The UK government reported a record number of new coronavirus cases in Britain as a mutated strain of the disease increased infection rates.
Britain reported 41,385 new Covid-19 cases on Monday and 357 deaths.
It was the first time the UK has reported more than 40,000 new cases.
The figures were worsened by the Christmas holiday weekend, with some reporting delayed until Monday.
"This very high level of infection is of growing concern at a time when our hospitals are at their most vulnerable," said Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England.
Hospitals are cancelling non-urgent procedures as beds are again filled with Covid-19 patients.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his scientific advisers have said the coronavirus variant, which could be up to 70 per cent more transmissible, was spreading rapidly in Britain.
But it is not thought to be more deadly or cause more serious illness.
In mid-December when the mutation was first identified in the region, London and its surrounding areas were placed in Tier 4 restrictions.
That includes non-essential shops closing, a ban on indoor socialising and restaurants offering takeaway food only.
On December 26, Tier 4 was extended north and east to include Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, and now 24 million people in England are in the harsh lockdown.
Mr Johnson said the spread of the new variant meant there would be difficult times ahead, and ministers said it might be necessary to go further.
But on Monday, the government was still hoping schools could return to class next week.
The rise in positive cases was partly driven by Northern Ireland reporting 1,634 new cases, having not reported any on Sunday or Friday because of the Christmas holiday period.
Britain has increased testing capacity substantially since the first wave of Covid-19 in the spring.
It has gone from about 100,000 daily tests at the end of May to 500,000 tests on December 23, the last day that data was published.
British hospitals are struggling to find space for Covid-19 patients.
Dr Nick Scriven, a former president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said on Monday that the rising number of patients in hospital was “extremely worrying".
“With the numbers approaching the peaks from April, systems will again be stretched to the limit,” Dr Scriven said.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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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.”
