Scotland Orders New Lockdown as Virus Spread Accelerates
Lunch Special: Denver sports live chat with Mark Kiszla – The Denver Post
Got a question about Colorado sports? The Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla is discussing all things Denver sports in a live Lunch Special chat, scheduled to begin at noon on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.
Mobile users, if you can’t see the live chat, tap here.
How Walmart plans to take over health care
Walmart, the world's largest retailer, wants to be your doctor, too.
In September 2019 the company known for its "Everyday Low Prices" launched Walmart Health, a primary care clinic, at a store in Dallas, Georgia. The doctor-run clinic, the first of its kind for the big box retailer, offers services like X-rays, annual checkups and dental exams.
As consumers face skyrocketing healthcare costs, Walmart, along with rivals CVS Health and Walgreens, is diving deeper into the healthcare business, opening in-store clinics in an attempt to grab a slice of the $3.6 trillion Americans spend annually on healthcare.
With more than 35 million people uninsured as of 2019, could Walmart Health's low price point be the future of healthcare in America?
Watch the above video to find out more.
Watch more:
Why GNC filed for bankruptcy protection despite vitamin sales boom
Why rural hospitals are going bankrupt
ICRA maintains negative outlook on aviation sector
Ties traffic growth to vaccine launch
Indian carriers will continue to have a poor balance sheet in FY22 despite a likely year-on-year growth of 78% in domestic air passenger traffic and 164% growth in international traffic, ICRA said in a report.
“If a vaccine is launched earlier [before H2 CY2021] with reasonable availability, domestic air passenger traffic could witness a further upside in FY2022, with an estimated growth of 93%, and international air passenger traffic could witness an estimated growth of 235%,” ICRA said.
“With an improvement in passenger traffic in FY2022, ICRA expects the Indian aviation industry to report a y-o-y growth of 57% in revenues, with the industry’s net loss reducing to ₹146 billion from an estimated net loss of ₹210 billion in FY2021,” Kinjal Shah, vice-president, ICRA Ltd., said.
“The debt levels will remain high for the industry and are estimated to be range bound at around ₹500 billion [excluding lease liabilities] in FY2021 and FY2022, with the industry requiring an additional funding of ₹350-370 billion over FY2021 to FY2023,” she said.
‘About 10 lakh tonnes of sugar set for export’
Subsidy to aid outbound shipments
Exporters have started entering into contracts for sugar exports and sugar has started moving for shipments, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said.
According to the association, exporters are said to have entered into contracts for export of about 10 lakh tonnes of sugar so far.
“Considering that the world wants Indian sugar, and the fact that sugar production is lower in Thailand, EU, etc., India should be able to export its targeted volume with the support of the ₹6,000 per ton of export subsidy during 2020-2021 [sugar season],” the association said in a press release.
India is looking at exporting six million tonnes of sugar this season.
“India has a good opportunity to contract and export sugar till about March-April 2021, by when Brazilian sugar comes into the market,” ISMA said.
As many as 481 sugar mills have produced 110.22 lakh tonnes of sugar in the current sugar season that started in October 2020.
European Economics Preview: Eurozone Final Factory PMI Data Due
Final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ survey results are due from euro area and the UK on Monday, headlining a busy day for the European economic news.
At 2.00 am ET, consumer and producer price figures from Turkey are due.
At 3.00 am ET, unemployment from Austria and manufacturing PMI from Poland and Turkey are due.
At 3.45 am ET, IHS Markit releases Italy’s factory PMI for December. Economists expect the index to rise to 53.7 from 51.5 in the prior month.
Thereafter, final PMI survey results are due from France and Germany at 3.50 am and 3.55 am ET, respectively.
At 4.00 am ET, IHS Markit publishes euro area final factory PMI data. Economists expect the index to match the flash score of 55.5 in December.
At 4.30 am ET, IHS Markit/CIPS releases UK final factory PMI data. The final PMI is seen at 57.3 in December, unchanged from the flash estimate, and up from 55.6 in November.
In the meantime, UK mortgage approvals data for November is due from the Bank of England. The number of mortgage approvals is seen at 82,500 versus 97,530 in the previous month.
Slack CEO: Salesforce platform meshes almost perfectly with ours
Washington (CNN Business)New year, same telecommuting headaches.
Slack (WORK), a popular workplace communication platform, confirmed a service interruption for some users on Monday morning as many workers returned from the holiday break.
“Customers may experience issues connecting to Slack to loading channels at this time,” the company said. “Our team is on the case and we will keep you posted.”
At 10:30 am ET Monday, Slack’s status page showed that its messaging and connections functionality was being affected by a technical issue.
Slack and similar services emerged as even more essential tools for office workers to stay connected to their colleagues after the pandemic forced countless businesses to shift to remote work almost overnight.
Scotland Orders New Lockdown as Virus Spread Accelerates
Scotland will implement another lockdown from midnight on Monday, including keeping schools closed and ordering people to largely remain at home, as a new strain of the coronavirus causes a spike in infections.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh there was no choice but to take more drastic action as hospital admissions reached levels not seen since the previous peak of the pandemic in April. School closures will be reviewed in the middle of January.
Sturgeon also said the country’s vaccination program was being rolled out more quickly, with the first people getting the shot developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc on Monday. “We are now in a race between the vaccine and the virus,” she said.