BlackMask Breaking News

All movement in and out of the city will be ‘strictly controlled’ as dozens more test positive for Covid-19 amid fears of a second wave

China’s capital has raised its emergency level as dozens of new coronavirus cases emerged and residents were barred from any “unessential” travel outside Beijing following a new outbreak of the virus that is yet to be brought under control. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, schools suspended and all residential compounds ordered to reinstate strict screening after authorities raised the city’s four-tiered Covid emergency response level from three to two on Tuesday evening. All movement in and out of the city will be “strictly controlled”, officials said at the briefing. Authorities reported 31 new cases of the virus in Beijing as of Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 137 over the past six days. The new outbreak, linked to a sprawling wholesale food market in the south-eastern district of Fengtai, has spread to nine of the city’s 17 districts. On Tuesday, at least 1,255 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled, according to state media. Chen Bei, deputy secretary general of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government said: “Beijing faces serious danger of imported cases and spread in the city and the country.” Officials stopped short of ordering businesses and factories to shut under the new emergency level, which had been lowered just two weeks ago. Authorities called on employers to continue regular operations but encourage remote working and ask employees to stagger their arrivals at work.

All primary and secondary schools were ordered to stop attending classes on Tuesday, while kindergartens and universities were also suspended. Officials also ordered that traffic to parks as well as indoor public spaces like museums and libraries be limited.

The Xinfadi seafood market, which also sold produce and meat, as well as two other markets in nearby districts have been shut after newly confirmed cases. Twenty seven neighbourhoods have been designated as medium risk and instituted temperature checks and registration while neighbourhood near the Xinfadi market has been deemed high risk and sealed off, with residents ordered to quarantine at home and undergo tests for the virus. Cases in Hebei, Liaoning, Sichuan and Zhejiang provinces have been linked to the cluster in Beijing, prompting other cities to impose quarantine measures on travellers from Beijing. As of Tuesday, Macau is requiring all arrivals from Beijing to undergo 14 days of medical observation. Residents in Beijing from medium or high-risk areas are now allowed to leave the capital while those from other districts must complete a test for the virus within seven days of their departure. The new outbreak comes just as the country was returning to normal after largely containing the virus. Before the new outbreak, the capital – which had imposed strict travel restrictions and quarantine measures – had not seen a new domestic case in almost two months. Some officials have suggested the virus may have been brought in from outside of the country after local media reported that traces of the virus had been found on chopping boards used for imported salmon sold at the Xinfadi market. At the briefing on Tuesday evening, health officials said the new outbreak appeared to be linked to human-to-human transmission and contaminated goods. Shi Guoqing, deputy director of the emergency centre under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday evening that there was “no evidence” that salmon was the host or intermediate host of the most recent outbreak of the virus. Nick Note: You can say what you want about China. But they are not fucking about. they shut the shit down the instant they see a increase in infections. By comparison America under Trump leadership opens thing up and gives the masses Trump change to bait them back into the restaurants, malls, sporting events and Trump election rallies. How do you think this is going to turn out. I tell you the death of the empire the US led by idiots. And the rise of CHINA led by cold cruel calculating dictators who truly know how to get the job done….. BYE BYE America!

ANCHORAGE, June 16 (Reuters) – ConocoPhillips will resume some of its Alaskan production shut in due to falling fuel demand stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The company cut output in the state by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), part of a broader series of cuts announced in April in response to the slump in consumption that took U.S. prices briefly to negative-$40 a barrel. The curtailments in Alaska will be lifted for July, Natalie Lowman, spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc, a division of ConocoPhillips, said. The cuts started in late May, Lowman said. Conoco is restarting production as prices have recovered. The company is one of the state’s largest oil producers, averaging 217,000 bpd in output in 2019. According to the Alaska Department of Revenue, June 2020 North Slope production through June 14 averaged 388,400 bpd, down from an average of 510,000 bpd in December 2019. Conoco’s decisions on future development and exploration drilling, stopped abruptly earlier this year, are yet to be made, Lowman added. “At this time, we do not intend to resume drilling activity at our North Slope operations for the remainder of 2020,” she said. Nick Note: Inventories are soaring… demand is not recovering and the oil companies are resuming production… WHY? its called a desperate attempt at survival. And you will soon see this throughout the global economy. Bargains galore here we come… Never mind some really great trades to pay for all this!

Experts voice concern over an uptick of Covid-19 cases in the southern part of the state where resources are scarce

The number of coronavirus deaths in California surpassed 5,000 over the weekend, even as malls, museums and movie theaters began to reopen across the state.

The rise in cases has left epidemiologists and healthcare providers uneasy about whether the Golden State – which until now has been considered a national leader in aggressively containing the pandemic – will start to regress.

California has now recorded about 153,500 Covid-19 cases, with cases increasing by more than 2,000 over the weekend. Much of that can be attributed to increased testing, health officials say. But the grim statistics also reflect an explosion of cases in Imperial county, which borders Mexico, as well as a spike in Los Angeles. “The continued growth of the epidemic in southern California is of huge concern,” said George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco. “We can’t turn the corner of this epidemic until we turn a corner there.” In Los Angeles, coronavirus hospitalizations have slowed, but per a tracker developed by the Mercury News, Los Angeles county saw nearly 1,000 new cases by Sunday night, and 17 deaths – more than half of the daily total of reported deaths in the state.

As cases and deaths continued to rise in Imperial county, more than 1,600 residents signed a letter asking the California governor Gavin Newsom and state officials to intervene, even as local supervisors pushed to reopen more businesses despite the health crisis.

The state requires counties to show that 8% or fewer Covid-19 tests have come back positive for at least a week straight in order to ease pandemic restrictions. In Imperial county, 24% of tests are coming back positive. “The area is medically underserved, but it’s also economically depressed,” said Luis Flores Jr, who drafted an open letter to California officials. With the regional medical center overwhelmed, coronavirus patients were flown to hospitals hundreds of miles away. At the same time, the rural county – where nearly 85% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and many work in the service industry, meat packing and agriculture – has largely been left out of some of the government relief packages. But the answer isn’t necessarily to rush to reopen businesses, Flores said. “The county is making this into a way between the economy and health,” he told the Guardian. “When really there’s a third option: we could slow down and appeal for more resources and support.”

Across the state, the pandemic is continuing to take a disproportionate toll on Black and Latino residents. Advocates are also concerned about the spread of disease in prisons and homeless shelters. The number of hospitalizations and ICU admissions have remained stable. The records don’t currently reflect a spike following weeks of protests against police brutality, though officials said there could be an uptick in coming weeks. Symptoms can take up to 14 days to appear, and those who may have contracted the virus at protests may not notice right away. Officials in many counties are encouraging those who’ve attended demonstrations to get tested. As of 12 June, the state allowed 51 out of 58 counties to reopen restaurants, hair salons, zoos, gyms, wineries and other businesses. Retailers and places of worship have also been allowed to reopen throughout the state. Establishments are required to follow certain guidelines, like maintaining social distancing, especially in indoor spaces, and requiring patrons to wear masks. Rutherford said he’s concerned that these guidelines are often flouted. In Orange county, the health director rescinded a mask mandate after pushback from residents and local officials, revising guidelines to recommend, but not require, that people wear face coverings in public. In LA, health officials who visited about 2,000 restaurants over the weekend found that half weren’t complying with safety guidelines. Nick Note: they killed the cats. Now the myth is masks and social distancing will work. WHAT A SICK JOKE!  LISTEN TO THESE ASSHOLES AND THEY WILL GET YOU KILLED. 

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday another build in crude oil inventories, this time of 3.857 million barrels for the week ending June 12. In the previous week, the API shocked the market with a massive spike in crude oil inventories of 8.42 million barrels, after analysts had a far more benign draw in mind, after U.S. production continues to fall.  The API’s data release came as fears that the United States may see a second wave of Covid-19.  Oil production in the United States has now fallen from 13.1 million bpd on March 13 to 11.1 million bpd for June 5, according to the Energy Information Administration—a drop of a further 2 million bpd. U.S. oil production has fallen each week for the last few months, U.S. imports of crude oil started to increase mid-May, while exports started to fall. The API also reported a build of 4.267 million barrels of gasoline for week ending June 12—compared to last week’s 2.913-barrel draw. This week’s large build compares to analyst expectations for a 17,000-barrel draw for the week. Distillate inventories were up by 919,000 barrels for the week, compared to last week’s 4.271-million-barrel build. Nick Note: despite the self serving spin REALITY is DEMAND IS NOT NOT recovering. This is a ominous sign of future things to come, pun intended!

BP PLC is writing down as much as $17.5 billion of its assets and might leave some of its oil and gas in the ground because of lower energy prices and weakened demand amid the global crisis caused by the novel coronavirus.

BP will slash up to $17.5bn off the value of its oil and gas assets after taking a more downbeat view of longer-term oil prices in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which it expects to hasten the shift away from fossil fuels. The UK energy major said on Monday that coronavirus would have a lasting impact on the global economy as well as on oil and gas demand, and that it expected the crisis to accelerate the transition towards cleaner energies. Its move is the biggest recognition yet among the largest oil and gas players that tens of billions of dollars worth of investment could be rendered uneconomic as the world pursues the Paris climate goals.

Nick Note: Maybe they did not hear CRDLOW the White House sell out explaining how the Coronavirus is gone!  People will drive and fly before they die. And kill the cats because they carry the virus!

It’s an outcome no one wants, but could become a “harsh reality”: a second wave of shutdowns.

But the pandemic is far from over. More than 115,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, and hundreds more are dying from the virus every day. “COVID’s not taking a summer vacation,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s actually having new opportunities to spread.” Murray said the “biggest and most difficult choice” states could face in the coming months is managing a potential second shutdown. And the consequences of another shutdown would be wide-ranging, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “We can’t shut down the economy again,” Mnuchin told CNBC. “I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but … medical problems and everything else that get put on hold.” But the federal government hasn’t been in control of shutdowns and reopenings. Those have been at the discretion of each state. “If you run out of hospital beds, and you run out of ICU beds … (states would) have to shut down,” said Reiner.

The Federal Reserve said Monday it will expand its efforts to backstop the corporate debt market by purchasing a “broad, diversified market index” of U.S. corporate bonds in the secondary market. The central bank says the purchases of individual corporate bonds will be used to create a “corporate bond portfolio” that meets the Fed’s existing standards on minimum rating, maximum maturity, and other criteria. Through its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, the central bank has already been purchasing exchange-traded funds which include investment-grade and some high-yield corporate debt. As of June 10, the Fed has taken on about $5.5 billion in corporate bond ETFs. The Fed plans on supplementing the secondary market purchases with purchases directly from issuers through a Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility, which is not yet live. Both facilities will be supported by $75 billion of equity from the U.S. Treasury, appropriated by Congress’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The Fed says the support will allow the central bank to lever up the facility to be as large as $750 billion. The central bank says the tweak will allow the Fed to “support market liquidity and the availability of credit for large employers.” The Fed had announced both facilities in late March to ensure that companies were still able to tap financing markets through the COVID-19 turbulence.  The updated term sheet continues to require at least investment-grade ratings on any corporate debt purchased, with a carveout for “fallen angels” that fell to junk level after March 22. Any debt also must have a maturity of five years or less. Nick Note: in the short run this action will increase the yields on our beautiful year 30 ZEROES principal portion and allow us to buy them at even higher yields,,,,, Won’t that be fun