Coronavirus Special Report
February 20-26, 2021
February 20-26, 2021
Read all about it! More than 495,000 500,000 505,000 510,000 Americans have died from Coronavirus and new-case numbers are edging up again. Travel-industry numbers for 2020 were brutal and the first quarter looks even weaker. Italy marks a year after it became the Western epicenter of the disease. Boeing 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000 engines grounded worldwide after Denver incident. And more. Read from the bottom for context.
Coronavirus Update: Friday, February 26, 2021
Canadian regulators today approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for distribution in addition to the Pfizer and Moderna versions. Here are today's other developments:
Up and down There were 77,291 new Coronavirus cases in the United States Thursday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll was 2,417. New-case numbers continue to edge up, but the death toll has fallen a bit. Another million people The TSA says 1,051,149 people passed through airport checkpoints Thursday. That is 44.5% of 2020 volume, nearly six points better than last Thursday. The winter of our discontent IAG, parent of British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus, issued gloomy forecasts today. It expects first quarter capacity to be 20% of 2019 levels, lower than last year's fourth quarter. Moreover, "we have very low expectations for Easter ... normally a peak period for travel," says IAG chief executive Luis Gallego. The 2021 outlook? "Highly uncertain," he admits. The summer wind Major U.S. carriers operated about 394,000 domestic flights in December, approximately the same as August, according to the Transportation Department. The autumn breeze U.S. hotels registered an average night occupancy of 48.1% for the week ended February 20. It's the "best" performance since late October, says Sindustry recordkeepers STR. Slow skies Eurocontrol says flight volume in Europe skies yesterday was 36% of 2019 levels.Coronavirus Update: Thursday, February 25, 2021
Don't expect Europe to relax travel restrictions anytime soon. A surge in cases and new variants are spooking officials. CNBC has details. Here are today's other developments: Beware: up again There were 74,502 new Coronavirus cases in the United States Wednesday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll: 3,230. Numbers are edging up again, so beware. Take note The TSA says 802,230 people passed through airport checkpoints Wednesday. That is 38.6% of 2020 volume. It's worth noting that 2020 volume was below 2019 numbers for the previous five days, so 2020's travel numbers may have begun deteriorating earlier than we knew last year. Half a flying loaf Global scheduled seat capacity is down 47% in February compared to last year, according to schedulekeepers OAG. The number of flights is down 45%, which means carriers have moved to slightly smaller aircraft. Turks top the hill For the week ended February 24, Eurocontrol says the "largest" carrier in Europe was Turkish Airlines with 603 daily flights. That was down "only" 52% on 2019. In comparison, Lufthansa was down 86% and SAS was down 83%. The worst performer? British Airways with 102 daily flights, down 89% from 2019. Switzerland say shops, museums and zoos can reopen on March 1. Restaurants can open from March 22.Coronavirus Update: Wednesday, February 24, 2021
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine is effective against several variants of the Coronavirus and recommends it for emergency use. It's the first step required to allow the vaccine to be used. Here are today's other developments: The Six-per-cent solution There were 71,436 new Coronavirus cases in the United States on Tuesday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll: 2,350. Johns Hopkins says 6.08% of the nation is now fully vaccinated. Tuesday tumble The TSA says 714,725 people passed through airport checkpoints Tuesday. That's 37.2% of 2020 volume. It's the first day in six not to reach 900,000 flyers. Dunkirk down The French port city of Dunkirk will go into weekend lockdowns in an attempt to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. The move comes just days after Nice and the surrounding area also went into weekend-lockdown mode. Hotels on ice Nationwide average hotel occupancy in Canada was 22.3% in January. Revenue per available room (revPAR), a key measure of lodging health was down more than 67% in January, according to hotel statisticians STR. Millions and millions not served Eurocontrol says there have been seven million fewer flights in Europe's skies since March 1, 2020. Coronavirus Update: Tuesday, February 23, 2021
The United States has now passed 500,000 deaths by all who measure such Coronavirus statistics. How would you like your comparison? Urban? It's more than the population of Atlanta. Military? It's greater than the death toll of both World Wars and Vietnam combined. Comparative? The U.S. death toll is more than twice that of the next nearest nation (Brazil). Grounded? It approximately equals all the deaths on U.S. roads between 2006 and 2019. Here are today's other developments: Rolling on There were 56,044 new Coronavirus cases in the United States on Monday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll: 1,413. Flying to the nines The TSA says 963,280 people passed through airport checkpoints on Monday. That's 42.4% of 2020 volume. It's also the fifth consecutive day of traffic above 900,000. Still closed The closure of land crossings between the United States, Canada and Mexico has been extended until at least March 21. That will be the one-year anniversary of the border closure to all but essential travel. "Diabolical silliness" The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill on Monday that would make future mask mandates illegal. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Jeff Hoverson, called mask mandates "diabolical silliness." North Dakota, of course, had the highest Covid mortality rates in the world late last year. According to the most recent statistics for deaths per 100,000 residents, North Dakota is Number 11 in the nation. The state's "improvement" began after the governor imposed a mask mandate. England's exit British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday outlined England's roadmap for exiting Coronavirus restrictions. Schools will reopen March 8. Pubs reopen for outdoor, sit-down service and shops can reopen on April 12. Hotels and B&Bs reopen May 17, the same day pubs again can offer indoor service. All legal restrictions related to the virus will be lifted as soon as June 21.Coronavirus Update: Monday, February 22, 2021
The media notices we're at or near the 500,000-death mark, but it's hard to tell if America is paying any attention. Here are today's other developments: Weekend slowdown There were 56,495 new Coronavirus cases in the United States on Sunday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll: 1,249. A reminder that weekend numbers are always fragmentary and incomplete. Weekend uptick The TSA says that 1,115,479 people passed through airport checkpoints on Sunday. That's 46.9% of 2020 volume. Which means Saturday's strong showing (relatively speaking, of course) was not an anomaly. Groundings Airlines flying Boeing 777-200s powered with Pratt & Whitney 4000 engines have temporarily grounded the aircraft. It's the same plane with the same engine as United Flight 328, which experienced engine failure Saturday over Denver. In the case of United, 24 of the widebodies are not flying--they were almost all on Hawaii runs--almost as many of the aircraft that United has in storage. In other words, the system has shrunk so much that the grounding in the United States, Japan and South Korea will have little or no effect on capacity. Bloomberg has some statistical details. Stay home. Again. Still. Nice and surrounding areas are going into weekend lockdown after a spike in Coronavirus cases in the French city. Meanwhile, new Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has ordered the ban on inter-region domestic travel continued until at least March 27. Ghostly Some hotels are staying afloat by renting out their kitchens to chefs and entrepreneurs who use them to bootstrap new concepts or service delivery operations. The New York Times has the details.Coronavirus Update: Sunday, February 21, 2021
Governors are getting their reputations dinged for poor Covid-vaccine rollouts and other Coronavirus sins. The Hill singles out Newsome (California), Cuomo (New York) and Baker (Massachusetts) and asks why Ron DeSantis of Florida doesn't get more heat. Here are today's other developments: Just before half-a-million There were 71,510 new Coronavirus cases in the United States on Saturday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll was 1,821. The United States is expected to hit 500,000 deaths today or tomorrow. Statistical Saturday The TSA says that 942,238 people passed through airport checkpoints on Saturday. That's 48.2% of 2020 volume, the best performance since January 4. But this might be an anomaly based on how the TSA compares year-over-year statistics. Still, it is a strong performance for a February in Saturday, comparatively speaking. It's raining planes United Flight 328 bound for Honolulu returned to Denver yesterday with starboard engine failure. The Boeing 777-200 twin-engine widebody dropped parts around a one-mile radius in Denver area. Photos and video show pieces of cowling and other debris landing in yards and on homes. No one was hurt on the ground or on the aircraft, however. Legacy of loss A year after Codogno registered Italy's first Coronavirus case, Agence France-Presse returns to the shell-shocked city of 15,000. "Every three minutes you heard the sound of an ambulance," recalls Emy Cavalli, a local bar owner. ""We asked ourselves, 'Who will it be? Who will be next?'"Coronavirus Update: Saturday, February 20, 2021
MGM Resorts International says three of its Las Vegas properties--Mandalay Bay, Park MGM and The Mirage--resume all-week, 24-hour service on March 3. Which begs the Steven Wright joke: After being thrown out of a casino for arguing about what constituted an odd number, he walked to a diner that had a sign that said: "Open 24 Hours." The manager was closing. "I thought you were open 24 hours?" asked Wright. "Not in a row," answered the manager. Here are today's other developments: Wrong way There were 110,070 new Coronavirus cases in the United States on Friday, says Johns Hopkins. The death toll: 2,706. While the death toll continues to be unacceptably high, the 7-day new-infection number had dropped below 100,000 cases. Friday fever The TSA says 1,059,452 people passed through airport checkpoints on Friday. That's 43.6% of 2020 volume, back to levels achieved during last week's Valentine's Day/President's Day boomlet. Long distance information Memphis Airport says it will reopen at 3pm local time after closing yesterday and cancelling all flights due to low water pressure. It is another by-product of this week's nasty winter storms. Air France/KLM says 2020 revenue fell 59% compared to 2019. The number of passengers carried fell 67.3%. The carriers say they'll fly just 40% of their 2019 schedules during the first quarter. British hospitality What's it like in the hotels used by the British government to quarantine arrivals from "red zone" countries? Expensive, regimented and quite dull, according to reports. Reuters has an inside look.