Private payroll declines for the first time since April
Private payroll shrank for the first time since April in December, CNBC’s Jeff Cox reports.
The number of jobs decreased by 123,000 during the month, a sharp drop from the 60,000 jobs economists expected. The national job market was recovering after widespread business shutdowns in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
–Sara Salinas
The EU approves Moderna’s vaccine
Dave Lacknauth, Pharm. D., Director of Pharmacy Services, Broward Health Medical Center shows off a bottle of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a press conference on December 23, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
European Union health regulators approved Moderna’s Covid vaccine for use in the 27-country bloc. It is the second drug to receive approval from the European Medicines Agency, CNBC’s Silvia Amaro reports.
The green light could help kick-start the introduction of vaccines in Europe, which has been criticized for slow pace and incidental accidents.
Moderna’s vaccine was previously approved in the UK and US, where it is currently distributed and administered. The vaccine, similar to Pfizer’s, is a two-dose regimen and has been shown to be 94% effective in clinical trials.
—Sara Salinas
The Covid variant found in South Africa worries experts
A new strain of the virus that has surfaced in South Africa is of concern. Similar to a variant discovered in the UK in recent months, the strain that emerged in South Africa appears to be much more transferable.
Until now, scientists don’t believe both new variants are more deadly. But being more transmissible means more people can become infected, potentially causing more serious infections and more fatalities.
The question is now whether the coronavirus vaccines that have been developed at breakneck speed in the past year will be effective against significant mutations of the virus, such as those in South Africa. CNBC looks at what we know (and what we don’t know) about this new strain.
–Holly Ellyatt