Live updates: follow the latest news on Covid-19 variant Omicron
Top US infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said he hopes the travel ban on southern African countries can be lifted in a "reasonable period of time" as information is gathered on the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Dr Fauci told CNN on Sunday that US health authorities were mindful of the hardship the travel ban was causing in those countries and were constantly re-evaluating the policy.
Covid-19 cases involving the new Omicron strain have been increasing in the US, with New York City recording three more cases and Massachusetts reporting its first infection.
The cases in New York, which bring the state’s total to eight, do not appear to be connected to a large anime conference in Manhattan, where a Minnesota resident appears to have been infected, Governor Kathy Hochul said on Saturday.
Massachusetts reported a case involving a fully vaccinated woman in her 20s who had travelled out of state, the Department of Public Health said. She “has experienced mild disease" but did not need to be admitted to hospital, the department said.
Georgia said it was tracing people who had been in contact with a resident who returned from South Africa, spent two days in Georgia before going to New Jersey, where she tested positive.
The Omicron variant had been found in about 15 US states as of Saturday night but the Delta variant remains responsible for the vast majority of Covid-19 cases across the country, Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC News on Sunday.
"We know we have several dozen cases and we're following them closely. And we are every day hearing about more and more probable cases so that number is likely to rise," Dr Walensky said.
Of the 90,000 to 100,000 cases being reported each day in the US, 99.9 per cent of are the Delta variant, she said.
Omicron spreads in Sydney
Meanwhile, five people in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, have contracted the Omicron variant locally, health authorities in the New South Wales state confirmed.
The cases are linked to two schools and a climbing gym in Sydney’s western suburbs, which may also be the source of a confirmed Omicron infection in the Australian Capital Territory, the state's chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Sunday.
Urgent genome testing is under way for a number of other cases linked to the venues and should be available in coming days.
New South Wales has confirmed 15 Omicron infections and more are expected, Ms Chant said. The outbreak was traced to infected travellers on a flight from Doha who had visited southern Africa.
Australia will begin vaccinating young children starting early next year once authorities receive final approvals in the coming weeks.
Countries review travel rules
More and more countries have begun reviewing travel requirements as the new strain begins to take hold. UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News that the country would require all travellers to take a Covid-19 test within 48 hours before their flight – regardless of their vaccination status.
The measure will be temporary and be reviewed as the Omicron outbreak develops, he said. More than 100 people in the UK have been identified with the new variant, which is rapidly spreading around the world.
The new rules go into effect on December 7.
The French government also announced details of tougher testing requirements for visitors from outside the EU. From Saturday, anyone arriving from a non-European country, whether or not they are vaccinated, must show a negative antigen test taken within 24 hours or a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours.
Unvaccinated EU visitors need a negative antigen or PCR test report obtained within 24 hours to enter France.
While not announcing new travel restrictions, the Mayor of the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, said he was cancelling New Year's Eve celebrations after the country reported its first Omicron cases.
Countries such as Chile and Romania have also announced their first cases of the new variant. Both countries linked the new cases to travellers who had recently been to Africa.
Chile’s first case was a foreign resident who had travelled recently from Ghana, the Valparaiso regional secretariat of the health ministry said on Twitter. The patient had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Cases of the Omicron variant linked to a Christmas party in the Norwegian capital may rise to as many as 100, public broadcaster NRK reported.
Everyone who attended the event held in Oslo by renewable power producer Scatec ASA on November 26 is being treated as if they have the virus, the broadcaster reported, citing Line Vold, a department director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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.”
Low turnout
Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.
Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."
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