Raphael Stevens

Coca-Cola and Constellation Brands are teaming up to create spirits-based cocktails under the Fresca soda brand.
Fresca Mixed Cocktails are slated to launch this year in the U.S.
According to Coke, Fresca is surging in popularity recently, making it the fastest-growing soda trademark in the beverage giant’s U.S. portfolio.

Bottles of Coca-Cola Co. Fresca brand soda move along a conveyor belt at the Swire Coca-Cola bottling plant in West Valley City, Utah, U.S., on Friday, April 19, 2019.
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Coca-Cola and Corona brewer Constellation Brands are teaming up to create alcoholic cocktails under the Fresca soda brand.
It’s the latest partnership between beverage companies to blur the lines between drink categories in the hunt for growth. Nonalcoholic beverage manufacturers are diversifying their portfolios as soda consumption shrinks and new regulated beverage markets, like CBD-infused drinks, are on the horizon. Coke’s rival PepsiCo is rolling out Hard Mtn Dew with Boston Beer in February. This latest collaboration marks Coke’s second foray into alcohol since the 1980s, following the recent success of its Topo Chico Hard Seltzer launch in partnership with Molson Coors Beverage.

Since its introduction to the U.S. market in 1958, Fresca has undergone several makeovers and reformulations to attract U.S. consumers, but this will be the most ambitious move for the brand yet. Fresca Mixed Cocktails are slated to launch this year in the U.S.
“The Coca-Cola Company’s FRESCA brand is not only trusted by consumers, but also directly delivers on consumer preferences for refreshment, flavor, and convenience – attributes that also play well within beverage alcohol and where we can leverage our expertise,” Constellation CEO Bill Newlands said in a statement.
Constellation will produce, market and distribute the cocktails through its three-tier distribution network.
According to Coke, Fresca is surging in popularity recently, making it the fastest-growing soda trademark in the beverage giant’s U.S. portfolio. And its grapefruit flavor makes it a common choice as a cocktail mixer already.
In addition to jumping on Fresca’s current demand, the two companies are aiming for a slice of the growing spirits-based canned cocktails category. In 2020, U.S. consumption of canned cocktails grew 52.7% from the previous year, accounting for 6.9% of the total volume in the alcoholic ready-to-drink category, according to data from IWSR Drinks Analysis. Constellation’s spirits portfolio includes Svedka vodka and Casa Noble tequila.
Shares of Constellation were up less than 1% in premarket trading after the company released its latest results Thursday morning. It topped Wall Street’s estimates for its quarterly earnings and revenue. Coke’s stock was roughly flat in premarket trading.

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Taco Bell is launching a taco-a-day subscription program nationwide Thursday to drive more frequent visits.
Customers with the Taco Lover’s Pass can order one taco — a crunchy taco, soft taco, spicy potato soft taco, Doritos Locos taco or the supreme version of any of those — each day for 30 days straight on the chain’s app.
The pass costs around $10 a month, depending on the location.

A Taco Bell restaurant stands along a Queens street on July 21, 2021 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Taco Bell is launching a taco-a-day subscription program nationwide Thursday to drive more frequent visits.
Customers with the Taco Lover’s Pass can order one taco — a crunchy taco, soft taco, spicy potato soft taco, Doritos Locos taco or the supreme version of any of those — each day for 30 days straight on the chain’s app.

The pass costs around $10 a month, depending on the location.
In its latest quarter, the Yum Brands chain reported U.S. same-store sales growth of 5%, falling short of Wall Street’s high expectations. Taco Bell is typically the top performer of Yum’s portfolio.
The chain has struggled to recover late-night and breakfast sales throughout the pandemic, but it relaunched breakfast in August. The subscription program will likely encourage more frequent visits from customers, who might choose to order additional items with their subscription taco.
Taco Bell tested the subscription program in Tucson, Arizona in September and saw measured success. According to Taco Bell, 20% of customers who purchased the pass were new to the chain’s rewards program. Another 20% of consumers renewed their pass for a second time.
Other restaurant chains have launched similar subscription programs, with mixed success.

Restaurant Brand International’s Burger King launched a coffee subscription in 2019 for $5 a month to help promote its breakfast menu but discontinued it several months later.
Panera Bread, which is privately owned, launched its own version in 2020 that offered unlimited coffee and tea for $8.99 a month, with three free months baked in. Less than a year later, the program had nearly half a million paying subscribers.

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Bed Bath & Beyond missed analysts’ expectations for the fiscal third quarter.
Chief Executive Mark Tritton said a lack of inventory due to supply chain bottlenecks cost Bed Bath & Beyond about $100 million.

A person enters a Bed Bath & Beyond store on October 01, 2021 in the Tribeca neighborhood in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Bed Bath & Beyond shares tumbled nearly 10% in premarket trading Thursday after the home goods retailer missed analysts’ expectations for the fiscal third quarter.
Chief Executive Mark Tritton said a lack of inventory due to supply chain bottlenecks cost Bed Bath & Beyond about $100 million. Issues escalated during December, he said.

Here’s how the retailer did in the three-month period ended Nov. 27 compared with what analysts were anticipating, using Refinitiv data:

Loss per share: 25 cents vs. breakeven results expected
Revenue: $1.88 billion vs. $1.95 billion expected

The company’s net loss grew to $276 million, or $2.78 per share, from a loss of $75 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it lost 25 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Refinitv had expected it to breakeven.
Sales fell 28% to $1.88 billion from $2.62 billion a year earlier. That missed estimates for $1.95 billion.
Systemwide same-store sales, a metric that tracks revenue at stores open for at least 12 months, dropped 7%. Analysts surveyed by StreetAccount were forecasting a 0.9% drop.
Bed Bath & Beyond shares closed Wednesday down 10.8%. The stock has fallen about 32% from a year ago.

Find the full earnings press release from Bed Bath & Beyond here.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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Walgreens beat analysts’ expectations for fiscal first-quarter earnings, as customers came to stores for Covid vaccines and tests.
The drugstore chain raised its forecast for the year, saying it now anticipates adjusted earnings per share to grow the low single-digits instead of being flat.
The company said it administered 15.6 million Covid vaccines in the fiscal first quarter — bringing its total to over 56 million to date.

A sign displays the types of COVID-19 vaccination doses available at a Walgreens mobile bus clinic on June 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

Walgreens Boots Alliance on Thursday exceeded analysts’ expectations for fiscal first-quarter earnings and raised its forecast for the year, as customers came to its stores for Covid booster shots, at-home test kits and first-time vaccinations for children.
Shares rose nearly 3% in premarket trading.

The drugstore chain raised its forecast for the year, saying it now anticipates adjusted earnings per share to grow the low single-digits instead of being flat.
Here’s what Walgreens reported compared with what analysts were expecting for the first quarter ended Nov. 30, based on Refinitiv data:

Earnings per share: $1.68 adjusted vs. $1.33 expected
Revenue: $33.90 billion vs. $32.74 billion expected

In the quarter, net income rose to $3.58 billion, or $4.13 per share, from a net loss of $308 million, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.68 per share, topping the $1.33 expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Sales rose to $33.90 billion from $31.44 billion a year earlier, and were higher than the $32.74 billion that analysts expected.

More booster shots, online sales

Walgreens administered 15.6 million Covid vaccines in the latest quarter — bringing its total to more than 56 million to date. Its pace of vaccinations accelerated from the previous quarter, when it gave 13.5 million shots. Covid vaccinations peaked at Walgreens in the third quarter of last year, when it administered 17 million shots.
So far, the company said it has administered over 9 million booster shots. It gave 6.5 million Covid tests in the first quarter.
Pandemic-related items lifted its retail sales, too, as shoppers bought at-home Covid tests along with cough, cold and flu medications and beauty items. Retail same-store sales, an industry metric that tracks sales online and at stores open at least a year, rose 10.6% compared with the year-ago period — the largest jump in more than 20 years.
Digital sales in the U.S. surged by 88% in the first quarter, as customers placed 3.6 million same-day pickup orders in the three-month period.
At its Boots business the United Kingdom, retail sales online and at stores open at least a year grew by 16.3% compared with the year-ago quarter. Digital sales at Boots in the first quarter nearly doubled versus the same quarter before the pandemic — but foot traffic fell short of pre-pandemic levels, the company said.
Walgreens shares closed Wednesday at $54.00, up nearly 1%. The company’s shares have risen 31% over the past 12 months, bringing its market value to $46.74 billion.
Read the company’s press release here.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

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New Covid-19 variants are likely to keep on emerging until the whole world is vaccinated against the virus, experts warn.
In low-income countries, only 8.5% of people have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to data.
The sharing of vaccinations is not just an altruistic act but a pragmatic one, experts note.

People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination centre in Mumbai, India, April 26, 2021.
Niharika Kulkarni | Reuters

LONDON — New Covid-19 variants are likely to keep on emerging until the whole world is vaccinated against the virus, experts warn, saying that the sharing of vaccines is not just an altruistic act but a pragmatic one.
“Until the whole world is vaccinated, not just rich Western countries, I think we are going to remain in danger of new variants coming along and some of those could be more virulent than omicron,” Dr. Andrew Freedman, a reader in infectious diseases at Cardiff University Medical School, told CNBC on Thursday.

Viruses “tend to become milder” as they evolve, Freedman noted, but he cautioned that this “isn’t always the case.”
“It may well be with future variants that they are even more contagious, they may be milder, but we can’t say that with certainty.”

To date, 58.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, with 9.28 billion doses administered worldwide, according to Our World in Data.
The majority of adult populations are now fully vaccinated against Covid in wealthy, predominantly Western countries like those in Europe or the U.S., and in many of these countries shots are being rolled out to younger teens and even younger children.
But in low-income countries, only 8.5% of people have received at least one dose of a vaccine, Our World in Data shows.

‘Global escape strategy’

Since the start of the vaccine rollout, the World Health Organization has repeatedly implored richer countries to donate excess vaccines to the Covax initiative, an international scheme with the aim of ensuring more equitable global access to vaccines.

The mantra “no one is safe, unless everyone is safe” has often been heard from the WHO and other experts who say the pandemic won’t be over until everyone is protected.
“I can’t emphasize sufficiently that there’s no escaping that logic,” Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC earlier this week.
“This isn’t altruism or aid or anything, this is the global escape strategy from something that we’re all suffering together. Unless we can share out the vaccines and produce enough vaccines for everybody, the next variant is just around the corner.”
Covid vaccines have been proven to significantly protect people against severe infection, hospitalization and death so aside from the fact that more widespread vaccination coverage will potentially save millions of lives, it is also likely to help prevent new variants from emerging: Large numbers of unvaccinated people allow the virus to significantly spread far more easily and to mutate as it does so.

Gavi, the vaccine alliance which is part of the Covax scheme, says the initiative “is necessary because without it there is a very real risk that the majority of people in the world will go unprotected against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) and this would allow the virus and its impact to continue unabated.”
Like all viruses, the coronavirus that first emerged in China in late 2019 has continued to mutate and evolve throughout the pandemic. Certain mutations have proven more effective at enabling the virus to spread. Variants such as the “alpha” strain, first discovered in the U.K. in September 2020 and named as such by the WHO, have gone on to spread around the world, usurping previous strains.

CNBC Health & Science

Then the “delta” variant, which was discovered in India in October 2020, supplanted the alpha variant and now we are contending with “omicron”: a far more transmissible variant than delta but a strain that’s appearing to cause less severe illness, according to a growing body of studies conducted in rapid time since omicron first emerged in southern Africa in November 2021.

Mandating vaccines?

Some countries have, and others are considering, whether to make vaccination mandatory but this throws up thorny ethical dilemmas, such as whether it’s ethical to vaccinate young children (who are, thankfully, rarely badly affected by Covid illness) in order to protect older, more vulnerable citizens.
No Covid vaccine is 100% effective either and the vaccinated can still contract and pass on an infection to others although vaccination reduces this risk.
Still, a growing number of countries have made, or will make, Covid vaccination compulsory for some workers such as health care and care home staff, while others are making it mandatory for certain age groups deemed more at risk; Greece has made vaccination compulsory for the over-60s while Italy on Wednesday made vaccination mandatory for anyone over the age of 50. Needless to say, compulsory shots are a controversial subject and have prompted protests from several quarters.
Freedman said it was preferable to encourage and educate people to be vaccinated rather than to mandate shots but still “it’s desirable to get as many of the population immunized as possible.”

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Mumbai reported more than 15,000 new cases over a 24-hour period on Wednesday.
India’s financial hub Mumbai has a robust health-care infrastructure that can withstand a growing number of Covid cases, the city’s governing civic body told CNBC on Thursday.
Last year, the state of Maharashtra — where Mumbai is located — had directed local oxygen producers to ramp up production and storage capacities.

People crowd not following social distancing norms amid Covid-19 pandemic at Juhu Beach, on January 2, 2022 in Mumbai, India.
Pratik Chorge | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

India’s financial hub Mumbai has a robust health-care infrastructure that can withstand a growing number of Covid cases, the city’s governing civic body told CNBC on Thursday.
India faced a critical shortage of oxygen last year during the second Covid wave between February and May. In June, the state of Maharashtra — where Mumbai is located — directed local oxygen producers to ramp up production and storage capacities to tackle future waves of infection.

“The health infrastructure in Mumbai is so robust that we are prepared for the worst, but we hope for the best,” Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”

New Covid wave in India

India is preparing for a third wave of Covid infections as cases rise again.
Government data showed that daily reported cases crossed 90,000 on Thursday for the first time since June.
Like the rest of the country, daily reported cases in Maharashtra are also ticking higher, and the state accounts for nearly 800 cases attributed to the omicron variant that was first identified by South African scientists. Mumbai reported more than 15,000 new cases over a 24-hour period on Wednesday.
Chahal said he wasn’t worried.

“There’s absolutely no need to panic because you see in spite of 62,000 cases, we have 84% beds lying vacant and the symptoms are very mild,” the commissioner said. “The best thing about omicron is that it takes the space of delta variant, which was lethal, which would take you to oxygenated and ICU ventilator beds very fast.”
To be clear, while studies have shown that omicron appears to be less severe than delta, health experts have stressed caution and say it may be too early to tell how severe the variant is.
Chahal told CNBC the city would have an adequate supply of oxygen and hospital beds to tackle a surge in infections, even as some local reports said Maharashtra has fallen behind in its oxygen production targets.
He claimed majority of the new cases are asymptomatic and that only a small number of people are currently requiring hospitalization. Even those patients are spending only between three to five days in hospitals, according to the commissioner.
According to Indian media, Chahal and the BMC have directed the city’s 142 private hospitals to prepare for a surge in cases in the coming days, asking them to prepare adequate beds comparable to the peak of the second wave last year.
Chahal told CNBC that as of now, Mumbai has not reimposed any curfews — while no more than five people are allowed to gather between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m., hotels, restaurants, public transports as well as trains, buses, taxis and private cars are operating normally, he said.
But local media reported that the BMC may consider stepping up restrictions if daily reported cases cross 20,000.

Omicron variant

So far, India has reported 2,630 Covid cases attributed to the omicron variant in 26 states and union territories. Maharashtra and the capital territory of Delhi account for nearly 48% of those cases, according to government figures.
Total reported cases in the country exceeded 35 million and more than 482,000 people have died, health ministry data showed. India also reported its first omicron-related death on Wednesday, media reports said.
India has fully vaccinated around 44% of its adult population. Starting Jan. 3, it rolled out an inoculation program for adolescents between 15 and 18 years.

CNBC Health & Science

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Hong Kong will be re-imposing strict Covid-19 measures from Friday as the city is bracing for the spread of the highly infectious omicron outbreak.
“We are facing a very dire situation of a major community outbreak any time, and that’s why we have to take very decisive measures,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Wednesday.
Hong Kong recorded 38 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, and has 12,708 confirmed cases so far, according to a government website.

Transparent barriers enforcing social distancing measures are seen on tables at a restaurant in Hong Kong, on Tuesday, April 21, 2020.
Roy Liu | Bloomberg via Getty Images

From bars and pubs to sports premises and karaoke rooms, Hong Kong will be banning most public activities from Friday.
The Asian financial hub will be re-imposing strict Covid-19 measures for two weeks — starting Friday to Jan. 20 — as the city braces for the spread of the highly infectious omicron variant. They will be reviewed in one week.

“We are facing a very dire situation of a major community outbreak any time, and that’s why we have to take very decisive measures,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Wednesday when she announced a slew of stringent measures in a bid to contain the outbreak as early as possible.
The government also announced that incoming flights from eight countries will be banned from Saturday to Jan. 21. They are: Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Hong Kong recorded 38 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, and has 12,708 confirmed cases so far, according to a government website.
So far, 73.4.% of the total population has received two doses of a vaccine as of Thursday, according to government data. 
The city continues to adopt a strict, zero-Covid approach — with up to three weeks of mandatory quarantine and other testing requirements. This is in sharp contrast to many countries around the world, which have shifted to a strategy of “living with Covid” on the back of rising vaccinations rates.

The tightened social distancing rules include a ban on eating in restaurants after 6 p.m., closure of theme parks, museums and venues including fitness centers and bars.
The government is also canceling a mass cycling event, Cyclothon, and entertainment facilities such as Hong Kong Disneyland, cruise ship tours and nightclubs and karaoke venues for 14 days starting Friday.
Here’s a list of everything that will be closed from Jan. 7.

Restaurants must stop offering dine-in services to customers daily from 6 p.m. until 4.59 a.m. local time the following day.
Bars or pubs will be closed.
No live performance and dancing activity is allowed in catering premises. Karaoke or mahjong-tin kau activity should also be suspended.
Entertainment premises shut: theme parks, museums, party rooms, karaoke rooms, game centers, Chinese-style gambling establishments for mahjong and tin kau (dominoes); cinemas as well as event and performance venues will also be closed.
Sports and beauty activities: fitness centers, swimming pools, sports premises, as well as beauty parlors and bathhouses will be shut.
Tours to cease: All local tours and “cruises-to-nowhere” suspended.
Public hospital and nursing home visits to be halted.

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A health worker prepares Pfizer vaccine boosters for clients on December 01, 2021 in Sydney, Australia.
Lisa Maree Williams | Getty Images

The U.S. is among the countries projected to miss the WHO’s Covid vaccination target for 2022, researchers have said, alongside a host of other nations across Europe, Asia and Africa.
In October, the WHO set a target for countries to vaccinate 70% of their populations by mid-2022.

According to projections made by Our World in Data, last updated on Tuesday, more than 100 countries are not on track to meet that goal.

Our World in Data’s projections were compiled using official data, with the current vaccination rate for each country calculated as the average number of people who received their second vaccine dose within the past 14 days. Researchers then assumed these vaccination rates would remain constant through to the WHO target of mid-2022.
“By adding this expected share to the share of the population that have already been fully vaccinated, we project what share of people will be fully vaccinated July 1, 2022,” researchers said. “We exclude from our projections countries that have not reported figures for more than 30 days.”
They acknowledged that their method did not take variables like potential vaccine shortages, changes in vaccination rollout speeds or new government policies into account.
Some of the countries that were not predicted to vaccinate 70% of their populations by the middle of this year included Estonia, Jamaica and Nigeria.

Fewer than 50 countries have already reached the 70% threshold, including Qatar, Portugal and Japan.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and Hong Kong were among those to have not yet surpassed the 70% threshold but were seen to be on track to reach the WHO’s target by mid-2022.

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