” Guterres said. “And all the vaccination effort made in developed countries to vaccinate the whole of their population one, two, or three times, all that effort will fall apart, and these people will not be protected.”



WHO officials said Tuesday that 56 countries missed the organization’s goal of immunizing 10% of their populations against Covid by the end of September. With the world approaching 5 million total Covid deaths, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid, said that a lack of global vaccine access has resulted in people “dying unnecessarily.”



U.S. health officials have said that unvaccinated people represent nearly all of the country’s Covid deaths. Unvaccinated individuals are 11 times likelier to die from Covid and ten times more likely to develop symptoms that require hospitalization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



The unvaccinated are about 4.5 times likelier to contract the virus, the CDC added.

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106358803-1580214979670gettyimages-1195327759.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412559" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106358803-1580214979670gettyimages-1195327759.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106358803-1580214979670gettyimages-1195327759-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106358803-1580214979670gettyimages-1195327759-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organization’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, speaks during a press conference following an emergency committee meeting over the new coronavirus in Geneva on Jan. 22, 2020. Pierre Albouy | AFP | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



A World Health Organization official said Tuesday that unvaccinated people are “dying unnecessarily” from Covid-19, citing global vaccine inequities as one of the main obstacles to immunizing more people against the virus.



Some 56 countries fell short of the WHO’s goal of getting 10% of their populations immunized against the virus by the end of September, officials said in a Q&amp;A livestreamed on its social media channels. Increasing access to vaccines would help reduce Covid deaths and hospitalizations as the world approaches 5 million coronavirus fatalities, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19.



“Not meeting that target is heartbreaking; it’s more than heartbreaking, it’s more than frustrating,” she said. “It’s beyond words, I have to say, because if we had used the more than 6 billion vaccines that have been administered today differently, we would be in a very, very different situation right now.”



She said the data on Covid vaccines shows very clearly that they are safe and effective at preventing hospitalizations and death.



“They just need to be accessible” to more people, she said. “The result of this are people who are dying unnecessarily.”



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Van Kerkhove’s comments echo those of U.S. health officials who have said that almost all Covid deaths recorded nationwide have been among unvaccinated patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Sept. 10 that unvaccinated people are 11 times likelier to die from Covid, 10 times likelier to require hospitalization for their symptoms and roughly 4.5 times likelier to contract the virus overall.



But with inoculations stalling in poorer nations and hospitals struggling to keep up with the more transmissible delta variant, Van Kerkhove said vaccines should be prioritized for those most vulnerable, and she called for the continued use of masks and social distancing to mitigate against Covid outbreaks.



“You can’t have it both ways, where you have everything opened up and you have everybody living and pretending that this is over while you have your ICUs full,” Van Kerkhove said. &nbsp;



The WHO opposes the distribution of Covid booster doses, urging wealthier countries to distribute their supplies to developing nations in hopes of immunizing at least 40% of every country by the end of the year. The disparities in distribution are particularly evident in Africa, where the organization reported on Sept. 30 that just 15 of the continent’s 54 nations have vaccinated 10% or more of their population.



More than two dozen countries on the continent have fully immunized 2% or less of their populations, while two African nations have yet to receive any vaccines, the agency said.

106358803-1580214979670gettyimages-1195327759

WHO says unvaccinated people are ‘dying unnecessarily’ from Covid as hospitals fill

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106951569-1633354116012-gettyimages-1228009637-NZ_AUCKLAND_LOCKDOWN.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412526" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106951569-1633354116012-gettyimages-1228009637-NZ_AUCKLAND_LOCKDOWN.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106951569-1633354116012-gettyimages-1228009637-NZ_AUCKLAND_LOCKDOWN-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106951569-1633354116012-gettyimages-1228009637-NZ_AUCKLAND_LOCKDOWN-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Police officers wearing protective masks talk to motorists at a checkpoint in the Bombay area of Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



LONDON — New Zealand has become the latest country to abandon a zero Covid strategy, with the virus proving much harder to stop now the highly infectious delta variant is dominant.



After adopting one of the world’s strictest approaches to trying to control the spread of Covid-19, New Zealand announced on Monday that the country would no longer pursue an approach that would attempt to eliminate all Covid cases.



This zero Covid strategy, also employed by the likes of China and Taiwan, involves strict lockdowns (even after the detection of just one or a handful of cases) and extensive testing, heavily controlled or closed borders, as well as robust contact tracing systems and quarantine mandates.



The move comes after a lockdown in the city of Auckland failed to stop the virus in the face of the more virulent delta variant. It is estimated to be 60% more transmissible than the alpha variant originally discovered in late 2020, and which itself usurped a previous, less infectious version of the virus.



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New Zealand has been notoriously strict in its tackling of Covid; Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put the entire country under a strict lockdown in August after a single suspected case of Covid caused by the delta variant — at that time the country’s first coronavirus case in six months — was reported in Auckland.



But on Monday, Ardern said that the city’s lockdown would be eased gradually and that the country’s strategy towards tackling Covid was changing.



“For this outbreak, it’s clear that long periods of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases,” Ardern said during a press conference.  “But that is OK. Elimination was important because we didn’t have vaccines. Now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things.”



Ardern said it was important that the country maintain strict controls, however, saying it still needed to “contain and control the virus as much as possible, while we make our transition from a place where we only use heavy restrictions to a place where we use vaccines in everyday public health measures.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-it-s-not-working"><a></a>Why it’s not working</h2>



It’s the first time that New Zealand has publicly signaled a shift away from a zero Covid strategy, coming after its neighbor Australia also abandoned its zero tolerance, or “Covid zero” approach in early September, saying it had shifted to a position of “learning to live with” the virus.



Similarly to in New Zealand, Australia’s decision to abandon the strategy came after a strict lockdown in Melbourne railed to quell an outbreak there.&nbsp;



At the time, Victoria state’s Premier Daniel Andrews noted that “we have thrown everything at this, but it is now clear to us that we are not going to drive these numbers down, they are instead going to increase.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106952211-1633418585660-gettyimages-1278192979-0501_2020100315504296.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412529" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106952211-1633418585660-gettyimages-1278192979-0501_2020100315504296.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106952211-1633418585660-gettyimages-1278192979-0501_2020100315504296-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106952211-1633418585660-gettyimages-1278192979-0501_2020100315504296-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Victoria Police patrol at St Kilda beach on October 03, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Coronavirus restrictions eased slightly across Melbourne from Monday 28 September as Victoria enters into its second step in the government’s roadmap to reopening. Darrian Traynor | Getty Images News | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Experts are not surprised by the shift in strategy, noting that the spread of the delta variant makes such approaches futile.



“It’s no surprise that New Zealand has abandoned its ‘zero covid’ strategy – the highly transmissible delta variant has changed the game and means that an elimination strategy is no longer viable,” Lawrence Young, a virologist and&nbsp;professor&nbsp;of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, told CNBC Monday.



“That doesn’t mean that NZ’s and Australia’s robust approach to managing the pandemic – strict border restrictions, quarantine measures and strong contact tracing – hasn’t been effective but continued heavy restrictions are damaging to individuals and society,” he said.



Zero tolerance policies will become harder as the rest of the world opens up, he added, but stressed that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t remain vigilant. “We need to stop the virus spreading and mutating by doing everything we can to support the global roll out of vaccines.”



Trying to completely suppress the spread of Covid-19 has often been questioned by experts, but in countries where vaccination rollouts have been slower, lockdowns have served to slow, if not eradicate, the spread of the virus.



Defending the Auckland lockdown Monday, Ardern said pursuing a zero Covid strategy had been the “right choice and the only choice” for Auckland while vaccination rates had remained low, with only 25% of Aucklanders fully vaccinated at the time.



Now, seven weeks later, she said that 52% of Aucklanders were fully vaccinated, with 84% having had one dose. Clinical data shows that full vaccination against Covid-19 is highly effective at protecting people against severe Covid infection, hospitalization and death.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>Zero Covid adherents</h2>



Zero Covid strategies remain in place in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, however, with none of them showing signs of relinquishing it just yet. Other Asian economies that have adopted similar approaches include Macau, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam.



The data shows that this strategy has helped keep cases and deaths in the region much lower than in Europe and the U.S. The latter has seen the highest death toll from Covid in the world, with over 703,000 deaths.



On Monday, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center said there had been zero new local cases of Covid-19 and five imported ones, marking the fourth consecutive day without a local infection.



On the same day, Hong Kong also recorded four new cases (all imported, continuing a trend seen in recent weeks), while China reported 26 new cases of confirmed infections on Monday, again, with all of them cited as imported cases, although the accuracy of China’s data during the pandemic has been questioned.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/pfizer-says-its-covid-vaccine-is-safe-and-generates-robust-immune-response-in-kids-ages-5-to-11/">Pfizer says its Covid vaccine is safe and generates robust immune response in kids ages 5 to 11</a></h3>



Experts in the region say there’s good reason for not giving up on zero Covid strategies yet, particularly when vaccination rates are patchy.



David Hui, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who leads an expert committee that advises the government, told CNBC that Hong Kong won’t reconsider its zero-tolerance Covid-19 strategy to one of “living with the virus” until the vaccination rate is higher.



“In contrast to Singapore, [the] U.K. and other Western countries, the overall vaccination rate in Hong Kong is too low (67% with one dose and 62.9% of population fully vaccinated with two doses) to adopt living with the virus. The vaccination rate among those aged 70 years or under is around 30%,” he said.



“If we live with the virus, many elderly unvaccinated subjects will develop severe disease and our healthcare system will collapse.”



The Economist Intelligence Unit noted in a report in July that it expects zero‑Covid markets in Asia to retain tight border controls throughout 2021, only loosening from early 2022 when mass vaccination is achieved.



“Deaths among ‘zero Covid’ countries in Asia have been much lower than global peers and the economic impact less severe, contributing to a much shallower recession in Asia in 2020 than in other regions,” it said, noting that, “if the rest of the world had adopted a similar approach, zero‑Covid might prove a sustainable strategy. However, it now risks becoming one that will undercut rather than support economic activity as the global economy reopens.”



Still, the EIU noted, the policies ultimately adopted by zero‑Covid countries will still be more conservative than those in force in North America and Europe. “The approach is likely to target “low Covid”, with the approaches currently taken by Japan and South Korea serving as potential models,” it said.



The EUI believed China and Taiwan were the economies in the strongest position to maintain a zero‑Covid strategy, owing to their low reliance on cross border flows of capital and talent.

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