Raphael Stevens

People wait their turn to get vaccinated against the coronavirus at a vaccination center set up at the Dubai International Financial Center in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, on February 3, 2021. The UAE has administered at least three million doses to more than a quarter of its population.1230948336DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are offering a booster shot of the Chinese-developed Sinopharm vaccine to residents and citizens who have already had two doses, the countries’ medical authorities said. “An additional supportive dose of Sinopharm is now available to people who have received the vaccine previously and who have now completed more than six months since the second dose,” the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority tweeted Tuesday evening.Bahrain’s National Medical Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus simultaneously announced “the opening of registration for a booster COVID-19 vaccine dose for the most vulnerable groups in Bahrain, at least 6 months after taking the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine, for first responders, as well as citizens and residents above the age of 50, as well as those suffering from obesity, low immunity, or other underlying health conditions.”The announcements come amid questions over Sinopharm’s efficacy and reports of Covid-19 reinfections among people who have received their two doses of the shot. The World Health Organization earlier in May approved Sinopharm for emergency use, making it the first non-Western vaccine to get the organization’s green light. Developed by China’s state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (commonly referred to as Sinopharm) it is one of the country’s two main shots that have been administered to millions of people in China and elsewhere, particularly in the developing world.The UAE’s vaccination campaign, one of the fastest in the world, has relied heavily on the Sinopharm shot, available to all residents and citizens since late 2020. The Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/University of Oxford and Sputnik V vaccines have also been available in Dubai for several months, while UAE capital Abu Dhabi only offered its residents Sinopharm until it recently changed course to offer Pfizer as well in late April.Mixed efficacy figuresThe UAE government announced in December of last year that an “interim analysis” conducted by the China National Biotec Group (a subsidiary of Sinopharm) of the vaccine’s phase 3 trials in Abu Dhabi found it to be 86% effective. But the announcement was thin on details and did not disclose how that 86% figure was calculated.In the same month, China announced the vaccine as 79.34% effective based on what it said was “interim trial data” without releasing phase 3 results, conflicting with the UAE’s figures. In a national case that’s raised more concerns, the Seychelles — the most highly-vaccinated country in the world, with roughly 60% of those vaccinated having received Sinopharm — is seeing a new surge of Covid cases among vaccinated residents. Its health ministry in mid-May reported that more than a third of people who tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to May 8 had been fully vaccinated. The World Health Organization has said it will review coronavirus data from the island nation.Sinopharm has not replied to multiple CNBC requests for comment.The UAE is set to play a significant role in expanding vaccine access across the developing world thanks to its partnership with China to locally manufacture millions of doses as part of a joint venture between Sinopharm and UAE-based tech company G42. The UAE-produced vaccine is called Hayat-Vax; hayat means “life” in Arabic.In March, the UAE gave third doses of Sinopharm to “a small number” of people who failed to develop antibodies after their first two shots, local news reported.The UAE’s coronavirus cases hit a peak of some 4,000 per day in late January, but have since fallen to fewer than 1,500 per day. After a very strict spring lockdown in 2020, the Gulf sheikhdom’s economy has fully reopened, with its commercial capital Dubai becoming one of the first places in the world to resume tourism and in-person conferences. Despite this, it’s been on a travel “red list” for the U.K., a top tourism partner, since January. France and a number of other European Union countries have also put the UAE on their red lists, requiring ten-day quarantines on arrival.In late April, the UAE announced it would consider “strict measures” to limit the movement of people unvaccinated against the coronavirus, seeking to further ramp up its national inoculation campaign that has already administered nearly 11.5 million shots in its population of roughly 10 million. More

People receive their Covid-19 vaccines from medical workers at a vaccination centre set up in the classroom of a government school on May 04, 2021 in New Delhi, India.Getty Images | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesIndia reported its highest single-day increase in Covid-19 deaths as cases stayed below 300,000 for the third straight day.On Wednesday, health ministry data showed at least 4,529 people succumbed to the disease over a 24-hour period as 267,334 new cases were registered.India has reported more than 25 million cases and over 283,000 deaths so far. But experts suggest the figures undercount the actual toll as testing is limited in some places, particularly in rural areas currently experiencing a surge in cases. Many patients who have died at home — due to hospitals running out of beds — are also typically left out of the official tally.The South Asian nation has been testing anywhere between 1.5 million to 2 million samples daily over the last seven days, according to government data. The test positivity rate has come down from 19.45% last Thursday to 13.31% on Wednesday as of 8 a.m. local time.Some have suggested that the second wave may have already reached its peak after daily cases reached a record high of over 414,000 on May 7. But there is growing concern over the pandemic’s spread into rural India, where smaller towns and villages do not have adequate health-care infrastructure to handle a sharp rise in cases that left big metropolitan cities like New Delhi and Mumbai scrambling.In its newest weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic, the World Health Organization said that all regions reported a decline in new cases apart from the Western Pacific Region last week, where the reported number was similar to the week before.The South-East Asia region, which includes South Asian and Southeast Asian member states, saw a 12% decline in cases and a 7% increase in death toll last week compared with the previous week. Nepal, which is also facing a Covid crisis, saw an 8% rise in new cases and a 266% jump in the death toll to about 4.2 new fatalities per 100,000 people.India’s Covid crisisRead CNBC’s latest coverage of India’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic:WHO labels a Covid strain in India as a ‘variant of concern’ — here’s what we knowIndia’s worsening Covid crisis could spiral into a problem for the worldIndia is the home of the world’s biggest producer of Covid vaccines. But it’s facing a major internal shortageIndia’s economy will likely contract this quarter as Covid cases soar, economists warnWHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week urged member countries to continue donating vaccines to the Covax initiative so that it can increase vaccine supply to low-income countries, which are receiving only about 0.3% of global doses.He pointed out that beyond India, countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Egypt are also dealing with spikes in cases and hospitalizations.”Trickle down vaccination is not an effective strategy for fighting a deadly respiratory virus,” he said. More

Life may be returning to some form of normality in the United States — but “the danger is in front of us” if the world does not band together to fight the pandemic in other places like India, said Myron Brilliant of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. last week said fully vaccinated people will no longer need to wear face masks in many settings, both indoors and outdoors.Some retailers and restaurants have adopted this guidance, easing mask mandates for customers who are fully vaccinated.But we have to be alarmed by what we see in India and the potential for other waves. We’re concerned about Southeast Asia, South Asia.Myron BrilliantU.S. Chamber of Commerce”We’ve seen progress here in the United States, we’re getting the pandemic under control, we’re seeing economic recovery in critical sectors, including manufacturing,” said Brilliant, the Chamber’s executive vice president and head of international affairs.”But we have to be alarmed by what we see in India and the potential for other waves. We’re concerned about Southeast Asia, South Asia,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.Surge in AsiaCountries such as India, Nepal and Malaysia have seen spikes in the number of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.India, in particular, has struggled with a spike in deaths and infections in recent weeks, with confirmed daily cases topping 400,000 on some days.A Covid-19 patient wearing an oxygen mask seen at at Shehnai Banquet Hall attached to Lok Nayak Covid-19 Hospital.Pradeep Gaur | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images”It’s devastating what’s happening there,” said Brilliant, noting that millions of people in India are employed by U.S. companies.”So certainly, we’re not out of the woods here. The danger is in front of us if we don’t address this pandemic and deal with the challenges in countries around the world, including in India,” he said.Worldwide cooperationWhile there may be economic growth in parts of the world such as the U.S. and China, Brilliant said it “doesn’t matter” unless the global community works together to manage new waves of Covid elsewhere.”This virus is not behind us,” he said, pointing to the cases in India.The United States cannot act alone. We cannot get out of this pandemic alone…Myron BrilliantU.S. Chamber of Commerce”If we don’t put it under control, these countries are going to be severely challenged in dealing with not just the health crisis, but the economic crisis,” he said.It’s important for countries to respond in a coordinated way, he said.”The United States cannot act alone. We cannot get out of this pandemic alone, we cannot see economic recovery if we’re going to sell to 95% of the market outside United States — we’ve got to work together to get this pandemic under control,” Brilliant said. More

SINGAPORE — Singapore faces twin challenges from climate change and is looking to a new coastal protection plan to preserve the island’s most at-risk shores, the country’s environment minister said.”Our twin challenges are coastal floods … (and) extreme rainstorms that could cause more intense inland flooding. So we need a system that can help us manage both,” said Grace Fu, minister for sustainability and the environment.The project, launched Tuesday by Singapore’s national water agency PUB, will collate science and data on how best to mitigate and adapt to coastal damage before creating a roadmap of action, Fu told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Wednesday.Singapore, a small Southeast Asian city-state smaller than New York City, has been working for years to preserve its coastline from sea level rise and other environmental damage.Much of the country lies just 15 meters above the mean sea level, with about 30% of the country less than 5 meters above the mean sea level. That has prompted authorities to implement a minimum land reclamation level of 4 meters — a figure that would likely rise soon to 5 meters, said Fu.”We want to understand the impact of all these climatic scenarios on our environment, on the level of sea water, and also on the tidal differences that’s coming our way,” she said.The first region to be covered under the plan will be some 57.8 km of coastline spanning Singapore’s Greater South Waterfront — which includes the city’s central business district, the East Coast and Changi, home to Singapore’s Changi Airport.The skyline of financial and business center is seen in the background as people paddle surf along the East Coast Park beach in Singapore on July 17, 2020.Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty ImagesSingapore’s new coastal protection strategy will offer private developers the chance to help redesign its future, Fu said.The study is launching with a $5 billion fund, and will be undertaken by a private-led consortium comprising Singaporean and Dutch consultancies over the next four years. That process will, in turn, open the door for other private companies to offer environmentally friendly solutions, Fu said.”For the investments the government is making, I’m sure the private sector will be able to benefit in the construction and providing the engineering solutions,” she said.”Developers along the way will have some idea of the plan that we are going with,” she said. “So when they build infrastructure, when they build buildings, when they build offices or they build recreation facilities, they will have to build with this science, these data, these assumptions in mind.”The project comes amid increasing efforts to reduce the impact of climate change across the globe. More

Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has spoken of the multiple disasters the world is currently facing, which have only been accentuated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Ban, who led the U.N. from 2007-2016, called on global leaders to raise their ambition in order to avoid failures on a range of different issues, including climate change and the scarcity of water.”There are still 2 billion people who lack safe drinking water, more than 1.5 billion people who do not have electricity and there are more than 60 million schoolchildren who do not go to school, even elementary school … This is sad, this is really heartbreaking,” Ban told CNBC’s “Sustainable Future” in March, speaking around World Water Day.”We are standing on the precipice of all these crises … I hope that global leaders should have far-reaching global visions, that we are in this world together, we are all in this together, otherwise, we will all be a failure. Therefore, I’m really urging political leaders to do their best, lead by example,” he added. Ban said the coming 10 years would be crucially important for global leaders to work on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. These are 17 targets created by the New York-based organization which are a call for action on economic, social and environmental sustainability by the year 2030.Narrowing it down, he said that the ongoing Covid-19 crisis had further highlighted the impact of a global water shortage.”The pandemic of course has thrown a spotlight on this issue and it has also really demonstrated that water is a connecting thread linking the myriad of impacts of our crises, whether that’s around infectious diseases or food security, the last year has seen us experience all of them,” he said.”When trillions of dollars are being spent for controlling the coronavirus, I think we need to see a bigger, bigger picture, investing wisely in water, that will really help our life. That’s one of the most important urgent items of (the) Sustainable Development Goals now,” he added.Ban was speaking alongside the CEO of the Global Center for Adaptation, Patrick Verkooijen. Ban is also the chair of the GCA, which describes itself as a “solutions broker to accelerate, innovate and scale adaptation action for a climate-resilient world.”Verkooijen told CNBC that the pandemic had been a “wake-up call.” “We are utterly unprepared for the next crisis, the climate emergency … 90% of all natural disasters are water related, more floods, more droughts, more storms, more fires. In the last two decades, these climate disasters have doubled. Half a million people lost their lives and over 2 trillion in economic losses,” he said.”In 2017, three storms cost the United States economy $265 billion. Last year in 2020, one storm, over $55 billion in economic losses. I think (U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate) John Kerry said it very well, we have now crossed the point that investing in prevention is much more effective than cleaning up afterwards. That’s why investing in water and climate adaptation is the way to go,” he added.Ban, who led efforts for the signing of the Paris Agreement for Climate Change in 2015, said that action on addressing all these issues needed to be sped up.”We have to really expedite and raise the ambition level particularly by political leaders … People know that climate change is very important, very serious and needs urgent action,” told CNBC.”But at the same time, we have to take care of all the food shortages and gender empowerment, water shortages, quality education, resilient cities.”Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.Thomas Trutschel | Photothek | Getty Images More

After being the epicenter of a devastating second wave, India’s wealthiest state is already taking steps to prepare for a possible third wave, according to its tourism and environment minister.The western state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, has so far reported more than 5.4 million cases, including over 82,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to health ministry data. It is the worst-hit state in the country so far.Since last month, ministers of the state, including Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, have been discussing various ways to respond to an impending third wave, which could potentially occur sometime between September and October, Aaditya Thackeray told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday.”For the third wave, we are preparing for three major things,” said Thackeray, who is also the chief minister’s son.First, is the state’s medical response, which is currently guided by a task force comprising 11 doctors who have put together standard operating procedures for Maharashtra’s administrative and medical responses. Thackeray explained the state is looking into which demographics could be affected in a third wave — particularly children and teenagers who have mostly been spared by the previous two waves.Passengers from Uttar Pradesh stand in a queue for Covid test, upon their arrival at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, on May 16, 2021 in Mumbai, India.Satish Bate | Hindustan Times | Getty ImagesThe state is ramping up efforts to ensure there are adequate hospital beds, oxygen supply as well as intensive care units.Second, it is also deciding on social guidelines such as the need for wearing multiple masks, Thackeray said.”The third thing, of course, is the corporate response. Because industries have to go, work has to go on. That’s how we are trying to prepare for this third wave,” he added.India’s Covid situationIndia’s daily reported cases have been falling since reaching a record high of over 414,000 new infections over a 24-hour period on May 7. Some have suggested that the second wave may have already reached its peak.On Monday, new cases fell below 300,000 for the first time since April 21. But the fatality rate has remained above 4,000 for the last three consecutive days including Tuesday, when at least 4,329 more deaths were reported. Experts have suggested India’s fatalities are being severely undercounted.Medical experts have said that India’s best shot at countering future waves is to vaccinate as many people as possible. The country has already administered more than 184 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines amid a domestic shortage, but a large portion of them are just first doses. Currently people 18 and above are eligible to get inoculated.Reports suggest the pace of vaccination has slowed as states scramble to secure supplies. India’s Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a statement Saturday that the country will have 516 million doses by July, including shots already administered, and that number will rise to 2.16 billion doses between August and December.Thackeray said Maharashtra is trying to procure as many vaccines as possible for the state. Municipal corporations in major cities like Mumbai are also doing their own procurements. He explained that logistics present a challenge for the state’s plans to vaccinate people in rural or densely populated areas.”In terms of planning, in terms of setting up vaccination rules, almost everything is in place. All we are waiting for is enough supplies,” he said. Maharashtra accounts for just over 10% of all vaccine doses administered so far in India, according to health ministry data.India’s Covid crisisRead CNBC’s latest coverage of India’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic:WHO labels a Covid strain in India as a ‘variant of concern’ — here’s what we knowIndia’s worsening Covid crisis could spiral into a problem for the worldIndia is the home of the world’s biggest producer of Covid vaccines. But it’s facing a major internal shortageIndia’s economy will likely contract this quarter as Covid cases soar, economists warn”The medical belief in the state is, if we want to prevent a third wave — which we see a possibility around September-October — we have to vaccinate as many people as we can, to protect them,” Thackeray added.The state has also extended its lockdown until the end of the month, during which nonessential activities are restricted. Thackeray said re-opening will entirely depend on how many Covid-19 cases are reported in Maharashtra and that it would still be slow and staggered. More

In this articleRTXRaytheon Technologies is embracing the hybrid work model as a means to reduce its footprint and foster a more inclusive workforce, CEO Greg Hayes told CNBC Tuesday.After more than a year of working from home, an experiment spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company plans to cut a quarter of its office space and welcome employees to the office only when necessary.”What this pandemic has shown us in all honestly is that, you know, you can be productive in varying work environments,” he said in an interview with Jim Cramer on “Mad Money.”Raytheon, which reported having 181,000 employees globally as of December, said about 100,000 people have worked remotely during the pandemic. Raytheon is looking at reducing its 32 million square feet of space by 25%, or 8 million square feet.That won’t spell the end of in-person work activities at Raytheon, an aerospace and defense giant based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Hayes sees bringing workers in as an opportunity to maintain company culture but noted a benefit in doing away with daily travel to campus.”I still think you have to be in the office occasionally,” he said. “You have to build social capital, you have to build that team esprit de corps, but you don’t have to have an hour commute every single day to be productive.”Raytheon also has its focus on reaching diversity goals, and Hayes thinks a work-from-anywhere model will be key in supplying the balance between work and family life that many women demand.During the pandemic, the rate of women’s labor force participation fell to levels not seen in decades.”We’re going to give people flexibility and that’s going to help a lot in terms of retention as well,” Haye said. “As I think about the goals that we have around diversity and trying to keep young women in the workforce, this type of flexibility is absolutely essential.”Raytheon stock declined 1.37% on Tuesday to an $85.38 close. The stock has climbed 19% this year.Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More