Monday Morning Briefing: Singapore studies COVID-19 pregnancy puzzle after baby born with antibodies

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November 30, 2020 Reuters News Now What you need to know about the coronavirus today Singapore studies pregnancy puzzle Doctors are studying the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women and their unborn babies in Singapore, where an infant delivered by an infected mother earlier this month had antibodies against the virus but did not carry the disease. The ongoing study among the city-state’s public hospitals adds to international efforts to better understand whether the infection or antibodies can be transferred during pregnancy, and if the latter offers an effective shield against the virus. The World Health Organization says while some pregnant women have an increased risk of developing severe COVID-19, it is not yet known whether an infected pregnant woman can pass the virus to her foetus or baby during pregnancy or delivery. COVID-19 infections are still rising in 64 countries. There have been at least 62,428,000 reported infections and 1,455,000 reported deaths caused by the new coronavirus so far. Track daily COVID-19 infections and deaths data for 240 countries and territories around the world. Novavax delays U.S. vaccine trial again Vaccine maker Novavax said it has pushed back the start of a U.S.-based, late-stage trial for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine and now expects it to begin in the coming weeks instead of this month. It is the second time that Novavax, which already has a late-stage UK trial underway, has rescheduled the Phase 3 trial after first flagging an October start, due to issues in scaling up its manufacturing. England’s infections down 30% during lockdown COVID-19 infections have fallen by 30% during England’s month-long national lockdown, and the virus is now in retreat, a large-scale study of more than 100,000 volunteers showed. England began its second national lockdown on Nov. 5 to curb rapidly rising infection numbers and protect its health system. The country is due to return to a regional approach to restrictions from Dec. 2. Infected returnees skip quarantine in Thailand Thailand was racing to track down about 200 people in its northern provinces to stop a potential outbreak, after three Thai nationals entered the country illegally from Myanmar and tested positive days later. Three women bypassed immigration checks and entered via natural border crossings last Tuesday and Friday, skipping the mandatory quarantine for new arrivals, Chiang Rai provincial governor Prachon Pratsakul said. Malaria death toll to exceed COVID-19’s in sub-Saharan Africa Deaths from malaria due to disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic to services designed to tackle the mosquito-borne disease will far exceed those killed by COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization warned. More than 409,000 people globally - most of them babies in the poorest parts of Africa - were killed by malaria last year, the WHO said, and COVID-19 will almost certainly push that toll higher in 2020. From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Swiss vote, ABN Amro, Aussie wine. Swiss voters narrowly reject a plan to make multinationals liable for human rights abuses abroad, and Australian wine falls victim to China trade tensions. Catch up with the latest pandemic-related financial insights. Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic. We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources. Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages? We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at coronavirus@reuters.com. We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to unveil his picks for several top economic positions as early as Monday when he will also finally receive his first classified intelligence briefing, an essential step towards taking control of national security. While Biden’s transition to the White House appeared to be hitting its stride, the president-elect was hobbling after fracturing his foot while playing with his dog. Supreme Court justices are set to consider President Donald Trump’s move to exclude illegal immigrants from the population totals used to allocate congressional districts to states, a facet of his hardline stance toward immigration being pursued in his final weeks in office. The challengers to Trump’s July directive include various states led by New York, cities, counties and immigrant rights groups. They have argued that the Republican president’s move could leave several million people uncounted and cause California, Texas and New Jersey to lose House seats, which are based on a state’s population count in the decennial census. World Democracy Darkens: Prince Wong is part of a crop of young democrats in the so-called ‘resistance bloc’ who aim to upend Hong Kong’s political order through disruptive, unorthodox tactics. 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