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Covid rules

May 14, 2021

The relaxation of U.S. guidelines on wearing masks was met in some corners of Washington with relief that bordered on euphoria. "Free at last," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

Yet for many, the announcement poses a dilemma. As Richard Clough, Matthew Boyle and Emma Court report, some U.S. companies still plan to insist shoppers cover their faces in their stores. Others are reviewing their policies.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based its recommendation on growing evidence that vaccines are effective against Covid-19 variants and fully vaccinated people are at low risk of spreading the virus.

News from elsewhere is more worrying. Seychelles, which has vaccinated more of its population than any other country, faces a renewed surge in cases.

While infections and fatalities are decreasing in much of the developed world, developing countries like India and Brazil are still gripped by horrific tolls. Others are months from having enough vaccines to protect their people.

The proliferation of more potent variants from places like India and England pose obvious dangers.

The British government is so worried by mutations it may speed up the timing of second vaccine doses and consider local lockdowns.

Countries mainly in the Asia-Pacific that had initial success checking Covid-19 must weigh how to rejoin the rest of a world still awash in the pathogen, even as cases in financial hubs like Singapore tick higher again.

As New York, London and other big cities return nearer to business as usual, for example, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo risk being left behind as they maintain stringent border curbs.

Whatever each country does on its own risks being insufficient because the pandemic is global — it will ruthlessly exploit any chink in the world's armor. — Karl Maier 

People enjoy an afternoon at Bryant Park in Manhattan on May 4.

Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America

Click here for this week's most compelling political images and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

Global Headlines

Fighting intensifies | Israel launched an assault on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with heavy aircraft, tank and artillery fire today, sweeping aside international appeals for de-escalation after four days of aerial bombardments failed to quell the heaviest militant rocket fire yet from the Palestinian enclave. "I said that we will exact a very heavy price from Hamas," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "We are doing so."

Israeli soldiers fire a howitzer towards the Gaza Strip today. 

Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Possible deal | U.S. President Joe Biden's White House meeting with Republican senators encouraged them about the prospects for a deal on his $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal. Despite the GOP's broad opposition to the scope of the plan and the tax increases proposed to finance it, the senators said they see a possible middle ground.

  • Former President Donald Trump expects to resume rallies with two events next month, a source says.

Hard line | India's most popular chief minister is also its most radical, and now he's using national security laws to try to quash reports on the country's Covid crisis. The leader of the giant state of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, is increasingly mentioned as a potential successor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but his policies pose a dilemma for the U.S. and its allies, Shruti Srivastava, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Upmanyu Trivedi report.

Bad precedent | Colonial Pipeline's decision to pay hackers who shut down the U.S.'s largest fuel pipeline and created gas shortages along the East Coast went against federal government recommendations. The FBI and the Treasury Department say such ransoms will only encourage more cyberattacks.

Charter rewrite | Chileans will this weekend elect members of the body that will redraw the constitution, a key demand stemming from a period of civil unrest in late 2019. Despite the low popularity of center-right President Sebastian Pinera, the ruling coalition has the advantage of having presented a unified list for the vote, whereas left-wing opposition forces are divided. 

What to Watch

  • As the semiconductor shortage hobbling the global automotive industry worsens, its cost as a hit to sales has almost doubled to $110 billion.
  • Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party selects a new leader today, setting the stage for a heightened campaign against the Brexit deal that has inflamed tensions in the region.
  • The Paris Club of rich government creditors is willing to delay a $2.4 billion debt payment from Argentina due this month if it meets certain conditions, potentially averting a damaging default, sources say.

Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). Which smartphone company was removed from Washington's blacklist in a rare victory for Chinese tech giants caught in the cross hairs of U.S.-China tensions? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... Britons seeking a beach getaway in Portugal had a ray of hope this month when the U.K. scrapped a ban on travel there. The only problem is the European Union member hasn't reciprocated, and until it does most Brits won't be allowed in. With Brexit-related sniping over fishing rights and financial ties dampening the spirit of accommodation, the situation is complicating an already-delayed start to a season that's crucial to airlines, with U.K. visitors among the biggest sources of tourist income in southern Europe.

The neighborhood of Alfama in Lisbon.

Photographer: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images

 
 

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