Cambodia's health ministry reported 36 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday. All but one were linked to the country’s February 20 community outbreak, bringing the total in that transmission to 1,025 in less than a month. The 35 new cases of community transmission include one American, nine Vietnamese and two Chinese, with the remainder being Cambodian. The imported case arrived in Cambodia from the Philippines on March 3. Cambodia has recorded just 1,541 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with one death.

Two cases of a new and concerning coronavirus variant, originating from the Philippines, have been identified in England, posing a new challenge to the UK’s defence against mutant strains.  The variant, named P.3, was reported by Philippine officials on March 9, and includes a number of similar mutations to variants that have either been detected after arriving from overseas or evolved through transformations on British shores.  So far the UK has proved successful in preventing concerning variants from spreading like wildfire across its population. But experts believe their relatively modest proliferation to date stems at least in part from the fact that the UK’s homegrown “variant of concern” — first identified in Kent and known as B.1.1.7 — has an evolutionary advantage over new arrivals.  “It is increasingly clear that the other variants of concern are not as transmissible as B.1.1.7 in the UK,” said Dr Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Covid-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Read more here

Shares in SK Bioscience, a South Korean Covid-19 vaccine producer, more than doubled on their trading debut after retail investors flocked to the local market’s largest initial public offering in four years.  Stock surged 160 per cent compared to its IPO price in early morning trading in Seoul on Thursday after it had raised Won1.5tn ($1.3bn). The jump pushed the group’s market value to about $11.5bn.  Investor interest in fast-growing biotech companies is strong given the backdrop of the global coronavirus crisis. SK Bioscience, a unit of South Korea’s SK Group conglomerate, produces Covid-19 vaccines for AstraZeneca and has signed a deal to make jabs for US-based Novavax. It is also developing its own Covid-19 vaccines and conducting human clinical trials.  Shares in SK Bioscience’s IPO, which priced at the top end of the marketed range, drew a record Won63.6tn in gross bids from retail investors. Read more here

New Zealand’s economy suffered a surprise contraction in the final quarter of 2020, denting the Pacific nation’s swift recovery from a Covid-19-induced recession.     Figures published on Thursday show the nation’s international border closure hit the tourism sector hard and construction activity slowed in the three months to the end of December. Economic activity dropped 1 per cent on the previous quarter, well below consensus forecasts for a modest 0.2 per cent rise in gross domestic product. On an annual basis, GDP remains 0.9 per cent below the levels seen in December 2019, prior to the pandemic. Economists said the weaker than expected result highlighted the uneven nature of the economic recovery due to continuing Covid-19 restrictions, with the tourism sector suffering during peak season. Most are forecasting a technical recession — two consecutive quarters of contraction — as the economy readjusts following a record 13.9 per cent rebound in growth in the third quarter of 2020, as a nationwide lockdown was lifted.         “The solid decline in activity in Q4 means that a second recession is imminent as gross domestic product is bound to decline in the first quarter,” said Ben Udy, economist at Capital Economics. However, he forecast a 5 per cent rise in GDP during 2021, with the economy buoyed by the roll-out of vaccines and less risks of snap Covid-19 lockdowns.   Cameron Bagrie, founder of Bagrie Economics, said the economy remained slightly smaller than it was pre-Covid-19 and was already in a technical recession. “The economy spring-boarded out of lockdown and pent-up demand was unleashed in the September quarter. The December quarter showed some pull-back from that fillip," he said.  “Data is now showing a settling down trend along with the impact of border controls really hitting sectors such as tourism.”

Disruptions in health services due to the pandemic may have resulted in 239,000 additional child and maternal deaths in South Asia last year, UN agencies said on Wednesday.  A new report from the UN Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization and the UN Population Fund says there were sharp drops in the number of young children treated for severe acute malnutrition in 2020, as well as in childhood immunisations.   “It is absolutely vital that these services are fully restored for children and mothers who are in desperate need of them,” George Laryea-Adjei, Unicef’s regional director for South Asia, said.  The region also suffered increased levels of unemployment, poverty and food insecurity, says the report, which covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It also found that about 420m children were out of school due to pandemic control measures. The report adds that 4.5m girls are likely never to return to school.  “There are also likely to be an additional 3.5m unintended pregnancies in this region,” Bjorn Andersson, UNFPA regional director for Asia and the Pacific, said.

Asian shares were broadly higher after the US Federal Reserve said it would keep interest rates near zero until at least 2024, easing investor concerns that central banks could withdraw support that has bolstered equity valuations even as the central bank upgraded its forecast for the American economy. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index rose 1.5 per cent, while China's CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks climbed 0.9 per cent and Tokyo's Topix gained 1.1 per cent. The gains in Asia came after the Fed maintained a dovish stance, giving a nod to the improving US economic outlook but cautioning that a full recovery remained a way off. “While we welcome these positive developments, no one should be complacent,” Jay Powell, the Fed chair, said. “At the Fed, we will continue to provide the economy the support that it needs for as long as it takes.” The pledge of support provided a lift for Wall Street, where the S&P 500 reversed early losses to close 0.3 per cent higher. Futures markets tipped the blue-chip stock benchmark to climb 0.3 per cent when markets open in the US. "The market reaction suggests investors are satisfied with the Fed’s explanations for now," said Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. "Inflation is expected to rise in the coming months, and the Fed may need to provide more hand-holding to the market.”

India has recorded 35,838 new daily coronavirus infections, the highest number in more than three months, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call for decisive steps to contain the disease. “Seventy districts of the country have seen a rise of more than 150 per cent in the last few weeks. If we don’t stop here a situation of nationwide outbreak may arise," Modi said during a video conference with state chief ministers.  New cases have risen in 18 states since January. Maharashtra state, the home of India’s financial capital Mumbai, reported 23,179 new cases on Wednesday, or 65 of the nation’s total, the highest since the September peak. The capital New Delhi reported more than 500 new cases, its highest daily tally since early January. Modi said the virus was spreading in smaller towns. Unless contained quickly, it could reach India's villages, which would pose a serious challenge to the country’s health infrastructure.  India’s villages escaped the first wave of the pandemic, which at its peak was responsible for 100,000 new daily cases. Following a precipitous fall in infections, experts warned the public against complacency, but in recent weeks many Indians have ignored safety protocols, gathering in huge crowds at venues ranging from cricket stadiums and religious ceremonies to wedding parties. Modi asked states to tighten measures and focus on testing and contact tracing, telling chief ministers to send new samples to “identify mutants and assess their effects". India has reported several cases of the variants first discovered in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. India began a nationwide vaccine rollout in mid-January, averaging about 1.4m jabs a day. In total, 36.4m doses have been administered, with calls mounting to step up the pace to prevent the second wave from running out of control. India has reported more than 11.4m coronavirus infections and nearly 160,000 deaths since the pandemic began. 

The majority of primary schools in England will have their pandemic catch-up funding more than absorbed by an administrative change that has denied additional money for tens of thousands of children who have recently fallen into hardship, according to a survey.  The research carried out by the National Association of Head Teachers, a union, showed that 62 per cent of primary schools in England will miss out on at least £6,725 as a result of a decision to allocate “pupil premium” funding for disadvantaged children based on data collected last October rather than January this year.  The shortfall exceeds the average of £6,000 of funding these primary schools will receive as part of the government’s £1.7bn catch-up package, jeopardising schools’ ability to help children recover from a year of disrupted education.  “The government is giving with one hand while knowingly taking away with the other,” Paul Whiteman, the association’s general secretary, said. Read more here

The US Treasury department and the Internal Revenue Service have pushed back the deadline for Americans to file their federal income taxes to May 17 from April 15, marking the second year in a row US tax authorities have delayed the tax filing deadline to provide people more time amid the coronavirus pandemic. The IRS extended the deadline last year, in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis. Lawmakers welcomed the move, including Richard Neal, the Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, who chairs the House ways and means committee. “This extension is absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibility in a time of unprecedented crisis,” Neal said on Wednesday in a joint statement with Bill Pascrell, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey. “Under titanic stress and strain, American taxpayers and tax preparers must have more time to file tax returns,” the lawmakers added. The Treasury and IRS announced earlier on Wednesday that they had already disbursed about 90m direct payments valued at more than $242bn stemming from the American Rescue Plan, Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package. The direct payments are being sent in the form of one-off $1,400 direct deposits or cheques for all American adults earning up to $75,000 a year.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced further rollbacks to pandemic-era restrictions, including dropping late-night curfews on cinemas and casinos and a move that will allow indoor fitness classes to resume in New York City. Additionally, five yellow zone clusters in the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens will be lifted on March 22, the governor said on Wednesday, allowing for restrictions on social gatherings and houses of worship to be loosened. Cuomo, who received his Covid-19 vaccine today at a church in Harlem, also said that from March 22, indoor fitness classes will be allowed to reopen statewide at 33 per cent capacity. The move is primarily aimed at allowing activities to resume in densely-populated New York City. When the state last August set out reopening guidelines for gyms and fitness centres, it gave the option for chief executives of counties and the mayor of New York City to opt out of indoor fitness classes and postpone their resumption till a later date. On April 5, an 11pm curfew for cinemas, casinos, bowling alleys and gyms will be lifted. An 11pm curfew for food and beverage at restaurants will remain in place, though. Both those curfews will be reviewed in late April. In recent days, New York state has announced several moves aimed at loosening pandemic-era restrictions. Some of those have specifically affected New York City, such as a decision to increase the indoor dining limit to 50 per cent (effective March 19) and the dropping of a mandatory quarantine period for out-of-state travellers (effective April 1). Mayor Bill de Blasio has said his office had not been consulted regarding some of those moves by the governor. The mayor’s office had not immediately replied to an emailed request from the Financial Times for comment on Wednesday’s announcement.

The Oxford start-up Vaccitech that owns the biotech platform behind the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has raised $168m, as it seeks to use similar technology to treat other infectious diseases and cancer.  Twenty-five million people across the UK have now been vaccinated with the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday, with the latest evidence indicating that just one jab reduces the risk of death by 85 per cent.  Massachusetts plans to open up Covid-19 vaccinations to the general public in mid-April, Governor Charlie Baker announced. From March 22, people over the age of 60 and essential workers in sectors such as transit, grocery, utility, agriculture and public health will be able to register for their first shot. The US travel industry is stepping up its lobbying for further government relief, holding 300 virtual meetings with members of Congress on Wednesday as it argues for more tax breaks to help restaurants, convention centres and entertainment venues. The pandemic cost 3m jobs in the travel industry last year, the US Travel Association said. Disney is set to reopen its California theme park on April 30, after shuttering its gates more than a year ago. The world’s largest entertainment group has been pummeled by the pandemic, which forced the closure of cinemas and theme parks, undercutting two of its most profitable businesses.  The US will not have to throw away tens of millions of doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, a senior regulator has insisted, even as they remain in storage awaiting approval. Peter Marks, head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration, said there was no risk of the doses expiring, even as EU officials push Joe Biden’s administration to be granted access to them. Poland is to impose a three-week national lockdown in an effort to stem a surge in coronavirus infections. Shopping centres, hotels, cinemas, theatres and museums are to close from Saturday, health minister Adam Niedzielski said. Schools will switch to remote learning while gyms and swimming pools will also close. Brazil has overtaken the US as the country with the highest Covid-19 death rate and new case rate, according to a report from the World Health Organization. Latin America’s largest nation had a 20 per cent increase in the number of reported new cases last week compared with the previous week to reach more than 230 infections per 100,000 people. This compares with 139 new cases per 100,000 in the US.

The US Treasury department and the Internal Revenue Service have pushed back the deadline for Americans to file their federal income taxes to May 17 from April 15, marking the second year in a row US tax authorities have delayed the tax filing deadline to provide people more time amid the coronavirus pandemic. The IRS extended the deadline last year, in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis. The latest move was welcomed by lawmakers, including Richard Neal, the Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, who chairs the House ways and means committee. “This extension is absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibility in a time of unprecedented crisis,” Neal said on Wednesday in a joint statement with Bill Pascrell, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey. “Under titanic stress and strain, American taxpayers and tax preparers must have more time to file tax returns,” the lawmakers added. The Treasury and IRS announced earlier on Wednesday that they had already disbursed around 90m direct payments valued at more than $242bn stemming from the American Rescue Plan, Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package. The direct payments are being sent in the form of one-off $1,400 direct deposits or cheques for all American adults earning up to $75,000 a year.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced further rollbacks to pandemic-era restrictions, including dropping late-night curfews on cinemas and casinos and a move that will allow indoor fitness classes to resume in New York City. Additionally, five yellow zone clusters in the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens will be lifted on March 22, the governor said on Wednesday, allowing for restrictions on social gatherings and houses of worship to be loosened. Cuomo, who received his Covid-19 vaccine today at a church in Harlem, also said that from March 22, indoor fitness classes will be allowed to reopen statewide at 33 per cent capacity. The move is move primarily aimed at allowing activities to resume in densely-populated New York City. When the state last August set out reopening guidelines for gyms and fitness centres, it gave the option for chief executives of counties and the mayor of New York City to opt of indoor fitness classes and postpone their resumption till a later date. On April 5, an 11pm curfew for cinemas, casinos, bowling alleys and gyms will be lifted. An 11pm curfew for food and beverage at restaurants will remain in place, though. Both those curfews will be reviewed in late April. In recent days, New York state has announced several moves aimed at loosening pandemic-era restrictions. Some of those have specifically affected New York City, such as a decision to increase the indoor dining limit to 50 per cent (effective March 19) and the dropping of a mandatory quarantine period for out-of-state travellers (effective April 1). Mayor Bill de Blasio has said his office had not been consulted regarding some of those moves by the governor. The mayor's office had not immediately replied to an emailed request from the Financial Times for comment on Wednesday's announcement.

The Financial Times has been your guide to the pandemic since the first outbreak was detected over a year ago. Here are some of the developments we were reporting a year ago today: Wall Street rebounded as investors focused on policy efforts to counter the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. The S&P 500 jumped 6 per cent, a day after it posted its worst slide since 1987 Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube put out a first-of-its-kind joint statement saying they were working together to fight fraud and misinformation related to coronavirus European countries introduced fresh bans on short-selling stocks in a bid to calm investors following heavy falls on the region’s markets Sweden closed universities and schools for students aged over 16 but kept them open for younger children as the Scandinavian country faced questions about its crisis response A top World Health Organization doctor said that herd immunity might not be the right way to contain the coronavirus outbreak Uefa, European football’s governing body, postponed the Euro Championships until June 2021 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson began his daily press conferences, saying that without drastic measures to impede the progress of the coronavirus it would overwhelm any health system in the world. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the UK government would backstop £330bn in loans and unleash billions of pounds in spending as part of an emergency package to help struggling businesses Leo Varadkar warned Ireland it faced the prospect of severe restrictions continuing “for months into the summer” For all the latest on the pandemic, visit the FT’s coronavirus home page

Airline initial public offerings are taking off, fuelled by a jump in investor appetite for stocks expected to get a big lift from economic reopenings and an anticipated rebound in travel as Covid-19 vaccination programmes accelerate. Investors on Wall Street sent shares of Apollo-backed Sun Country Airlines up more than 50 per cent in their debut on Wednesday, which came weeks after Norwegian start-up carrier Flyr listed in Oslo. It is shaping up to be one of the busiest two months in years for airline listings, with Frontier Airlines set to go public on the Nasdaq in the coming weeks. Sun Country’s shares closed their first trading session at $36.38 on Wednesday, giving the company a market value of about $2bn. That was well above the $24 the shares were initially priced at on Tuesday and higher than the $21 to $23 range the Minneapolis-based budget airline had originally sought for its listing. The offering was roughly 15 times subscribed, said people familiar with the deal. Sun Country and Frontier are going public after a challenging year. Frontier booked a net loss of $225m last year, after earning $251m a year prior. Sun Country was able to retain more than half of its 2019 operating revenue throughout the past year, owing in large part due to a deal to fly cargo for Amazon. The decline in bookings nonetheless left it with a $4m loss. Jude Bricker, Sun Country’s chief executive, said bookings have since climbed back to pre-coronavirus levels. “We’re feeling really good about where we are and investors share that enthusiasm,” Bricker said. The IPO, he added, “was an opportunity for us. And we took it.” Read more here

The Oxford start-up Vaccitech that owns the biotech platform behind the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has raised $168m, as it seeks to use similar technology to treat other infectious diseases and cancer.  Vaccitech is preparing to go public in the coming months, according to a person familiar with the matter, after its latest round valued the start-up at about $425m after the fundraising. The series B round was led by London-headquartered M&G Investment Management and investors included Californian biotech group Gilead Sciences, Chinese tech company Tencent and Monaco’s constitutional reserve fund. Sarah Gilbert, a vaccines expert and co-founder of Vaccitech, led the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The company is built on technology spun out of the University of Oxford and backed by Oxford Sciences Innovation, a fund trying to help the institution commercialise more of its intellectual property like US universities do.  Read more here.

Federal Reserve officials sharply upgraded their growth forecasts for the world’s largest economy but signalled that they expected to keep interest rates close to zero until at least 2024. The median estimate from Fed officials now forecasts that the US economy will grow 6.5 per cent this year, compared with 4.2 per cent in its December forecast. The rosier projections from the Fed came at the end of a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday held against a backdrop of growing optimism about the US economy after Joe Biden’s $1.9tn fiscal stimulus and the country’s swift vaccination rollout. Core inflation is expected to rise to 2.2 per cent, above the central bank’s 2 per cent target, compared with a smaller rise to 1.8 per cent forecast in December. The unemployment rate is now forecast to fall to 4.5 per cent by the end of the year instead of 5 per cent. “Following a moderation in the pace of the recovery, indicators of economic activity and employment have turned up recently, although the sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic remain weak,” the FOMC said. The FOMC made no changes to its ultra-loose monetary policy on Wednesday, pledging to maintain rock-bottom interest rates until the economy reached full employment, with inflation hitting 2 per cent and on track to exceed that target. It also reiterated that it would continue to buy bonds at a rate of $120bn per month until “substantial further progress” was made towards its goals. “The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus, including progress on vaccinations. The ongoing public health crisis continues to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook,” the FOMC said. Read more here

Twenty-five million people across the UK have now been vaccinated with the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday, with the latest evidence indicating that just one jab reduces the risk of death by 85 per cent.  Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, Hancock said the latest evidence demonstrated that the “vaccine is safe and helps make you safe”. The health secretary said that the latest studies reveal that just one dose of the vaccine reduces the risk of getting Covid-19 by 60 per cent, while the risk of being hospitalised is reduced by 80 per cent and of dying by 85 per cent. Individuals who live with someone who has had the vaccine lower their risk of contracting the virus by 30 per cent, he added. Meanwhile, thanks to the vaccine rollout, about 90 per cent of people aged 70 and over now have Covid-19 antibodies needed to fight the virus, Hancock said. Addressing concerns surrounding the supply of vaccines, the health secretary admitted that supply was “lumpy” but argued that the government was still on track to offer everyone in JCVI priority groups 1-9 by April 15. Over 50s have now been invited to come forward for their vaccinations, he added. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, reiterated the safety of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine following the decision by some countries in Europe to suspend the rollout. “We are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AZ vaccine outweigh the side effects. That is the official position of the European Regulator and ours,” he said. “Vaccines don’t save lives if they are in the fridge.”

The NHS has warned of a “significant reduction” in supplies of Covid-19 vaccines and ordered an embargo on new vaccination appointments for the whole of April that is set to delay the start of inoculations for under-50s. In a letter to staff involved in the vaccination programme, Emily Lawson, NHS chief commercial officer, and Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director for Primary Care, said: “The government’s Vaccines Task Force have now notified us that there will be a significant reduction in weekly supply available from manufacturers beginning in the week commencing 29 March, meaning volumes for first doses will be significantly constrained.” The task force “currently predict this will continue for a four-week period, as a result of reductions in national inbound vaccines supply”, they added. The need for second doses doubled from the beginning of April, they noted. This supply constraint “means vaccination centres and community pharmacy-led local vaccination services should close unfilled bookings from the week commencing 29 March and ensure no further appointments are uploaded to the National Booking System or Local Booking Systems from 1 to 30 April”. Matt Hancock, health secretary, played down the intervention as “a normal operational letter” at a Number 10 media briefing. He said “supply is always lumpy” and the government was on course to vaccinate all over-50s by April 15. “These supply schedules have moved up and down throughout this whole rollout and it is absolutely par for the course,” he said. Asked about the delay to the start of vaccination for under-50s, he said all Britons would be vaccinated by the end of July.

Massachusetts plans to open up Covid-19 vaccinations to the general public in mid-April, Governor Charlie Baker has announced. From March 22, people over the age of 60 and essential workers in sectors such as transit, grocery, utility, agriculture and public health will be able to register for their first shot, while vaccine eligibility will be broadened again on April 5 to include those aged 55 and older and individuals with medical conditions. On April 19, the state’s third phase of vaccinations will begin, allowing any resident over the age of 16 to register for a Covid-19 vaccine. Baker, a Republican, said the decision to speed up the rollout was helped by assurances that vaccine supply is increasing. Several states have already committed to making the general public eligible for vaccination before the May 1 target set by President Joe Biden. Some governors have said they expect to meet that deadline, but have not laid out specific timelines. Massachusetts, ranking 15th among states with a population of about 6.9m, has administered 2.6m vaccine doses since the start of the rollout, according to data on Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state has fully vaccinated 13.2 per cent of residents, ranking it equal-13th in the country and compared with an average of almost 12.6 per cent for all states.