Covid-19 cases in UK and France are approaching record highs, fuelled by the BA2 sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron variant which is now the dominant global strain.
In the UK, the government's daily coronavirus dashboard reported 215,000 new infections on Monday.
With fewer people now testing, a more realistic representation of Covid prevalence is believed to be provided by the weekly Office for National Statistics’ weekly Covid Infection Survey, which suggested 4.26 million people had the virus, just under the record 4.3 million infections in the first week of 2022.
Narrowing down to England, cases are approaching a new record, with an estimated 3,485,700, or one in 16, people having the virus in the week ended March 19.
“Our latest data show infection levels have continued to increase in England, Wales and Scotland, driven by the rise of the Omicron BA. 2 variant,” Sarah Crofts of the ONS said in a statement.
“Northern Ireland was a few weeks ahead of the rest of the UK in this rising variant where we now see a welcome decrease. Meanwhile, Scotland has now reached the highest level of any UK country seen in our survey"
“Across England, infections have increased in all regions and age groups, notably the over 50s who are at their highest levels since our survey began,” said Ms Crofts.
The rise in cases among older cohorts is being reflected in rising Covid hospital admissions, with 17,685 in hospital with Covid on March 25.
The Scottish government reported a record 2,383 Covid hospital admissions in Scotland alone on March 28. However, the number of people in mechanical ventilation beds in Scotland fell to 20.
Across the UK as a whole the number remains stable, reflecting the success of vaccines in reducing the severity of the virus.
France is also contending with surging cases and on Monday reported the number of patients receiving hospital treatment for Covid over the past 24 hours leapt from 467 to 21,073, the highest daily rise since the beginning of February.
Of the French patients in hospital, 1,553 were in an intensive care unit as of Monday.
BA2 ascends to global dominance
The surge in Covid cases both in Europe and globally has been driven by BA. 2 which now represents nearly 86 per cent of all sequenced cases, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.
It is even more transmissible than its highly contagious Omicron siblings, BA. 1 and BA. 1.1, however the evidence so far suggests that it is no more likely to cause severe disease.
As with the other variants in the Omicron family, vaccines are less effective against BA. 2 than against previous variants like Alpha or the original strain of coronavirus, and protection declines over time. However, according to UK Health Security Agency data, protection is restored by a booster jab, particularly for preventing hospital admission and death.
This may explain why some European countries are now seeing a slower uptick in new cases, or even a decline.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
